“I messed up.” I stared at them and then the note. “She attached a note with the invitation. It makes sense now. Oh my God, what did I do? She wrote a note.” I paused and read from the paper. “My darling Logan, I’m so happy that you have agreed to come to my party and meet my friends and parents. It means so much to me. I told my mom that we are dating, and she thinks that we should wait to tell my dad about us the day after the party at lunch. She thinks he will take it better in a more personal setting. I hope you understand and will come to the lunch as well. I’m so excited for the two of you to get to know each other. I know he will come to love you as I do. See you soon. Ever yours, Maddie.” I stopped reading and stared at my brothers unblinkingly. “She thought I knew. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I thought she was ashamed.” I stood there frozen, with my stomach in knots. “I have to call her, I have to explain.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Logan.” Jared looked at me with a frightened expression. “What’s going on?”
“I have to go and call her.” I walked out of the kitchen quickly.
“But we need to talk about tonight,” Vincent called out after me.
“I have to call Maddie!” I shouted down the stairs. “I have to fix this.” I ran into my room and grabbed my phone and called her number with my heart pounding. I cussed as the phone went to voicemail and tried calling back again. It went to voicemail again and I left a message. “Maddie, it’s Logan. Please call me back. I f**ked up. I know that now. Please forgive me, please call me back. I love you. I thought you were ashamed. I brought my mom’s necklace. Please call me back,” I rambled on and hung up and called her number back again, but it kept ringing and ringing and going to voicemail. What had I done? Had I just cost myself the love of my life because I was so down on myself? Why had I listened to my heart? I knew who Maddie was. I had been so hurt and quick to jump to conclusions and wanting to shame her for hurting me. And I had been wrong. If I had just listened to my rational mind and thoughts, I would have known that Maddie would never use me, would never be embarrassed by me. She had risked everything for me and for her feelings for me, and once again I had screwed it up. I had f**ked it up royally and I wasn’t sure if she would ever forgive me. I knew that no matter how much someone loved you, there was a point of no return. There was a point where the love didn’t matter anymore. That was a point my mother had reached with my father. His behavior had been so destructive that all she wanted to do was leave him. The love she had felt for him had faded, and she hadn’t wanted to be with him anymore. She had wanted to leave, only fate hadn’t been kind to her. I had let my mother down, and now I had done the same thing to Maddie. I had to go to her. I had to explain. She had to understand. I ran back down the stairs with my phone and into the kitchen.
“I need to borrow the Mustang,” I charged up to Vinny. “Where are the keys?”
“You can’t borrow it right now.” Vinny shook his head.
“I have to go to Maddie!” I yelled at him in anger.
“We need to go pick up the rental car and get the tools at Lowe’s,” Jared interrupted me in a hard tone. “You know we have to drive two hours away to get this stuff. We don’t have time for you to go to Maddie.”
“You don’t understand.” I frowned at him. “I need to go to her now. She is all that matters.”
“No.” Vincent grabbed ahold of my shoulders. “She isn’t all that matters. We are what matters right now. We need to do this for us. This is our chance.”
“I need to go to Maddie.” I pushed past him. “Give me the keys.”
“Logan, listen to me. She will still be there.” Vincent raised his face and grabbed me, pushing me against the wall. His blue eyes bore into mine seriously. “This is not the time, you hear me? This is not the time.” I stared at him, unblinking. Jared stared at us both with his mouth agape, his face reflecting the shock in my mind. We had never seen Vincent be the dominant one in our relationship.
“I don’t want to lose her,” I mumbled and pushed him off of me. “I really f**ked up.”
“I’m sorry.” His eyes looked sad for me. “But we have a dad in the living room who is a few weeks from the point of no return. I have tuition due in a few weeks, and we have rent. Right now, we have to do this for us. If it’s meant to be, it will work out with Maddie.”
“What if she never talks to me again?” My eyes blazed but my words were soft.
