Lo

I’D SCREWED UP.

When I woke up and Maverick was lying there, I’d thought it was a dream. But then a deep sense of comfort had settled into my bones. Maverick really was there. His warm breath dancing over my face, his arm slung protectively around my hip, I felt it all. Then realisation hit. He’d finished practise and driven back to Wicked Bay. For me. Not because I’d begged, or because Kyle had told him too. He came because he loved me. Because he knew I was hurting, and even if I wouldn’t say the words, I needed him. 

It was all I’d wanted and yet, when I opened my mouth to tell him how grateful I was, how much it meant that he came, all this stuff started spewing out and I couldn’t stop myself. I told him about my meeting with Miss Tamson. How confused I was about things. He’d listened. Watched me through intense eyes as he tried to keep his cool. It sounded bad. I knew that. I heard the words rattle around my mind as they poured out.

The whole thing was a mess.

I was a mess.

But strangely, I felt better once the words were out. As if a giant weight had been lifted. I didn’t want time and space from Maverick. It was the last thing I wanted. But I did need time and space to figure things out. 

To figure myself out.

Before he left for SU, Maverick held me. Peppered my face with gentle kisses. Each one a silent promise. He didn’t understand, I knew that. But he’d promised to give me whatever I needed. He would return to SU to focus on his pre-season training, and I would ask Miss Tamson about counselling. I’d tried it before, right after the accident, but I couldn’t open up. I couldn’t deal with the emotions conjured up every time I tried to talk about things. But if I was going to face my future; first, I had to deal with my past. 

~

“YOU’RE QUIET TONIGHT.” Liam glanced at me from across the bar. It was quiet, the evening rush yet to arrive.

“Just thinking.” I’d already polished the cutlery within an inch of its life, but it wouldn’t hurt to give it all a second wipe.

“You know they say a problem shared is a problem halved?” He tapped his fingers on the bar, and I paused, tipping my head towards him.

“You know, I always wondered who they are. Like did a group of people get together and make up all the profound sayings of life?”

“You have got to get out more,” Liam replied around a faltering smile, but I couldn’t find it in me to return it. He filled in the awkward pause. “Okay. How about, I’ll guess, and you can nod when I’m close.”

He must have taken my silence as a big fat yes since he started reeling off guesses. “School trouble?”

I frowned.

“Girl trouble?”

I rolled my eyes.

“Okay, since you have an excellent job and stellar colleagues that only leaves trouble of the boyfriend variety.” My lips flattened, and he snapped his fingers. “I knew it. Okay, lay it on me.” 

“Liam, I appreciate this.” Whatever this was. “But I really don’t want to talk about it.”

I’d done enough of that with Kyle and Laurie. They had even roped Summer in at lunch to try to get me to ‘open up’ as Laurie kept calling it. I knew Maverick had talked to Kyle. Nothing stayed secret for long in the Stone-Prince family. But I didn’t want to keep talking about it. At least, not with them. They were too close to us both. They knew—or thought they knew—everything. But no one knew the pain and grief I held inside. Miss Tamson had given me the number of a therapist she thought might be able to help me. I just had to pluck up the courage and call. Which I would.

Soon.

“Hey, come on,” he urged, following me toward the opposite end of the bar. “I’m a guy, yes, but I have a ton of girlfriends. Who, by the way, all say I’m an excellent listener.” 

I could see that. Liam was... nice. Our banter was always friendly but never overstepped the mark. Also, I heard him talk more about his girlfriends than I did any guy friends. But talking to him about Maverick? 

Whole other ball game. 

“I appreciate it, I do, but it’s nothing, really.” I flashed him a forced smile before I made myself busy with straightening menus and refilling the salt shakers.

Soon the place filled with people and I was too busy to stop and chat. By the time, I got off, the line at the bar was two deep and Gus had jumped in to help Liam and the new bartender, Miles, out. 

“I’m taking off,” I yelled over to them. 

“See you, Saturday.” Gus waved, and I ducked out of the bar before Liam could hound me some more about Maverick. 

Outside, the cool air hit me, a sign fall was on its way. I dug out my phone, my stomach doing a strange flip when I saw Maverick’s name.

Maverick: I hope your shift went okay. Practice was long. I’m hitting the sack early. I love you xo

Typing a quick reply, I slid my phone back into my pocket and walked home. Hoping that maybe tomorrow would be the day when I decided to face my greatest fears.

~

TURNED OUT, THE NEXT day was my worst nightmare. Uncle Gentry and Rebecca had invited us over for a family meal. They insisted we got together at least one a month. I hadn’t wanted to go, especially since Maverick wasn’t going to be there. But it wasn’t like I had much choice. Not with Kyle and Laurie, and Dad and Stella ganging up on me.

“Lo, how lovely to see you, dear,” my grandma beamed as I followed Dad, Stella, and Beth, into the yard. 

“Hi, Beatrice,” Beth answered for us, welcoming the woman’s attention. 

“And how is my new favorite girl?”

Nice, Grandma, real nice. I bit back the words as I headed straight for one of the garden chairs. 

“Oh no you don’t.” Kyle intercepted me. “We need to talk.”

“No, we really don’t,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes at him. 

“Cous, we can do this the easy way.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Or the hard way.” 

“Babe, go easy on her.” Laurie came over to us, hooking her arm through Kyle’s. “What my jerk of a boyfriend is trying to say, Lo, is if you need us, you know where we are.”

“No, that’s not what—” Kyle shrieked like a little girl at Laurie’s wedge heel crushing his toes.

“Seriously, guys, I’m fine.”

