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“Is it over between you two?”

“I hope not There’s too much…there Knohat I mean?”

Hannah shook her head

But the too“That’s it I have enough footage to make two docue, or approval, not that I want to do that But if I had so to show him, I could convince him this is a hile documentary”

“And if he still says no?”

Ava looked Hannah in the eye “Then I go to plan B”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Meanwhile…outside Sundance…

Gavin Daniels turned down the air conditioning in the rental car The outside te to the Lexus XLV, hovered around one hundred degrees Hot for anyone, except a Phoenix native used to seeing the ularly in the su to humidity Hot and dry he could handle Hot and wet y skin fro If he was the ht say all his life His ed him to take the journey As much as he loathed the idea of deathbed promises, that’s exactly what he’d done in the days before she’d slipped away forever

The aftermath of her death was a blur Grief claimed his attention for several lecting his business while he grieved Then he’d been waylaid by his daughter’s rubber ball tendency—bouncing to whichever parent offered respite from the other parent Add in his ex-wife’s histrionics…that was just another reminder of why Ellen was his ex Didn’t take hteen months had been the shittiest time of his life

When the dust settled, he was faced with the one-year anniversary of his uilt he hadn’t acco she’d requested

Gavin booked a flight into Rapid City He’d secured a couple nights at a bed and breakfast between Sundance and Moorcroft Which was quite a feat, according to the inforht of tourist season in the Black Hills around Devil’s Tower, a stopping point on the road to Yellowstone He’d lost track of the number of motor homes and out-of-state license plates he’d passed on I-90

The female voice on the GPS announced, “Turn left in point oneback now Unless once he saw the turnoff he just kept driving right on past it As the ht, he realized he was unprepared for any outcome in this situation, be it total exuberance, flat-out denial or complete apathy

That’s when Gavin admitted to nerves, to trepidation, to betrayal, to an underlying sense of…wrongness Add in paranoia and heup to his disastrous e That nized the sad truth that hope hadn’t surfaced in his emotional turmoil

When he pulled up to the well-kept ranch house, a couple sat on a porch swing in the shade Enjoying a normal afternoon Blissfully unaware

His heart pounded Sweat broke out on his brow, yet a cla slithered down his spine

The couple stood and started down the steps Probably wondering what business he had in thehe was lost

Gavin ditched his sunglasses and opened the car door He jammed his hands in the front pockets of his khaki pants, because he didn’t knohat else to do with them