Challen and Addy

Chapter 32 (Addy): Odd Energy

Copyright © 2025 by GroveltoHEA

I thought Challen would probably regret asking me what I wanted to do the morning after we'd flown into town with Grady. We were enjoying our breakfast at the B&B, and he asked what was on my agenda. He didn't even blink when I'd told him I wanted to explore the town and shop for Rosabel. (Was there anything cuter than baby clothes?) In one minute, he'd found some local baby stores and a number of other stores on the charming Main Street that he knew I'd like.

"And, Addy," he said, eyes sparkling, "there's a little hole-in-the-wall, independently-owned bookstore. Your favorite."

For a moment, my face fell before I covered it with a smile, but Challen caught it.

"What just happened?" he asked, looking at me as if he was trying to read my mind.

We were supposed to be having a good weekend, so I didn't want to say, but Challen was watching me expectantly. Honesty was as good as it was necessary, the importance of getting things out in the open critical, so I decided to let him in my head a bit and hope it didn't cast a shadow over the weekend.

"I was surprised you thought of that, and then I thought of a time I wouldn't have been surprised by your thoughtfulness."

His eyes lost much of their sparkle and turned serious. 

"That's because I hadn't shown you any consideration for a long time. Of course it's surprising now. You got out of the habit of expecting anything from me." Then he smiled at me, brushing his hand lightly over mine. "But I'm working on fixing that."

I'll fix it for us.

"I know you are."

He'd been showing that by moving to be near me for rehab and in the thoughtfulness of the gifts he'd given to me, all of which were selected with my rehab in mind. I knew that he'd been researching what I needed, and he'd made sure I'd gotten it. 

Challen had also been giving his time to the Center, and that meant more than he knew to all of the patients. There was always a lot going on between meals and therapies and activities, but in the end, it was still a medical facility and not home.

This weekend trip for Grady was an entirely different level of thoughtfulness. Challen kept saying he'd just made a few phone calls, but it was his tenacity that led to it happening. He'd reached out and pursued leads and hadn't given up until he'd gotten Grady here.

I only hoped that Grady and Carys were finding peace between them, and they could come together as a family of three. His wife had been the only parent for Rosabel through such critical months that I wondered if she'd find it hard to share responsibilities for their baby this weekend.

So I wanted to celebrate this family weekend for them by buying out the baby stores. Challen seemed to be all in and actually had a good eye for the most adorable outfits. We bought Rosabel a complete wardrobe, from practical to frivolous, and then Challen really caught the baby-shopping bug and bought her some stuffed animals, soft blankets, bibs, toys and a couple of ruffled sun hats.

We walked out of each store with so many bags, Challen had to run back to the SUV every time, while I elected to sit outside the store in my chair and enjoy being in the sun. Every time he came back to me, his smile got bright.

"Glad to see you're still here," he said. "Was afraid you'd take off without me so I hauled ass to get back here."

"Where would I go?"

"I didn't get that far in my fear," he said, and I laughed at him. "Maybe some handsome stranger would release the brakes on your chair and run away with you."