“I’m fine,” I shrugged, not wanting to really get into too many details. “I think I’m going to need some time off,” I said hesitantly.
“Of course, whatever you need,” she said softly.
“Honestly I’m not sure when I’ll be back,” I explained vaguely. “I, um, may need you to take the two cats I still have…” I wasn’t sure what else to tell her.
“Say no more, take as much time as you need,” she repeated, picking up on my hesitation. “I’ll send Eva to get the cats this afternoon. Do whatever you need to do.”
I squeezed her hand, thankful to have her support without having to answer any questions.
“I just have one thing I was wondering about,” I stated before getting up to leave. “When you found that litter of puppies on the side of the road, did you know immediately what to do?”
“Of course not,” she replied with a smile. “I had no clue. But I saw something worth rescuing and I knew I had no other choice. Sometimes you’re not the one choosing. Sometimes you’re the one being chosen.”
“Thank you,” I said genuinely, standing up from the chair. She embraced me in a huge, warm hug, and I wondered if she sensed the possibility that we wouldn’t see each other again for quite a long time.
“Call me when things settle,” she said, escorting me out. I waved goodbye and left the clinic, a slow tear rolling down my cheek at the thought of that being my final exit.
I drove back home and grabbed a large suitcase. I looked around my condo, taking inventory of what was essential and what wasn’t. My place came furnished when I signed the rental agreement, so most of the big stuff wasn’t mine anyway. I loaded up the suitcase with some of my favorite clothes, my toiletries, an old photograph book, and a few other personal items. Everything else at the moment looked unimportant.
I loaded up my vehicle, filled it up with gas at the nearest station, and then hit the highway. I flipped open Cole’s metal box, pulling out the brochures of land in southern California. I found an address and typed it into my GPS.
That was it. I was headed south.
About seven long, slow hours into my drive, I couldn’t take it anymore. I was exhausted and the sun had set, and I was afraid I would fall asleep at the wheel. That wouldn’t have done me any favors. I eventually pulled over into the lot of a small but well lit hotel and got a room for the night.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever stayed in a hotel room by myself before. It felt a little creepy, but I was so tired, it didn’t bother me as much as it probably would’ve otherwise. I took a long, hot shower, checking my phone repeatedly on the chance anyone tried to call. The screen remained blank and my disappointment returned. Maybe I was crazy for doing this. Maybe I should’ve waited the six days until I could’ve used the plane ticket. But then I realized that wasn’t the point. I couldn’t possibly wait six more days, it would’ve been pure torture. Maybe I didn’t exactly have a plan, but doing something felt better than just waiting.
I slept for a glorious nine hours, waking up feeling refreshed and ready to complete my drive. I called the number for the realtor on the business card in Cole’s box. I wondered what I even planned to say to him, but I was prepared to just kind of wing it.
“Sanderson Realty, this is Mike,” a voice said on the other end.
“Hi, uh, hello, my name is Sydney and I am calling on a property you have listed,” I explained, trying to sound put together and somewhat professional. I read him the address off of one of the brochures.
“Ah, sorry, that one has already been picked up,” Mike said, sounding disappointed. “That deal was in the works for awhile, but it’s done. That property’s gone. Must be an old brochure you have, I apologize for that,” he said courteously. “I do have some others in the same price range though.”
“I’m not sure I’m interested in another property, that’s the only one I’m familiar with,” I stated, unsure of where to even go from here. “Are there others around that one for sale?”
“None like that property, it was almost ten acres,” he said with a low whistle. “You can’t find that kind of real estate around here. That was a once in a lifetime kind of purchase. The guy who bought it wanted some ponies for his daughter or something, there’s nowhere else like that even close. But I do have some one to two acre parcels if you’re just looking at building a house?”
“I think I’m fine for now, but thank you for your time,” I said politely, hanging up the phone. Ponies. All of that wasted space so some rich girl could have a few horses to forget about as she grew up. I slammed my fist on the steering wheel, completely annoyed that nothing was going my way. I cranked up the stereo, drowning my frustrations in loud music.
I headed towards the address in my GPS anyway, unsure of where else to go. I figured I would just get a hotel around there and a good night’s sleep, and maybe my head would feel better in the morning. Only five more days left until the baseball game, that was a plus. But those were going to be long, awkward days to fill. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing here anymore.
Eventually I pulled off the highway and down a long, dirt road. I smirked as I could see the ocean in the distance, just like Cole talked about. It was a beautiful spot. There were fruit trees everywhere, and the land looked so spacious, yet simple. It looked majestic on its own, but also looked like it was yearning for life – for footprints in the dirt and hands working in the soil. Towards the far end of the property, it looked like there was already a camper of sorts set up. Probably a camper filled with ponies, I snickered. As I got closer, I felt like a trespasser, but I really wasn’t sure where else to go. I noticed a motorcycle propped up next to the camper.
My heart began thumping loudly in my chest.
An outside light came on and I saw the front door of the camper open up. A large, shirtless man stepped out the front door, pulling on a tight v-neck t-shirt as I pulled up closer. I could see tattoos across his chest and down his biceps, and I swear my heart skipped a beat. He stepped down the camper steps and into the dirt area where I pulled my SUV up.
