Dannika Dark - Seven Years

And that someone was going to be Michael Hudson. I should have said something, but I drove off and watched him in the rearview mirror as he stalked toward the pizza shop with a heavy swing in his step.

I always believed Karma would come back to Michael for how cruel he was to me in high school. Karma just happened to be a man named Austin Cole.

On Friday afternoon, I picked up Maizy for our playdate. It had become a tradition to go to a movie and then stop off at Pizza Zone. It gave my mom a break from reality so she could get a manicure or just take a nap. Maizy was such a good-hearted little girl, one who from an early age considered the feelings of others. She didn’t like to see anyone cry and always cleaned up without being asked. Maizy had her moments like any six-year-old, but she was my Maze, and I loved her unconditionally.

“Lexi?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I go play now?”

I took another sip of my soda and admired her sparkly blue eyes. Wes and I got the brown hair and eyes in the family, but Maizy was a little ray of sunshine who had the same enviable features as our mom.

I glanced at her plate. “Are you finished?”

She had only taken a few bites of cheese pizza and I knew the excitement of the noisy games and hyperactive kids was too much to resist.

Maizy flashed a bright smile. She’d lost one of her bottom baby teeth and the Tooth Fairy had paid her a visit.

I hated to be one of those people who force-fed a child, so I nodded and watched her run over to the play zone. It was a walled-off area with plastic tunnels and ropes to swing on. She kicked off her shoes by the entrance and waved before disappearing inside the first series of yellow tunnels with the other kids. Maizy mostly played by herself because even though she had just turned six, she hadn’t yet come out of her shell. It seemed like yesterday we were changing her diapers, and before too long, I’d probably be helping her pick out a dress for prom.

I thought about Austin. Had he gone after Michael, or was I reading too much into that? Austin had no right appearing out of nowhere and fighting my battles, although I was glad he’d shown up when he had. Still, he’d never once tried to contact me in all the time after Wes’s death. It shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, but he was such an integral part of our family that it was as if I’d lost two people that year instead of one. Austin had parents and siblings, but I’d never met them. I wasn’t even sure if they lived in the area.

I twirled my pigtails around my fingers while watching Maizy swing on one of the ropes.

Before I could draw a breath, Beckett slid in the chair in front of me. “Knew I’d find you here,” he said smugly.

Beckett had on that damn T-shirt I hated, the one that said “Meathead.” It was just the sheer principle of a man proudly labeling himself as an idiot.

“Beckett,” I warned. “Let’s not do this here.”

He narrowed his lashless eyes. “You got a right to be mad, Lexi. I fucked up. But I’m not perfect—no one is. You’ve got your fair share of baggage, and I’ve got mine.”

I crossed my arms and leaned back in the plastic chair. “Are you calling your infidelity… baggage?”

He snorted, staring at my head. “You look ridiculous with your hair that way. Take it down so we can have a real conversation. I can’t talk to you like this.”

“How about you not talk to me at all? We’re done, Beckett. That’s nonnegotiable.”

“Lex,” he said, placing his hand firmly on my arm.

I bolted out of the chair and headed in the other direction. Leaving him was one of the most difficult things I had done in my life, and we had already gone through all this. Now he was picking at a scab and trying to make it bleed again.

“Lex, wait,” he called out. I passed the pinball machines and he caught up with me by skeeball.

I turned around, tired of all the running. “Stop following me, Beck. It’s creeping me out. I don’t want to keep reliving this over and over. Don’t you get it? There’s no going back and undoing what you did.”

He gripped my shoulders. “Look, babe, I’m sorry. Please forgive me. It was a mistake and I won’t—”

“Save it,” I interrupted. “You’ll never know what that did to me, and it’s not something I can easily get over. Maybe some women can, but you’ve always known that was the deal breaker for me. Not only would I always be wondering where you were when you came home late, but I’d always know that I wasn’t enough for you. I loved you, Beckett. I trusted you, and you broke that.”

His grip tightened when I tried to shrug him away. “Lex, you know you’re the only girl for me, right? You’re the girl I want to marry.”

I snapped.

