He stared at me for a moment, waiting for a response. I was too exhausted to even think of one.
“I know you don’t want to talk to me right now, Cass, but I still care about you.”
I rolled my eyes. “You have a hell of a way of showing it.” I looked down at the ground because the waterworks were going to start any minute.
“Cassie, I’m serious.” He forced my chin up so I couldn’t look away. “I fucked up. I fucked up bad. I know that. I can’t undoit, but I’ll do whatever it takes to fix it. I don’t care how long it takes.” His voice cracked on the last sentence. “I ran because of me, not because of you.”
“You can’t fix this, Jace.” My voice was cold. “You can’t fix any of it. You built me up just to tear me down. Congratulations, you won. You got exactly what you wanted. So don’t expect anything from me. I’m over it. Now if you don’t mind, I have to go find my mom who just got kicked out of a car in the middle of Great Falls by some dude she barely knows. I have bigger fish to fry right now.”
Jace grabbed my arm—hard.
“You are not driving anywhere after you’ve had this much to drink. You are absolutely not fit to drive. I’ll drive you.”
“The hell you will. I’d rather pay for an Uber,” I said, scoffing at his offer.
Jace chuckled. “There are no Ubers in Silver Creek, Cassie.”
I’m not sure why, but his chuckle pissed me off even more.
“Then I’ll ask literally anyone else to drive me, because I don’t want to see your face right now.”
It hurts too much.
“Don’t be stupid, Cassie. Let me drive you.”
“You’re one to talk about stupid actions,” I huffed, taking a step forward but almost immediately losing my balance. Grabbing me by the arm, Jace caught me, giving me an I-told-you-so look.
Even if I was a little tipsy, I was still conscious enough to know that if I wanted to make it to my mom in one piece tonight, I had no choice but to let him help me.
The universe was playing a cruel joke on me. I was sure of it.
Chapter 17 – Jace
It was like déjà vu––Cassie sitting in the passenger seat of my truck. But this time, instead of being fun drunk, she was pissed-off, hates-my-guts drunk.
And instead of going out to Crowley’s Ridge to see the stars, we were going to Great Falls to find her mother, who was… lost? I wasn’t completely sure what Cassie meant when she told me why she had to go pick up her mom.
This would be the first time I ever met Cassie’s mom. I wished it were under better circumstances, but I didn’t really have a choice. There was no way I’d let Cassie drive drunk, and she wouldn’t go home without going to get her mom first. We had no choice but to call a temporary truce.
When she got in the truck, Cassie immediately put on music and turned it up full blast. That was my cue to keep my mouth shut.
I drove toward Great Falls, using the vague directions Cassie gave me as we left the wedding venue.
Why the hell was her mom out this late at night by herself? And in the shittiest part of Great Falls, at that. There was nothing in the area except sketchy convenience stores that had bars over their windows and run-down buildings that had been abandoned for over a decade. Based on what little I knew about Cassie’s mom, her reason for being in that part of town at this time of night was not a good one.
After the longest thirty minutes of my life, we finally pulled into the outskirts of Great Falls. Cassie had told me her momwas by the railroad tracks, near a bus stop, so that’s the direction I headed.
“You should probably call your mom and let her know we’re close,” I suggested, trying to keep things kosher. “Maybe she can tell us what bus stop she’s at.”
Without a word, Cassie pulled out her phone, dialing her mom.
“She says she’s at the one on Greenwood. It’s in front of the 7-Eleven,” she said, looking at me to determine if I knew what bus stop she was talking about. I knew exactly where she was.
After a couple of turns, we could see the bus stop up ahead. The glow of my headlights beamed off the plastic enclosure where people could sit and wait for the bus without being out in the elements.
I pulled up to the curb, bringing the truck to a full stop when I noticed someone who I assumed was Cassie’s mom walking out from underneath the waiting area.
The woman was short and feeble with red hair similar to Cassie’s, except hers looked like it hadn’t been brushed in weeks. Her clothes gave off the same vibe. There were stains all over her jeans, and the jacket she was wearing had multiple holes scattered throughout it. Sadly, the woman was a dead giveaway for substance abuse issues, like Cassie had mentioned last weekend.
