I stayed crouched on the floor, giving Gizmo a little rubdown. His whole body wagged back and forth.
Footsteps sounded on the brushed concrete floor, and I looked up. Addie hurried towards me, Laiken following in her wake. “Is everything okay?”
I pushed to standing. “Mostly. I need your take on something.”
Addie looked to Laiken, who waved her off. “You’re due a break anyway. Take your time.”
Addie gave her new boss a small smile. “Thanks.”
Laiken moved to the desk on the opposite side of The Gallery, lowering herself into a chair.
I moved closer to Addie as her gaze swept over my face. I could feel it almost as if it were a physical touch, those eyes peering into mine and seeing so much more than everyone else.
“Something’s wrong,” she surmised.
“It is, but I have to speak in generals so I’m not breaking any confidentiality rules.”
“All right.”
“Do you know Cora and Brandon Maxwell?”
Addie stiffened, her entire body locking tight. “Brandon works for my father.”
“What about Cora?”
Addie’s fingers linked together in front of her, squeezing tight. “I know her a little. My dad has a big barbeque for his employees once a year, and she always came to those. Occasionally, I saw her at the farmer’s market when I had a stall. Why?”
Technically, Cora wasn’t my patient; her son was. I wasn’t breaking confidentiality, yet guilt pricked at me. “I’m worried about her.”
Addie’s knuckles bleached white. “You think Brandon’s hurting her.”
“I do. I tried to talk to her—”
“But she wouldn’t listen,” Addie finished for me, her gaze drifting out to the street.
“I think she’s scared. But I thought you might have some ideas on how to best help her. You know that world a lot better than I do.”
Addie kept staring out the window, but her gaze had gone unfocused. “You can’t help. Not unless she’s willing to take that first step. It seems so simple, but it means leaving everything she’s ever known. The uncertainty of what she’d be stepping into can be so much scarier.”
All I wanted in that moment was to pull Addie into my arms. To hold her tight and tell her that everything would be okay. “I’m going to hope that Cora can find some of your bravery.”
Addie turned towards me. “I wasn’t brave. I was desperate.”
“One doesn’t negate the other. Being desperate doesn’t mean you weren’t terrified. Yet you found a way out.”
“Hayes got me out.”
I’d be forever grateful to my brother for that. “But you had to take the steps to get there.”
She swallowed, looking down at her hands. “Keep finding ways to tell her that she has options. Everly and Hayes gave me gentle nudges every time I saw them. So, when the time was right, I knew I could lean on them to help me find a path.”
My jaw worked back and forth. “I’m not sure she’ll come back to the clinic anytime soon. And it’s not like I have any other places I’d see her.”
Addie lifted her eyes to mine. “You’ll have to find some.”
13
ADDIE