I was down to my last nerve and glad Jake hadn’t tried to pull me into conversation, though he’d sent me several openly curious glances along the way. I, on the other hand, didn’t bother looking at or even acknowledging him. The longer we were in the storm, the less I cared about who he was. All I could think about was Beckett. Ineededto get to Beckett.
We pulled into Beckett’s and my old neighborhood, and I pointed to the dirt road at the end that lead to the edge of where the two properties joined. The grass and weeds were well overgrown, but easily revealed two trails of crushed growth which meant someone had driven through here very recently.
“There!” I pointed, relieved to finally see Beckett’s Explorer.
I jumped out of the truck before it was even in park, glancing in Beckett’s vehicle as I went by. It was empty, the keys abandoned on the seat. My feet carried me quickly along the still-familiar trail through the trees.
“Beckett!” I screamed.
Bolts of lightning fell from the sky not too far away, quickly followed by an ear-splitting rumble. My heart was racing at a dangerous pace as I imagined Beckett curled up in a ball inside the tree house, paralyzed with fear.
I ran around the large tree to the ladder on the other side and felt panic begin to seep in when I saw the latch door open.
“God, no. Beckett!” I screamed again, placing my foot on the bottom rung. Just as I started to climb, I heard groans from the ground nearby.
“Riley?” a voice slurred.
I whirled to find Beckett sitting against a tree, a nearly empty bottle of whiskey in one hand.
Air left my lungs in a whoosh as I ran to him, nearly collapsing on my knees. His dark eyes were glazed over, and I knew he wasn’t really seeing me, even as I held his face in both hands.
“You’re an asshole, you know that? You had me worried sick!” I kissed his forehead and hugged him, but he barely responded.
Beckett was peering over my shoulder as I broke apart, blinking several times. “Jake? What the… oh shit.” He leaned over and threw up all over my clean jeans.
Despite how worried I was, I wanted to laugh. I’d gone my whole life without anyone throwing up on me, and now, my two favorite people had managed to do it on the same day. What were the odds?
Another clap of thunder crashed overhead, making Beckett jump. Years of practice as a child taught me just how to get him through the worst kinds of storms. I instinctively reached for his hand and began to stroke the scar on his wrist with my thumb.
“You’re okay, baby. I’m here.”
“I never understood why he’s so afraid of thunder,” I heard Jake say, but I ignored him, keeping my attention on Beckett. I could still remember the day he told me how each crash of thunder made it feel like the world was rattling. Even at twelve years old, I understood what he meant. As foster kids, we lived in constant fear that our lives would unravel in a blink of an eye. We’d seen it happen, had lived through it already, and knew there was always a chance it could happen again. There were some things that shook our confidence, and sometimes, the reasons didn’t make sense. For Beckett, thunder was one of those things, and for whatever reason, he never outgrew that fear.
Jake and I each heaved one of Beckett’s arms around our shoulders and together we managed to haul the very drunk, very depressed Beckett through the grass to Jake’s truck, depositing him in the back seat.
Jake had barely closed the door before turning to me. “I haven’t seen Beck this drunk since our army days, so I’m only going to ask this once. Did you cause this?”
“What? No!” I sputtered. “Fuck, I have no idea what’s going on! I just knew Harper was in the hospital and he was freaking out. I got worried when he wasn’t returning my calls. That’s not like him, so I just… came here,” I ended lamely.
Jake studied me for the span of thirty seconds before accepting what I said as truth. “Why don’t you drive Beck’s car? Keys are inside. You have a place to stay?”
“Wherever he is, I am.”
