“So you left town?” That’s what people didn’t understand, I didn’t leave town because of what happened.
“I would have never of left if it wasn’t for my step dad. I said I had a bad upbringing, that was the understatement of the year. That night after I’d gone home, my mom said we had to leave, that my step dad was coming after me because I’d borrowed his work keys to fix my friends car. He had a gun and he definitely wasn’t afraid to use it.” Looking away from me, I could see that he was thinking about what I had said.
“I won’t say I’m sorry for what you went through, it made you the man you are today and you should be damn proud! But I am sorry that you’ve let it shape your life. You have to stop beating yourself up. You couldn’t have saved that boy; he was already gone from what I remember reading. I think I have an idea why you come back here every year and you’ll know that what I’m about to say is true down to your very core. No matter how many times you visit the scene of the accident, no matter how much you torture yourself and convince yourself that, had you of done something different, it still won’t bring him back and you won’t move on.” He let that sink in before continuing. “What I don’t understand is why you’ve stayed around this time. You’re normally gone within a day or two.”
I rubbed my hands together before a welcome image of Sammy flooded my thoughts. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye. Nobody knows I’ve been coming back until this time around. I’m normally careful but this time I got caught up in the memories and stayed for too long. Tommy’s sister found me out on the dock and all hell broke loose.”
“Ah, there’s always a woman involved. We’re you as close to her as you were Tommy?”
I smiled. “Closer. We did everything together. I guess you could say we meshed well because of our home lives. Back then she was like the other half of me, it was strictly platonic but I knew I felt more. Leaving her was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I never even contacted her afterwards.” Running a hand through my hair, I was lost.
“Do you love her?” Shocked at the question, I just stared at him. “It’s a simple question, son.” Did I? I mean, I used to in a ‘she’s my best friend way’.
But was it just that?
“That’s a loaded question. I guess I need to figure that out. I’m going to talk to her tonight. I’d like her to know why I really left because she was pretty mad at me.” With a pat on the back, he got up and stretched his legs out.
“Well, whatever happens with that, I wish you all the best.” I stood up to join him on the walk back. He turned and gripped my shoulder. “You’re a good man, Connor and I know you’re just trying to do the right thing but don’t let this situation keep you from living your life and from experiencing the things that really matter. No one gets life perfect the first time around but we only have one of them. So we need to learn from our mistakes and move on. If we dwell on them, we’re never looking forward but from what I can see, the only mistake you’ve made is not letting yourself forgive.” With that, he started walking back towards the B&B. I knew he was right and I was ready to forgive myself.
I just hoped Sammy could do the same.
My wrist was hurting and I was starting to get a headache. All this paperwork wasn’t a great end to the working day. It’d been a long one and all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch with some junk food and car crash TV but I guess I had to at least make an appearance tonight.
Why me? I thought as I banged my head against the breakfast counter. “Urgh! How much more?” Keeley chuckled and handed me another sheet of paper.
“Just two more after that one, I promise, then it’ll all be over and we can start getting ready for tonight.”
Getting ready?
“All I’m doing is jumping in the shower and throwing some clothes on,” I said matter-of-factly. Looking wide eyed, Kee flicked my hair with the end of her pen.
“I’m only saying this because I’m your best friend and I wouldn’t let you walk out of here looking a riot. Your hair looks like shit so I’m definitely getting my hands on it.”
Well thank you, Keeley, I said in my head.
“Way to make a girl feel good. Look, I know you have good intentions so do what you have to do. Washed or unwashed?” I don’t know why I even asked, she raised her eyebrow. “Okay, I won’t wash my hair. Get the dry shampoo out though, I’m not looking like a fryer.” Kee preferred to style unwashed hair because it held better.
“This last one you just need to sign.” She pointed to where my signature was needed.
“Hallelujah! Now am I allowed to go wash?” I smiled sweetly at her.
“Please do, you kinda stink,” she said, wrinkling her nose at me.
I stuck my tongue out at her before sniffing myself.
“Do not!” She giggled as I walked into the bathroom.
As I was lathering up my body, I wondered if Lewis would be there tonight. I hadn’t planned to stay long, and neither had Kee, but if he was there then I was determined to get them talking. I could see a good thing happening if she only let him in. Wrapping a towel around myself, I walked out the bathroom to see the one person I could do without seeing tonight; my mom.
She was perched on the end of the sofa with a very uncomfortable looking Keeley. “To what do I owe the pleasure,” I said with an undertone of sarcasm.
I was surprised at how sober she looked for once, especially since it was nearing six o’ clock. “Well, it was good to see you again, Cindy, I’ll leave you two to it, I should go get myself ready.”
As Kee got up and headed for a shower, I pulled on my bathrobe from my room and walked back through to find out what was going on in the twilight zone.
“I thought I’d come and let you know I had a job interview today.” She paused to gauge my reaction. I tried to keep my face impassive but she must’ve seen the wave of shock that appeared. “Oh, don’t look so shocked, I’m a grown woman I can take care of things myself.”
Wow. That was well overdue.
“I never said anything. Where at?”
