Grace’s head was buried in his shoulder and he was hugging her tightly and speaking in a calm, confident voice.
“It’s going to be fine, honey. The flight takes two hours. We’ll be there by lunchtime.”
Audrey dropped her backpack behind the desk. “Where? What’s wrong?”
Grace turned, and Audrey saw that her eyes were red. “Oh, Audrey, I’m so glad you’re here. Sophie, our daughter, called. The friend she’s traveling with is in the hospital in Rome. We’re going right away. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone, but hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow. I’m so sorry to leave you with the bookstore. Will you be okay?”
Audrey felt a solid lump in her chest. She held back the words she’d been about to say. “Sure. I’ll be fine.”
Sophie was Grace’s daughter. She was going to take priority over Audrey, and quite right, too. Grace was everything a mother should be.
She noticed the way Grace leaned into David, taking the support he was offering, and felt a pang of loneliness.
She wished someone was hugging and holding her like that. She wished someone would tell her everything was going to be okay.
Grace looked at her. “Is something wrong?”
“No. Nothing.” She’d lied a million times about how she was. Why did it seem so hard this time? “Is there anything I can do? What’s happened to Sophie?”
She listened as Grace told her the details.
It wasn’t that unusual a story, but Grace was obviously devastated, and David seemed surprised that she was being so open with Audrey.
“She’ll be okay.” Audrey focused on Grace. “So, she was pressured in trying drugs. It happens.”
“I always thought she’d say no. She knows the dangers.”
“Never underestimate peer pressure.” Audrey thought about all the times she’d pretended to drink alcohol, and the one time she had drunk alcohol. She sympathized with Sophie.
David still had his arm around Grace. “Audrey is right. This is all going to be okay, Grace, I promise. We’ll figure it out together. And maybe it means she won’t be so easily pressured when she gets to college.”
There was a calmness about him that was contagious. Although David had behaved like a total shit, Audrey could see why Grace loved him.
He had kind eyes and solid shoulders.
She couldn’t imagine him freaking out about anything.
She shrugged. “Bad choices are part of life, aren’t they? Doesn’t mean your next choice can’t be a good one.”
Grace sniffed. “You’re right. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She pulled away from David and hugged Audrey.
Audrey hugged her back tightly. She didn’t want to let go.
This was probably the last time they’d see each other. She didn’t have Grace’s address, and she didn’t have the money to travel to the US. She felt as if part of her was being wrenched away.
She thought about Grace stepping in and saving her job. Grace teaching her French. Grace rescuing her when she was drunk. Grace listening while she talked about her mother for the first time in her life.
Trying not to cry, she pulled away. “Take care.”
She wanted to tell her what a difference she’d made to her life, how she felt as if Grace had actually saved her, but she couldn’t say any of that without revealing that something was wrong, so she said nothing else and within minutes Grace and David had left.
She flinched as the door closed.
The breath left her lungs in a whoosh.
So that was it, then.
Audrey stared after them for a moment and then picked up her backpack and made her way to Gare du Nord to get the Eurostar. It was hard to imagine she’d be back in London in a few hours. Her old life had felt like a million miles away, but now it was getting closer again.