“Its not what you think Caroline. She came to the office today while I was in a meeting and may have overheard something that made her run. I need to find her and make this right.” I tried to explain. I had to get Caroline on my side or there was no way to salvage any part of this relationship with Maddie.
“What did she overhear Lucas?”
“I have been keeping something from Maddie. I was tasked to find her a few years ago.”
“Tasked? By whom?”
“Jason Merrick”
“Holy shit! You bastard! You used her to reconcile her relationship with Jason? Get out! I have to find her.”
“I’m not leaving until I know where she is so I can talk to her. Make her understand that what she thinks isn’t the whole truth. I need to make her understand that I love her.”
“If she found out you know Jason, she probably thinks you used her and I can’t say I disagree.”
“I swear to you Caroline. The first night I talked to her at the bar, was purely fate. I saw y’all walking into the bar and I was compelled to follow her. There was this invisible force pulling me toward her. Nothing I have said to her is a lie. Yes, I tried to guide her to a reunion with Jason but I never pushed her into anything. I only wanted to give her back a part of herself she was missing. She has a father that loves her and has been searching for her for years. I found out how amazing she is and I fell head over heels in love with her. She is my everything.” I said, trying and failing, to keep the emotion out of my voice.
I sank down onto the couch and put my head in my hands, tears gathering in my eyes. Maddie was gone and I felt hollow inside.
Caroline sat down and tried to give me some comfort but I could tell she was still pissed at me.
“Let’s call my parents and see if they’ve heard from her. If she took off, she probably went home.”
“Thank you, Caroline. For believing me.”
“I didn’t say I believed you but my fist priority of finding Maddie.”
She dialed her mom and let her know what had happened, resulting in me getting yelled at by Lisa and Joe. They’d warned me to be honest with Maddie and my stupid pride wouldn’t listen. They hadn’t heard from her and she had officially been missing six hours.
Caroline was angry I had met with her parents and they hadn’t told her. I could see the hurt in her eyes and it was all my fault. I was tearing this family apart with my need for Maddie. My omissions had destroyed everything we had built together.
“Do you know where else she may have gone? If she doesn’t want to talk to me, that’s fine. I just need to know she is okay.” I said to the entire family, hoping for a miracle.
“Let’s all make a few calls to ask around. I’ll call you back, mom.” Caroline hung up without another word to her parents.
She dialed a few numbers, asking the same question each time. “Have you seen or heard from Maddie today?” with the same response coming each time. No
“There are only a few more people I can call before we are out of luck. If she wants to stay hidden, she has the knowledge to do it.”
“What about Josh?” I swallowed my pride and asked her.
“What about him?”
“He texted her when we were at the lake house this weekend. She told me about their relationship. Would he know where she is?” At this point I was desperate to find her.
“Its possible. Let me call him and see what he knows.”
She got up and paced as the phone rang over the speaker.
“Hello.” A masculine voice answered the call.
“Josh, its Caroline. By chance have you heard from Maddie today?”
“Am I on speaker?”
She hit a button and moved the phone to her ear, walking away from me into the kitchen.
“Okay… No. Absolutely not! I would never do that!… Okay…. Okay…. I understand. I’ll call you back in a little bit.”
As she came back into the room, she looked troubled and a little relieved.
“Had he heard from her? Does he know where she is?” It was killing me to think he knew where Maddie was. She belonged in my arms. I love her and I’m helpless to find her without help.
“He has heard from her but he won’t tell me where she is. She is convinced that the entire family betrayed her. Me included. He is going to get her to agree to talk to me tomorrow and I will figure out what needs to happen next. Now that you know she is okay, I think it’s time for you to leave, Lucas. You have caused enough trouble for my family.”
“I can’t just walk away from this and not look back. I love her. I need her. Please Caroline, let me stay until you talk to her. Maybe you can convince her to hear me out.”
“This isn’t about you talking to her and making sure your ass is covered. This is about me making sure my best friend doesn’t think I stabbed her in the back. I can’t do that with you listening and trying to get her to talk to you. I will call you tomorrow and let you know what I can but I make no promises.”
“Can I ask one favor? Will you tell her I love her?”
“I’ll try but she is very hurt over all of this. I don’t know if she will even listen to me. You really made a mess of this.” She led me to the front door and gave me a small hug before she closed the door, effectively shutting me out of Maddie’s life.
I drove home is a fog, feeling like the happiness I had experienced with Maddie was a cruel joke. How could she find the perfect love and have it end without fighting for it? How could she leave without listening to me? Granted, I had not given her much reason to trust me when she found out about Jason but I had hoped she would yell and scream, not run like the devil was chasing her.
I arrived at my house and couldn’t remember the trip I had just made. My world was spinning apart without Maddie and I was powerless to do anything about it. She ran into the arms of another man to seek comfort from the secrets I had kept from her, images of him touching her running through my head.
I wandered into the kitchen to grab the bottle of whiskey from the shelf. I needed something to dull the pain in my chest from the loss of her. As I tipped the bottle back, I thought of all the times I should have spoken up and told Maddie about Jason. I could have made it seem like a coincidence but even then, she would have felt betrayed.
