“Yeah. Let’s do this.” I opened the car door and started up the dozen or so steps to the deck. I rang the doorbell and waited, expecting to hear some sort of movement from within, considering the television was audible, but I heard nothing. No sign of life at all.
“Mr. McDonough?” I called, hoping he could hear me over the television. I knocked loudly and called his name once more. When there was still no response, I walked around the deck and peered through a window into the kitchen. I saw vegetables chopped on a cutting board, along with a pot of water boiling on the stove. “He’s got to be here,” I mumbled, heading back to the front door just as my cell phone began to ring.
“Want me to pick the lock?” Eli asked.
I looked down at the caller ID, not really liking the idea of breaking into the house of the guy we were here to get information from, but what choice did I have? I needed answers. “Yeah. Do it,” I ordered, bringing my cell to my ear. “Benson, how did it go?”
“It didn’t,” he replied, practically yelling. I heard sirens and a commotion in the background, a sense of urgency washing over me.
“What do you mean? What happened?”
“I don’t know, but when we got here, our guy’s house was fully engulfed in flames. The entire street was blocked off, but we were able to sneak in. Apparently, there was evidence of some sort of bomb. There was a tripwire that triggered an explosion when the front door was opened.”
My eyes immediately went to Eli using his lock pick set to pry open the front door and my stomach dropped. I hung up on Benson in mid-sentence as Eli turned the knob and I heard a click. Everything after that was in slow motion as I felt a rush of heat. Meeting Eli’s terrified eyes, we escaped the scorching flames the only way we could. Placing one arm on the railing of the deck, we hoisted our bodies up and over, an explosion sending us flying onto the sand of the beach before darkness washed over me.
Mackenzie
“HOW DO YOU LIKE this one?” Jenna asked, pointing to a rustic-looking crib made of reclaimed wood. “Oh, and it will transform to a toddler bed, then a twin bed, too. What do you think, Mack?”
I shrugged, indifferent about the whole process. Now that I wasn’t sure about anything in my life, the excitement of buying nursery furniture had faded. In its place was an overwhelming feeling of unease in the pit of my stomach. “It’s nice,” I said, my voice soft.
“And how about this mobile for over it?” Brayden interjected. “This whole setup is perfect, don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” I agreed, not even looking. I just wanted to get out of here and be alone. “It is. I’ll get it.”
“Really, Mack?” Brayden said. “Really? You really think it’s perfect? You didn’t even look at it! You’ve been out of it all day, and now you just agreed to give your baby boy a Disney princess themed crib.”
I finally looked at the nursery set and cringed at all the pink and purple surrounding me. “Sorry,” I offered. “It’s pregnancy brain, I suppose.”
I continued past them, running my hand against another crib that was a darker wood. Glancing up the aisle, every crib looked nearly identical. Did the kid really care what the furniture in his room looked like?
“No,” Jenna said, catching up to me. “It’s something else. You can’t fool us, Mack. We know you. What’s really going on?”
Sighing, I stepped into another nursery setup and plopped down on the glider, rocking back and forth. “It’s Tyler.”
“What about him?” Brayden asked. “I thought things were good between you two.”
“They were…until this morning when he asked me to move in with him…”
Brayden’s and Jenna’s faces lit up, displaying a level of excitement I hadn’t seen in a while.
“In Boston,” I finished. Their expressions fell just slightly, but not nearly as much as I had thought they would.
“Let me guess,” Brayden began, walking toward me. “You said no.”
“I didn’t really say anything. I yelled at him for even thinking I was willing to move somewhere I had only spent a few days just so he could be close to his friends and family. What about my friends? What about my life? Doesn’t he understand I worked my ass off for years to make the restaurant as successful as it is? How can he expect me to just walk away from all of it?”
“You said you were planning on taking a few months off from work after the baby was born anyway,” Jenna said. “The restaurant has been practically running itself for a while now. Not to mention we’ve been talking about expanding the brand into newer markets, Boston being one of the places we discussed. If you lived there, you’d be in a perfect position to manage the opening of that restaurant!”
“That’s beside the point!” I exclaimed, my face flaming. “His life is up there. Mine is down here. With everything going on, I can’t leave my dad. And I can’t leave you two! We’ve been practically attached at the hip for the past eight years! How can he expect me to pick up and leave the only family I have?” Tears began to well in my eyes at the thought of not being able to have my traditional Friday girls’ night, of not waking up some mornings to see Brayden lying in bed beside me, of not walking into the kitchen at the restaurant to another one of Jenna’s culinary experiments. When I was younger, I dreamed of finally going back to North Carolina, to the only home I thought I had. I finally had a new home, a new family that I loved more than I thought possible. I couldn’t abandon that again, not when the memory of what it was like to be forced from the only home I had was still fresh in my mind, despite the passing years.
“But we’ll only be a quick flight away,” Brayden assured me, rubbing his hand up and down my arms. “We’ll come visit as much as we can. And when you’re able, you can come see us, especially in those cold winter months.” He shivered in a dramatic manner, bringing a smile to my face. “I’m not a fan of snow, unless I’m watching it fall with a hot guy keeping me warm…if you know what I mean.” He winked.
“You moving won’t change our relationship,” Jenna added. “A few thousand miles can’t come between us, and you know it.”
“It’s just…” I took a deep breath, trying to compose my thoughts. All day, I had been trying to figure out what it was about Tyler’s proposition that I didn’t like. The truth was, it scared me. I would be in a new place, with a new family, with no support system like I had here. “Who will I run to when things get bad?” I asked with a quiver in my voice.
Brayden sighed dramatically. “You’re such a pessimist.”
“No, I’m not!” I insisted. “I’m a realist. Big difference.”
He rolled his eyes. “Who says things are going to get bad? How have things been lately?”
“Great. Better than great. Perfect…which is exactly why I’m worried. I’m just scared I’ll get there and will see a different Tyler than the one who’s been down here with me. I won’t be able to run to you guys for advice…”
“Of course you will! We’re always just a phone call away,” he interjected.
“Mackenzie,” Jenna said, her voice low. “You know as well as I do that this isn’t a place where you can raise a child. Don’t you want Triple B to be near children his own age he can play with? He won’t have that here, not when the population of this island changes each week.”
“I know.” I sank further into the glider, feeling defeated. “I guess I’m just scared of all this change at once. Not only am I going to have to completely rearrange everything because of the baby, but now I have to uproot my life? I just–”
“Do you love him?” Jenna interrupted.