Page 2 of Finding You

He couldn’t control the weather, so he forced all negative thoughts aside as he exited off the interstate and merged onto the small highway that would take him the rest of the way.

And said a silent prayer that he’d make it there without incident.

“You have got to be kidding me!”MacKenzie Holland’s voice was a near screech as her car started to sputter and smoke billowed out from under the hood. “Seriously? Now?” With no GPS and no way of knowing exactly where she was, panic and hysteria quickly set in.

Carefully, she pulled the car over to the side of the road and cursed her own stupidity. And yes, calling it stupidity was putting it mildly. Maybe deciding to pack up your entire life on the spur of the moment–while her cheating, low-life boyfriend tried to explain the naked woman bent over the dining room table–wasn’t the best decision she could have made.

Well, that and forgetting her phone charger and refusing to pick one up at any of the gas stations and convenience stores because she thought she had great battery life.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

She’d left everything she couldn’t fit in her car back in that crappy apartment in Syracuse and hit the road with no real destination in mind.

Well, she’d left the apartment, driven as far as Pennsylvania, and stopped for the night at a crappy hotel. Even after a semi-decent night’s sleep, she hadn’t come up with a plan. Her mother–who she hadn’t seen or spoken to in years–was last known to be living out in Oregon, so…maybe she’d go there.

Maybe.

That would be a last resort, but considering she was the only family MacKenzie had left, maybe it was where she was supposed to go.

“Ugh…I hate this.” Even if her phone was charged, there wasn’t anyone she could call to come and help her out. She was in the middle of who knows where and couldn’t even give anyone her location. “Okay, obviously you can sit here and berate yourself all the livelong day because this car isn’t going any farther and this two-lane highway is fairly deserted. Awesome.”

Maybe a cop car would drive by, or maybe some good Samaritan, but she wasn’t optimistic. She sat on the side of the road for all of five minutes before deciding to get out and pop the hood. Not that it was going to do any good–she had no idea what she was supposed to be looking for.

Or at.

Yeah, maybe she needed to add this to her ever-growing list of things she should have done differently. All the years she’d driven this car, everyone told her she needed to learn more about it. But had she? No.

Still, it seemed productive for her to at least try to see if it was an obvious problem–like a hose hanging out somewhere or some sort of…fluid spewing around.

That was a thing, right?

Still, the longer she looked at the engine, the more obvious it became that none of it made sense and nothing seemed out of place.

Muttering a curse, she walked around to the passenger side door and yanked it open. “Maybe there’s a manual in the glove box that I never noticed…”

There wasn’t.

Slamming the door, she walked back around to the front of the car and stared at the engine hard, as if willing it to tell her what was wrong. Smoke was still lightly billowing and that made her think that it wasn’t safe to try starting it again.

“Someone’s bound to come along eventually…”

At least…that’s what she tried to keep telling herself.

And just then, the first drop of rain landed on her nose.

Slowly, MacKenzie lifted her head, raised her eyes toward the sky, and cursed and screamed until her voice was raw. “Why? Why me? Why now?” she cried out. “Haven’t I been through enough? Wasn’t it bad enough that Kevin cheated on me? Do I really deserve this?”

The logical part of her brain reminded her that she wasn’t going to get a divine answer on this one, but it was a great way to release some of her pent-up anger and frustration.

So she screamed and jumped up and down a bit more.

“I work so hard and give everything I am to everyone andthisis what I get?” she breathlessly screamed heavenward. “How about throwing a little bad luck Kevin’s way, huh? Or maybe the whore he was screwing on Nana’s table! Maybe give them both an STD!”

That’s when the hysterical laughter started as images of all sorts of cartoonish misery fell on her ex and his side-piece. Everything from obvious STDs to anvils falling on them before sinking into quicksand.

Or maybe a piano falling from the sky.

“I probably should have eaten something more than a stale package of cupcakes for breakfast eight hours ago. I think I’m getting delirious.”

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