by Heather Gray
“Hey,” he said, “I didn’t do it. Eli’s my alibi. Accidents happen. You don’t need to act like you think it’s my fault.”
Avery ran a hand over her face while Eli called from the back of the car, “She stayed up all night reading. Mom’s always crabby when she doesn’t get enough sleep. Don’t take it personally.”
“Eli,” she bit out the word. I am so not in the mood for this right now.
Then, to Gavin, she said, “If it were me and Eli, I’d call the tow truck now. Can you think of anything else we should try first?”
Gavin shook his head, “Call the tow truck, but ask if he can bring the materials to fix it here. Maybe we won’t need to have it towed.”
Hey, that’s not a half-bad idea. I never would have thought of that.
****
Gavin stared after her as Avery marched away and shook his head. “Your mom’s used to everyone doing what she says, isn’t she?”
Eli snorted. “She’s been in charge of me for fifteen years now, so yeah, she’s used to being the final word on everything. I meant it when I said you shouldn’t take it personally.”
“Where’s your dad?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Gavin regretted them. He wouldn’t want anybody asking him that question.
“He’s gone.”
Gavin cast a quick peek at the boy and saw him lick his lips and look away. He knew vulnerability when he saw it. He’d seen enough of it in the mirror during his lifetime. “I had no business asking. I’m sorry.”
“Nah, it’s okay,” Eli said, some of the usual spark back in his voice. “There’s more to it, but it’s a long story, and Mom will come back before I’m done. If she catches me talking about it, she always assumes it’s because I’m upset or hurt or that I need to,” he sighed before adding in a pained voice, “talk about it.”
“Seems as if you two have a good relationship,” Gavin said.
Avery terminated the phone call and began walking back toward them.
“She’s been my mom, my dad, my tutor, and sometimes my jailer. We know each other better than most mothers and sons.”
“Alright, the tow truck will be here in about an hour and will bring a replacement tire for us.”
“Did you ask them to bring a replacement doughnut, too, so we can get rid of this one? We still have a lot of miles ahead of us.”
Avery shook her head. “I didn’t think of it. Maybe next time we stop we can find another doughnut?”
“Stop talking about food. You’re making me hungry.” Eli chimed in from his spot in the back seat.
“You can’t possibly be hungry after what dinner did to you!” Avery’s eyes were wide and green, and her voice rang with horror.
“Hey, I’m a growing boy. What can I say? Besides, I’ve never gotten sick from doughnuts before.”
Avery went and sat down on the curb to wait for the truck.
Eli, now making conversation with Gavin, said, “There’s this place out in some small town in Virginia called the Apple House. Supposed to have the best melt-in-your-mouth apple doughnuts ever. Mom needs to get Mr. Jones to assign her a story out there.”
With a smile, Gavin asked, “Do you always think with your stomach?”
“I’m fifteen,” the boy answered. “What do you expect?”
Gavin chuckled before following to sit beside Avery. “Do you think the guy will change the tire for us, or is he going to give it to us and make us do all the work?”
“He’ll change it.”
A mischievous grin lighting his face, Gavin said, “I’ll bet that’s going to cost the newspaper a pretty penny.”
Avery smiled back, but her face was drawn. “Mitchell will thank me when I tell him how much I saved him by not having the truck tow us somewhere to get it fixed. If he doesn’t, then I’ll threaten to write an article about how this trip actually went instead of telling a cutesy little story about Nowhere, Oklahoma.”
Gavin shook his head and stretched his legs out in front of him. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
From where they sat, they could see Eli, and he appeared to be engrossed in the music on his MP3 player. Avery leaned a little bit closer to Gavin and said, “He knows me a little too well. I am undeniably crabby when I haven’t had enough sleep. Sorry I was snappy earlier. None of this is your fault.”
Glancing from her to where Eli sat, Gavin asked, “Why don’t you want him to know you’re apologizing?”
