Page 25 of Lost and Found

My world tilts as I stare at my parents. Did I ever really know them?

"You didn't think about an abortion?" Hailey winces and looks at me. "Sorry, Grant."

I raise my hands. "It's a fair question."

Mom glances at Dad, and he gives her a slight nod.

"We considered it," Mom says. "We ran all the numbers, figured out we could get family housing at college when we needed it, and decided having a child was what we both truly wanted."

Mom and Dad attended the same college, but had met at the Catalpa Creek Jam and Jelly festival during a holiday break. Assuming that part isn't a lie, too.

"It was a choice we made together," Dad says. "And I have never regretted it. The falling in love happened gradually, over the next few years of living together and raising a family."

"That's insane," Hailey says. "What if you lived together a week and figured out you hated each other?"

Mom shrugs. "I had a good feeling about him." She squeezes Dad's hand. "Turns out my instincts were right."

I point, desperate for some solid ground in this churning sea. "Because you're soul mates."

"We are," Mom says. "But there are a million different ways to find your soul mate, Grant. I've always loved Kaia and I would have loved to have her for a daughter-in-law, but think about it realistically. You are a force of nature. You're so sure and steadfast and bullheaded. You need a partner who will stand up to you, and Kaia will never be that person. She couldn't even tell you to your face that she didn't want to marry you."

"It doesn't matter." I feel like the sullen teenager I once was in this house. "She's marrying someone else."

"You should invite her and her fiancé for dinner one night," Dad says, oblivious to how awkward that would be. "We should have a cookout with the whole family."

"Great idea," Hailey says. "It's been too long since I spent time with Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid."

"Uh, that's a terr—"

"Excellent idea." Lazy slaps my back. "It'll be good for Grant to see his soul mate has moved on."

I glare at my brother, but he eats his pie and ignores me.

Fine, they can all doubt me and assume they know better than me who I'm meant to be with, but they're wrong. Maybe I'm a little off in my estimation of familial soul mate predictions. It doesn't change anything.

I'm from a line of men who found and married their soul mates and had epic happily ever afters. That's what I want, and I'm meant to have it with Kaia.

Except, I remember the look in her eyes when she talked about her fiancé and my resolve shatters. She's in love and she's happy. I want her to be happy, which means I need to step aside. I need to let her be happy without me.

Maybe I'm just not destined for a happily ever after.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Dani

The house is quiet around me. Too damn quiet.

My sisters are each in their own rooms, living their own lives, just trying to get through this year and get Dad's money. Even though it's just after six in the evening, everyone has retreated to their own spaces, avoiding each other, the echoes of bickering over the dirty dishes in the sink still echoing.

It's lonely and tense, and I hate it.

I want to get out, go somewhere I can be lonely without being surrounded by people who are supposed to be family but feel like strangers.

After I pack a bag and slide into sneakers, I walk out into the evening. The sun has nearly finished setting, making the world dim and gray. I breathe the cool air in deep, letting it fill my lungs and wash away the tension making my whole body tight.

I've always hoped to get to know my sisters again, but I'd planned to come back to them when I had a successful business, proof I'm no longer the forgetful kid who needed her older sisters to help her with her homework and then forgot to turn it in. Or the teenager who skipped class to hang out with friends, because we'd been living in Roanoke at that point and I hated my new school and missed my old friends. Or the young adult who'd dropped out of college because it was too stressful.

I'd planned to show them I'm just as competent as the rest of them, that I'm their equal. Instead, they're stuck with me when I'm at the lowest point in my entire life.