Second Rate Chances

  Makayla rushed back to her bedroom, hoping to find the stolen property still here. If it were here, then Chance was probably just running an errand, and would be back at any moment. If it was gone…

  Digging through his bag on the floor, Makayla searched and searched. No luck. It was gone. Sometime today, he’d left with the watch to return it to his brother…and then he’d dropped off the face of the earth. Good God, what if his brother had taken his wrath out on him anyway? He didn’t sound like the most stable person. What if…what if he was dead?

  Makayla sat on the bed, clutching her stomach. Fear and anxiety twisted her in knots. No, he couldn’t be…not now, not now that he was on the road to salvation. Not now…that he was stealing her heart. Not when she’d finally felt a spark of genuine affection for someone. He couldn’t possibly be gone. Life couldn’t possibly be that cruel to her…

  Her hand went to her face and she struggled to not sob. No, she couldn’t jump to the worst case scenario. She couldn’t let her mind wallow in fear. She had to be stronger than that. Dropping her hand, she inhaled a long breath and tried to think through the cloud of mind-numbing terror. How would she find him? Assuming…assuming he was fine…how would she get to him?

  That was the million dollar question, one she didn’t have an immediate answer for. Not knowing what else to do, Makayla found her phone and clutched it to her chest. Lying back on her bed, she waited…waited for Chance to call her and tell her that he was okay.

  She awoke the next morning with her phone still clutched to her chest. The screen was blank…no missed calls. An icy jolt ran through her as she sat up. She looked around her bedroom, hoping she’d find some sign that he’d come home and just hadn’t wanted to wake her. When she saw nothing different, she stood and hurried out to the living room. No sign of him. Glancing out the window to her driveway, she saw that his car was still gone…he wasn’t here.

  Makayla bit her lip and ran a hand through her hair. She was supposed to be keeping him safe, and he was gone, vanished into thin air. Makayla had no idea how to get in contact with his brother. She knew nothing about him but his name—Garrett. She assumed his last name was the same as Chance’s—Burke—but she really didn’t know for sure. Besides, she doubted a thug like him would be listed in the white pages. It’d be better to ask the police for his last known whereabouts. But they didn’t give out that type of information, and Makayla really didn’t want to bring their attention to Chance. He wasn’t exactly an upstanding citizen either.

  Not having a clue what else to do, Makayla went to Chance’s house. The impressive brick building was dark, quiet. All the doors were locked when she jiggled each one. Nothing looked any different from the last time she was here. Her heart tight, her stomach bunched in knots, Makayla left his abandoned home and went to work.

  Walking through the front doors, Makayla considered how little she knew of Chance. If he hadn’t gone to her place and he hadn’t gone home, where would he go? Did he have friends in the area? Was he close to his coworkers? And where exactly did he work anyway? She didn’t even have the name of the business, so she couldn’t even call to see if he’d missed work. She wasn’t even entirely sure what days he did work, since he was only part-time. There was so much about him that she didn’t know, and she was a little terrified that she’d never get a chance to know now.

  She ran into Neil as she headed into the employee area. He nodded hello, then stopped and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, what is it?”

  Makayla looked up into his blue-gray eyes, not sure what to tell him. Biting her lip, she shrugged. “Chance took off yesterday…I don’t know where he is…”

  His brow furrowed and Neil followed Makayla into the break room. “You tried his cell, his house?”

  Makayla nodded as she hung up her jacket. “Yeah, he’s just…gone.” Tucking her purse away, she sighed. “I came home and he was just gone.” She frowned, considering that all of his stuff was still in her bedroom. Unless he’d gone home to grab clothes, which seemed strange, since he could’ve just taken his bag, wherever he was, he probably didn’t have anything. That only reaffirmed to Makayla that he was in trouble. Big trouble.

  Neil made a disgruntled noise and Makayla twisted to look at him. “You came home and he was gone? Is he…staying with you?”

  Makayla twisted her lips. She hadn’t had a chance to tell Neil about that part yet; he looked a little miffed at her seeming lack of good judgment. And even she would admit that inviting a strange man with a sordid past to share your home wasn’t the best judgment. She couldn’t have not reached out to help him though. She wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if anything had happened. God, had something happened?

  “Just for a little bit. He’s got some…family issues.”

  Neil dropped his head back. “Great. The thief has family issues.” He lifted his head and his eyebrow. “Two problems for you to try and fix.” His face softened as he said it, and Makayla felt the warmth behind his words. She still bristled though.

  “It’s just for a few days, until things cool over.” Sighing, she shut the closet door. “What if things didn’t cool over…” Her lip trembled as her eyes moistened. “I’m really worried, Neil.”

  Neil immediately wrapped his arms around her. “He’ll be okay, Mack. He’s tough…he can take care of himself.” His tone switched to displeasure, but Neil softly kissed her on the head, comforting her regardless of his own feelings on the matter…which was probably something along the lines of good riddance.

  Natalie walked in on the pair then. She frowned as her eyes flashed between them. Makayla saw the spark of jealousy in the young woman’s eyes and wanted to sit her down for another, “Don’t fall for the unobtainable man,” speech, but the teenager’s face turned to sympathy when she saw Makayla’s weary expression.