“Lo, is something the—”

I shot Dad a terse look and he held up his hands. “My bad.”

“Nothing is wrong,” I said through gritted teeth. My irritated glare sliding to Kyle who gave me a pointed look of his own while Dad went back to my grandma, Stella, and Beth.

Thankfully, Macey and Summer chose that moment to appear, drawing the attention from me to them. But something was wrong. Summer had her arm around Macey’s waist, concern etched into the youngest Stone-Prince sibling’s face.

“A little help,” Summer said to no one in particular. The adults had all congregated together over by the grill and were yet to notice the two new arrivals.

“Is she—” Kyle started but Laurie clasped her hand over his mouth and I shot up, moving over to Summer who looked completely out of her depth.

“I found her like this down by the McGyver’s house. Me and Nick managed to wrangle her into his car and bring her here, but I didn’t know what to do.”

“Traitor,” Macey slurred, her head rolling on her shoulders.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get her up to her room before anyone notices.” A quick glance over my shoulder told me we were safe. The adults were still talking, laughing, completely unaware of what was happening.

I tried to slip my arm through Macey’s, but she shirked me off, mumbling incoherent jibberish at me.

“Macey,” Summer whispered. “You have to work with us here. You don’t want them to see you like this.”

Macey retched, her body doubling over.

“We need to move her, now.” I grabbed hold of her arm and the two of us began to pull her toward the house.

Kyle and Laurie appeared seconds later. “What the fuck, M—”

“Kyle, not now.”

“Yes, now.” He glowered at me. “It’s two in the afternoon and she’s trashed.”

“Fuck you, Stone.” Macey’s head snapped up, her eyes wild.

“Laurie, a little help.” I said, and Laurie jumped into action, pulling Kyle back out of the kitchen.

“We’ll tell them you had a girl’s emergency.”

I mouthed a “thanks” at her, ignoring the death stare Kyle was throwing in our direction. He’d get over it. Right now, although she didn’t want to admit it, Macey needed us.

We managed to get her up the stairs and to the bathroom next to her room just in time. Macey lunged for the toilet bowl.

“That is...” Summer swallowed, barely able to look at her half-sister.

“I’ve got this, Summer. Go join the others.”

“Are you sure? I can stay but Nick is—”

“Go.” I moved toward Macey who was still retching into the toilet. “If I need help, I’ll text Kyle.”

Summer gave me a sad smile before slipping out into the hall. I found a glass and filled it with water. Macey would need it. When she finally came up for air, she flushed and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, groaning.

“How do you—”

“Get out of here, okay, just get out—”

“Macey, come on, I’m trying to help.” I crouched to her level and pushed the soggy hair from her face. “Let me help.”

“Why?” she sneered. “So you can win brownie points with my brother? My mom?”

I gave her a pointed look and her lips mashed together. “I am not the enemy, Macey.” Tucking my legs to the side of me, I shuffled back until my feet hit the wall. She stayed there, draped over the bowl.

I’d been there. After mum and Elliot died, I’d found myself in that exact same position a dozen times over. Some self-inflicted after a heavy night of drinking or drugs; other times from the gaping hole in my chest ever since waking up in the hospital. So yeah, maybe I didn’t understand Macey’s motivations, but I’d been there.

And that made us more alike than she realised.

“Just go, Lo, please. As if this isn’t already embarrassing enough.”

I kicked out my legs and folded my arms over my chest, getting comfortable. “The way I see it, we can sit here in silence or you can talk to me like a normal person.”

“Didn’t you get the memo?” she snarled. “I’m not normal.”

“Macey, come on—”

“Stop doing that. Stop saying my name like we’re friends. Like you actually give a fuck about me.”

“I care, Macey. We all do.”

She scoffed, but it turned into a retch and she shoved her head in the toilet bowl again. But Macey was only dry heaving, her stomach already purged of whatever had gotten her into this state in the first place.

“You know,” she said looking at me through red-rimmed eyes. “This family is a joke. Mom. Gentry. Rick and Kyle. Even Summer. I hate them. I hate them all.”

“No, you don’t,” I said softly.

Macey’s gaze burned with fire and hatred. The younger Prince sibling had never liked me. I always assumed it was because of Maverick. Because he chose me over her... or, at least, that was how Macey saw it. But watching her sitting there, wrapped around the toilet bowl, I realised we weren’t that different. We both had secrets. The deep kind. The messy kind. The kind you pretended weren’t there until they burst to the surface and started ruining everything.

“And the chips fall.” Macey’s words dripped bitterness. “Me and you; we’re cut from the same cloth. We only let people see what we want them to see. It’s made me a cold-hearted bitch. I push people away. Avoid getting close. For the most part, it works. But you...” she let out a long breath. “Misunderstood damaged Lo, people lap up that sob story and all want to be your friend.”

She was trying to draw me into a cat fight. To use her cruel words to hurt me. But the only person she was hurting was herself. Experience told me this wasn’t about her family at all.

It was about herself.

Macey had looked inside herself and seen something she didn’t like. Or maybe someone had pointed it out to her.

Either way, she was hurting.

I couldn’t leave her.

I wouldn’t.

“Why don’t you start with why you’re in this state? Did something happen?”

“Tell you?” she sneered. “You? Of all the people in the world I could tell this to, you would be the last person I’d choose.”

“Macey, come on—”

“Didn’t they ever tell you, Lo? The truth hurts.” She pushed up onto her knees and managed to stand. I leaped up ready to catch her if she fell, but Macey pinned me with a dark look and said, “Let’s pretend this never happened.”

Then she was gone.