My hands flew out in a karate-chop move I must have seen on one too many Kung Fu movies. A stunned look crossed his face when his arms were knocked away.

“Fine! Goddammit, I’m just trying to make it right again. Fucking bitch!” he yelled, storming out of the room.

There I stood amid ringing bells, screaming kids, and arcade machines.

Shaking.

I had to pull it together before my sister saw me have a nervous breakdown.

“Maizy, stay right where you are and don’t go anywhere,” I shouted, holding my finger out. “I’m going potty.”

She nodded and I walked to the restroom, only a few feet away. But once I entered the empty hall, I couldn’t go any farther. I allowed my body to slide down the wall and I covered my eyes as a tidal wave of pain surfaced.

I’d been with Beckett for two years, and through our ups and downs, I had started to imagine a life with him. One that might have involved kids, or maybe even going to college and figuring out what I wanted to do in life besides working a cash register. It took me two years to give him all of my heart, and he threw it away in one night. I’d thought he loved me. How many other times were there? Didn’t matter.

Once was enough.

“Lexi?”

Two heavy hands covered my knees. “What’s wrong?” The controlled anger belonged to Austin Cole.

My stupid tears. Damn them. I was already trying to get myself together and now my emotions switched gears to another part of my life that was an open wound.

“Why did you leave us?” I finally asked. The words felt like a sword because I’d said them a number of times over Wes’s grave. It hurt to breathe for the first year after his death.

Austin sighed hard. The kind of sigh that had a long, regretful story behind it. “Lexi, I can’t talk about this with you right now. Are you okay?”

Finally wiping my tears, I glanced up. Austin crouched in front of me wearing a white shirt and a leather-rope necklace with a round medallion made of silver. The tattoos on his upper arms briefly caught my attention, but when his sharp blue eyes cut through me, I looked away.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

He lowered his head with a doubtful glare. “No, you’re not.”

“What are you doing here? Why do you keep showing up out of the blue at the worst times?”

“I’m back for good, Lexi. I want to set things straight and there’s a lot I need to tell you, but this isn’t the place. You tell me when’s a good time and we’ll get together.”

I sniffed and gave a barely perceptible nod.

Austin let go of my knees and reached forward, sliding his hands down my hair with a short grin.

“It’s Pretty Pigtail Day,” I said in a small voice. “I do this with Maizy a couple of times a month.” I didn’t even bother explaining who Maizy was.

Austin didn’t laugh. “It reminds me a little bit of you at that age. I remember you wearing your hair like this, or sometimes braided in the back. Come on, let’s get up.” He hooked his hands beneath my arms and lifted me to my feet. “You sure you’re okay?”

Before I could answer, his thumb slid across my cheek, wiping away a tear. All those stupid rehearsals I’d played out in my head of telling him off were stuck in pause, and I felt ashamed I’d later be rewinding this moment, wishing I had tossed him into the bin of plastic balls.

He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a business card, placing it in my hand. “Call me when you’re ready to talk, Ladybug.”

I lifted my hand and admired a plain off-white card. Austin’s name was on the front with a phone number beneath. A symbol of a bow and arrow filled in the right-hand corner, but nothing indicated what he did for a living. Did that mean he was Robin Hood?

When I looked up, Austin was gone.

The card went into my purse and I decided to take Maizy home. Austin had left the ball in my court, and while it felt good to know the mystery of his disappearance would be solved, it also irritated me. Now in order to get any answers, I’d have to go crawling back to him, and that didn’t leave me in a position of power. I didn’t know how to feel about it, but I knew one thing: panic flooded my veins like rocket fuel when I didn’t see Maizy in the play zone.

“Maizy?”

My heart raced and I whirled around, dizzy with fear. I frantically searched the tunnels, peering through the clear plastic domes just to make sure she wasn’t hiding.

“Maizy? Come out from hiding! It’s time to go!”

When she didn’t answer, I went into a complete state of panic, screaming her name and pacing around. Kids were turning to stare and a few moms lifted their chins and glanced around the room.

Oh God, I’ve lost her.

After I’d combed the room five times and scoured the bathrooms, I ran out of the restaurant to the brightly lit entrance in front of the parking lot.