A Missing Heart(65)

I nod my head, trying to avoid the grin growing across my mouth. “Soon, I’m sure.”

A quiet, “Yes!” escapes her lips and she dances around in a small circle. This girl would like it if our family were a hundred people deep…just like Ellie.

“You are your mother’s daughter. That’s for sure,” I say, messing up the curls on top of her head.

“Uncle!” she shrieks. “Don’t mess up my hair.”

With Gavin in my arms, I take less than two steps out of the house when my phone starts to ring. When it rings now, my stomach turns into a hard rock, fearful of who is on the other end, and with what kind of news. Did Tori get her way? Is it Cammy? Does she want to see me? Did she change her mind?

Relief does set in, however, when I see it is Cammy on the other end.

“Hey,” I answer.

“Hey,” she responds. “Where are you?”

“Breaking all sorts of news to Hunter,” I say through weak laughter. “Just leaving his house with Gavin now.”

“Can you come back to the hotel? There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Once again, the lump in my throat returns, and my lungs turn into a brick of cement for the millionth time today.





CHAPTER NINETEEN


I SHOW UP at the hotel to find Cammy and Ever sitting side by side on the couch, appearing to be lost in a conversation. The mood in the room temporarily shifts when they set their eyes on Gavin.

Gavin, of course, eats up the attention, leaving me out of their trio of fun. I place him down in front of me and he crawls right toward them. “Oh my gosh, you are the cutest little thing,” Cammy tells Gavin as she flings off the couch to greet him on the floor.

“Oh, you are!” Ever follows, sitting down with Gavin and pulling him onto her lap. She gives him a hug and places the side of her cheek down on his head.

The sight of the two of them together makes my heart hurt in a good way—a way I’ve never felt before, even if it is overshadowed by whatever Cammy has to say.

“What did you want to talk about?” I ask Cammy with hesitation.

Cammy stands up, leaving Ever and Gavin playing. “How’s Tori?” she starts with, although we both know that’s not what she invited me over to talk about.

I laugh with only my breath, because after everything that has happened during the last couple of days, this almost seems like a joke at this point. “Great,” I say sarcastically. “She’s locked in confinement with extra security. Oh, and she never wants to see Gavin or me again, or at least for the foreseeable future I guess.”

“Oh my,” she says, folding her hand over her chest. “Oh no. That’s horrible, AJ.” Her focus shifts from Gavin to me, and back to Gavin. “I can’t believe this is happening.” Cammy doesn’t know much about Tori. She might believe it if she knew her.

“I need to put all that out of my head right now. I can’t bear to think about it anymore at the moment, so what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

She takes my hand and pulls me over to the couch, which quickly tells me this isn’t good.

“You’re not taking Ever away from me, are you?” It’s the biggest concern I have at the moment. Gavin is mine, that much I’m sure of, but Ever doesn’t belong to either one of us right now.

“I spoke to the adoption agency in Pennsylvania that is in charge of Ever’s case at the moment. While I was given permission to take care of her temporarily, they aren’t thrilled that I picked up and left my place of residence and came out here with her. They have informed me that Ever needs to return to Pennsylvania immediately until they can get a hearing together—one to determine custody of her.”

Cammy’s cheeks fill with redness even though I know she’s doing her best to hide her emotions, which are a mirror of what I am currently feeling. Since the moment I saw Ever, I didn’t think the universe could be cruel enough to take her from me twice, but I’ve been dealt a shitty hand of cards so many f*cking times, I never should have assumed something like that.

“Ever, can you babysit Gavin for a few minutes while I talk to Cameron in private?” I wink at her so she isn’t suspicious of what we’re talking about, because the thought of telling her this after what she’s been through is making this far worse than it should be.

“Yeah, I think I can handle him for a few minutes,” she says with a smile as she tickles underneath Gavin’s chin.

I take Cammy into the bedroom and close the door. I have to be strong for her, for Ever…for all of us right now. “We knew this could happen, Cam.”

“I can’t lose her again,” she cries softly.

I wrap my arms around her and tug her toward the bed, sitting on the edge of the bed and resting her down next to me. “Look at me,” I tell her, gently twisting her chin to face me. “We will not lose her again.”

Her lips are pressed together and her soft cries are becoming heavier. “These have been the best days of my life, AJ. Now, I have to go stay in Pennsylvania while they figure this out,” she says.

“I’ll go too,” I tell her.

She shakes her head, “You have a job and Gavin. You can’t just stop working and uproot him right now. I’ll take care of it. I never meant to come out here and completely interrupt your life the way I have. And this stuff with your wife—it’s my fault, isn’t it?”