Wicked Reunion (Wicked White Series Book 2) (9 page)

NOW

LONDON

I
stare, lost in thought, at the box of chocolates from Julie’s shop, which sits next to a dozen roses on my desk. Today was exhausting, and all I want to do is go home and put my feet up. A glass of wine thrown in there wouldn’t hurt. The kids were really hyper in class today for some reason, and it makes me wonder if tonight will be a full moon or something.

Peyton’s little voice singing “The Wheels on the Bus” while he draws a picture with crayons pulls me out of the trance.

I push myself up from my desk and walk around behind him. He’s
drawn a picture of himself holding hands with his mom and dad while
baby Brody stands in front of him. Stick people drawings by children are the best. They speak volumes about what the child is feeling.

“That’s really good, Peyton,” I tell him.

“Thank you,” he replies as he begins adding another stick figure to the picture.

“Who are you adding in there?” I ask, curious as to who else he pictures in his family.

“You,” he tells me but stays hard at work.

“Me?” I ask, completely surprised. “Why are you adding me to your family picture?”

He stares up at me with his hazel eyes. “Mommy says you don’t have your own family, so I’m making you a part of ours because you and Mommy are friends.”

Warmth envelops my heart and I smile. The sweet words from this small boy truly touch me. Sam is certainly raising this little guy right by teaching him to care about others.

I pull out the chair next to him and sit down as we wait for Sam to show up. “That’s very nice of you, Peyton. I really appreciate that.”

“You’re welcome,” he says as he draws a purple dress on the stick figure that’s supposed to represent me. He grows quiet for a minute, but then he looks up at me. “Mrs. Kraft, will you always be sad?”

I chew on the inside of my lower lip. “Who said I was sad?”

“Mommy. I heard her tell Daddy on the phone that you were still sad. I figured if I made you a part of my family you wouldn’t be sad anymore.”

I squat down beside him and pat his little arm. “You are such a sweet kid, and you know what else? I would love to be a part of your family. I already think of your mommy as my sister.”

That makes him smile. “Good. I’m glad I’ve made you not sad now.”

Peyton happily returns to coloring his picture, and I wish with all my might that it could only be so simple to not be sad anymore. If there was some sort of switch to instantly turn off heartbreak, I would’ve used that a long time ago.

Maybe it is time to let Jared go. If even a kid can see that I’m sad, I’m not doing a very good job of hiding it.

I have to find a way to let go.

“You probably hate me for always making you late, huh?”

I glance up to find Sam walking into my classroom, holding Brody.

“Stop being ridiculous. It’s impossible to be mad at you.” I push myself up to my feet. “How was your day?”

“Ugh. Long, but I didn’t get thrown up on, so that’s always a good day in my book.” She smiles.

I laugh, and even though I don’t have any children of my own, I can fully relate, seeing as how I have a classroom full of little ones who tend to get sick a lot. “Agreed.”

Sam adjusts Brody on her hip as he twirls her necklace around his chubby little fingers before she points to my desk. “More gifts?”

I nod. “It’s the fifth arrangement this week, and if he keeps sending all the candy, I’ll weigh five million pounds before long.”

She shakes her head. “I’ll say one thing for Wes, he makes it impossible for you to not think about him, even when the two of you are on a break.”

I run my fingers through my dark hair. “We might as well not be on a break as much as he texts and sends me things.”

“Give the guy a break,” Sam says. “He doesn’t want to lose you after how much work he put in to get you in the first place.”

I furrow my brow. “You think he put in that much effort after . . . well, after what happened?”

Sam tilts her head and gives me the “you’ve got to be kidding me”
face. “London, I’ve never seen a man put in that much work to land a
girl. The guy spent nearly four years being your shoulder to cry on after
his asshole brother left you without so much as a good-bye. I would call
that a mammoth undertaking. No man works that hard for nothing.”

“That’s what sucks about this whole situation. I feel like such a”—I
mouth the word “bitch” to Sam to avoid little ears overhearing—“for putting him through all this. I wish I could love him back the
way he seems to love me.”

“Aww, Mommy said a dirty word,” Peyton chimes in.

“It’s okay, Peyt. Adults are allowed to say them if they want,” Sam tells him.

I can see the little wheels turning in his brain. “So when I become a man, I can say them too?”

I cover my mouth to hide my snicker, and Sam immediately
smacks my arm in response before addressing his question. “Yes. When
you become a grown-up, you can say whatever words you want.”

Peyton’s little hand draws into a fist, and he draws his elbow back to do a fist pump. “All right! I can’t wait to be a man.”

Sam rolls her eyes. “Lord help me when he gets older. I’m going to be in so much trouble. Josh will not be allowed to remain in the service once these two become teens. I’ll need him around to help me wrangle them in.”

I nod. “You’ll most definitely have your hands full.”