It was in that moment I realized this guy had darker hair than Cole. He also appeared to be a little bit shorter, although he was still a huge guy. I also noticed the motorcycle against the camper was a deep blue – not grey like Cole’s bike. Disappointment washed over me and I wanted to cry.
The guy walked over to my driver’s side door and I debated throwing the car in reverse. Being alone in the middle of nowhere with a large unrecognizable man didn’t seem like the best choice. But something about the way he looked at me as he approached, that was enough to make me stay put and roll down the window.
“Holy shit, what are you doing here?” the guy said in disbelief.
“I’m sorry, I think I took a wrong turn,” I lied, unsure as to why he was looking at me the way he was.
“You don’t remember me from the bonfire a couple months back? I’m Bryce,” he smirked.
“Wait, you know Cole?” I said in complete shock. His face maybe looked a little familiar as I stared at him, but I had met so many people that night.
“Isn’t that why you’re here?” he said, raising up his arms, gesturing towards the camper and the land all around him. I nodded slowly, completely confused by what was happening. “Why are you here already? He told me you weren’t coming until next Wednesday. I don’t have everything ready yet.”
“I don’t understand, this property is sold already,” I began, turning off my car engine. “Are you sure you’re supposed to be here?”
“I’m sanding down a sign with your name on it as we speak, I promise I’m a welcome guest,” he shrugged with a smile, motioning for me to step out of the car.
I climbed out of my SUV, still unsure of what was happening. “Is Cole here?” I asked nervously. I had a feeling if he was, he would’ve already come out of the camper.
“No,” he replied calmly, shaking his head. “I haven’t heard from him yet.” He furrowed his brow and I wonder what all he kne
w. “How did you know to come here? Cole told me about his plans, but he said you’d be meeting him at a baseball game next week. I’m just here setting everything up.”
“I was too impatient to wait until next week,” I shrugged. “Cole always talked about this land, so I headed south. But this morning I called the realtor and he told me this property already sold to some guy with ponies.”
“Harvey,” he mumbled with a slight laugh. “His gambling… Every time he won big, people would ask him what he was going to do with the money. He always said he wanted to buy some ponies – race horses.”
“So Harvey bought this land?” I asked, still trying to sort everything out.
“I don’t know the details, but I imagine he had a hand in it,” Bryce explained. “Harvey isn’t the greatest guy, you probably know that by now. But he loves big. Especially when it comes to Cole. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he had something to do with all this.”
Honestly I wasn’t sure what to think – I still had no idea what kind of man Harvey was. I knew how he felt for Cole, that was unmistakable, but to say whether or not he was a good man, that seemed indecipherable. Grady suggested Harvey was the deceitful one, but I knew I couldn’t trust either of them on that.
“Do you know what happened last night?” I asked bluntly. I so badly wanted information.
“I know some of it,” he said honestly, “and I have some assumptions on the rest. I’ve been around West Cove for a long time. It seems like there are a lot of secrets, but in the light of day, it’s not so secret. Everyone does what they have to in order to keep their heads up. They’re all hungry for power, and I don’t blame them, it’s hard not to get sucked into that when life around you is otherwise shit. Kids growing up around there, they know they’re different. They know they don’t have the same options as the Ridge City kids, so they emulate their parents. They see ways to make money, despite what comes with that, and they get recruited. Cole never stood a chance, and he knew that from a young age.”
“What about you?” I asked softly as we walked towards the camper. “Are you involved in all that? You work at the bike shop, don’t you?”
“Yeah, part-time,” he explained. “I’m actually taking a couple classes at the community college in town, but no one knows that. I’m just at the bike shop to keep up appearances. But I’m fortunate, I don’t have to work as hard as all the other young guys in West Cove. I have immunity.”
“How on earth do you earn that?” I questioned, unsure if he would even tell me.
“Easy, I knew one of the biggest secrets in West Cove until it all came out last night,” he shrugged. “You probably know by now that Harvey had a son before Cole, right?”
I nodded, surprised he was being this forthcoming with me.
“Well, I know who killed him. It was reported as a drunk driver, a hit and run. But I am one of the only people who knows the truth. I know who did it.”
“Grady,” I said quietly, assuming I also knew the secret after Harvey finally let it out the other night.
“Cole’s biological dad?” Bryce scoffed. “He had nothing to do with it. That’s the kicker. Everyone is always pointing their fingers at the wrong people to use it to their advantage. Cole’s father wasn’t a good man by any stretch, but he’s not the villain Harvey sold to you.”
“Then who did it?” I questioned, unsure he would even tell me.
“The one person you wouldn’t suspect. It was Harvey himself.”
CHAPTER 22
My head was spinning and I felt like I would never truly understand the tangled web of West Cove. None of it made any sense.
“Why would Harvey commit a crime like that, and blame someone else?” I said naïvely. Maybe that was a dumb thing to ask, but it just didn’t make sense.
