Page 1 of Found By You
Chapter 1
McCrae
My heart was pounding as I finished my lap around the lake, jogging back to my house. It used to belong to my brother Noah, and I wondered how often he’d done this route. I liked working out. I liked how it made me feel strong, tough, commanding—like I could accomplish anything.
People teased me about how much I worked out, lifted weights, ran, and did exercise in general. The truth was, I liked the sense of accomplishment it gave me. In that sense, working out my physical body was so much different from anything else I tried to do.
At the top of that list was my failed relationship with Rose Jones. We’d grown up together. I’d thought I would marry her. I’d loved her since childhood. Yet for the past two years, she’d ghosted me. Living in New York, she’d tried to make it as an actress, as a songwriter, as something—I wasn’t sure, because we no longer connected on social media.
I focused on something else. My birthday. A birthday my mother wouldn’t let me forget.
I stopped running and put my hands over my head. The cool air filled my lungs as I took deep breaths, my heart pounding in my chest. Sweat trickled down my back, soaking my gray T-shirt.
As if my mother could sense I was thinking about her, my phone buzzed. I picked it up. “Good morning.”
“Hey, son, I’m just finishing details for this party, and I didn’t know if you have a preference on the theme.”
I pulled open my screen door and walked inside. “Mom, I don’t even want this party. And you know that talking to me about some theme is ridiculous, right?”
I put the phone down and pulled my protein shake out of the fridge. I quickly took my vitamins for the day, chugging them down with a sip.
“McCrae, listen, everyone’s going to be there. It’s going to be perfect. And I know you keep saying you don’t want to have it. I can understand that it could be hard for you with your two older brothers married and now they both have babies, but no one’s comparing you to that.”
I snorted and got a glass out and filled it with water. “Thanks, Mom. I wasn’t even thinking about that.” I drank the water and stepped outside onto the deck. I focused on the beautiful lake.
“Honey, I’m just trying to do something nice for you, and it’s going to be a great day.”
I was done with this conversation. “I love you, Mom. Bye.” I ended the call.
Part of me felt guilty. I should be more respectful of my mom. The other part of me felt justified because she’d been pestering me about this dumb thirtieth birthday for way too long.
I allowed myself a few minutes to sip my shake and water and appreciate the lake. I focused on gratitude, something I’d been trying to think of more and more lately. I was grateful for my breath, this day, God, my family. I felt myself start to relax.
My mother and father had talked to me about seeing a therapist lately—they felt like I was too in my head or some mumbo jumbo—but I wasn’t going to do that. I didn’t need it. Sure, I’d served as a Marine for six years right out of high school, then come back and started being a cop. Sure, there were some things that were triggering on the job, but I could handle it. Everyone in my family had handled a lot. I was fine.
I sucked in another breath and tried to think about more things I was grateful for. After listing all of my brothers, my sister, and my parents, I circled back and wanted to say Rose. My brain was stuck like a record on a turntable—like there was just white noise. I clenched my hand into a fist. I didn’t want to think about her, but I couldn’t stop myself.
I went back inside, locked the door behind me, put the cups in the sink, and went to get ready for work. The best thing about work was that I usually didn’t have much time to think at all.
The workday was routine, until the end of my shift. The call came in; a car wreck. A woman wandering alone along the side of the highway in the middle of a storm. It wasn’t a situation I could ignore, even if it was likely some out-of-towner who’d gotten turned around.
She’d been spotted not far from my location, so I put on my siren. It wasn’t long until I spotted her, and my gut twisted. She wasn’t just lost and hurt; she was soaked, shivering, and looked like she’d collapse if the wind blew any harder.
I pulled over and grabbed my flashlight before stepping out into the downpour. The wind bit through my jacket, but I barely noticed as I approached her. “Hey there,” I called, my voice steady but loud enough to carry over the storm.
I noted a car lay on its side behind her. “You okay?”
She froze at the sound of my voice, her wide eyes locking on me like a deer caught in the headlights. For a second, I thoughtshe might run, but then her knees buckled, and she crumpled to the ground.
“Whoa, hey!” I closed the distance in a few strides, kneeling beside her in the mud.
Her skin was icy. She shivered.
“It’s okay. You’re safe now. Can you tell me your name?”
Her lips parted, but no sound came out. Then, finally, in a voice so soft I had to lean closer to hear it, she whispered, “I don’t know.”
My chest tightened. “You don’t know your name? Do you remember being in the car wreck?”