She tucked a strand of her red hair behind her ears and licked her lips. “They’re looking for a secretary in one of the office buildings over on fifth. It’s nothing fancy but it’s a job.”
This was the thing with my mom. She had no references, hadn’t really held a job down and apart from the short stint hairdressing, she had very few skills. But she’d still apply for the more skilled jobs over just any job, she was too good to work in a fast food joint according to her.
“So, how did it go?” I was waiting for a barrel of excuses to come out of her mouth.
“I think it went well. They were shocked it was me at first, I may have misspelt my last name and exaggerated a little on my CV but how hard can working a computer really be? They want me to go for a skills test so that’s good news, right?”
If they knew it was my mom they never would’ve invited her in for the interview in the first place, I suspected they were just being polite.
“Yeah, great news. But you do know this skills test will be on a computer. You’ve never used one before in your life, I’d be surprised if you even know how to turn it on.” I snorted and she shot out of her seat.
“Well you could at least be a little bit more positive for me, Samantha. I’ll see myself out.”
Here we go again.
“Look, mom, you can’t just go around lying on your CV. You’ve never used a computer before so I was just being realistic. I’m really happy you got the interview though and if you want me to go over computer basics with you, I will.”
She gave me a disjointed smile. “You wouldn’t mind? I know what I did wasn’t smart but I’m trying Sam.”
I looked her over. “It’s just good to see you sober.” I turned away from her, we didn’t have emotional moments, or the normal mom and daughter conversations, so it was a little uncomfortable. I felt her before I saw her. She gave me a quick, rare hug before taking off out the apartment door, I guess she felt
the awkwardness too.
“You can go in the shower now, Keeley.” I laughed at her scuttling away from the door. She wasn’t the stealthiest of people.
After half an hour, Keeley came into my room looking incredible in a low-key way. She had such a unique style compared to anyone around here and I really admired that. She had on the outfit she had tried on the night before, complete with hair in loose curls and a dark, smoky eyeshadow which she paired with a classic red lip.
“Looking stylish, Kee.” She rolled her eyes before motioning for me to turn around so she could start on my hair. I’d gone for a much subtler makeup look myself. Apart from mascara, I had no other eye makeup on and my skin was looking really good today, the sun was working it’s magic so all I had on was a light tinted moisturizer and a blush that really made my green eyes pop.
“Lipstick?” I didn’t even need to expand on that, Kee knew what I meant.
“Well if you’re going for au-natural then that really soft pink. Or a dark purple if you’re feeling daring.” She gave me a wink in the mirror, knowing I wasn’t going for that option. “But you look beautiful, by the way.” I gave her a smile before she announced she was done.
“Am I presentable enough for you now?” Spinning around, I nearly tripped over my rug. “Okay, remind me no dancing tonight. I’m feeling kind of clumsy and I’ve not even had a beer yet.” I giggled as she raised an eyebrow.
“When aren’t you clumsy? Let’s get this show on the road, it’s almost a quarter to eight.”
What? How had time passed so quickly? I grabbed my purse and locked up as we left.
“Fancy walking down? It’s a nice night.” She paused, then agreed. It was only a ten-minute walk away; we only drove earlier because of the boxes. As we walked down the street, Kee was being strangely quiet and every now and again, she kept looking around. What was up with this girl the past few days?
“The bogeyman isn’t going to get us you know.” I laughed at my joke but she didn’t seem impressed. “Something wrong?”
She cleared her throat while shaking her head. “Of course not, I was just…taking in the environment.” Yeah right. “If I’m going to put up with Nora tonight I’m going to need a beer.” She’d read my mind and changed the subject.
“I was thinking the same thing, one or two couldn’t hurt to dull down having to spend any more time with that woman. But hey, at least you got an apology off her. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her say she was sorry before, ever. Then again, I’ve never heard somebody tell her off before.” I giggle, thinking back to this morning. Hilarious.
Kee scoffed. “That woman is beyond rude, it was overdue.” She had a triumphant smile on her face remembering this morning’s antics and I let her revel in that for the last minute of our journey.
“You ready?” I squeezed Kee’s hand before opening the door and being bombarded with people who were already half cut. My plan on arriving two hours late had worked perfectly, people were already merry and wouldn’t realize if I didn’t stop to make small talk to them. I gave each one a quick wave and headed to the makeshift bar.
“Samantha? Excuse me please, Samantha?” I turned to Nora pushing her way through a group of men. “Where have you two been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Tilly and the rest of the book club wanted to talk to you earlier, they wanted to say well done for all of this.” She waved her arm around. “But they went home just five minutes ago.” She pouted at me, then squeezed in between us.
“Oh, well isn’t that a shame,” Kee said over Nora’s head, not bothering to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. “I guess we’ll catch them another time.” She flagged the barman down to our end and ordered two beers.
“And a white wine for little old me.” Nora batted her lashes so hard I thought she was going to take off. The barman brought over our drinks and I signaled to a free table.
“We’re just going to go grab a table over there Nora. Have a great night.” I forced a smile out before retreating to the table I’d picked out. It was in the perfect place to people watch and Kee gave me a thumbs up to show her approval.