  “You okay? Something happen?”

  Makayla slapped on her brightest smile. Confessing all of her fears and doubts to Neil was fine, but she really didn’t want to become water cooler fodder. “Yep, everything’s great.”

  Playing along, as he always did, Neil switched his embrace to one arm slung around her shoulder. “Yeah, she just realized that I was right, and she was wrong.”

  Makayla looked over at him. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  Neil laughed, his oh-so-cute dimples showing. “I would.” Makayla frowned. Natalie sighed.

  Glancing back at the love-stricken girl, Makayla looped her arm through Neil’s and pulled him out of the back room. If she couldn’t get through to Natalie, she’d have to go through Neil. He was aware of the problem, but, being a guy, even a guy who preferred other guys, he probably had no clue how to deal with it. She’d have to give him some pointers for his “date” with her this weekend…like never referring to it as a date.

  All throughout her shift, Makayla gave Neil tips on how to act like he wasn’t interested in Natalie. He rolled his eyes and told her, more than once, that he could handle the situation. But Makayla saw the tiny smiles that Natalie tossed his way when his back was turned and worried about it anyway. Besides, worrying about Natalie’s love life stopped Makayla from worrying about her own. For the most part. She still did though.

  A tiny clock in the back of her brain kept a running tally on how long Chance had been M.I.A. The longer the tick sounded in her brain, the more Makayla worried. She kept looking at her phone and glancing at the door, just hoping to see the boy-next-door who’d stolen her wallet…and at some point, her heart. But he never came by, he never called. And when she finally got back home, after forcing herself to go to a session with Sofia, he still wasn’t around.

  Makayla didn’t sleep much that night. And when the next evening played out in much the same way, she found sleep even more difficult. In fact, she found it impossible. Instead of even trying to get some Zs, Makayla got in the car and drove around the city. She checked out his place, but it was still dark and empty. She tried the local grocery stores, describing him to variou
s clerks to see if anybody remembered him. Nobody did. She tried the drycleaners, gas stations, basically any store nearby that he may have walked into at some point in the last few days, but nobody could pinpoint him with her description.

  It didn’t help that her depiction of him made him sound completely average: white, medium build, yay tall, brown hair, brown eyes. It wasn’t as if she could tell the bored clerk listening to her that his smile lit up the room, that his eyes sparkled with cunning and humor, that the softness of his hands made her weak in the knees. No, broken down into a handful of adjectives, Chance was almost invisible…he fit too much of the population to really stand out.

  She didn’t give up though. Makayla spent most of her Saturday night aimlessly searching streets and any open business she could find. She wished she had a picture of him, to make her job of finding him easier, but they hadn’t been together long enough; she hadn’t even snapped a cell phone picture yet. And since she wasn’t quite desperate enough to break and enter into his abandoned house, all she had to go on was her generic description. She was exhausted and disappointed when she fell into her empty bed in the early hours of the morning.

  A knock on her door the next afternoon woke her up. At first, Makayla wondered if it was someone coming to tell her that Chance was dead. Her stomach twisted so hard she had to massage it back down. But, sitting up, she realized that was a ridiculous thought. For one, Chance wasn’t a solider who’d died in the line of battle or an officer who’d been gunned down on duty, and most real tragedies were delivered over the telephone, and not in person. Secondly, she and Chance had only been dating for a little while, and as far as Makayla knew, no one but Neil and Natalie even knew that she was seeing him, so it wasn’t likely that she’d be contacted…if anything had happened.

  Rolling her eyes and looking at the clock, Makayla realized who was here just as her last thought ended. It was Sunday…Neil was here for their standing brunch date.

  Remembering that Chance had been here the last time Neil had come by for their Sunday meal, Makayla sadly looked around her home for him. He hadn’t magically appeared on her sofa though. He was still gone. Still dressed in her smelly gym clothes from last night, her hair a mess of snarls and tangles, Makayla nonchalantly opened the door for Neil.

  He took a long look at her before walking through the door. “You, uh, need to shower?” He crinkled his nose a bit as he closed the front door.

  Makayla sighed. She didn’t really feel like showering, or eating, but she had to go on with her life. Besides, it was possible that Chance wasn’t in danger. It was possible that he’d skipped out because he’d wanted to leave her. It seemed a really dramatic way to break things off, but, as she constantly reminded herself, she didn’t really know Chance. Maybe he was the dramatic type. That scenario felt…wrong though. She just knew in her stomach that whatever was going on, wasn’t about her. Not directly anyway. But, Neil had a point…she did smell.

  “Yeah…I guess.”

  She walked back into her bedroom and Neil followed her. Sitting on the edge of her rumpled bed, the covers twisted and half falling to the floor in her restless shifting this morning, Neil tilted his head at her. “You still haven’t heard from him, have you?”

  Makayla stripped off the yoga pants and tight shirt she’d exercised in last night and walked into the bathroom. Leaving the door open, she told him, “No, not a peep.” She completely stripped down, then poked just her head out the door. “I’m getting scared, Neil.”

