Page 77 of Some Kind of Forever
Breathing out a heavy sigh, I tip my head back in the chair, covering my eyes with the heel of my hands. The more I think about how it looked with me and Maggie at the water fountain, the more agitated I feel. This is bad…so bad. Kayla called meEvan, that asshole who broke her heart. That’s what this looks like to her, that I strung her along in the same way he did. It’s not the same, not in the slightest, but that’s how itlooks. I pull out my phone and send a text that she’ll hopefully read when she’s done working for the night.
Me:
Please text me when you’re done.
Please… I’ll wait for you by the catering van.
I don’t expect her to answer right now, but I stare down at my phone anyway, watching for any glimmer of hope—bouncing dots, a middle finger emoji,anything—signaling she’s still willing to talk to me. Eyes plastered to the screen, I tap with my thumb anytime the light dims so I don’t risk missing a message. After a full ten minutes, there’s nothing. I turn the screen off and run my hands through my hair as I lean my head back to stare at the ceiling. I don’t even know how to fix this, but I know if I can get her to talk to me, or stand still long enough for me to talk to her, I can figure it out.Wecan figure it out.
I don’t know how long I’ve been sittinghere, battling every single thought that enters my mind, but I apparently don’t hear the door across the ballroom open or shut.
“There you are…” I jump at the voice coming from behind me. Sitting up, I shake my head, not wanting to look at the face belonging to that voice. “I was worried you’d left,” Maggie says sweetly.
My skin crawls as the tang of bitter rage coats my tongue. The utter disgust scrunched up in my expression while she walks toward me is only matched by the one I had when talking to her dad that one night on the deck. I try to choke down the burning in my throat as I realize she has no limp while she walks, and the strap of her shoe is back around her ankle.
“Oh, don’t look at me that way, Chase. It had to be done. You were getting too attached to that waitress.”
“You mean mygirlfriend? What the fuck did you do, Maggie?” I screech, almost knocking the chair over when I stand. My pulse pounds in my ears as rigid resentment sets into my shoulders and heat flushes up my neck.
“Daddy said you might need a little push, so I pushed. Camryn and Tamryn helped get her to the right vantage point, of course. But it all worked out, so why does it matter?” She steps closer, and I instinctively move back.
“Are you even hurt?” I point down at her feet, shaking my head as I realize I already know the answer.
“I’m a dancer. Do you really think I don’t know how to balance on a wide fountain ledge?” Her look is condescending, like she’s talking to some naive child. And maybe I have been naive, but right now, there’s nothing harmless about her. With one destructive pirouette, she just blew up my life.
I grit my teeth, livid heat engulfing me as she explains how she orchestrated this whole mess. I knew she could be devious, but this—making it seem like she was hurt and in need of my help just to get me close, recruiting her friends to make sure my girlfriend watched—this was intentional. This was diabolical.
She takes another step toward me, reaching out to touch my arm. “Now we can be together, Chase.”
I flinch away. “We’re never going to be together, Maggie! You need to get that through your head. There is not one single point in time where I would ever consider being with you. It makes me sick even looking at you right now, knowing what you just did.” I grab my jacket from the chair and shrug it on. “Stay the hell away from me,” I say over my shoulder as I turn to walk away.
Once I’m safely in the hallway, I scrub my hand over my face to try and ease some of the tension. I pull out my phone to check the time, but mostly to check for a new message. The notifications are blank, and the time reads ten forty-five p.m. Kayla should be done soon, so I walk down to the parking garage, helplessly hoping to find her there. When I reach the catering van, Patti is arranging the supplies in the back.
“Hey, Patti…” I say cautiously, not sure if she knows what happened in the kitchen earlier.
“Oh, hi, Chase! Did you enjoy your evening?” she asks, smiling as warmly as she ever has.
“Yeah, it was great. Have you seen Kayla?”
“Oh… She left with Ashlie about an hour ago. Said she wasn’t feeling well.”
“Left? Do you know where?”
“Back to Bender, I think.” Her voice drops as she softly says, “Hey…” Her tone has changed, and a look falls across her face, her eyes telling me she might just know exactly what happened in the kitchen. “I’m not saying don’t go after her, but I’ve known Kayla for a real long time. Whatever is happening between you two, give her some time to process it…” She knows. Of course she knows. I only yelled it out for everyone in the kitchen to hear.
I nod, considering for a moment that she might be right as I back away from the van toward my car. “Thanks, Patti,” I say, before turning to jog the rest of the distance. The clock reads ten fifty-five when I start the car. If I go the speedlimit, it should take a little over three hours to get from here to Fort Bender. I doubt I’ll be going that slow. Shooting off a text to Hunter, I let him know I’ll be back tonight and start my drive, hoping with everything I have that Kayla will see me in the morning.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHASE
Itried to sleep when I got into the rental around three this morning, but my brain has been wired since last night. Forgetting to account for the construction detour, I made it back into town later than I expected. I exchanged my crumpled suit for sweats and climbed right into bed. Most of the dark morning hours were spent tossing and turning, sitting up to check my phone each time I changed positions, and lying back down to toss and turn some more.
Kayla hasn’t answered my messages from last night. I called her phone twice on the drive back into town, and it went straight to voicemail each time. I even got so desperate that I called Ashlie, getting nothing in return. Now I’m sitting up in bed, waiting for the morning to progress enough for me to go over and knock on Kayla’s door because I don’t have the courage to call again.
As soon as eight a.m. hits, I grab my keys and head out to my car, moving quietly so I don’t wake the sisters sleeping upstairs. I don’t actually know if Kayla came back to Bender, but I feel like going to her house is the best chance I have at getting her to listen to what happened last night. I pull up to her driveway in no time, and a sense of relief floods over me when I see Ashlie’s red hatchback in the driveway.I can fix this.Parking behind it, I take a deepbreath, scrub my face in my hands, and walk to the front door. Hoping to see Kayla’s face, my heart pounding in my chest, I knock lightly.
“You need to leave,” Ashlie says, closing the door behind her as she steps onto the porch. Her arms cross, and despite her tiny frame, I recognize the enormous barrier for what it is.
