I was shaking, my body riding the high of pure adrenaline. I pushed past all the employees who I now knew were all under the spell of Holly. I had no desire to say goodbye to them. Had I waited until my scheduled meeting Monday, I would have been faced with more than just a skeleton crew. I was thankful that I’d chosen to pop in on Saturday instead. I didn’t need a bigger audience; this was humiliating enough.
By the time I reached my truck, my heart was hammering in my chest and my hands shook so uncontrollably that it was almost impossible to place my keys in the ignition.
After several attempts, I ended up dropping them to the floorboard, and that’s when everything broke free. Tears flowed. I sobbed, thinking of the mess my life had become in such a short time. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d ever cried so hard.
I knew I could go to my father and he’d make everything better, or attempt to. Part of me wanted to run to him, share everything, and let him be my hero. I knew there would be a lot of heads spinning when Benjamin Rigdon stormed through Brooklet on a mission. Only I couldn’t; I wouldn’t. I wanted to be treated as a grown up. I wanted him to understand that I wasn’t the little girl with pigtails anymore. But I will admit, right now I sure wanted my daddy to make it all just go away.
So instead, I found myself driving to the only person who had the ability to just hold me and make everything else disappear.
Walking up to the station, I saw the large garage door open and a few of the men standing at the side of the truck. It was an unusually warm day for December, and all that was needed was a light jacket. Even that may have been a little much. Most of the guys wore t-shirts and pants, leaning up against the firetruck and laughing. As I got closer, I was able to see what they were laughing and smiling at, and it was just another kick to my already destroyed ego. She was everywhere.
Holly looked up just as I paused in the doorway, and instantly her eyes gleamed and a smile covered her lips. “You looking for Landon?”
All I could do was stare at her. Honestly, what I wanted to do was hijack the truck and drive over her again and again to ensure she would never again show up in my life in any way. Problem was I couldn’t move or speak. That strong, confident, taking charge of my life speech I’d given myself a short time ago, it was gone. The moment I was fired, that girl was crushed. And now the beating just continued.
“He may still be in the shower.” The way she said it made my skin crawl.
I walked toward the stairway, ignoring them all, and stopped at the bottom looking up toward the upper floor. Feeling sick to my stomach, I paused and found a row of lockers with a long bench before it. Taking a seat, I lowered my head to my hands and focused on breathing.
“You okay?” I jumped at the sound of a man’s voice and looked up to find Nolan standing a few feet away. “Looking for Layne?”
“Just waiting here.” I avoided his questioning eyes and looked around, wondering exactly where I was.
“If you just need to leave something for him, his locker is right there.” Nolan pointed behind me. “He may be awhile. I could go tell him you’re here if you want.”
“No, I’m good, thanks.”
Nolan was hesitant at first, but then he slowly backed away and left me alone. Focusing on my breathing, I took in one slow, deep breath after another. My stomach still felt queasy, but I forced myself to stand. Running my hand along the lockers, I paused on the one that said Layne and lifted the handle, taking a chance. It came open easily. Just inside, taped to the door was a picture of him and me, one where he was pressing a kiss to my forehead. I was smiling with my eyes closed. I thought back to our times together, attempting to remember when it was taken. I was interrupted by his phone buzzing with an incoming message.
I looked back over my shoulder and found I was alone. Curiosity got the best of me, and no, I wasn’t proud of the fact that I felt the need to snoop, but after the morning I had, I was erratic and impulsive and uncontrollable.
Lifting his phone, I swiped my finger over the screen and typed in his code, 1234, the worst possible security code ever. His phone came alive, and I saw he had three unread messages.
One was from Mike asking him if he was still planning to go with him to get Maddison’s Christmas gift tomorrow. Another from his mom, wanting to know if I would be joining them this year for Christmas morning gift exchange. And the other, it was a number not registered to his phone.
Another deep breath. I tapped on the thread, and immediately I felt the bile rise in my throat. Bare breasts filled his screen, one hand laying over one, the nipple peeking between the fingers. If it had not been for the gaudy ring on one of the fingers I wouldn’t have known who it belonged to. With shaking