“She’ll talk to you again.” Vincent nodded at me in assurance. “You’ll see.”
I stared at him and at Jared and realized that no matter what I wanted to do, no matter how badly I needed to speak to Maddie, I couldn’t just walk out now. I had a responsibility to my brothers and to my family. I would never put myself before them.
“Let’s go.” I nodded at Jared. “You have the details?”
“We’re going to go to Sawyerville to get the rental car, a white Honda Accord. Then we’ll go to Lowe’s and get the tools. Then tonight we’ll go eat at an Olive Garden and talk about how we’re going to play pool. Instead of going to play pool, we will drive to the address in this envelope. Vincent will get out of the car and pretend to go to ring the doorbell. You will also slip out of the car and go work on the garage door. If anyone is looking, they will see Vincent at the front door and won’t be paying attention to the garage. After five minutes, Vincent will go back to the car and we will pull away. We will stop around the corner and park the car. By that time, you should have gotten into the garage. Vincent and I will run back to the house, and Vincent will stand watch at the garage door. You will break open the car door and work on getting the ignition started. I will use the special paint we get from Lowe’s to spray the car while you are working, and I’ll change the license plate as well. We should be able to leave the garage within thirty minutes max. Once we are out, Vincent will run back to the white Honda and drive it home. We will follow and go home. We’ll call Joey, and he will call the buyer and set up the sale.” Jared grinned. “Easy-peasy.”
“I just hope it will all go according to plan.” I sighed. There were so many different things that could go wrong. I didn’t want to voice any of them out loud. I knew we were all worried about a million things, and now I was a loose cannon who was even more frightened.
“It’ll be fine. This time next week we’ll be millionaires.” Jared laughed and I gave him a weak smile. It all sounded like it was going to be too easy. Nothing in life was ever this easy, nothing. But what could I say? We had come this far, and on paper, it seemed like nothing could go wrong. But I hadn’t foreseen last night happening, either.
“We need to make a contingency plan in case something goes wrong.” I thought for a moment. “If anything happens, like if the cops come, or the family is home, or a neighbor shows up, I want you both to run. I will stay in the garage and take the heat.” I put my hands up and glared at them. “And there will be no debating this, I will call this whole thing off if you don’t agree. You got it?”
“Logan, you can’t go down by yourself.” Vincent shook his head. “That’s not right.”
“We’re not all going down if it goes wrong.” I was emphatic and my voice was loud. “I know you guys will roll your eyes and groan but I’m the eldest and I’m in charge. Mom asked me to take care of you guys. I don’t even want you guys to be involved with this, but I know I need your help. I will never forgive myself if anything happens to either of you.”
“Fine,” Jared sighed. “But only because nothing is going to go wrong. We got this, bro, and once we arrive home tonight, you can call Maddie, and you guys can make up.”
“Yeah, like you care.” I turned away from him with my face red. I was sure he was happy at how this had turned out.
“Of course I care.” Jared shook his head and stared at me for a moment. “Anyway, I need to call Joey and let him know I got the package.”
“Okay.” I looked down at my half-naked body. “I’m going to go shower. I’ll be back down in a bit.”
“Try not to call her too many times, bro.” Vincent patted me on the back and I ignored him as I ran back up the stairs and tried calling Maddie again. I kept calling and calling, hoping she would pick up the phone. I called one last time and left another message. “Hey, Maddie, it’s Logan. I’m sorry. Please call me. I f**ked up. I know that. I’ve been a bit of a dick. I want to tell you everything. Please call me. I miss you.” I hung up and went into the shower. My stomach was in knots and my brain was cloudy with misery and regret. I had a bad, bad feeling about everything, but out of all of my worries, I was most worried that I might never see Maddie again.
***
“We did it!” Jared high-fived me as we drove out of the driveway. I checked the rearview mirror and made sure that the garage door was closed. I grinned at him, unable to believe how smoothly everything had gone. Everything had gone according to plan, and we had gotten into the Bugatti in record time. Vincent was already on the way back home, and I was enjoying the smooth ride of the expensive sports car.