  Neil sighed and nodded. “I know…why don’t you go to the police?”

  Makayla bit her lip. She’d debated that last night, but, her gut had told her not to yet. Her gut told her that focusing the cops onto Chance would be a bad thing, that it would be better to wait this out, that she’d hear from him soon…or hear about him soon. “I don’t want to get them involved just yet…”

  Neil twisted his lips. “Because he’s a thief?”

  Makayla shrugged, then ducked back into the bathroom. “He’s trying to be a better person, Neil, but he hasn’t always been…and I don’t want him to get in trouble for anything he…may have done recently.”

  Makayla sighed as she turned on the water. She really hoped he hadn’t been up to anything, especially since he’d promised her that he’d quit, but if the police started digging into his life trying to find him, well, they might find something that he hadn’t had time to atone for yet. Makayla had to give him a chance to be a better person before she threw the book at him. She’d just have to keep praying and hoping that he was okay…and that he’d show up soon.

  Makayla tried to keep her spirits up as she left the house with Neil. Tried to. Even though it had gotten her zero results last night, she wanted to go scouring the neighborhood again. Twisting to Neil, she forced her mind to change tracks. Wherever he was, Colton was fine.

  “How was your date last night?”

  Neil twisted in the driver’s seat to glare at her. “It wasn’t a date,” he smiled, “and it was a lot of fun.”

  Makayla smiled, glad that at least someone had had a good time the previous evening. “And Natalie….?”

  She lifted an eyebrow and Neil sighed. “We had…the talk…she understands.”

  Makayla nodded and put her hand on his shoulder. Neil hated giving women the we-can-only-be-friends talk; he’d had to give it on several occasions already. But that’s what happens when you’re super nice and super cute—girls flock. “Well good, I’m glad you guys had fun.”

  She frowned on the end, Chance entering her mind again. Where was he? Neil noticed and reached up to grab her fingers. “I’m sure he’s fine, Mack.”

  Makayla was silent the rest of the way, warring with herself on whether or not to bring in the big guns to find Chance. She perked up when she noticed where Neil was stopping the car. Looking over at his blank expression, she raised an eyebrow. “Driftwood? Again? We just went here last week?”

  Neil peeked up at her, his pale eyes hopeful. “I know, I just…wanted to come here again.”

  Makayla sighed, but couldn’t resist the pleading in her best friend’s eyes. Sighing again, she muttered, “All right.” She couldn’t really scold Neil on self-destructive choices, not since she’d started dating a never-been-convicted criminal.

  Makayla held his hand for support as they walked in, but Neil seemed stronger than the last time he’d been here. He held his chin high and looked right at the tall, dark-haired Adrian as the hostess once again seated them in his section. Adrian did a double-take at seeing them again. Well, at seeing Neil again, at any rate. When the cheery girl left them at their circular table, Adrian was immediately at their side.

  “Hey, you guys came back?”

  While his question was directed at the both of them, those startling green eyes were only focused on Neil. Neil swallowed, but kept up the eye contact. “Yeah…”

  Adrian smiled wider as he leaned his hip against the table. “What can I get for you today?”

  His voice was so soft, so tender, Makayla instantly felt like she was intruding on a very private moment. Not exactly wanting Neil to have any sort of moment with the man who’d broken his heart, Makayla leaned herself across the table. “I’ll have a cinnamon roll and the largest mocha you can make me.”

  Adrian’s eyes reluctantly pulled away from Neil. His smile faltered, but only a little. He nodded at her order, then looked back to Neil. Clearing his throat, Neil shrugged and told him, “Blueberry muffin and an orange juice.”

  The grin on Adrian’s lips turned crooked, like he’d known what Neil would order. In a way it was sweet, in a way in was painful. Bad breakup or not, when they’d been together, they’d been really good together. “Give me just a few minutes…”

  He winked at Neil as he twisted to leave and Makayla scowled. He didn’t need to openly flirt with the man whom he’d ripped in two. Seeing Neil’s face start to flush with color, Makayla blurted out the first thing to distract him. Since she really only had one t
hing on her mind, it was, of course, about Chance. “So you really think I should call the cops about Chance? Do you think they’d have better luck finding him?”

  Adrian immediately snapped his head around to Makayla. “Chance is missing?”

  The stony look on Adrian’s face made her blink. There was a hardness in his gorgeous features that she’d never seen before. She was used to seeing him tender, giddy, nearly oozing love and affection, even after separating from Neil. But the look he was giving her now was all business.

  “What?” was all she could manage to ask. Makayla had no idea why Adrian would care one iota about her vanished beau.

  Adrian blinked and relaxed his face. A small, sheepish smile curved his lips as he stepped towards the table. His voice back to softness and casualness, he shrugged. “Your boyfriend is missing? That’s awful. Have you…have you called the cops?”

  While Adrian’s face had returned to that of someone who was only mildly curious about her answer, his eyes were too intently focused on Makayla. He wanted to know what was going on. Narrowing her own eyes, Makayla leaned on her elbows. “Do you know Chance?”