Lost and Found (Twist of Fate #1)(30)

I turned to go toward the fire, but stopped when I saw Aiden standing near the entrance to his tent with his arms crossed. He waited until Lucky disappeared inside the tent he was sharing with Toby and two other kids before he strode across the camp towards Xander and me.

“Lake, now,” he snapped. I winced at the sight of the bruise on his jaw. His normally perfect hair was all over the place and his clothes were covered in dust. There was a small tear in his shirt.

Xander and I followed him down to the lake so we’d still be in sight of the camp but out of hearing range. Aiden was fuming, and I didn’t blame him in the least.

“You two need to get the fuck over yourselves now. This shit ends, do you hear me?”

“Aiden—”

“Shut the fuck up, Bennett. I’m talking.” His eyes shifted back and forth between me and Xander. “No one wants you guys to get past whatever this”— he motioned between us with his hand— “is more than I do, but not at the cost of the kids!” He took in a breath as if trying to calm himself.

“I called for you three times when the fight started. The fucking dog heard me and came running,” he snapped as he pointed towards Lucky’s tent. “Now, I don’t need to know what you were doing, because I have a damned good idea. The fact is, this shit between the kids has been brewing for days, but you two have had your heads so far up your own asses, that you either didn’t see it or you didn’t care. And you’re both idiots if you think they haven’t noticed that you two can’t say one single goddamned nice thing to each other.”

Aiden focused his attention on me. “Remember what you told me, B?” he said, his voice softening. “You remember what you wanted this trip to be for them?”

I nodded. “A game changer,” I murmured. When I’d asked Aiden to chaperone the trip with me, I’d told him how I wanted each kid to have that one moment in their life where they realized they weren’t resigned to the shitty hand life had dealt them. None of them came from big money and most had some kind of trauma in their lives, whether it was abuse or a crappy home life or whatever… I’d wanted them to know there was a whole world waiting for them if they just had the guts to reach for it.

“You have a few days left to make that happen. Both of you,” Aiden said as he looked sharply at Xander. “This is your life,” he said as he motioned to the wilderness around us. “But most of those kids will never see this place or anything like it ever again. You really want them to remember it as the Bennett and Xander Ripping Each Other to Shreds show?”

Xander didn’t answer. Neither did I. And Aiden clearly wasn’t expecting one because he quietly said, “Work it the fuck out” before calmly walking away.

Leaving Xander and me to figure out how the hell we were supposed to do just that.





Chapter 15





Xander





I felt like a complete ass. Because of me and my selfish pity party, Bennett and I hadn’t given our full attention to the kids. The trip’s entire focus was supposed to be on those kids, but what had I done instead?

Fucked a man I thought was someone else’s boyfriend— in the woods. Like a damn animal.

I blew out a breath and sat down on one of the logs around the fire ring. “Have a seat,” I said to Bennett. “As much as I hate to admit it— he’s right.”

“Yeah,” he murmured, sitting stiffly next to me.

We faced the fire and I threw a nearby branch into the flames to build it up a bit before speaking.

“I’m sorry,” I began.

Bennett’s head snapped up in surprise. “What for?”

I took a minute to think about what I wanted to say before speaking. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing and accidentally make things weirder between us.

“For giving you so much hell these past few days. For not letting you even talk to me about it.” I rubbed my hands over my face and finally had the guts to look him in the eyes. “But, Bennett… I don’t want to talk about that night, okay? I just… I can’t.”

Bennett studied me for a moment before responding. “Okay. Then we won’t talk about it.”

We sat together in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes while the campfire popped and the sounds of sleeping bags rustling were fewer and farther between.

Suddenly, Bennett blew out a laugh and shook his head.

“What?” I asked. “What’s so funny?”

“This whole thing reminds me of that time your dad was going to take us to a Yankees game, remember?”

He turned to me with a wide grin and twinkling eyes. God, he was so damned cute when he had that look on his face. Like humor and mischief all rolled into one.

“Which one? We went to like a million of them.”

“The one with the fight over the jersey,” Bennett said with a raised eyebrow.

I snorted. “Oh my god, you’re right. Roger Clemens. Jesus, why couldn’t my dad have had two Clemens jerseys?”

“He did. That’s just it, remember? He was wearing one and he said one of us could wear the other.”

“Dude, you totally knew it was my turn with the Clemens one,” I accused. “You could have easily worn the Jeter jersey and been fine.”