My anger at losing her rose and I needed to channel it into something besides trashing my house and destroying my liver. I reached out to the one person who knew what it felt like to be without Maddie and the only man I trusted to help me, us, work this out.
“Lucas, how are you?”
“We have a problem, Jason. Maddie was in the office today while we were there and she overheard us talking, I think. She left her ID and credit card on top a stack of signed contracts and ran. She left and no one in her family knows where she.”
“What do you mean? Is she missing? Do we need to get the police involved?”
“There isn’t any reason to call the police. Caroline talked to a friend of hers and he knows where she is. He won’t tell anyone unless Maddie says it is okay. Caroline got her to agree to talk to her tomorrow, so for now, there isn’t anything we can do but wait until she decides to listen.” Thinking about her with Josh made my vision go red. How could she run into the arms of another man?
“How could you let this happen? Why did you wait to long to tell her about you and I. I was just telling you that your lies were going to cost us and now I may have no chance to reconcile with my daughter. I will never forgive you for this” Anger and worry were evident in his voice.
“I never lied to her, but I know how it looks. I’ve been beating myself up every since I found out and I don’t need you piling up on my now. I need your help if either one of us is ever going to have her in our lives.”
“What can I do? The only things I know about her are what you have told me and what I have seen from her work on the program. I haven’t laid eyes on her since she was 7 years old.”
“I need the letters Sara sent to you. She
needs to know why you stayed away for so long so I can make her understand why I approached her relationship with you the way I did. I plan to tell her everything and lay my heart out for her….if she gives me the chance to speak to her.” I swallowed my pride. I would do anything to make this right and I needed the letters from Sara to help achieve that.
“I’m on my way to you now. I’ll be there in about an hour and we can discuss everything. You sound broken, Lucas. We can fix this if we work together and maybe, just maybe, find a miracle along the way.”
Sleep eluded me last night so I got up and walked back to the beach, waiting for the sun to rise, the last few weeks running in a loop through my head. I couldn’t figure out why he felt the need to be deceitful about Jason to me. He had plenty of time to tell me he knew him, but instead he let me fall in love with a lie.
As the sun began to lighten the sky from inky black to subtle oranges and pinks, I felt the weight of the situation begin to lessen. In my head, I heard my mother remind me that no problems are too big to fix. No situation was too challenging to allow it to overtake us. I slowly began to understand what she meant as the orange sky grew brighter along the water’s edge, giving way to beautiful blue.
I loved Lucas and I ran from him. I ran from my family instead of confronting them and giving them the chance to tell me their side of it all. I believed words shouted through a door without finding out what they meant.
I felt Josh behind me as he alerted me to his presence, his hand coming over my head and a cup of coffee appeared in front of me. He always knew what I needed without me asking and I loved him for that. I used to wish I could love him like he once loved me, but I know now my heart was waiting for Lucas. He was the other half of my soul and I felt broken and alone without him.
“I talked to Caroline last night.” Josh said as he sat down next to me with his coffee in one hand and reached for my free hand, linking his strong fingers in mine
“How is she?”
“She is worried about you, like Lisa and Joe are. Like Lucas is.” His eyes looked out into the horizon.
Leave it to Josh to kick the door open and address the situation. He gave me last night to cry and mope and now he was going to bring me to task.
Josh had such a difficult childhood before he was adopted by his parents and he felt that the best way to get over something was to confront it, talk about it, and move past it. He never let the bad outweigh the good and he was honest to a fault. I am so blessed to have him as a friend.
“I know they’re worried, but I needed time to think.”
“Have you decided anything? Are you ready to go back yet or do you want to stay here a little bit more?”
“Back to Atlanta or back to the house? Because I am not ready to go back to Atlanta yet. I lost my job yesterday so its not like I have anything to do.” I said, with fresh tears running down my face.
I really wanted to make the literacy program work and now I feel like I let all those seniors and kids down. The money MSJ Media was going to put toward these underprivileged parts of the community could have been a revolutionary concept. Major corporations were funding local groups that enriched the community and impacted the long-term futures for them all.
“Who says you lost your job, honey? I think you need to call Caroline and talk to her before you make any decisions. Yesterday was a shock to you but you don’t need to make assumptions about what is happening. She has always been your rock, lean on her, lean on all of us, but please be willing to listen.” He kissed the top of my head and left me alone on the beach with my thoughts.
He was right. I needed to call Caroline and apologize for making her worry and for ever thinking the worst about her. I sat on the beach, my arms wrapped around my knees until the sun started to warm my face. It was time to face the music so I could move on from all these secrets that have plagued me my entire life.
If I have been given the chance to meet my father and have him in my life. I needed to reach out and hear what he had to say. I didn’t need to let my fear override my chance at a connection to my past, my mother, and whatever future we can develop. I’m not sure where Lucas will fit into my future but I need to trust my mother’s advice and have faith in love.
