Page 78 of Find Me in the Rain

I nod my head. “I’m okay, buddy. I’ll be okay.”

“Laura, what happened?” Charlotte’s voice is scared, a hollow whisper.

“Later, please.” I nod to Jack, who is looking out the window.

“Of course. I love you, Lu. Whatever it is, it will be okay.” She squeezes my shoulder and leans back against the backseat, next to Jack.

Josh offers me a sad smile as he pulls out of the parking lot, farther and farther away from Alec.

Leaning my head against the window, I can’t get three words out of my mind—twenty-four hours.

Even if it’s only until I find a solution, I still only have twenty-four hours to break up with Alec. I wish I could let him in on my plan, but as much as I love Alec, that temper of his would get the best of him.

I have to walk away for now, for a short while, but not for long, I won’t be able to stay away. Just long enough until I can take his stupid coach down.

He has spent his entire life to get to where he is. It would be selfish of me to stay with him right now. How could I say that I loved him if I was the reason he lost the most important thing in his life?

We just found each other again, and now, we have to say good-bye, even for just a moment. It’s not fair.

But if I’ve ever learned anything in life, it’s that nothing is fair, and you just have to fucking deal with it.

I don’t know how I am going to tell Jack. I’ll need to come up with a good lie, maybe that Alec just can’t come back for a while right now. I don’t know, I’ll come up with something. And I know for a fact that I can’t tell Charlotte what’s really going on because she will run right to Reed to try to fix it. So, let’s add another lie to the mix.

And then another and another, and soon, everything out of my mouth will be a made-up story that I can’t unravel.

I am lost in my own mind.

The ride home happens in a flash. And Jack is asleep by the time we pull into the driveway.

I’m about to ask Char if she can take Jack in, but when I turn to her, her eyes bulge so big that I lose the words.

“Oh, Laura.” Her tone is full of sorrow.

My fingers dance across my face, feeling for whatever caught her eye.

I don’t feel anything there. I think Char might just be crazy until my fingers touch my eyes.

The puffiness proves her sanity.

“Oh,” I whisper.

Char’s eyes drift over to Jack. “Head inside, love. I got it.”

With all my remaining energy, I nod and stumble out of the car.

Josh is helping Jack out of the car, lifting him into his arms to carry into the house.

My steps are heavy as I drag myself to the front door. Silence attacks my ears, begging to be broken up with the laughter of Alec and Jack.

But that’s not going to happen.

My sadness carries me upstairs. I crave the softness of my bed.

Where Alec and I slept together after years spent apart.

At some point while I was lost in my thoughts in the car, I decided to handle this breakup in the quickest way I could think of—one phone call. I have to think of it as a breakup, because if I don’t I’ll slip up and say that it’s just until I can find a way around his dumb ass coaches order.

I pull his contact info up.