“I’ll get around to telling him in due course. I just don’t want to listen to him crow about it for the rest of tonight’s drive.”
Then she winked at him. Avery hadn’t seemed like the winking type up to that point. For a moment he wondered if he’d misread her. Maybe it hadn’t been a wink at all. Could it have been a highly isolated eye-related seizure? After careful consideration, he decided to go with wink.
Gavin laughed, liking the idea that Avery was pulling one over on her son. And that she’d let him in on it. Then he glanced over to where Eli sat and saw the teen watching them.
“We were chatting while you were on the phone with the tow truck. Eli says you’ve been his mom, dad, tutor, and jailer. I get the first three, but not the last one. What did he ever do to need a jailer?”
Avery glanced away and pulled her legs in, bringing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. Her tangible discomfort at his question gave him pause. He would let it go. If she didn’t answer, he’d change the subject to something else.
As he was trying to think of a different topic he could raise, Avery’s quiet voice reached him.
“We’ve had our share of issues over the years. You’re correct, though. He is a great kid. It wouldn’t be fair for me to fill your head with everything he’s ever done wrong before you’ve even had a chance to get to know him.”
Gavin could hear the raw emotion in her voice as she said, “He’s worth getting to know.”
“I didn’t doubt it for a second,” Gavin replied, wondering if she was thinking of Eli’s missing father who, it seemed, hadn’t taken the time to get to know his own son.
“It’s clear you’re doing something reasonably well,” he said. “Eli thinks the world of you, and not many mothers of teenaged sons can say that.”
He noticed the blush that again snuck up to stain her cheeks. Gavin grinned to himself. Her discomfited reaction to his attention made him want to go deeper and understand her more. His mom had once told him that when a woman blushes, it’s either because someone said something offensive or because she heard something she secretly wanted to hear.
Gavin was still shaking his head in surprise when the tow truck pulled into the rest area. The man who climbed out was tall and gaunt with sunken eyes and grease-stained overalls. He inspected their car for a minute and then asked, “You said this is a rental?”
Avery nodded and said, “Yes, we got it in Albuquerque.”
“Where’d you go?” asked the man as he got out his jack and started walking toward the car. “It looks like you got it out of an old box of cereal or something.”
Gavin hid a smile as he saw Avery’s face flush. He was pretty sure her heated cheeks weren’t because the tow truck driver was saying things she secretly wanted to hear.
Deciding to intervene before the man could do anything else to offend Avery, Gavin stepped in and shook the tow truck driver’s hand. “We sure do appreciate you coming to help us out,” he said with a wide smile. “Any chance while you’re here that you could air up our doughnut, too, so we have a spare in case any of the other tires go flat while we’re on the road?”
The man, whose overalls said his name was Bob, scratched his head as he looked from Gavin to the car. “Sure, I can do that. If we had a rental agency in Moriarty, I’d tell you to trade this baby in for something a little sturdier. As it is, you’re out of luck.”
Bob got the tire changed in short order. While it was still up on the jack, he snagged the doughnut and filled it with air. The air hissed as it
immediately leaked back out. “Valve stem’s shot,” he said. “If it was a hole, I could patch it. Not anything I can do about a valve stem with the equipment I’ve got. Sorry ‘bout that. Might want to stop somewhere along the way and get a replacement. Or take it up with your rental agency.”
Avery crossed her arms and planted her feet. Gavin had a feeling it was a good thing the rental agency was closed at the moment. If they weren’t, he was pretty sure they’d be getting an earful from Avery.
As Bob lowered the car back to the ground, everything was going smoothly until the last couple inches. The jack slipped, and the car hit the ground with a thud. Then the rear bumper fell off with a hollow plink.
Bob scratched his head again. “I’ve never seen that happen before.” He stepped closer and, in the glow cast by the tow-truck’s headlights, gawked at the bumper without touching it. “Huh. Will you lookie there.”
Gavin, unable to resist, had to see what held Bob’s attention. He, too, leaned in. “That’s not what I think it is. Is it?”
