Page 24 of Finding Fate

His brain had to do a double take. “Wh-what are you talking about? What’s Annie’s been doing?” he stammered under the daggers in her glare.

“Don’t play stupid. She probably put you up to this, didn’t she?”

Tucker just stared, dumbfounded. “Uh…” he tried.

She shook her head in disgust. “Ridiculous. Well, flat out telling me that I shouldn’t date Wesley didn’t change anything, and lying and trying to trick me into dumping him won’t work either!” she cried, jumping up to pace the floor.

“Crap, Izzy, no, you’ve got it all wrong,” Tucker said, getting up to join her, needing her to believe him. “I’m not lying,” he grabbed her arm as she passed, stopping her as he tried to explain. “You know I’ve been acting weird around you. You’ve told me so. This is why. I like you.”

“Do you really think I’m that dense, Tucker?” Izzy said, whipping back around, her hair flipping past his face. “Why would I believe for a second you might have a crush on me when you’ve been running around like some kind of man-whore lately?”

She took a deep breath, hating the twinge of guilt at the stricken look on his face, and started again, so angry she was close to tears. Calmly, but with just as much contempt, she added, “I can’t believe you’d do something that could hurt our friendship. I’m dating Wesley. You and Annie need to just get over it.”

With that, she marched across the room, slamming the door behind her. Tucker stood there with his mouth gaping open, unable to believe what had just happened. Whatever he thought she might do, he hadn’t expected that.

* * *

“Hey…how’d it…go?” Annie panted into the phone, pausing her run to sit on a curb when Izzy finally called.

“I can’t believe you! You said you would back off, but instead, you went ahead with some crazy plan that could hurt all our friendships, just to get me to stop dating a guy!”

Annie reeled at the response. “What are you talking about? I didn’t-”

“I can’t talk to you anymore,” Isabel cut her off. “I’m taking the truck. We’ll talk later.”

She hung up and jumped in their faded blue pickup, needing to think, to clear her head. The cab vibrated beneath her as she turned the ignition, the old engine groaning its protest as she took off.

Annie stared at the phone in her hand, shocked and just as hurt. Tears started to form, but she shoved the urge back, jumping up to dive even harder into her run.

Soon, there was nothing but pavement beneath her and the wind in her face. Her feet took the path on their own as her mind cleared of her inner turmoil, freeing and calming her for even just that bit of time, but her route returned her to Sandy Drive too soon. She collapsed onto her front lawn, lying back into the grass to catch her breath as her thoughts rolled back in.

She knew that she had been getting on Izzy’s nerves about the whole Wesley thing, but for Izzy to think that she would put Tucker up to talking to her, to telling her he liked her if he really didn’t, just to get her to stop seeing a guy? Of course, she wouldn’t do that.

She hit Jet’s picture on her phone and placed it on speaker.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he answered.

She heard the question in his voice. She’d normally text if he was at work, but she’d needed him.

“Babe…” Her bottom lip started to quiver.

“I’m almost off. Give me twenty minutes.”

Annie nodded, knowing he couldn’t see it, and hung up the phone.

She found a note from her mom saying she and Tyler had gone to the store and went up to take a shower, not wanting to be covered in sweat when Jet got there. Towel drying her hair, she balled it up with a clip and pulled on a fresh pair of athletic shorts and a T-shirt before heading outside.

The large treehouse out back waited for her, steady as always, and she climbed up to wait for Jet, texting him where she was. She crossed her legs to sit and leaned against the window, letting the warm summer breeze brush over her as she wrestled with her troubled thoughts. She was terrible at waiting, her biggest flaw and her greatest attribute. She glanced down to find the letters AD and PD still etched clearly beneath the windowsill and smiled.

“Come on, Annie, you should have first honors,”she could remember her dad saying with a chuckle as he held out his Swiss army knife, watching as she carved her initials into the freshly crafted wood. She’d begged and begged for him to build this, even using her allowance to buy nails and the little wood she could afford. “Don’t ever forget persistence pays off,” he’d said, kissing the top of her head.

She’d only just turned nine at the time, and they’d added the surrounding deck and tire swing for Tyler a few years later, just months before the cancer had set in last summer, taking her father away far too soon.

“No,” she grunted, swiping away the tear that leaked through. She got up, starting to pace. Grief sucked, and she hated it when she couldn’t control things. She’d rather fix them, but she’d made things with Izzy worse.

“Annie?”

She spun around to find Jet standing just inside the treehouse door. Relief flooded her at his presence, and she rushed towards him to bury her face against his chest. His arms wrapped around her as she breathed in his ocean smell.

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