Savanna was embarrassed when they returned to pick up her kids. It was nearly four-thirty in the morning, and the bar had closed at two. But Aiyana didn’t seem to mind having her sleep interrupted at such an ungodly hour. She seemed as pleasant as ever when, wearing a robe, she let them in. “Did you have a nice time?”
“It was wonderful,” Savanna said.
“I’m glad.” Gavin’s mother came off as sincere, and yet there was something about her smile that seemed to suggest she knew Savanna hadn’t been referring strictly to the show. Had she spoken with too much enthusiasm? Was her hair mussed despite the number of times she’d combed her fingers through it?
Savanna cleared her throat. “I hope the kids were good for you.”
“They were wonderful.”
Gavin was busy carrying a sleeping Branson to the truck. Branson had been afraid he’d wet the bed, but Gavin gave her a quick shake of his head to signal that he hadn’t. Thank goodness. Savanna had been worried for him, hadn’t wanted him to be embarrassed. “Thank you for watching them,” she told Aiyana. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.” She realized she’d spoken as if she and Gavin were a couple and quickly corrected herself. “How much I appreciate it.”
“It was an excellent opportunity to get to know them better.” Aiyana touched her arm. “Maybe you and I can go to lunch one day so that I can get to know you better, too.”
“I’d like that.”
After Gavin returned from depositing Branson in the truck, he offered his thanks and dropped a kiss on Aiyana’s cheek before scooping up Alia.
“Your mother knows what we did on the beach tonight,” Savanna said as they were pulling away.
He didn’t seem overly concerned, but he did seem curious. “Why do you say that?”
After mumbling a few words, enough to show they were aware they’d been picked up, Branson and Alia had gone back to sleep.
“I don’t know...” She pictured the knowing expression on Aiyana’s face. “That’s the impression she gave me.”
“Does it upset you that she might think we’ve been intimate?”
“Considering the situation with Heather, it makes me self-conscious.”
“She didn’t seem upset...”
“No. I’d say she was amused. That’s the strange thing.”
He started to laugh. “Then I was right.”
“About...”
“She never liked Heather.”
Savanna loosened the chest restrainer on her seat belt so that it wouldn’t choke her. “Why not?”
“She’s never admitted it, so I don’t know.”
Savanna frowned as they rolled under the arch at the entrance to the ranch. “What if she doesn’t like me? She means so much to you.”
“We have plenty of things to worry about, but that isn’t one of them. I can tell that she likes you already.”
“She seems to really like Cora,” she mused.
“She does. And for good reason. I’ll have to tell you that story sometime.” He reached over to take her hand. “But not tonight. Tonight has been eventful enough. For now, let’s just take my mother’s behavior as a good sign.”
* * *
The following morning, Aiyana felt like she was walking on air as she made herself some breakfast and sat down to call Eli. “Hey, I know you hear from me enough during the week,” she said as she stirred a splash of cream into her coffee. “So I try not to bother you too much on the weekend. But I wanted to tell you something.”
“Cora and I don’t mind hearing from you whenever. You know that. But what’s going on?”
The bougainvillea blooming on the trellis beyond the window caught her eye. She stared out at it while she talked. “I think you were right about Savanna.”
“In what way?”
“She might be the one thing that could save Gavin from making a drastic mistake.”
“You mean marrying a woman he doesn’t love.”
She set her spoon on her saucer. “Exactly.”
“Why do you say that? Has something changed? Is he seeing her?”
“He must be. Last night, I babysat so that he could take her to his performance in Santa Barbara.”
“How nice of you.”
“I enjoyed it. But this is the thing—they got back very late, long after the bar had to have closed, so I’m guessing they made good use of the time.”
Eli chuckled. “Another good sign.”
She added sugar to her coffee. “So I’m relieved on two counts.”
“You were afraid he wouldn’t be happy with Heather. I know that was number one. What’s the other thing?”
“I thought I might be the type of jealous mother where no woman is good enough.”
“I remember. But you’re in the clear?”
She considered how sweet, calm and grateful Savanna was. “Completely. I’m excited about this girl.”
“You don’t know her all that well...”
“I don’t, but Gavin’s happier when she’s around. That’s all I needed, the sense that he’s following his heart.”
“There’s still the situation with Heather. If she’s carrying Gavin’s baby, you’re going to want to be a big part of the child’s life, and having him get with Savanna won’t make that any easier.”
“I’ll do everything I can to love and support any child he has—except encourage him to marry a woman he doesn’t love. He and Heather tried to make it work several times. To me, that’s enough.”
“I agree with you. That’s why I wanted to put him and Savanna together to see what would happen. But don’t get your hopes up too high. There’s no guarantee he’ll wind up with her long-term.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” She smiled before taking a sip of her coffee. “I feel like this is the one.”