“Because guilt like that isn’t easily overcome,” Bryce replied, leading me into the camper. Sadly I understood exactly what he meant. Guilt like that could certainly turn even the best person into someone else. “Harvey wasn’t a good man before, according to my father,” he continued. “But after that incident – it completely changed him. As far as I know, even his wife has no idea. It was truly just an accident, but obviously it weighed so heavily on him. He was out for blood, as if the world owed him something. When Cole entered their lives, he became even more intense. Like a man willingly giving up his own child should be punished far worse than one who lost his child by his own hands, however accidental it was. He wanted Grady to pay for that, for abandoning Cole the way he did, but he already had his own troubles and got picked up for arson before Harvey could even do anything about him.”
It all started making a little more sense to me as he spoke. I didn’t know how Harvey lived with such a secret though. I couldn’t imagine spending a lifetime knowing you’d done something like that. My situation with Ian, I felt the guilt for it, sure. And it ate at me every single day. But having people around me telling me it wasn’t my fault, even though I didn’t believe them, it was still probably the only thing that kept me remotely sane during that period in my life.
“Why are you telling me all this?” I asked curiously, surprised I was finding out more from this stranger than what I’d learned from Cole or even Harvey himself. Although apparently Cole didn’t seem to even know the big picture before whatever went down.
“Because there needs to be an end to it,” he sighed. “And Cole is doing it. He’s finally getting out from all of it. All because of a girl,” he smiled.
“I don’t think it’s because of me,” I blushed. “He wanted all this before he met me.”
“Wanting something and actually going after it are two very different things,” he replied. “Everyone in West Cove wants something. More money, more notoriety, a completely different life… Don’t underestimate your role in this. Offering someone goodness the way you do, that changes people more than the secrets around us ever could. He told me what you did for Crazy Jamie,” he said, clearing his throat. The mention of her caught me off guard. Why would Cole mention something like that to him? I stared blankly at him.
“There was one West Cove secret I didn’t know until last night. I’m not sure anyone knew. But it turns out Crazy Jamie – that’s his biological mom.”
I gasped, probably audibly, completely in shock. That didn’t seem possible.
“She didn’t even recognize him when he approached her that night, and he had no idea himself. You, she remembered, but the son she gave up on – she had no idea. But you forced him into sharing your faith in people and I think it really caught him off guard. He said goodness like that, from a girl like you, offering it to someone who doesn’t deserve it, that’s the only thing that can save this world. That’s why he won’t let you go,” he shrugged. “That’s why he did whatever it took to get out of the life he was in.”
“Do you think he really did what the news said he did?” I asked quietly. I figured while he was laying it all out, I may as well ask, though I wasn’t sure how ready I was to hear that answer.
“Does it matter to you?” he asked directly. I thought about it as he spoke. “Don’t make his guilt your own, no matter what he’s done.”
I understood what he was saying, but it was still so big to me. It felt like a cloud that would always be hanging over us.
“Use everything he’s done wrong, all of the money, the resources you’ve been given… Use it for good,” he stated. “I’m not saying that can undo anything that’s been done. It doesn’t right those wrongs, or fix anything, but it’s the only way to move on.”
His words resonated with me. I believed that. No matter what Cole had been through, I certainly didn’t believe it was too late for him. And by now there was no use blaming anyone else for it all – the shortcomings of his parents, the circumstances he was forced into, the guilt Harvey hung on to just to pour into someone else to make up for his inability to forgive himself – it was finally time to move on from all of that.
I offered a weary smile to Bryce
, exhausted from this day and this intense conversation. “I should probably go find a hotel,” I stated, noticing it was already almost nine p.m.
“You’re welcome to stay here,” he offered, motioning around the camper. It was definitely dated and worn, but it was very clean and organized. It was much larger inside than what I first pictured when I drove up. “There’s a bedroom in the back you can have to yourself. I just need to move something. This table here folds out into a bed, so I’ll sleep there if that doesn’t make you too uncomfortable.”
It did seem like an odd arrangement, but it also seemed like a lot less trouble than having to find a hotel room this late. Bryce seemed genuine and kind, and he was obviously doing something nice for Cole by being here. “That sounds great actually,” I stated with relief in my voice. “I’ll go grab my bag.”
I headed out to my car, grabbing just the essentials, and headed back in the camper. Bryce was holding a large wooden board of some sort, but I could only see the back of it.
“I’m not sure I’m supposed to show you this yet, it was supposed to be a surprise,” he blushed. “Cole’s orders.”
“Then it can wait,” I said with a smile, wondering what they were up to. “When do you think he’ll come? I don’t want to bother you here while I wait for him, I can head back into town tomorrow to find a place until he arrives.”
“I’m actually planning on heading out tomorrow myself,” he shrugged. “My work here is almost done. You can stay. Just no peeking. I think he wanted a more dramatic surprise for you. Yet ironically I think you may be the one surprising him.”
“I just hope he comes,” I said quietly, still a bit nervous about the entire thing. I couldn’t imagine what he was dealing with right now, with his face all over the news. I wondered where he went last night.
“He’ll come,” Bryce said reassuringly. “That’s the one thing about Cole. Sometimes he’s an asshole, and he’s got a hell of a right hook, but he always lives up to his word. He’ll come.”
The Falling Kind Page 20
