Page 74 of Hauling Ashe

“Should we try to catch him? Find a vet or something?”

Tucker glares at me as he rolls the plastic bags into each other. “I need some serious hand sanitizer, and no, we need to let nature take its course here. He’ll mend on his own or become one with the universe as all wild things do.”

Glancing up at him, I fight a sudden smile. “That was very a hakuna-matata of you.”

“Ha-na what?” He looks over at me with the plastic rolled into a tight ball.

“The Lion King.” When he continues to stare at me, I shake my head. “Never mind. We have a winery to find.” I could use a good glass of wine or an entire bottle, but that isn’t the mission. Moving forward, I need to get Tucker to his daughter as I promised.

For some reason, I take another glance toward the bird, or at least in the direction of where it disappeared.

Was it a sign? Does it mean a new beginning…or the end?

35

DAY 8

Playlist: “Say Something” – A Great Big World, Christina Aguilera

[Tucker]

“Dad? Where have you been?”

My daughter rushes me, quick to contain me in her arms when we finally arrive at The Vineyard Inn. How do I explain the wild week I just had trying to get here for her wedding?

“You’re three days late,” she admonishes me as we embrace outside the quaint winery resort. The entire place has been rented for this intimate occasion. The owners were happy to accommodate us and Julia’s desire for a fairytale wedding.

I’ve made it here in time for the rehearsal dinner tonight but not the prior days’ activities of wine tasting and vineyard tours. The additional festivities did not exactly seem to fit my future son-in-law.

Still, as I stand here, I’m conscious of the woman behind me, leaning against the car we just spent an entire week trapped inside together. I should introduce her to my daughter, but I’m frozen in time when Julia pulls back and stares up at me with her mother’s eyes.

Her gaze, so like Rochelle’s, haunts me in an unsettling way.

“It took a little longer to get here than I thought,” I admit. My meaning is multi-faceted. It took more time to cross the country than I expected, but it also took years to arrive at the decisions I’ve made in the past seven days.

“Are you okay?” my daughter questions, still clutching my upper arms like she’s afraid to let me go.

“I’m fine.” The statement feels true for the first time in years. I really am better than I’ve ever been. I hadn’t known how bad off I was, and I owe it all to the ray of sunshine behind me.

“I wish your mother could be here.” The statement holds truth, but it’s equally false. Rochelle loved our daughter more than most things, but not quite as much as her business plans and her social media following. For Julia’s sake, Rochelle should be here because no woman should celebrate her wedding day without her mother. As my daughter has kept me up to date on everything, I understand that Chopper’s stepmother, Lily, along with a contingent of other women—Edie, Midge, Ivy, and Ester—have been tremendously helpful in the planning of this weekend. I haven’t met any of them but cataloged their names.

On the other hand, it’s a relief Rochelle isn’t here as it’s been a struggle over the last few years to reconcile what she did and how things ended. Her death was unfortunate. Her betrayal, however, was the unparalleled grief I didn’t think I’d recover from. Only the past week has proven I am healed. I am better. I am whole. I no longer want to give my thoughts to Rochelle.

I turn to glance over my shoulder, relieved Mae is still here.

“How much does he owe you?” Julia asks, breaking out of my hold and approaching the beautiful creature waiting next to the vehicle. A fucking Prius. I might have thought the car atrocious when we took off from Chicago seven days ago, but in time, Louie has grown on me. I bite my cheek to stifle the chuckle at the nickname this crazy, adorable woman gave our transportation.

“Oh, he…already paid in full.” Her eyes meet mine, and I swallow around a sudden lump in my throat. She hasn’t been paid yet.

“Julia, this is Mae Fox.”

Julia extends a hand, ever the proper and polite woman she was raised to be, although not as assertive as her mother. “Nice to meet you. Thank you for driving my dad across the country.” She chuckles softly. “I hope he wasn’t too much trouble.”

Mae’s eyes meet mine again after she shakes Julia’s hand. “He was tons of trouble.” The gleam in those blue eyes hint at the issues I caused, and I want to remind her how much of a pain in the ass she was at times as well. Instead, I fight the smile at the memory of the type of trouble we caused together.

“Are you staying for the wedding?” Julia asks, and my mouth falls open ready to answer on Mae’s behalf when she answers instead.

“No,” she states as I interject, “Yes.”