“Okay, Peyton, get your book bag,” Sam orders and then turns to me. “Want to go grab an early dinner with me and the boys? I so don’t feel like cooking today.”

I smile, loving the fact that I really do feel like a part of their family.

THEN

LONDON

A
ll night long, I comb the streets of Knoxville, desperate to find Jared. Clearly he’s not in the right frame of mind, and I don’t want him to get hurt. I’ve visited every possible place where Jared might be. I even went to our old high school on the off chance that he might be there running the track like he used to do back in the day when he got upset over something.

Jared isn’t hotheaded. I’ve never seen him blow up like the way he did tonight, but it’s not like I can fault him for it. How a person reacts to the news of the death of someone they love is a very individual thing.

When my mother died, I was devastated, but I kept most of my emotions to myself. I wasn’t able to hide the tears at times, but just how much I missed her was something I rarely spoke about with anyone.

Time is what Jared needs to heal. When something bothers him, he usually throws himself into baseball—training harder and putting in longer hours in the gym. It’s like playing baseball is his form of meditation—a place where he can mull over all the things that bother him.

I turn back into our subdivision, and part of me fully expects Jared’s truck to be parked in his mother’s driveway, but sadly, he’s still missing.

I worry my bottom lip back and forth between my teeth as I park the car. The headlights shining through the living room windows must’ve caught Wes’s attention, because before I’ve even had a chance to get out of the car, he is opening the front door.

His blond hair is a disheveled mess, like he’s run his fingers through it over and over, something I’ve noticed he does when he’s anxious. The second his brown eyes scan my face, he frowns. I know the expression on my face is one showing nothing but disappointment. “No luck?”

I shake my head. “I’ve checked everywhere I can think of, and I didn’t find a sign of him.”

Wes sighs. “He’s so selfish. I’m pretty pissed at him for making Mom worry about him. She doesn’t need this right now. She’s already going through hell.”

He’s right. Julie doesn’t need to be here worrying about Jared. I understand he’s hurting, but so are his mom and brother—and even me. I haven’t even really had time to sit down and process my own emotions because I’ve been so wrapped up in how Jared feels.

“I’m sure he’ll turn up,” I reassure Wes. “He just needs some time.”

Wes glances back to the door. “Do you want to come in and wait? I made some tea for Mom while you were gone, and there’s enough for a few more cups.”

“That sounds nice. Thank you.”

He gives me a tight-lipped smile. “Anytime, London.”

When I step up beside him, he wraps his arm around my shoulders and leads me into the house.

The rest of the night goes by, and I’m not sure which of the three of us paces the most as we wait anxiously for Jared’s return. Once he gets back, after I know he’s safe, I’m going to give him an earful for causing everyone so much worry.

By five in the morning there’s still no sign of Jared, and Julie’s worry is now bordering on panic. “This isn’t like him. My Jared is not this irresponsible.”

“He probably went out and picked up a bottle of Jack and drank until he passed out somewhere,” Wes says. “We’re probably worried for nothing.”

“Well, he wasn’t in his dorm, and every friend that I know of back at school hadn’t seen him. If he drank, he did it alone,” I tell Wes.

Julie rubs her face. “Maybe I should start calling the hospitals. He could be hurt. I know the police won’t take reports until an adult has been missing for a couple days.”

Wes shakes his head. “I doubt anything like that’s happened, but if it makes you feel better, Mom, I’ll help you make some calls.”

I sit on the couch, chewing my thumbnail while Wes and Julie get to work making phone calls. Just as Wes suspected, Jared isn’t listed at any hospital facility, which is a relief.

When seven rolls around, I find myself so exhausted that I doze off sitting straight up on their living room couch. I jump the moment someone touches me, and my eyes snap open to find Wes tucking a blanket around me.

“You are so nice. I should be taking care of you right now, and not the other way around,” I say sleepily, knowing he’s the one who just lost his father.

Wes’s brown eyes trace over my face. “No. You’re exhausted. Try and get some rest. I’ll wake you up when he comes home.”

“Okay,” I answer, too tired to get much more out before I fall back asleep.

The shrill ring of a telephone awakens me, and I tear my eyes open. I’m not sure how long I’ve been out, but it’s long enough that I have a tiny spot of drool on the side of my face.

Wes shoves himself up from the chair across from me and grabs the house phone. “Hello?”

The moment he answers, his eyebrows draw in and a confused look crosses his face.

I yank the blanket off of me and sit up a little straighter just as Julie rounds the corner with a dish towel in her hands.

“Yes. I’ll accept,” Wes says to the other person on the line.

Julie wrings the towel in her hands. “Who is it?”

Wes holds up an index finger. “Jared, where the hell are you?”

I scoot to the edge of my seat as I wait with bated breath.

“Yeah.” Wes rubs the back of my neck. “We’ll be down there as soon as we can. Sit tight.” He nods, like he’s answering a question that Jared’s asked on the other end. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll talk when we get down there.”

