Page 102 of Chasing Infinity

I look up to see my favorite girl walking toward me, smiling as she waves at me. I hold my hand up in a wave and grin back at her.

“Hey,” she calls out as she gets closer. Her cheeks are flushed from the cool winter air.

“Get a good nap in?”

Parks smirks at me. “Yeah, some guy made me get up at the crack-ass of dawn this morning.”

“Some guy, huh?” I tease her, bumping her shoulder with mine when she leans on the railing next to me. I’m happy to find that things aren’t awkward between us after this morning. I promised her I wouldn’t change how I acted around her, but I didn’t know if she could do the same. But as always, Parks is exceptional.

It doesn’t take her long to notice the gaudy ring on my finger. She reaches for my hand and stretches my fingers out, inspecting the ring.

“What is this?” she asks me. My eyebrows knit together, and I clench my other hand into a fist at my side. The stupid ring bearing the McCoy family crest is displayed right at the knuckle of my pinky finger. “That’s fancy.”

I scowl even harder as I look down at it. “It’s a birthday gift from my father. Apparently, It’s a family tradition that the men in the family receive a family crest on their eighteenth birthday. How archaic is that, huh? I was just so lucky to get mine in the form of this god-awful ring.”

“You don’t like it?” she questions.

“Not if it connects me tohim,” I spit out, feeling a ball of irritation start to form in my chest. Addison’s eyes soften as she looks at me, and I hate how she appears to be feeling bad for me.

I know I’ve been shady whenever my father comes up in conversation. She’ll ask every now and then how things are going, and I don’t want to worry her by telling her things are bad. My mind flits to the ledger I found on his desk yesterday, and the irritation grows. I know I could talk to her about it, and she’d listen and probably have a good way for me to proceed. But she’s one of the only truly good things I have in my life. I don’t want to taint her with whatever sketchy business my father is up to.

Then it suddenly occurs to me thatAddison’sfather might just be the right person to talk to about this. What did she say her dad was a part of? The FBI? He would probably know exactly how to handle whatever information I stumbled across. Or, at the very least, tell me if I was being paranoid.

Addison asks me a few more questions about what my parents gifted me for my birthday, and I answer her enough to stay engaged. Still, in the back of my mind, I’m formulating a plan. I decide I need to talk to her father without her around.

We hang out for a few hours at the library before telling her I have to head home for dinner. She nods, disappointment clouding her features at the thought of me leaving, which gives me great satisfaction. If I could, I’d spend every waking moment with this girl.

The rest of the evening passes in a blur. My parents take me for a nice birthday dinner, then back home where we have ice cream sundaes for dessert. I head to bed early, my mind still busy working on the ledger situation.

I barely sleep a wink all night, running over every last bit of information I want to give to Mr. Parks. I try to make sense of it in my mind, so I don’t come across as some try-hard kid, but it’s no use. To be honest, I have no idea what I found. None of the numbers made sense with the charges in the ledgers. I couldn’t make sense of the riddle in the brief few minutes I looked at it. All I know is that something felt really wrong about it.

At some point in the middle of the night, I can’t take it anymore. I toss the covers back and get out of bed. Quietly I sneak out of my room and down the hallway to my father’s office. I want to get another look at that ledger and maybe snap a few pictures to show Addison’s dad tomorrow.

I’m disappointed when I get into his office and find his desk perfectly cleared off. The documents scattered around his workspace last night are now stacked neatly. Everything is in order once more, and much to my chagrin, the ledger is gone.

I scowl as I stalk back out of his office and to my bedroom again, crawling into bed and cursing everything. I doze off a few times, though it’s not a restful sleep. When my alarm blares, I throw off the covers again and wander into my bathroom. I stare at my reflection and notice the dark circles under my eyes. I’m quiet as I leave the house, starting up my truck and going straight toward downtown. It’s early enough that the streets are quiet, even for a Sunday morning. I part the truck and stroll up to the café. A few early risers are lingering at the tables, drinking coffee and having breakfast, but I don’t stop to say good morning.

As I step into the building, I make a beeline for the front counter. Mr. Parks looks up and offers me a friendly smile. “Noah, nice to see you. Addison is still at home, I think she was going to sleep in this morning, but she’ll be here later if you want to see her.”

“Actually,” I say hesitantly, walking towards the older man. My mind is running a mile a minute. I still have time to turn around and pretend this never happened. But instead, I stick to my guns, hoping I’m not making a terrible mistake. “I’m here to see you. I have a few questions.”

“Sure, what can I do for you?” he asks, suspicion edging his tone.

I brace myself and then muster the courage. “What do you know about my father?”

If he was surprised, he hid it well. Mr. Parks’ eyes harden, and his lips turn into a frown. He takes a deep breath and then nods his head once, resigned. “I think you’d better sit down.”

Chapter 26

Noah

Noah - Age 18

“Okay, hit me with the next one,” Parks says. I glance at her in amusement as I shuffle the flashcards in my fingers before picking the next one.

“Name the type of reaction in which the products have less energy than the reactants, causing energy to be put off during the reaction,” I read off and then peek at her again.

We’re camped out in the student center at school. Parks is sprawled out on her back on one of the old couches, her over-stuffed backpack serving as a pillow, and her feet on my lap. She has her eyes screwed shut as she considers the flash card I just read. Her lips mouth the words to the question as she works it out in her head.

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