Page 4 of Finding Fate

I don’t really have that much. I left anything of real value at my dad’s house. Most of the clothes I have here I’ve bought since I moved out on my own. And if it’s easily replaceable, like toiletries, it’s staying here. The less I take the sooner I can get back to Maddox.

The day I got my high school diploma I said I’d stand on my own two feet. That way my dad can’t control my life anymore. In less than thirty minutes I have a large rolling suitcase full and zipped and a duffle bag with the rest, both side by side on top of my bed. I walk around to the opposite side and lift the mattress, reaching between it and the box spring to grab the zipper pouch that stays here, moving it to the front pocket of my suitcase.

The frame on my nightstand catches my attention. I grab it and hold it in front of me—the two of us in our swimsuits on his dad’s boat. He had his shades on with a big-ass grin on his face. His arm was wrapped around my tiny waist while I snapped the photo. His parents went out of town for their anniversary, so Maddox wanted to go stay at the camp for the weekend and spend it on the river. I told my dad I was going with Mandy—my best friend in school—and her family to Orange Beach for the weekend so he wouldn’t drive by her house. Lying came easily during the time I was with Maddox, but I wouldn’t take back a second, even knowing it was wrong in ways.

A pinched feeling at the back of my neck causes me to slap at the skin in case it was a mosquito or gnat biting me. Those damn things find their way inside in the south regardless of what you do. Maybe I should have left my hair down earlier at Maddox’s, but with sex comes sweat, and it was starting to stick, so I put it up in a loose top knot bun.

I drop the frame as I sway on my feet. “Shit.” When I bend down to get it I nearly fall over. Dizziness washes over me. What the hell? I close my eyes, trying to make it go away. I force myself upright and turn around to sit on my bed for a second, my eyes landing on a dark suit I’d recognize anywhere. He comes toward me. “No.”

Maddox.

But before I can fight or run, everything goes black.

Three

Riggan

Iturn the rental car down the road to Maddox’s house, or his parents’ house, but as little as they’re here anymore it might as well be his. It’s time to get started for the airport or we’re going to miss our flight, and I haven’t gotten so much as a text from Maddox since he was in a rush to get home last night after the concert, which is odd. He usually sends some dumbass text joking around at least once a day. I didn’t even get a response when I asked if he was ready, yet it says he read it.

My eyes land on him sitting on the porch steps, shirtless, and hunched over with a bottle in his hand as I pull the Yukon into his driveway and shift into park. “Is that liquor?” Sayler asks. “Is he okay? It’s not even lunch yet.”

“What?” Presley pipes in from the backseat, before peering between mine and Sayler’s seats to get a look. He hasn’t even looked up at us.

I look through the rearview mirror at Konnor, knowing something is wrong. Maddox only drinks beer, and the only time he does any day drinking is if he’s out with friends doing something social like a football game, or on the boat at the river, or on vacation or the like. The last time I saw him drinking whiskey was right after he came back home after he finished out his senior year at another school in another state while staying with his older brother Micah. He was fucked up for a long time over her before he started acting like himself again. If the bitch ditched him, I’m gonna kill her, or better yet, make her wish she were dead.

Konnor’s eyes are locked on mine. “Can you find her if I need you to?”

He nods. “Yeah, I can call her roommate if I have to.”

Presley huffs dramatically. “Let’s just bring back all of our bad memories in one amazing weekend.” Her tone is dripping with sarcasm.

“Pres, come on,” he says. “Don’t be like that. I haven’t talked to her since I moved out last summer . . . over a year ago.”

She sighs. “I know. That doesn’t mean I’m thrilled about you calling someone from your little black book.”

“I am not a good memory for her. I was a dick to her because I wanted you. Gabby, on the other hand, is myfriendlike Ryland is yours. Except we never actually hooked up, despite what I made it look like. We talked all this out last night, right before I reminded you why you’re the one having my kid.”

“I know. I know. I’m sorry,” she whines. “I just need an adjustment period.” I turn my head to the right at the same time she looks back to the front from where she’s perched in the middle between Sayler and me with an arm on each of our seats. She looks at me. “Not a word. You have zero room to judge.”

“Wasn’t going to. But I can offer a little reassurance. I can’t speculate on the roommate, since I don’t know her, but Gabby is not a threat to you, regardless of what shit went down with her and Konnor back then. And I’m telling you now, if you want to keep all of your birds in the nest, you gotta figure out a way to like her, because Maddox will go where Gabby is. That girl has been wrapped around his cock and heart since she was thirteen. He’s very stingy with her. Y’all talk about me being psycho over princess over here, but Maddox hides his jealous side well, because only one girl brings it out. He kept her away from us, like one of us would actually try to take his girl. She was fourteen and he eighteen when her rich daddy put on a shit-show and threatened to press statutory rape charges on him. None of us have anything on them. They are more jealous over each other than any of us put together. If not for her prick of a dad, those two would be married with kids by now.”

She frowns. “Maddox’s room is on the third floor, regardless of who he chooses to share it with. I’ll deal with my insecurity.”

“Pick one word to describe Maddox.”

“Happy.”

“Does that look happy to you?”

She looks toward the house, her eyes immediately softening. “No.”

“She’s back in the picture one day and this is what you get when she’s gone. She gripped that motherfucker by the balls and never let go, but it goes both ways, which is why she ran out crying yesterday. You don’t easily move on from someone when you were torn apart.”

“What is he doing? He hasn’t even acknowledged that we’re here.”

“He’s drowning her memory, and considering he fucked her before the show, that’s not good.”

I reach for the door handle and go to get out when a tug occurs on the side of my shirt. Sayler’s bottom lip is trembling and her eyes are glossy. “Rig, you’re worrying me. He doesn’t look good. That night we . . . When he . . . Is she—”

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