Avery, who had barely sat down on the curb next to Eli, jumped up and asked, “What is it?”
Bob let out a low whistle. “You sure you didn’t get this car out of a cereal box?”
Eli’s voice came from the side of the car. “Is that duct tape? And… paper clips?” His disbelief was evident. “Our bumper was being held in place by really big paper clips and duct tape?” When nobody said anything, he went back to the curb and took his seat. “Mom, you do realize you gave up a Zeon for this car, right?”
Gavin bit back a smile. “Do you think we should try to put it back on?”
Avery shook her head. “If we put it on, we run the risk of it falling off while we’re driving down the road.”
Bob made a choking sound. “You can’t exactly fit it in the car and haul it with you, you know.” His eyes shifted from the bumper to their piled luggage, then back again.
Avery cast her eyes around the darkened rest area and then said, “Maybe if we put it behind the garbage dumpster, it’ll still be here when we pass back through on our return trip.”
Gavin thought he had a better idea. “Bob, do you think you could hold onto it for us? We can pick it up on our trip back to Albuquerque. If we don’t get it from you within a week, you can toss it. I’m sure the newspaper will reimburse you for keeping it.”
Bob leaned in real close to examine the bumper where it lay on the asphalt. “Seeing what shape that little car is in by the time you come back this way will be payment enough. No money needed.” Then he picked up the bumper and put it behind the bench seat in his tow truck. “You folks need anything else?”
“No, I think we’re good,” Gavin said. “You mind sticking around until we’ve got the car started up? In case something else goes wrong?”
Bob waved and climbed into his tow truck. The door slammed loudly but not quickly enough to hide the sound of the gaunt man’s uproarious laughter.
Gavin scanned the pile made by his camera equipment cases and their luggage. “Alright Weston family! Let’s get everything loaded up. Avery, would you prefer I drive?”
He reached out a hand to grab the keys as they arced through the air in the general direction of his head.
Once everything was in place and they were all belted in, Gavin put the key in the ignition and turned. He let out a whoop when the engine started with nothing more than the smallest stutter. Reaching a hand out through the open window, he waved to Bob as they passed the tow truck on their way to the I-40 onramp.
Chapter Six
Santa Rosa, NM
December 23, 9:00 p.m.
Avery was glad when she saw a sign indicating Santa Rosa wasn’t too far away. “Do you think we should stop and get gas?”
“Let’s go at least another hour, push on to the next town. What do you think?”
“I think stopping for a bit sounds good.” He’s not going to pick up on subtle, is he?
Gavin peered over at her and frowned.
“I need a restroom.”
His eyes widened, and his head bobbed. “Got it. We’ll stop in Santa Rosa and get gas. But, for the record, we were just at a rest area.” She narrowed her eyes. He bit back a smile, but not before she caught a glimpse of it.
Eli, reading a book and listening to music, was caught up in his own little world.
Avery wondered about the man sitting next to her. He was nice enough, even kind of charming sometimes. “So whatever made you decide you wanted to work for the Albuquerque Times? We’re not exactly the biggest fish in the sea.”
Gavin shrugged and said, “Mitchell made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
Shifting around in her seat, Avery maneuvered until she was comfortable and could watch Gavin more easily as they conversed. “Mitchell’s good at figuring out what it is people need and then using that to get his own way. What did he offer you?”
“Freedom and money.”
She chuckled. “That conjures up all kinds of images. You’ll need to be more specific.”
Gavin shrugged. “Getting back to work became imperative, but I wasn’t ready to be tied down. Mitchell gave me a chance to act similar to a freelance photographer. I get to take the pictures I want when I want and submit them to him. He decides which ones fit the feel of his paper and assigns journalists to write the pieces that will showcase the photographic work. And every now and then he gives me a call and tells me something specific he needs me to cover, and I make a point to accommodate him. I’m tethered to the paper but still get to feel as if I’m doing my own thing.”
