AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gloria hugged Bree, said, “It was so nice of you to come too.”
“Alex adored your dad,” Bree said. “So of course I came.”
Then Gloria made me promise once more not to talk to the media until her full report on the case ran on Dateline later in the week. She nodded supportively to Ava and walked off toward the black limo that would carry her to Atticus Jones’s gravesite.
Ava looked nervous and asked Bree, “How’re you feeling?”
“I get agitated and irritable,” my wife said. “But it’s all part of the recovery.”
“Your shoulder?” she asked me.
“Held together with screws, pins, and Teflon wire,” I replied. “Next week I start physical therapy for it, which I am not looking forward to.”
She kept toeing the grass.
“You good?” Bree asked.
She looked up at my wife and nodded as she pushed back a lock of her hair. “I’m real good, actually.”
“That’s excellent to hear,” Bree said.
“It is,” Ava said. “And I don’t want to sound like I’m ungrateful or anything, because I’m more grateful to you two and to Nana Mama than you could ever understand.”
I got where she was heading and said, “But you want to stay with Gloria, live in Pittsburgh?”
She smiled and nodded. “A new start. Somewhere different. Finish high school, go to college, and learn more about the news business.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Bree said, though she had tears running down her cheeks. “But I am going to miss you, young lady, and you have to promise to come visit.”
“Got to see the new showplace, don’t I?” Ava asked as she went into Bree’s arms.
They held each other for several long moments, and I knew how hard it was going to be for my wife to let her go. Even when Ava was at her lowest, Bree had refused to give up on her. Bree had been the one who kept pushing to find her and get her off the streets again.
“I love you both,” Ava said when they separated.
“We love you too,” I said, and I held out my good arm to embrace her. “Without you, we might never have caught Mulch.”
“You said that about Detective Jones.”
“I did. It was a team effort.”
Ava beamed. “I’ll call you to hear how Jannie did in her race.”
“You better,” Bree said, and we watched Ava run off to catch up with Gloria Jones and her new family.
“This is hard,” my wife said, wiping away tears.
“It is,” I said, putting my good arm around her shoulder and then kissing her. “I love you, you know?”
“I know,” she said quietly. “It’s what keeps me going.”
“Ditto.”
“Ditto?”
“What do you want me to say? You are my sunshine, my only sunshine?”
“That would be a good start,” she said, and poked me.
