Page 104 of Finding Their Place

Garrett wasn’t just a guy I’d fucked around with.

He’d become a friend, a good one who seemed to understand me on a level deeper than anyone in my small circle.

“Fuck.” Closing my eyes, I tipped my head back and breathed through the ache in my chest.

I was alone.

Again.

“Fuck.”

I swiped my cell off the table and put through a call to my sister since she claimed to be a night owl.

“Hey, Rowan.”

“Hey, baby sis.” We didn’t know who’d been born first, but seeing her as younger felt right. “Sorry for calling so damn late—”

“I was awake. What’s up?”

“I was thinking we’ve put this shit off long enough.”

“You really want to meet the woman who abandoned us?” she asked, more wariness to her voice than hurt like I felt deep inside my bones.

“Fuck no, but I need to get this shit over with—after seeing you. Do you have any plans tomorrow?”

“You mean today?”

I glanced at my clock. It was after twelve. I’d had my weekend plans with Garrett obliterated by a three-worded text, so I needed to keep my head busy. “Yeah…so later this morning?”

“I’m free every Saturday. What did you have in mind?”

“We can have breakfast together then drive up to Fresno.” I’d yet to meet the mirror image of me and finally felt ready to figure that part of my life out since all the other issues surrounding me had resolved—just not in the way I’d hoped for.

“That sounds good to me. I’ve been dying to see you in real life.” Her voice teased, same as it had the last couple times she’d begged me to see me. “Do you think we should call her first though?”

“Nope. I want to meet you, confront her together, then see where we go from there.”

Because fuck knew I had no plans for my life outside Lionel’s Landscaping.

“She didn’t want us then, so I doubt she’s going to want us now.” The assuredly of River’s tone and the bluntness of her statement ripped through me. She sounded flippant—she didn’t care one way or the other.

But I sure as fuck did.

She hadn’t been betrayed by her adoptive parents, lied to by the people who’d paid good money to obtain a kid.

I felt so goddamn alone, my heart slugging along to keep beating. My sister was set on having me in her life…why couldn’t that be enough?

I should have been ecstatic to finally meet her, maybe connect as twin siblings seemed to, but the deepest part of my soul still ached for more with the two people I’d given my heart to.

And lost.

35

Garrett

My damn hands shook as I unlocked the apartment door and let myself into the place I’d called home for over eight months. The soothing, familiar scent of lavender filled my nose and made my eyes sting.

I’d been on a goddamn roller coaster of emotions since learning about Hal’s mom’s death—then reading her text…

---