Avery nodded and said, “That’s a pretty unusual arrangement.”
Gavin slipped a finger inside the collar of his shirt and tugged. “We’re kind of family. He’s doing me a favor, and I’m trying to return the favor by bringing the kind of photography to the Times that will get it some national recognition.”
She wanted to dig for more answers. Instead, she said, “Mitchell’s a good man. He runs a tight ship at the paper, but nobody minds. Everyone there knows he’d bend over backward to help them if they ever needed it. He has the loyalty of every staff member, and so people bring their A-game every day. Nobody wants to let him down.”
Avery tried not to take it personally when it looked as though Gavin wasn’t going to say anything. She was about to turn around to face forward again when he spoke. “My father was married to someone else when he got my mom pregnant. It’s a big dirty family secret. He’s still married to the same woman, and he’s never acknowledged I exist. I don’t know whether or not his wife knows.”
“Oh,” was all Avery could think to say. She could relate to this. Eli’s father hadn’t been married when she got pregnant with Eli, but he had disappeared, leaving her son without a dad. “I’m sorry. From a mom’s perspective, I know how hard it is to watch your son grow up without a father figure.”
Gavin grimaced. “I was the result of a mid-life crisis. He has three other children, all older than me. Two boys and a girl. The boys refuse to acknowledge me. Maybe they see me as competition for their inheritance. I don’t know. When his daughter found out about me, she hired an investigator to find me. That was about ten years ago. We didn’t grow up together, and she’s fifteen years older than me, but I think of her as a sister.”
“She sounds like someone special. It doubtless would have been easy to look the other way and pretend she didn’t know there was an illegitimate sibling out there somewhere.”
His eyes remained on the road, but Gavin’s opinion of his sister nonetheless shone on his face. “Yeah, she’s something special.”
Avery studied him in the dim interior of the car. There were layers to Gavin she hadn’t first seen. In a matter of minutes, she’d seen joy, sadness, pain, rejection, and love pass across his face. It wasn’t always easy to find a man who could talk openly, even when it made him vulnerable.
She reached for her bottle of water and took a long drink. She saw Gavin take a deep breath.
; “Mitchell’s my brother-in-law.”
Avery spit a mouthful of water out, spraying herself, the gearshift and Gavin.
To his credit, other than a quick glance in her direction, he kept his eyes on the road. When she got her breath back, she said, “You have impeccable timing.”
He chuckled and said, “Good thing we’re stopping soon. If you’re going to make a habit of that, I think I’ll stock up on paper towels.”
****
As he pulled the car to a stop by the gas pump, he watched Avery bolt from it and make a mad dash for the interior of the station. The man behind the counter apparently didn’t understand her. She started waving her hands through the air as though using pantomime. Eventually the man pulled out a hockey stick from under the counter and handed it to her. Yanking the stick out of his hand, she turned toward the exit then ran out the door and around the side of the building.
“What kind of problem motivates someone to attach their bathroom key to a hockey stick?” Eli’s voice was incredulous. He, too, had been watching his mother’s antics.
“You be my guest if you want to go ask the man,” Gavin told him in reply.
“No, thanks,” the teen said as he extricated himself from the back seat. “But I will go wait my turn for the hockey stick.” Then he strolled off in the direction his mother had run.
Gavin topped off the tank and pulled forward into a parking spot. He locked the car and went inside to see about getting something with caffeine in it. As he was browsing the drinks in the cooler, Avery’s voice came from behind him. “Coffee and brownies make the best middle-of-the-night snacks when driving.”
“I usually get sunflower seeds. The constant action of spitting the shells out helps keep me awake.”
“Staying up to keep you company so you don’t nod off isn’t a problem. I’m not so good at driving during the night, though. I can do it in small stretches, but something about the headlights coming down the other side of the road – even on a freeway – makes me feel weird. I’m always afraid I’m going to veer into oncoming traffic, drawn to the headlights the way a moth is to a flame.”
