Chapter 7 - SHE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO LEAVEGavin had to travel to Norfolk for two nights.
When he told the family at breakfast, Beatrice’s stomach tightened.
Tyler noticed.
“Dad, do you have to go?”
“Yes.”
“Can’t someone else?”
Gavin smiled.
“My boss is kind of difficult.”
Tyler frowned.
“You are the boss.”
“Exactly.”
Monica laughed.
Beatrice did not.
The morning Gavin left, she watched him roll his suitcase toward the front door.
Something panicked inside her.
She lifted her left hand.
“Gav—”
A broken sound.
Gavin turned.
“Mom?”
Beatrice reached.
Her fingers caught the edge of his jacket sleeve.
He smiled sadly.
“Two days.”
She pulled.
Weakly.
Desperately.
Gavin crouched.
“I’ll be back Wednesday night.”
Beatrice looked toward Monica.
Then back at him.
Tyler saw.
“She doesn’t want you to go.”
Gavin squeezed his mother’s hand.
“I know.”
“No.”
Tyler stepped closer.
“She doesn’t want you to leave her with Mom.”
Silence.
Monica’s face went rigid.
“Tyler.”
Gavin looked at him.
“We discussed this.”
“She told me.”
Monica stared.
“How?”
Tyler froze.
He had almost revealed the hand squeezes.
“She just did.”
“No, she didn’t.”
“She did!”
Gavin looked at Beatrice.
“Mom, are you afraid to stay here?”
Beatrice squeezed his hand.
Once.
Gavin did not know the code.
He thought she was simply holding him.
Monica saw the danger.
“She gets anxious whenever you travel now.”
Gavin sighed.
The neurologist had indeed mentioned post-stroke anxiety.
He kissed Beatrice’s forehead.
“You’re safe.”
Beatrice’s eyes filled.
Monica stood behind him.
Tyler looked furious.
“Dad—”
“That’s enough.”
Gavin stood.
“I’ll call tonight.”
The door closed.
Tyler stared at it.
Then at Monica.
Her expression had changed.
“You.”
Tyler stepped backward.
“What?”
“Stop putting ideas in your father’s head.”
“They’re not ideas.”
“You are ten years old.”
“I know what I see.”
Monica took a slow breath.
“If you keep telling your father I’m hurting Grandma, do you know what could happen?”
Tyler said nothing.
“Our family could break apart.”
His face changed.
Monica saw she had reached him.
“Your dad could lose trust in me.”
“That’s because—”
“He could make me leave.”
Tyler swallowed.
“Then stop being mean.”
“You think life is that simple?”
“Yes.”
Monica laughed without humor.
“Of course you do.”
She walked away.
Tyler went to Beatrice.
“Grandma?”
One squeeze.
“Are you scared?”
One.
“I’m not leaving you.”
Beatrice closed her eyes.
For two days Tyler stayed close.
May you like
Closer than any ten-year-old should have needed to.
And in Norfolk, Gavin slept peacefully in a hotel room believing he had left his mother in safe hands.
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