“What makes you say that?”
There was a satisfying click as she set her cup on its saucer. “There’s just something different about the way he looks at her.”
“If he marries Savanna and Heather has his child, you could get three grandchildren almost at once.”
Aiyana lifted her cup again. She could think of worse things. “I’ll take as many grandkids as I can get.”
* * *
Gavin spent the weekend with Savanna, working on her house. The dry rot was more extensive than he’d first realized, but he enjoyed tearing off the old, ruined boards and replacing them. Savanna was always around to offer something to eat, put on some music or hand him a hammer, and the kids loved to help. Especially Branson. He followed Gavin almost everywhere. Even if Gavin climbed a ladder, Branson would stand at the base for however long, playing with the tools in Gavin’s toolbox. He seemed so happy that it took Gavin by surprise when, finished affixing a new piece of trim to an exterior window, he happened to look down and saw Branson staring off toward the barn with a melancholy expression on his face.
“Somethin’ wrong?” Gavin asked.
Once Branson realized Gavin was paying attention, his expression cleared. “No.”
Gavin tossed his hammer into his toolbox. “You looked sad there for a minute.”
Branson shaded his eyes as he looked up. “Do you know my dad?”
Gavin glanced around to see if Savanna was nearby. If Branson was going to talk about Gordon, he preferred Savanna guide the conversation, but she’d already taken Alia in the house to start dinner. “No, I’ve never met him. Why?”
“He doesn’t like tattoos.”
“He’s mentioned that?”
“Yeah.”
“He must not have any, then.”
“He doesn’t. He doesn’t like boys to have long hair, either.”
“Did he tell you why?”
“He said boys who want to look like girls are stupid.”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t think you can tell if they’re stupid just from their hair.”
Gavin laughed. “I’d have to agree with you there. Hair is a personal preference, right? People should be able to wear their hair however they want. As far as I’m concerned, tattoos are the same. They might tell you a little about what someone likes, but they don’t tell you whether they’re smart or dumb—or good or bad, for that matter.”
“Yeah. I think that, too,” he said. “I’m going to get a tattoo when I turn eighteen.”
“Of what?”
“Maybe it’ll be a picture of Spider-Man,” he said. “And if my dad doesn’t like it, I don’t care. I don’t like what he’s done, either.”
Gavin crouched down so they could be on the same level. “I know what’s happened to you has been rough, bud. I had some bad stuff happen to me, too, when I was close to your age.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. Have you ever heard the story Hansel and Gretel?”
He nodded solemnly.
“I had a mean stepmother like that one.”
“Did she send you into the forest?”
“No. She left me at the park and drove away.”
“And she didn’t come back?”
“No.”
His eyes widened. “Where did you sleep?”
“The police came and took me home, but she didn’t want me, so they took me away again.”
Branson seemed stunned. “To jail?”
“To an orphanage. That’s where kids go when they don’t have parents, right?”
“What happened to your dad?”
“He was afraid she’d leave him, so he did nothing.”
“He didn’t come get you?”
“No. After a while, I went to live with a foster family. Do you know what a foster family is?”
He shook his head.
“It’s a family that lets you live with them for a while.”
“How long?”
“I was there seven years, until I turned fourteen.”
“Were they nice?”
“Definitely not. They didn’t like anything about me, didn’t want me around, either.”
The way Branson’s eyebrows knitted together revealed his concern. “So what did you do?”
“Eventually, I was sent to New Horizons, the school where I work. Did you know it’s for boys who are having trouble? That the students at New Horizons actually live there?”
“No. Did you like it?”
Gavin grinned. “I did. Very much. I still do, even though I’m grown now and don’t have to live there anymore. That’s where I met the mom I have now, and you know how great she is.”
“She told me you’re her son.”
“In all the ways that matter, I am, right?”
He took a few minutes to consider that. “I guess,” he said at length. “But do you ever see your dad?”
“I don’t. I probably could. But I’d rather not. I’ve decided I’m happier without him being in my life.”
“You don’t want to see him?”
“No. He isn’t a man I can admire. You may feel yours has some good traits, and that’s okay. When you get older, you can go visit him, if you like. Don’t feel like anyone is trying to take that away from you. You have to listen to what your heart is telling you and follow that.” Gavin pressed his fingers against the boy’s chest to emphasize his point. “Your heart is your compass in life. I just want you to know that things have gotten much better for me since all of that happened. And they will get better for you, too.” Figuring that was about as deep as he should get with an eight-year-old, Gavin turned to repack his toolbox and was nearly bowled over when Branson suddenly embraced him.
Gavin chuckled as he regained his balance and hugged Savanna’s son in return. “What’s this for?”
“I’m going to be just like you when I grow up,” he mumbled into Gavin’s shirt.