The moment he hangs up the phone, Julie rushes to Wes’s side. “What did he say? Where is he? And why is he calling collect?”

Wes holds up his hands. “Easy, Mom. Jared is fine, but the bad news is that he got arrested last night.”

“Arrested?!” Julie and I both say in unison.

Jail is the last place I ever expected to find Jared. He’s too straitlaced and too focused on baseball to do anything crazy enough to land himself in jail.

“What for?” I ask.

Julie shakes her head. “I can’t believe this. Jared’s never been in any trouble before. What on earth could he have possibly done?”

“Drugs,” Wes says simply. “They picked him up when he was buying weed.”

My hand instantly covers my mouth. “Oh my God. This could be—”

“Bad. I know,” Wes finishes my sentence for me. “When school finds out about this, they will most likely take away his scholarship and kick him off the team.”

My eyes widen. “No! That can’t happen! That will crush him.”

My emotions teeter on the edge and they are millimeters from falling over. I’m mere seconds away from losing my head. If Jared loses baseball, I . . . I don’t even want to think about what he’ll do. He’s already got enough to deal with. This will only make things ten times worse.

Julie sits down beside me and wraps her arms around me. “My boy needs you to be strong for him. He’s suffering so much, and it looks like things are about to get a whole lot worse before they get better. You have to be strong.”

“I’ll try.” I wipe my face with the back of my hand, but the tears continue to spill from my eyes.

We don’t waste any time. We pile into Julie’s car with Wes behind the wheel and race down to the local police station to figure out how to get Jared out of this mess if we can. The ride is quiet for the most part—none of us wanting to speculate too much on Jared’s fate until we’ve gotten to the bottom of everything and figured out the best way to help him.

Wes pulls into the parking lot and then stops. “Here we are.”

When I exit the car, my hands shake. I don’t know why I’m so nervous, but I guess maybe it’s the idea of knowing that everything in Jared’s life is about to change. It baffles me as to what would possess him to buy drugs. For as long as I’ve known him, he’s never touched the stuff because he was so into sports and keeping his body fit. Doing drugs was not something he was even remotely interested in.

It hurts to know that Jared felt like he had to go buy drugs in order to find comfort instead of seeking me out for it. I always thought I was his place of comfort—the person he can always turn to when he’s in trouble.

Inside the building everything seems very sterile and minimal. The cinder-block walls are white and completely bare with the exception of some golden plaque honoring an officer who was killed in the line of duty. Two wooden benches sit back to back in the middle of the room, and to the right is a desk separated from us by what I imagine is bulletproof glass.

Wes explains to the small black woman in a police uniform sitting at the desk who we are there to pick up.

She nods and then presses a button in order to speak through the little speaker that’s mounted on the glass. “Bail is set for fifteen hundred dollars, and he’s scheduled for arraignment on May twentieth at eight in the morning.”

Julie opens her purse and pulls out the wad of cash we stopped at her candy shop to get. She counts out the money before stepping up to the glass and placing it into the metal box on the counter so the female officer can pull it through to her side of the glass. Julie stuffs her wallet back into her purse as the officer sends a form through for her to fill out.

Once everything is complete, the woman tells us to have a seat while they bring Jared out.

I can’t imagine being trapped in this place. This visit alone is enough to scare me straight to the point where I never want to do anything that will risk my freedom.

It takes about an hour, but a loud buzzer sounds just before the dark gray steel door rolls open on the track. A few inches separate the wall and the door as it continues to slowly open and I spot Jared. His dark hair is disheveled and his normally bright blue eyes seem dull. A glimmer of a smile passes across his face the moment he spots me, and I can tell he’s happy that I’m here but is doing his best not to seem overly excited that he’s getting out of this place.

I don’t give him any choice. I step over to him and wrap my arms around his neck. “I was so worried. Don’t you ever leave me like that again.”

Strong arms wrap around my waist and pull me tighter against his chest. He buries his face in my hair and inhales deeply. “I’m sorry, London. I fucked up so bad.”

I shake my head. “Shhh. Don’t talk about that right now. Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out.”

Jared gives me one final squeeze and then releases me. When I step back and straighten my shirt, Jared looks down at his mom and frowns. “Mom . . . I’m—”

Julie wraps him in a hug. “It’s okay, son. It’s okay.”

Once he’s in his mother’s comforting arms, a sob rips out of his chest. Tears that I’m sure he’s been fighting since he heard the news last night about his father flow freely down his face. I glance over at Wes, who also bats away the tears from his eyes and throws his arms around both his mom and brother. Finally, they are able to grieve together over the loss of the man who was the rock of their family—the man who held them all together. It’s then it hits me like a ton of bricks that life for this family will never be the same, and my heart breaks for these people that I love so much.