“Quick escape, I like it! What in the-” I looked over to where she was pointing and nearly spat my beer everywhere. In the middle of the dance floor were two of the sweetest old ladies doing some sort of fast paced square dance to a Dolly Parton number. How they were moving that fast I didn’t know but it was so fascinating that I couldn’t pull my eyes away. I looked over at Kee, I guess you definitely couldn’t judge a book by its cover.
We spent the next half an hour smiling and laughing until a Blake Shelton song came on. Kee pulled me up to dance, she was letting loose and I decided I loved this side of her so I relented and started to enjoy myself.
We had to do this more often, she was right the other night, we were getting old before our time. Fifteen minutes later, we both had a sheen of sweat across our foreheads and were grinning like Cheshire cats. We really did need this.
Disrupting my thoughts, a hand landed on my shoulder and Kee’s eyes bulged as she went all shades of red.
“Mind if I cut in?”
I looked from Kee to Lewis and bowed out to go get another beer. I didn’t turn back around as I walked towards the bar, knowing she would be giving me some sort of look. I giggled to myself and sighed a happy sigh, taking a risk to look towards the makeshift dance floor they seemed to be in a deep conversation and I was intrigued as to what they were talking about so intensely.
Looking around the room, I spotted the biker guy from this morning hanging around by the doors. He was staring in Keeley and Lewis’s direction with a menacing look on his face. Who was this guy? Had Lewis not fixed his bike properly or something? Whoever he was, he was starting to really creep me out.
The barman tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to grab my beer, when my eyes sought him out again he was gone.
Comfortable in the fact he was no longer here, I made my way over to the table we were sitting at previously. That encounter with the biker must’ve brought me down off of my high, I was starting to feel uncomfortable being here on my own and I considered leaving when my eyes locked onto a face that made my blood boil and my heart race all at the same time.
Standing outside of the community hall, I took a few deep breaths, preparing myself for what was about to happen.
What if she wasn’t even in there? No, she would be, Keeley said she would.
Nodding at the biker looking dude who just walked out the doors, I raised a brow, why would he want to go to something like this? Shaking my head, I went on inside.
The place was crowded and the air felt sticky. I politely excused myself as I pushed through all the people lingering around in front of the doors and I started scanning the room, setting my focus on looking for Sammy. I saw her before she saw me. For several seconds, she looked really happy and I considered just walking out of here and never coming back, until a somber expression crossed her beautiful features.
Just at that moment, it was like she felt me watching her, she looked up and instantly found me.
She looked shocked and I used that as momentum to make it to her table before she ran away. She looked past me and didn’t even acknowledge my presence, I was stood right in front of her, so I sat down.
“Hi, Sammy.” Her head spun in my direction with a menacing look.
“I thought I told you to get out of town? Oh, no, wait, you don’t actually give a crap about my feelings or what I want, my apologies.” She gave me a sickly sweet smile and I fought the urge to smile back nervously.
“If you knew me at all, you’d know that wasn’t true.”
She took a swig of her beer before replying, “You’re right, I don’t know you, Connor. I don’t know you at all. The Connor I thought I knew respected people’s wishes. The Connor I thought I knew wouldn’t have left his best friend completely on her own. So forgive me for thinking you were a decent guy once upon a time.”
It was too stuffy and I was struggli
ng to hear what she was saying. This wasn’t down to a good start. I huffed.
“Will you just please come outside? All I want is the chance to explain, nothing more. If you still want me to disappear after that then I swear, I’ll leave and never come back.”
I paused and looked into the depths of her eyes. She used to be so open with me but the eyes looking back at me now were so guarded and so unlike the eyes I used to look into. “Sam, please…”
Looking down to play with the beer bottle in her hands, I realized that the only way I was going to get anything out of her was to give her an ultimatum.
“I’m going to leave now. I’ll be waiting at old oak, if you’re not there within half an hour I’ll assume that’s it. You don’t want to know why I had to leave.” I brushed a thumb over her hand before she had the chance to pull it away. “If that’s the case, then I just want you to know that all I ever wanted was for you to be happy.” I got up from the table, walked out the building and started heading for the park.
Sat under old oak, I checked my watch, it had been twenty-five minutes already and she still hadn’t showed. I didn’t know what I was thinking; that I was just going to walk in there and demand she hear me out? That she would just show up for me after everything? I was so stupid.
Frustrated, I punched the ground next to me.
“What did it ever do to you?” My heart leapt out of my chest as I stood up and turned around, the moonlight danced across her figure. Arms crossed, she looked furious. “You’ve got a nerve; I’ll give you that.”
I took a step towards her. “I didn’t come here to ruin your night, Sammy, for that I’m sorry. But if you just knew why I had to-” She closed the space between us.
“Why you had to leave? Connor, there couldn’t be any possible reason why you had to do anything so I’m looking forward to hearing this.” Standing as still as a statue, she waited.
I raked a hand through my hair. I was surprised she was even here in the first place and now she was as close to being willing to listen as she would ever be, I was at a loss where to start.
One Moment (The Little Hollow Series Book 1) Page 11
