Astray

***

Ronnie Bacorn doesn’t believe in fate. She lives in a rundown neighborhood on the edge of town, with her parents working an obscene amount of jobs just to keep things going. When she comes home one day and finds out that her father has gone missing, she knows that this isn’t meant to be. The cops say that he left for another family, and her mother and sister believe it. But Ronnie doesn’t even consider it. When she runs into Hardin Matlock while searching for her father, she knows it can’t be fate. Or she thinks.

Hardin Matlock is not a loner. Sure, he goes to school every day alone, goes through the day alone, and goes home to be, you guessed it, alone. But it’s what he enjoys. No drama and less attention. The only person he lets in is his dad, so when he returns home to find out his father has disappeared, it hit’s him hard. He has nobody to tell, and it’s not like anybody will notice. Their family is under the law. When he bumps into Ronnie Bacorn while on the search, he makes the knee jerk decision to work as a team. The situations are similar, the area is similar, and their dads may be more connected than they think.

It’s not an easy relationship, because as they work together, they realize that they are as different as two people can be. But they do have one thing in common: their dads. They know they don’t have long, and they don’t have time for relationships, but attraction is a powerful thing, and sooner or later it can fog things up. But they will make it on time.

They don’t have a choice.