“The only emergency contact I see on file is a Cassie Reynolds.”

He swallowed hard. “That’s my sister. Will I be allowed to see him?”

She studied the computer monitor and then shook her head. “It looks like he checked out yesterday.”

Yesterday. He’d just missed him. “Did he complete the program? That wasn’t thirty days.”

“It doesn’t look like it,” she said, with a sympathetic smile. “A lot of people struggle to make it through the first time. It’s very intense.”

He nodded. His father had dropped out. What happened to wanting to come back to them a better man? Anger rose in his chest, replacing the empty hurt he’d walked away from Erika with.

So close to seeing the man after all this time and he was too late.

Not that he would have gotten the chance to see him anyway, according to the center’s rules, but just knowing he was there, getting help, taking the necessary steps to get his life on track again would have been almost enough.

Obviously his father still couldn’t put their family first.

He cleared his throat. “Did he leave an address or phone number?”

She shook her head. “We couldn’t give it out even if he had,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

He hit the ledge with his fist, then backed away as her eyes widened. “Sorry... I’m sorry,” he mumbled, hurrying out of the clinic and back into his truck. His heart pounded in his ears and his mind was a mess.

Coming to Anchorage had been a huge mistake. There was obviously nothing here for him.

Chapter Twenty-Five

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“FORTY-NINE... FIFTY,” Tank said, taking the weight bar from Reed and setting it back in the holder. “Great job, man. Maybe one day you’ll be lifting as much as me.”

Reed was hardly in a joking mood. When his buddy had suggested the early morning workout session, he’d thought it might be just what he needed to blow off steam and ease some of the pent-up anxiety from the last few days. First, the argument with his sister, then the breakup with Erika—he was having the shittiest week of his life. He still hadn’t been able to wrap his mind around the situation with his father, and despite Cassie’s attempts to talk, he wasn’t ready yet.

He was a mess.

Unfortunately, the workout was making him even more annoyed. Or rather his workout partner was.

As pissed as he was at Cassie, he was starting to get her frustration with Tank. He knew Tank’s situation was complicated, being a single dad and all, but why was he keeping Cassie at bay, stringing her along and using her as a babysitter but never giving her what she needed. After his own experience with Erika, being in love and getting completely crushed, he understood how his sister must be feeling all the time.