Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(21)

He jerked straight, well aware that the exact same label had been applied to him on a regular basis. In fact, the odds that Melody was muttering about his uptight priggishness right that moment were pretty high.

But that didn’t hold a candle to the feeling of visceral dread of how his dad would react if he caught Will insulting him that way. Colonel William A. Darling, Sr. did not stand for insubordination from anyone, especially his son and namesake.

Will rubbed his face with both hands and slid his fingers through his hair before pushing into a jog. He deliberately took a different path back into town than Melody had. The last thing he needed in his current state was to catch up with her when he’d been such a dick. A dick that she now had to put up with in close quarters, out in the wilderness, for the next who knew how many days. He wouldn’t be surprised if she backed out of the whole thing now, rather than being stuck with him.

He pushed himself harder, breaking into a run. Clear your thoughts. Put emotion in its place. Focus. He forced his thoughts away from his head and into the strain of his muscles, the blood pumping through him, the regularity of his breathing. One foot in front of the other. Eyes on the horizon. Remember why you’re here. Remember what you’re doing.

By the time he reached the first house-lined street on the east side of Haskell, his thoughts were back to being ordered. He slowed his pace to a jog, then relaxed into a walk as he turned onto Station Street, the roof of his apartment in sight. In spite of the storm inside of him, Haskell was bathed in afternoon sunshine. The weather had just started to turn comfortable after the long winter, and people flooded the streets. The restaurants on his street all had tables outside, and were doing a booming business. People were having fun, enjoying themselves. It was such a sharp contrast to how Will felt that it made him jumpy.

So much so that he almost turned and jogged off in the other direction when Laura spotted him from one of the café tables.

“Hey, Will.” She waved him over. Inwardly, Will winced, but did his best to keep a neutral expression as he approached Laura’s table. “You remember Ben? My partner for the competition?”

Will nodded to the man sitting across the table from Laura. He waved back.

“I thought you were training with Melody this afternoon,” Laura said. Leave it to her to jump right into exactly what he didn’t want to talk about. At least she didn’t look as though she already knew everything that was going on and was about to scold him for it.

“We started out together,” he said. And that was all he was going to say.

Unfortunately for him, Laura frowned and said, “I saw her jogging back through here about ten minutes ago. She didn’t look too happy. You two have a fight or something?”

Will blew out a breath and scrubbed a hand over his face. He couldn’t lie to a friend, but he wasn’t about to admit the truth either.

“Uh oh.” Laura must have figured it out anyhow. “Anything I can do to help?”

Will shook his head and glanced down the street at the door to his apartment.

“How can you get into a fight with Melody Clutterbuck?” Ben asked. “She’s, like, the nicest person in town.” There was more than a hint of disapproval in Ben’s tone.

Great. Just what he needed. All of Haskell turning against him because he’d lost his temper with the town’s favorite daughter. “It was my fault,” he said, not that it would do any good.

“Well, if it was your fault, then you need to fix it,” Laura said as if they were discussing a bad calculation at work. “After all, the competition starts tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know,” Will muttered. “I’ll see what I can do.”

He waved and jogged off before the conversation could go anywhere else. As much as he wanted to win the orienteering event, he knew he wasn’t going to win any prizes for being a good conversationalist or a good friend. Melody would tell him he needed to work on that.

He clenched his jaw as he pushed open the door to his building and headed up the stairs. Now he was thinking what Melody would say? Just what he needed, another voice in his head telling him what to do. Pretty soon, Melody and his dad would start having arguments in his skull.

As soon as he let himself into his apartment, he headed straight for the shower, tossing his workout clothes neatly in the hamper on the way. But instead of washing off the guilt and frustration of mangled personal relationships, easing his muscles and getting clean only left him with a feeling that he was totally in the wrong. More than that. He’d let old issues that should have been long dead hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.

Work didn’t help to ease his mind either. Not that he had much of it to distract him. Howie had scaled back everything in order for the event to take place. Will could only fiddle with spreadsheets for so long before he was left staring at his computer. He even thought of playing some sort of video game, but couldn’t make it past the belief that games were as pointless as staring at a blank screen.

By supper, the truth was knocking on his skull with such intensity that he couldn’t sit still. He was going to have to go over to Melody’s house and apologize to her.

As soon as the decision was made, the peace of settling things into order swept back over him. He grabbed his phone and keys and headed for the door. At least his dad hadn’t tried to call again.

Will had driven past Clutterbuck’s Flowers several times, and he knew that the family, Melody included, lived in an apartment above the shop. Scott had told everyone on his team about how amazing the apartment was—two apartments in one, really—but he hadn’t mentioned the location of the entry. It took Will several minutes of wandering around the building, feeling more self-conscious by the minute, before Melody’s sister stuck her head out one of the second-floor windows and said, “Can I help you?”