“Joey was right, the key was exactly where he said it would be.” Jared sounded surprised. I didn’t want to ask him why he was surprised his friend had told the truth, if he had trusted him so much.
“I’m glad Tolstoy told us that we wouldn’t be able to hotwire this car.” I shook my head, not believing that we had almost tried to steal a car that wouldn’t start without the key, due to the chips used in the design. “Could you imagine what would have happened?” I sighed. “Thank God, Joey’s connection had more detailed information or we would have been screwed. And this is exactly why we don’t steal super-expensive cars.”
“I nearly had a heart attack you know.” Jared grinned at me. “Damn cat.”
“I know.” I checked the rearview mirror to make sure no one was following us. “When you screamed, I thought that was it.”
“I felt him on my back, and thought for sure this was someone catching us in the act. Never again.”
“I know.” I looked at him with thoughtful eyes. “I used to get such a thrill from stealing cars. It was such an adrenaline rush, but today I was just scared. I was nothing other than scared about what would happen to us if we got caught.”
“Yeah.” Jared nodded. “But we did it, bro. We’re home free.”
“We still have to make it home, but it looks like we did it.” I grinned back at Jared, hardly able to contain myself. Maybe everything in our lives was finally changing for the better. I only hoped that the one person who mattered to me aside from my brothers would be able to share it all with me.
“I’m going to call Joey and let him know.” Jared whipped out his phone. “Oh, and when we get the money, I figured out where we can send Dad and how we can get there.”
“Oh?”
“There’s an alcohol rehab I found that I think will really help him.” Jared nodded and then held his hand up as his call connected. “Joey, you there?” He laughed into the phone. “We got it. Yup, everything was smooth. Let the buyer know. Oh, you’re busy? On a date? What? With who?” Jared looked at me with a grin. “He’s getting laid,” he mouthed to me with a grin and I shook my head in exasperation. “Maddie? Maddie Wright?” Jared’s voice dropped and he turned away from me. “You’re with her now? Did she say why?”
“What’s going on?” I slowed down and looked over at Jared. “Maddie’s with Joey?”
Jared shook his head and kept his eyes averted from mine. “Well, just call us tomorrow with the information for the drop. Tell Maddie I said hi.”
“Maddie’s with Joey?” I glared at him. “She’s f**king him already?”
“No.” Jared shook his head slowly, and I could tell he was thinking furiously. “She’s not f**king him.”
“So what then?”
“I guess they’re on a date?” He bit his lip and stared out the window. “Something must be up.” He mumbled under his breath and he cursed. “Fuck it.” He took a deep breath. “Hurry up and drive home.”
“What’s going on, Jared?” I stared at him angrily. “Did you know Maddie was seeing Joey? Is that why you didn’t want me to fall for her? Because you knew she was involved with your friend?”
“It’s complicated, Logan.” He looked at me with a frazzled expression. “I can’t get into this right now, I need to sort some stuff out.”
“What stuff?” I looked at him with narrowed eyes.
“I don’t know.” His looked panicked. “Just drive home.”
“What the f**k is going on?”
“I don’t know, okay? I don’t f**king know.” He slammed his fist against the glove compartment. “Let’s just say that you may have been right.”
“Right about what?” I felt like I wanted to shout. “So she is dating Joey?”
Jared stared into my eyes and I was scared. I had never seen such a look of fear in his eyes before. He closed his eyes and sat back in the chair and rubbed his temples. I concentrated on the road ahead and didn’t say anything else. I went as quickly as I could without going over the speed limit, and I breathed a sigh of relief as we made it back home and I saw the white Honda in the driveway. I drove the car and parked it on the grass, and we jumped out silently and pulled the sheet that we had left on the grass over the car, so that it wasn’t completely visible from the road.