“I heard the Cali coast is nice this time of the year, but I’m not sure now is the right time for you to be taking a trip.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Grayson? I’m not going to California.”
My heart beats out a funky tune when he says, “Oh… so it’s just your girl going? I had wondered when her printout said it was a one-way ticket.”
I freeze, still lost but also panicked.
When the sound of a commercial aircraft hums through the phone, I clue onto Grayson’s riddle. “You found Melody?” His murmur of agreement is soft but confirming. “At an airport?” When his agreeing hum keeps coming, I ask, “Which one?” I’m stunned. Justly so. Melody has never been on a plane, much less left the state, so why the hell is she going on an interstate trip without me?
“I can’t tell you that. I could get into shit just for passing this info on.”
“Please, Grayson. If I don’t know where she is, I can’t stop her from leaving.” When my plea falls on deaf ears, I try another tactic. “I have information that could aid your team’s investigation of my father.”
I picture him scrubbing at the bumfluff on his chin when he asks, “Who said we’re investigating your father?”
I scoff. “I’m not an idiot. I know he’s one of the men you’re chasing.” Confident I’m about to reel in the little fish with the hope of a bigger catch, I snatch the bank documentation off the printer before snagging my dad’s Audi keys from his top drawer. “If he isn’t who you’re after, I’m confident he’s one of the many stones you’ll need to turn over to get your man. I have possible information that could help you find Katie. Are you really willing to give that up for this, sharing information about a girl you swear you’re not investigating?”
I’m once again blindly throwing darts at the board in the hope of a bulls-eye, but for once in my life, it pays off. “She’s at Saugerties’ domestic terminal.” Grayson’s reply comes with a whole heap of expletives and the honk of a horn that sounds like it’s being battered by a fist.
I want to join him when my eyes stray to the clock on my father’s desks. “Fuck. It’s peak-hour traffic. It will take me over two hours to get there.”
“Then you better hurry,” Grayson replies, “Because her flight leaves in two hours and fifteen minutes.”
I’m out the door before ‘fifteen’ leaves his mouth.
25
BRANDON
I abandon my father’s car in one of the waiting bays just outside of the airport when the line to get into the domestic terminal parking lot stretches for as far as the eye can see. They can tow his car, I don’t fucking care. This is much more important than a flashy chunk of metal. Only while weaving dangerously through traffic the past one and a half hours did the entirety of Grayson’s comment dawn on me. He said Melody purchased a one-way ticket to California. That means she doesn’t intend to come back, that this isn’t a breathe-and-recover break. She’s leaving permanently.
I understand that she’s upset, I get that she feels like she lost her father twice, but this won’t fix anything. Running never fixes anything.
When I break through the throng of people all apparently leaving Saugerties at the same time, I check the flight boards to see which terminal flies to California. Once I discover it’s from Terminal E, I exit the ticketing terminal as quickly as I entered it. Terminal E is down the other end of the runway.
I’m screamed at, called names, and almost get in a tussle when I push through the people waiting to go through security screening. I’m confident I’m seconds from being arrested when a TSA officer near an X-ray machine signals for me to step forward, so you can imagine my shock when he nudges his head to the right and tells me to run.
The reason for his assistance comes to light when the slant of his head exposes a pair of familiar blue eyes hidden under the brim of an official-looking hat. I didn’t recognize Grayson straight away since he shaved off his kiddy beard.
“If you get arrested, I’m denying all knowledge of us ever meeting,” Grayson shouts when I sprint through the X-ray machine before hightailing it to the right.
I’m out of breath, but I can’t help but chuckle when a pompously arrogant voice announces over the loudspeaker that Nando’s is offering free peri-peri chicken to the first one hundred travelers to arrive at their booth I just happen to be sprinting by. It creates a sea of people between me and the TSA officers chasing me down in less than a second.
Within a minute, I go from appearing like a fugitive evading arrest to an everyday traveler. It gives me a second to catch my breath, which I lose again when I spot Melody in a queue preparing to board her flight. I know she has spotted me like she did at Joey’s funeral because she strayed her eyes to the ground to block out my words as only she can.
“Melody.” The three stomps of my foot on the ground increases the shudders she’s striving to ignore, but she keeps her head down, forcing me to shout her name again, and again, and again.
“Stop,” she demands after spinning to face me. “You need to go.”
I shake my head. “I am not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell is going on.”
She goes with the same excuse every romance novel uses. “I need time. We need time.”
When she steps forward to maintain her place in the queue, I snap. “No. You don’t get alone time when you are a couple. That isn’t the way things work. The only place you get to run when you are scared is to me. You don’t get to leave. That is how being a couple works.”
It feels like she stabs me in the chest with a big knife when she signs, “Then maybe we should not be a couple anymore.”
When the man in front of her steps forward, I fill the gap, forcing Melody to face me head-on. “Where is this coming from? I understand your upset about Joey—”