Gavin was still rubbing the boy’s back when Savanna came around the corner. She’d been calling them for dinner, but when she saw what was taking place, she stopped and waited at the corner of the house. “You’re going to be just fine,” Gavin told Branson, and a second later, when Branson raced off to go in for dinner, Gavin told Savanna the same thing. “He’s going to be just fine.”
* * *
The day Savanna was scheduled to go to Utah, she was already awake when the alarm went off on Gavin’s phone. So the kids wouldn’t have any clue that he’d started staying over, he’d been getting up and going home in the very early morning, and, so far, it’d worked. They figured it would work until Branson wet the bed and got up in the middle of the night, but fortunately, that hadn’t happened in the past few days. The more Gavin was around, the better Branson seemed to do. Gavin seemed to have a calming, stabilizing influence on all of them.
He was good for a lot of other things, too. The house was looking so much better. They had a running joke between them that she’d probably dump him once all the repairs were done, but she couldn’t imagine her future without him. That was why she’d had so much trouble sleeping, knowing that the day of reckoning—the day of her visit to Nephi—had arrived.
“Are you going home?” Savanna whispered.
When he realized she was awake, he paused. “Did my alarm disturb you?”
“No.” She’d been tossing and turning all night. She was surprised she hadn’t disturbed him.
“You’re nervous?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t blame you. Should I buy a plane ticket and go with you?”
They’d already agreed that he’d take some time off work to drive her to LA. She’d tried to talk him out of it, said she could leave her car at the airport so she’d also have a way to get home, but he was insisting on taking her and picking her up. “Going all the way to Utah won’t be necessary,” she said. “I have to go to the jail alone, and that’s the hard part. As crowded as flights are these days, you probably wouldn’t even be able to get on the same plane. I’d rather you be here to check in on Branson and Alia, anyway. I think they’ll feel more comfortable knowing you’re close by.”
He rolled her beneath him, propping himself up with his elbows. “I’m happy to hang out with them all I can, but I hate sending you off alone.”
“I’ll get through it.” She smiled as though it wasn’t that big of a deal, but she hadn’t seen Gordon for two months. Her opinion of him had changed radically in that period. She’d accepted that he was a serial rapist, maybe even a murderer. And since he’d been arrested, she’d served him with divorce papers, refused to pay for his defense, taken the kids out of school and moved to California. She couldn’t imagine he was feeling good toward her, couldn’t help fearing how the conversation would go. He could get overly emotional, maybe even ugly; he had a temper like his mother’s. Even if that didn’t happen, the whole thing could be a waste of time and effort. Chances were better the charges would be dropped than she’d be able to garner some shred of evidence to support the theory that he was the one who kidnapped, and likely killed, Emma Ventnor.
They heard a noise in the hall and froze. One of the kids was up. Savanna assumed she’d hear Branson at her door. Gavin obviously anticipated the same thing, because he went into her bathroom, where he wouldn’t be seen, just in case. But they heard a toilet flush and then, after a few seconds, a few creaks and house noises and not much else.
Gavin walked back into the room. “I think he went to bed.”
“That he went to the bathroom is a good sign.”
“Have you alerted the babysitter that he might need help in the night?”
“I have. She said it won’t be a problem. And I doubt it will be. He’s only had one accident in the past ten days.”
“Still, with you gone... Would you rather I stay over than her?”
“I would. But things were different between us when I let Sullivan make the arrangements. At this point, I say we leave everything as it is and simply get through the next two days as best we can.”
“Okay. Just don’t worry. Everything’s going to work out.”
She was trying to be optimistic, but she knew how slim the chances really were. Allison March had directed Savanna to tell Gordon that the police had tire track evidence. They didn’t. But she was supposed to say that although what they initially found at the crime scene a year ago had been too faint, they’d figured out a way to do some computer enhancements and would soon be able to check that tread against the tires on the van.
March wanted to see what kind of reaction that would bring. So did Savanna. She just didn’t feel as if that was much to go in there with.
“He won’t give himself away,” she’d insisted when Detective March had called to do some roleplaying with her before bed last night. “He won’t suddenly admit that he had something to do with Emma Ventnor’s disappearance.”
“He doesn’t have to,” March insisted. “Just get him to give you some kind of story, explain what he did that day, why it couldn’t be him. The more details he offers, the better. If those details differ from the story he’s already given us, that’s something right there. We’ll do our fact checking, hopefully catch him in a few lies that we can probe further. He might accidentally say something he’d rather not. I’ve had perpetrators subconsciously lead me right where they didn’t want me to go, especially if they’re scared. I’m hoping that’s what’ll happen here.”
Savanna hoped the same thing. But if Gordon could deny DNA evidence, like he did back when they thought finding Theresa Spinnaker’s blood in his van would really mean something, she doubted a bluff about tire track impressions would have the power to rattle him.