Page 59 of The Little Things
Zach
Iknew the second I heard the knock on my motel room door who I’d find on the other side.
Sure enough, Cord stood across the threshold from me as soon as I pulled it open. “Son,” he greeted before shoving his way inside the room I’d been holed up in for the past three days. After the confrontation on the sidewalk with Doreen Caswell, I’d taken off with no destination in sight. I drove until I couldn’t any longer, pulling off at the first roadside motel I came across.
I turned my phone off and hadn’t left these four walls for the past three days as I tried to loosen the vise grip that panic had on my heart. I handled everything poorly, I knew that, but I hadn’t known what else to do. Going home hadn’t been an option, neither was staying anywhere in Hope Valley, not while the Caswells were there. If I’d stayed, the panic attacks would have crippled me. I needed time. Even if my father hadn’t shown up when he did, I would have climbed back in my truck and gone home today. I couldn’t cut the world out forever, after all. I had a lot of explaining to do, and even more apologizing. I’d shirked my responsibilities, pawning everything off on Hal and the other hands. I’d probably worried my family sick. And I knew I hurt Rae when I shut her out.
There was so much I needed to fix. I hoped I hadn’t screwed up so epically that it wasn’t possible.
Cord moved to the small desk that was bolted into the wall and sat in the chair as I moved to the foot of the bed and sat down across from him. “How’d you find me?”
He lifted a single brow. “You forget what I used to do?”
A humorless chuckle rattled up my throat. I hadn’t forgotten. Before I came along, my dad had been a Navy Seal. He retired from service before I knew him and had taken a job at a private security and investigation firm called Alpha Omega. That place had its own lore in our town. No one really knew exactly what they did there. All we knew for certain was that the place was run by and employed serious badasses. They were all ex-special forces from different branches of the military. Some of the men who had worked there with my father were retired like him, but they’d been replaced with other badasses, and the man who built it all, Lincoln Sheppard, was still running the show.
“If your plan was to come here and drag me home, you should know, I was already plannin’ on leaving today.”
He shrugged like he already knew that. “Figured you’d have gotten yourself back to rights by now, but I made a promise to your girl I’d bring you home, and I keep my promises.”
My throat tightened at the mention of Rae, my heart rate spiking. God, I missed her. I could only hope she didn’t hate me.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat, staring down at my feet as I asked, “You talked to Rae?”
He nodded. “This morning.”
I heaved out a sigh and asked the question I had been dreading the answer to. “How mad is she? On a scale from I’ve lost her to I still have a chance?”
“She wasn’t mad. At least from what I could see. She was concerned. And sad.”
“Fuck,” I hissed, dropping my head and rubbing a hand over the back of my neck. “I really screwed up.”
“Not gonna lie to you, bud. You did. I get what you’re goin’ through, but a man can’t take off every time something gets hard. You have to stand your ground and handle it. And if you’re not equipped to handle it in the moment, you need to lean on those around you to lighten the burden. But you can’t keep running. Especially when you have your family to think about and a good woman waiting for you.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I know I can’t keep handling this issue the way I have been. I—” My mouth went dry. “I called Dr. Henson yesterday,” I confessed. “I have an appointment with her later this week.”
Dr. Henson had been my therapist since I was a teenager. She’d helped guide me through all the upheaval in my life from leaving an abusive home to adjusting to my new normal with Rory and Cord. She really helped me back then, and I trusted her to help me with this. I shouldn’t have waited so long.
“I’m proud of you, son. That’s a big first step. I’m glad you made it.”
I exhaled loudly. “Yeah, well, I’m gonna have to get my shit together. I can’t put my whole life on pause every time I run into those people.”
“I agree that you need help finding a better way to cope, but I don’t think those people are gonna be a problem for you anymore.”
My head came up, my brow furrowed. “What? Why?”
“Your girl took care of it.”
I shot to my feet as my heart rattled against my ribcage. “What? How? What did she do? Is she okay?”
“Calm down, Zach.” He held his hands out in a placating gesture. “Relax and have a seat. She’s fine. I was there to make sure of it.”
That didn’t make me feel any better. “You were where?”
His expression remained calm as he answered, “At the Caswells.”
“Goddamn it!” I began to pace the room, raking my fingers through my hair. “I didn’t want her anywhere near those people, Dad. They’re toxic. Poison. She’s not safe around them.”
He stood, stopping me mid-pace with his hands on my shoulders. “She was perfectly safe. But she was also determined. Even if I’d tried to talk her out of what she had planned, it wouldn’t have done any good. She saw you get hurt and did what she could to protect you. That’s what you do for the people you love, and that girl loves you, son. I knew it when I saw you together at your party and what she did today only solidified that knowledge. You’re it for her.”