Can’t argue with her there. She disappears down the hall and it doesn’t take her long to get dressed. One of my old backpacks is in the hall closet so I pull it out and fill it up with waters and snacks. When we get outside, the weather is perfect. No clouds in sight. It’s the middle of September and the high for today is a breathtaking seventy-two degrees.
“Has Max tried to call you?”
I open the car door and get in, tossing my backpack into the backseat. My phone is in the bag, but I have yet to turn it on. I’m scared to see what messages I’ve missed, or if there are even any messages at all. It’ll gut me either way.
“I don’t know,” I confess. “I’ve been too afraid to turn my phone back on.”
Kim starts up the car and we head on our way to Acadia. “I understand. I’ve kept mine off too. I’m sure our boss has left me quite a few nasty messages for quitting.”
“You didn’t have to quit. I could’ve come up here by myself.”
She snorts. “Please. You’re my best friend. You need me right now. Besides, I really hated my job. You’re the only reason why I stayed. I knew if you became manager things would get better.” And now I’m not. I threw that opportunity away.
It doesn’t take long to get to Acadia, and today, we’re going to hike the Bubbles Trail. It’s a moderate hike that features a vast abundance of wildflowers. I need some serenity right now. Grabbing my bag out of the backseat, I slide my arms through it and tighten the straps, so it fits snugly across my back.
Kim pulls out her phone and sighs. “All right, I’m turning this thing on. The suspense is killing me.” As soon as she turns it on, there are a gazillion beeps. She scrolls through her messages and cringes her face. “Yikes. Yeah, there are some pretty harsh messages on here. Remind me never to use our boss as a reference for future jobs.” She continues scrolling, but then her eyes widen in shock.
“What is it?”
She bites her lip and looks at me. “I got a text from Max. Several in fact. He’s looking for you.”
My heart flutters for a quick second, but then reality steps in and I embrace the anger. I refuse to let him break my heart. Who am I kidding? It’s already broken. “Don’t reply,” I warn her.
She agrees with a nod and puts her phone in her pocket. “You don’t think he can track where you’re at, do you?”
Knowing Max, he can probably do anything. He knows the right people. “Dear God, I hope not. If he’s smart, he’ll leave me alone.”
Kim chuckles but there’s no humor in it. “Something tells me that’s not going to happen.”
8
Max
It took me five days to track London down. It should’ve been sooner but her best friend, Kim, is like a vault and wouldn’t tell me anything. In fact, she made me work for any minute detail, and each time she gave me a morsel, it was to throw me off their path. First, she told me London was at work—which wasn’t true because I had camped out in front of the restaurant waiting for London to come to work. Then, Kim told me London was at their house—nope, another fabrication. And then it was, we’re at the mall in Providence—so I hightailed my ass there, only to realize that mall is ginormous, and I would’ve never found London, even if I believed Kim to telling the truth.
Now, I’m sitting in my car, down the road from the farmhouse London’s parents bought. Thanks to Kim turning on her location services, I’ve been able narrow down a location for at least Kim. I figure since she quit her job as well, they would be together. Still, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of either of them. Every few minutes, I contemplate driving down the long driveway and knocking on the door. My problem is, I’m not sure if London is there and I don’t know what I’d say to her parents. If I tell them I’m looking for her and they haven’t seen her, this might alert them into thinking she’s missing. And if she is there and she’s told them about everything that happened last week, her father will likely chase me off their porch with a shotgun, which I probably deserve.
I look down at my bandaged hand and sigh. My knuckles hurt, but still I flex them to keep them from stiffening up. After I left the reception last weekend, I went right to London’s. I banged on the door until my knuckles bled. As if that wasn’t enough damage, when I returned to my boat that night, Vance had the nerve to call London a cheap fuck. One punch to his smug face landed him in the water. For years, I’ve overlooked Vance and his power trip, but no more. When he spewed those words, I couldn’t take it anymore. He knows nothing about London and looks down on her because she’s a waitress.
When I didn’t find London at my boat, I had no choice but to give up for the night. I figured she went to another friend’s but assumed she would show up for work the next day. In the morning, I parked outside the restaurant and waited. When the lunch shift started and London wasn’t there, I asked her manager, who told me she up and quit.
She quit her job.
Because of me.
Talk about feeling the lowest of lows. When her manager said that, I felt like I had been sucker punched. London was working her ass off to become manager, it was her goal, and then I offered her the chance to run the restaurant at Dawson’s Marina. Everything London had worked for was going to come to fruition and then Alyssa happened. No wonder London quit. I’d quit this damn place too if I had a choice.
A truck comes down the road and I slink down in my seat. Of course, my car sticks out like a sore thumb around here. I’m sure whoever drove past is probably calling the cops. This spurs me into action as I right myself and press the button to start my car. I put the car into drive and pull forward the length of the split rail fence, until I turn onto the dirt driveway. I cringe each time I hear a rock hit my car, undoubtedly leaving dents, or chipping the paint.
It’s just a car. It’s just paint. The prize is in that house.
That is what I tell myself until I finally come to a stop. From the outside, everything looks quiet. I don’t know if I expected something different, maybe the door opening and slamming shut or children running around, which is odd to think because London is an only child and unless she lied to me, she doesn’t have children. But the fact that I can envision children running around this place is eye opening.
I shut my car off, get out and walk with confidence to the front door. Up the small flight of wide planked steps, I knock rapidly on the wooden screen door. Voices rise as someone comes to the door. It opens and a woman, who looks identical to London stands there, holding a towel.
“Can I help you?”
“Mrs. Bauer, My name is Maxwell Richmond and I’m here to see London.” I have no idea if London is even here, but I figure if I state my point matter-of-factly, she’ll let me know whether London is here or not.
She turns her head slightly, without taking her eyes off me. “London, sweetie. Come here.”
My eyes steady on the hall, waiting for London to appear. When she does, they widen at the sight of her and my heart leaps from my chest. As soon as she recognizes me through the mesh screen, her steps falter.
“Wh—how did you find me?”