Those might have been the saddest, most tragic chocolate chip cookies I’d ever baked.
But sitting on a barstool, listening to Tessa giggle when Clare pretended to be Cookie Monster, cry when she spilled her milk, then laugh again when Roman let Loretta lick some of it off the floor made them the most incredible chocolate chip cookies I’d ever eaten.
“Well, as you can see, this room…is rather…um, bare,” Elisabeth said, pushing the door directly across the hall from Clare’s room open.
She wasn’t kidding. The room was empty with the exception of an air mattress and a small nightstand beside it.
“Oh, and this one doesn’t have a private bath. You’ll have to share the hall one with Devon and Alex.” She paused. “Shit…and I guess all the other new guys too.” She worried with her thin, gold necklace. “I figured it’d be best to give Clare and Tessa the one with the bathroom. Even if it does look like shit. I’m gonna have someone come in to renovate it soon. It’s really ugly right now.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I said, putting the bag my sister, Maggie, had dropped off on the floor.
“New furniture will be here on Monday,” she added.
“Dis you room, Luke?” Tessa asked, squeezing past me, Clare in tow.
While I was impressed with how well Tessa was adjusting, Clare was starting to worry me. Somewhere around dinnertime, her brave smile had melted away and she’d shut down. She hadn’t eaten anything, and when I’d asked if she wanted to go lie down, she’d shaken her head and diverted her eyes.
She hadn’t let Tessa go since we’d arrived. And I mean, not at all. If she wasn’t carrying her, she was holding her hand. Tessa had tried to break free at least a hundred times, but Clare had refused and redirected her attention to something else.
Roman and Elisabeth were chomping at the bit to get their hands on her, but Clare never gave them a second. She’d included them in conversations with Tessa and urged her to talk to them, but not once had she let her go. I understood her caution, but this was something different. Something more was going on in her head, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.
“Whoa! Dat you bed?” Tessa asked, belly-flopping on the air mattress. “It’s bouncy!”
Clare grimaced and scooped her up, planting her on her hip. “Don’t, baby. You’ll put a hole in it.”
“It’s okay,” Elisabeth said, watching Tessa with a warm smile. “I have an extra downstairs.”
Clare cut her eyes to Elisabeth and clipped, “No. It’s not okay.”
Elisabeth’s back shot ramrod straight as Clare rushed from the room, Tessa in her arms.
I watched with narrowed eyes as she crossed the hall and closed the door to her room behind her.
“Did I say something wrong?” Elisabeth asked.
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll go check on her. They’re both just exhausted.”
“Yeah,” Elisabeth whispered, unconvinced.
I squeezed her shoulder. “The last few days have been hard on everyone. We could all use a good night of sleep.”
“Right.” She swallowed hard, staring at the closed bedroom door.
“Go find Roman, Elisabeth. I’ll take care of this.”
She didn’t say anything, but she started toward the stairs. “You’ll let me know…if y’all…you know, need anything?”
“Of course.”
She glanced back at Clare’s door and sighed before finally going down the stairs.
After digging through my bag, I pulled out the pair of headphones I’d asked Maggie to pack and then walked to the door.
With a soft knock, I called, “Clare? It’s me.”
She didn’t respond, so I knocked again.
“Clare?”
No answer.
“Don’t shut me out,” I told the door. “You need time alone, that’s fine, but you gotta let me know you’re okay.”
I heard her humorless laugh.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be okay,” she said.
I rested my palms on either side of the doorjamb. “Then let me in so I can help.”
“Go away, Heath.”
I groaned, testing the doorknob and finding it locked. “You want to be alone? Why don’t you let me watch Tessa for a little while? You can take a shower, do whatever you gotta do.”
“No one is watching Tessa but me.”
There was something in her tone that bothered me, just the slightest hint of an edge I’d never heard before.
I skimmed my hand over the top of the doorframe and, bingo, found one of those universal pins for opening locks. “Clare, I’m coming in. You dressed?”
“Nope,” she snipped, that fucking edge more prominent.
Worry soured in my gut.
“Then I suggest you get that way fast because I’m coming in.” I poked the key into the tiny hole on the knob until it released the lock. “Let me know when you’re covered,” I said, cracking the door but not swinging it open.
“Jesus Christ, Heath. Yes. I’m dressed.” She snatched the door from my hand, causing the key to fall to the carpeted floor.