Young Love Dies Hard: The Young Brothers, Book 1 by Nikki Lane (old books to read txt) 📗

He kissed my shoulder. “When I first saw you again at the BBQ, I thought—wow, how’s it possible to be that beautiful? And then I thought—there was no way you would give me the time of day, for anything more than friendship, anyway.”

“Is that why you kept turning me down?” I mumbled.

He let out a small laugh. “Yeah, that was pretty stupid.” He traced a line from my cheek to my mouth and brushed my lips with his thumb. “But I guess I just knew deep down, and I was afraid to face it.”

“Knew what?”

“That I’d fall in love with you all over again.”

My once calm heartbeat was now knocking against my bare chest. He pressed his lips on mine, and everything inside of me was soothed.

“Goodnight, Maeve.” He turned out the light for bed.

A few seconds passed as the words sunk in. I lay there, wondering what to say. I’d been afraid of this all along. Hearing those words that sent me into panic mode. Nothing good ever lasted. I had known that. It was etched into my brain like a scar from a deep wound. And then I realized, maybe he hadn’t expected me to say anything at all. For a few moments, an unexpected calm fell over me. Jacob nuzzled close to me, seeming content to just go to sleep, and I was almost convinced that nothing could ever change between us.

* * * *

I swept my hand over the nightstand, trying to grab my ringing phone without having to actually open my eyes.

“Hello?” I muttered.

“Maeve, she’s gone,” Aunt Meg cried.

I propped up on my elbows, my eyes squinting from the sunlight pouring into the room. “What are talking about?”

“Kasey,” she said.

I sat on the edge of the bed, hearing the panic in her voice. “Did you call Riley?”

“Yes, I-I called everyone I could think of, and no one’s seen here.”

There’s nothing like waking up to a crisis. Jacob rustled in the bed. He sat up and leaned against the headboard, his eyebrows furrowed as I listened to Aunt Meg on the phone.

I dodged around the room for a change of clothes.

“Okay, okay,” I said to her. “I’ll be right there.” I hung up and tossed the phone on the bed.

“What’s going on?” Jacob said.

“Kasey’s run away.” I threw on jeans and dug in my drawer for a bra.

“What?” He swung his legs off the bed and stood up. The sight of him in nothing but his underwear still took me off-guard. “When?”

I shook my head and threw on a shirt. “Sometime between last night and this morning. Aunt Meg said she checked on Kasey before she went to bed last night and found her room empty this morning.”

“I’ll go with you,” he said.

“Don’t you have class and work?”

“Don’t you?”

“No, Jacob. You can’t skip. Not for this.”

“I want to help.”

“I know,” I said. “But you need to stay.”

He followed me to the living room where I grabbed my purse and keys.

“Any idea where she might have gone?” he asked.

I shrugged. “It’s her first runaway attempt. Solo one, anyway.”

“Why did you always run away to the farm?” He leaned against the open door as I stood in the hallway.

“It was home to me. Kasey never fell in love with it like I did.”

My eyes widened a little when the thought hit me.

“What?” Jacob said.

“I think I know where she is.”

* * * *

I called Aunt Meg on the road to get the name of the shelter Mom had been staying at. I’d lost the piece of paper where she’d written it down the first time.

“Safe Haven,” she said. “Why?”

“I think that’s where Kasey is.”

“I-I didn’t even think to call there. Your mom doesn’t have a cellphone yet,” Aunt Meg said. “How in the world would Kasey get there? It’s way too far to walk.”

“Bus, maybe? I dunno. I’m on my way there now.”

“I’ll go with you,” she said.

“I’m already on the highway,” I said, pulling the car over. I’d have to Google the directions. “Just call the shelter and see if you can get a hold of Mom.”

“Are you sure, Maeve?”

I took a few seconds before answering. “Yeah…I’m sure.”

I’d made the drive in silence; the one interruption had been Aunt Meg’s call. Kasey had confessed to her about taking two buses before getting to the shelter. When the bus driver had asked her how old she was she had lied and said thirteen. I gripped the steering wheel even tighter. How could Kasey do this? Didn’t she realize how wrong this whole thing could have gone? I thought back to all those times I’d runway. Was this what it felt like for my mom? I doubted it.

The building of Safe Haven looked like an old schoolhouse. I parked the car and trotted across the asphalt pitted with potholes.

A woman sat on the other side of a glass window with the phone to her ear. A few kids jogged past me down the hall.

“Can I help you?” she said after sliding the glass door open. She still had the phone to her ear. Her violet highlights were the same color as Rita’s new hair.

“I’m looking for Coleen Miller,” I said.

“Are you family or friend?” She shifted through some of the paperwork littering her desk. Another phoneline rang. She ignored it.

“I’m her daughter,” I said.

She finally found the right room number and gave me directions to walk down the hall and make a right. I passed by the kids from before who were now playing a card game on the scuffed linoleum floor.

I knocked on the door of the room. A woman with curly, auburn hair answered the door. She had a white bandage on her cheek and one swollen eye.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m looking for my mother. They must have given me the wrong room number.”

“Maeve, right?” Her voice was nothing more than a squeak. “I recognized you from your picture.”

“Picture?”

She opened the door a little wider, revealing two twin size beds pushed to either corner of the