I just hope it isn’t the biggest mistake of my life.
It was barely past ten o’clock when I finally got the nerve to call Caroline. I dialed her number from memory as I sat on the small deck behind Josh’s house, the smell of the salt air surrounding me that calmed me instantly. She answered on the first ring and it broke my heart at the sound of the tears in her eyes
“Hello”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Maddie, where are you? Are you okay? I promise I had nothing to do with whatever Lucas was doing. I pinky promise, Maddie. I would never betray you or our friendship. Please tell me you believe me!” she cried over the phone, causing my tears to flow, heart breaking for the pain I caused my best friend. She didn’t deserve the way I ran from her, shutting her out.
“I believe you and I’m sorry too. I ran from you but I was so confused at what I had heard. Jason and Lucas were arguing and I heard Aunt Lisa and Uncle Joe’s names, it made me afraid. I ran so I could think and clear my head but I am ready to talk now.”
“Do you want to talk to mom and dad also? They are outside about to head out but I can run and get them.”
“They came to the apartment?” I asked, shocked that they would drive up to the city, risking missing work. They couldn’t afford to miss work and now I was beginning to see how irrational me running from my family was. I caused them all to worry and fret over my freak-out.
“No, I went home. I needed to talk to them face to face and I didn’t want to be in the apartment by myself. It belongs to you and I was so scared that you hated me.”
“I could never hate you. Ever! I handled yesterday wrong and I hope y’all can forgive me for making you worry. I want to talk to them, but I’m still pretty hurt. How could they go behind my back to hide Jason from me? Why would they lie for Lucas? That’s what hurts the most, the fact that my feelings weren’t taken into consideration before they started playing puppet master with my emotions and feelings.”
“I don’t think that’s what happened at all. We talked last night and I think they, like all of us, were afraid you were going to shut us out before you were willing to talk about Jason. Lucas got you to think about the past through a different set of eyes.” She was right. Lucas made me stop and think about the pain a seven-year-old carries and the perception I had of the past.
She continued, “Did he go about it the wrong way? Yes! Should he have told you he knew Jason sooner? Hell yes! Should you be mad and upset at mom and dad? Yes…but they deserve for you to hear them out. I really believe they did this thinking it would help you. They have never done anything without our best interest at heart.”
“What about Lucas setting me up to fall in love with him? How can I trust my feelings for him? Or his for me?” I cried to my best friend.
“Maddie, listen to yourself. He didn’t set you up to fall in love with him. You fell in love because he is a great guy who loves you so much. I am not here to defend Lucas. In my opinion, he has a lot of ass kissing to do. But first, you need to talk to him. And you need to listen… really listen… to him. Can you do that for me, Maddie? Can you give your heart a chance at real love? I think, with Lucas, you have that forever kind of love and you owe it to yourself to find out.”
Who knew my best friend had so much wisdom? I loved her for being honest with me and I owed it to myself to take that leap of faith with my father and with Lucas. We all deserved a chance at a happy future.
We talked for another few minutes and I told her I would call Aunt Lisa and Uncle Joe this evening. She promised to send them a text expressing my love and understanding until I could speak with them.
The sound of the sliding door brought me out of my inner thoughts and toward the house where Josh was standing.
&nb
sp; “Hey. I need to head back to Atlanta for the next day or two. Do you want to come back with me or would you like to stay? The jeep is in the garage and has a full tank of gas if you need to go anywhere.” He said, pulling me from the tornado of thoughts swirling inside my head.
“Is everything okay? Is there a problem at home?”
“Everything is fine. I have a few things I need to take care of but can be back on Thursday afternoon to pick you up if you want to stay and relax.”
“I would love to stay of that is okay. I need this time to think and I’ll be fine on my own for a few days. Thank you for everything you did for me Josh. I can’t ever repay you for your kindness.” I said as I gave him a kiss on his cheek.
“I have a friend stopping by this afternoon to get something inside the garage. I expect them to be here in an hour or so,” he said as we made our way back into the cozy little beach house.
“No problem. I think I’m going to put my suit on and go for a swim. The day is getting hot and the water must feel amazing. Tell your friend to grab what they need and I won’t make a mess while you are gone.”
“Make yourself at home. I put you in the guest room so you would be comfortable. Stretch out, watch TV, read a book or six on your kindle. Just be happy Maddie. That’s all I ask,” he said as he let himself out the front door.
I heard his car crank up and pull out of the driveway, leaving me alone with my thoughts again. I wish I had brought my cell phone so I could call Lucas but my pig-headedness made me leave it behind. I looked up the number to the office and pushed talk, hoping I found the nerve to speak when he picked up.
“MSJ Media, this is Carol.”
“Hey, Carol. Its Maddie. May I speak with Lucas?”
“Maddie, I hope you are feeling better. Lucas took a few personal days off. I thought he would be at home taking care of you. You were so pale yesterday. He was so worried when he left yesterday afternoon.”
The Hand That Holds Me ((The Forever Mine Series) Book 1) Page 15
