Free Finding Me: Book 1: All I've Ever Wanted (A New Adult Romance Series) by Unknown Page B

herself like a dying star. She held back the tears as she dumped some horrible, pre-mixed cocktail in a red, solo-cup down the sink, letting the drain catch the half smoked cigarettes.
       “Just a couple of kids having their kicks,” she said to herself, “just a few kids having a party in a house they heard was abandoned, you were a rebel one day too weren’t you?”
     
       She laughed to herself, “No you weren’t.”
       She calmed her nerves by thinking about seeing her brother, she was looking forward to see him doing well. He had recently bought into a company, and according to his E-mails was doing quite well. He was doing contracting work outside of Las Vegas, which was a little discerning given his past love of liquor and cards, but he had sworn up and down that he didn’t go into the city, that he knew himself too well to put himself in that position. Maggie smiled as she grabbed for the broom and began sweeping up some shattered glass off of the Marble kitchen floor. She was so proud of Andy, how mature he had become, how strong he must be to know his demons and know how to avoid him. He was only 2 years younger than Maggie herself, but to her this spoke volume as to how mature he had become, he was almost acting like he was older than her.
     
       The sun had begun to set by the time Maggie had restored the house to its prior beauty; she mopped the floors and vacuumed the rugs, making seem like there had never even been any adolescent banger there in the first place. As she was cleaning she had noticed that more than a few things had gone missing; a few power tools from her father’s garage, some of her mother’s jewelry, a couple antique vases, just the random odds and ends that would be easy to sell at a pawn shop on the other side of town for a quick dime. She tried to not let any of this bother her; she had taken most of the precious items with her back to her apartment in northern California not shortly after the funeral. Yet, it was enough to set her teeth on edge, knowing that some people had come in and blatantly disrespected her home.
     
       “Kids these days,” Maggie whispered to the wall as she set her large, leather bag down in her parents’ bedroom, and began to sort through the boxes of photos.
     
       It was around midnight when she finished with the last box of pictures. She sat on the rug stretching her legs out and elongating her back making her joints pop. She yawned and tightened the large, red bun of hair that adorned the top of her head. She pulled her mother’s old, knitted shawl over her bare shoulders and got up to close the large windows that sat on either side of her parents bed. She collapsed onto the soft mattress and buried her face into the quilted comforter. She inhaled deeply through her nose, taking in the bouquet of her parents. She could still smell the saltwater and sand that always clung to her mother, her soft blond hair being riddled with the rough grains. She could smell her father; the scent of oil and freshly chopped wood had always followed him around no matter how many times he had swum in the ocean that day. She let her mind become full and heavy with the memories of her yester year. She listened to the waves of the ocean until sleep pulled her in with the rolling tide.

 
     
                      Chapter Two
     
     
       Maggie sat upright at the kitchen counter as the golden, California, morning, sun poured in through the large bay windows. Streams of light danced off of the rich mahogany floor of the living room, giving it an almost red appearance. Stretching, she arched her back and cracked her finger while checking the clock. It read 9:45, her brother was due to be at the house by 11. It was slightly worrisome that he had not bothered to call her, and would only communicate through what seemed to be swiftly written E-Mails. He had explained that he really couldn’t find the time to talk to her over the phone, that he