“Do you still have a dark room?”
Lisa laughed. “We do. Do you need to develop some photos?”
“If you wouldn’t mind.”
Lisa didn’t mind, and he shut himself in the dark room with a thundering heart. It was time to develop that old roll of film. Past time.
He worked carefully, because rushing in a dark room only left you with ruined photos. One after the other, he uncovered photos from ten years before. Most of them were candids of Avery. Avery on the bleachers in the gym. Avery standing by her locker. Avery grinning at him on the bus. Avery in the middle of the football field. Avery running, her hair flying behind her. He saw so much of Shanna in the photos that it took his breath away.
He loved her.
The photos all around him were what did it—they brought the memory of the breakup into full focus. The missing piece burst into the light, clear as day. It had been there in his breaking heart and the sick feeling that rolled over his stomach in waves. It had been there in the words he didn’t say to Avery.
Her words echoed in his mind now, and he understood why they’d rattled him so badly.
Tucker had broken up with her because he loved her.
Because he wanted to see her live her dreams.
Because he couldn’t stand the thought of taking her dreams away from her so he could live his. He’d felt the call of photography and travel as strongly as he’d felt anything, aside from his love of Avery. He had to see where that road took him. But he couldn’t do it at the expense of her dreams. He’d thought he was making the right choice for both of them.
Tucker froze. Avery was right. She’d been right all along. He hadn’t respected her choices. By trying to be her hero, he’d left her broken and alone at the time in her life when she’d needed him the most.
He held his breath, feeling like he was standing at a fork in the road. Only this time, when he chose a direction, there was no going back. He could either move farther away from her, into a life separate from Avery, or he could go home and stay. But he had to make up his mind, and he needed to do it now.
Because he’d hurt her. He’d hurt her very deeply ten years ago, and he’d reopened the wound by hanging around so much. By insisting on helping out at the clinic. By being there, every time she turned around. Tucker had wanted to be her hero.
But Avery didn’t need a hero.
She needed him to be part of a “we.” She needed a true partner.
Tucker took a step back and looked from one photo to the other. He needed to go out and see his friends. He needed to participate in breakfast. Once the photos were dry, he could come back to collect them. It would be like collecting little bits of his past—little bits of his memories. And once he’d done that, he needed to figure out what to do.
He’d made one decision—and it was to be with Avery. That much was clear. But how was he going to win her back? How did a hero win the damsel when she wasn’t in distress? How did the swashbuckler step back and let the damsel take the lead?
Lisa called to him, and Tucker laughed out loud. It mattered, in the end, what he did—of course it mattered. But nothing mattered more than proving to Shanna and Avery that he was there for the long haul. No matter what.
18
The airport closest to Benton Ridge hummed with activity, which was a welcome sight. Tucker had worried from the very moment he decided to go home that a storm would sweep over the country, trapping him in New York. But no such storm had come. Now he moved quickly away from his gate and toward the door leading to the pickup area for arrivals. His backpack bounced against his hip as he went, carrying the old camera and a round tube that held the photos he’d printed.
Cade waited for him in one of the trucks, leaning against the passenger side door. He straightened up when he saw Tucker.
“This is a bad idea,” he called, but his older brother’s mouth still turned up in an incredulous smile. “If you’re coming back here, I hope your mind’s made up.”
“It is.” Tucker pulled his phone from his pocket to flip it back on after the flight. A piece of paper fluttered out with it. He bent to pick it up. Ah—the paper he’d found on the driveway weeks ago. It was a miracle it had survived this long. A spark of recognition lit inside his mind. He stopped right there outside the airport and unfolded it.
It was the logo he’d drawn for Avery all those years ago, with her warm and smiling by his side. Where had they been sitting? Some class or another—maybe English. She’d leaned over so he could smell the strawberry scent of her shampoo.
She’d kept this, all this time.
“Tucker, get moving.” Cade slapped his own knee, then clapped his hands. “You’re just standing there outside an airport. I’m not even supposed to be parked here.”
Tucker needed a beat more to process what he was seeing. Then he folded the paper up with infinite care, put it back into his pocket, and threw his suitcase and backpack into the cab of the truck. Cade was already buckled in when he got into the passenger seat and reached for his own seatbelt.
“Has Avery had her grand opening yet?”
“How about hello, Cade, it’s so kind of you to come to the airport and pick me up.” Cade side-eyed him.
“Hi, Cade. Tell me if she’s had her grand opening.”
“Not yet.” Cade pulled out into the airport traffic and got them on the road leading out. Leading home.
“Good. Then we need to make an
