One Moment (The Little Hollow Series Book 1) (10 page)

“It’s not easy for me being back here again, Sam. After all the torment I was put through in this very town. Tommy was like a brother to me too.” No! I didn’t know what I was doing as I slammed my fists down on his chest one by one.

“No! You don’t get to say his name! How could you come back here year after year and not have the decency to come see me?” Grabbing my wrists gently, he ran his calloused thumbs over the backs of my hands like he used to do when I was upset.

“I’m sorry, Sammy, I tried a bunch of times but after what happened that night, I didn’t think you’d want to see me again.” Damn right I didn’t! I didn’t understand why he’d left me in the first place.

“You left me. You left me broken. After everything that night, you just left me. No phone call, no letters, no texts. You even got rid of your cell number! How is that possible, Connor? Huh? You said you’d always be there and I will never forgive you for that.”

He flinched. “What happened that night wasn’t my fault, Sam. I couldn’t stop myself from leaving just as much as I couldn’t stop what happened to Tommy.” He looked at me with watery eyes and in that moment I realized not only did I hold guilt for myself, I also had been blaming Connor subconsciously all these years.

Looking up at him, I must’ve been a state but I didn’t care, his eyes were so sad and that spurred me on, he had no right to be upset because he was the one that left me.

I pulled my hands away from his, I had to get out of here. I turned around and started to walk as fast as I could away from him as the tears started to fall.

“Sammy, wait!” Hearing him call my name hurt deep down and I didn’t know what was coming next but I knew what I needed to say to make a getaway. Taking a deep breath, I turned around to face him.

“I don’t ever want to see you again, Connor Hartley, do you understand me? Do what you need to do, then get the hell out of town!” I couldn’t believe that came out my mouth, I’d spent years yearning for him and now he was here, I couldn’t wait for him to be gone. Was that what I really wanted?

“Pack this! We need to get the hell out of town! Connor! Don’t just stand there, you hear me?” I started emptying my closet into the duffel mom just threw at me.

“Mom, you need to listen! Tommy-” Tears started falling down my cheeks and I slunk down onto my knees cradling the duffel. Kneeling down in front of me and taking my face in her hands she looked into my eyes with urgent ones of her own.

“Connor, I’m so sorry, sweetheart, but whatever’s gone on we need to leave right now! Tony could be back any minute and he’s on the warpath looking for you, he found out you borrowed the keys to the garage to fix your friend’s truck. We need to go, son, please!” Her pleading made me momentarily snap out of it. Wait? What?

“I can’t leave, Sammy needs me!” She squeezed my hand before getting up and heading for my drawers again.

“And I need you to pack that duffel, Connor Hartley, right now.” I’d never seen my mom like this before, it spooked me so I did what I was told. She wasn’t the forceful type and it hit me that this was more serious than what she was letting on. Just then, I noticed she was limping and had blood running down from her knee.

“What did he do? What did he do, mom? He won’t get away with this again, we’re not leaving.” He hadn’t touched me since my seventeenth birthday three weeks ago when he realized I was getting far too big for him to be trying to push around. The day he tried and I stood almost three inches taller than him, was the day he never tried to physically control me again, he’d backed off on my mom a little too but seeing her in this state made the anger rile back up.

“Connor! Please! You don’t understand, he took his gun out with him and he’s been drinking! I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you, you’re getting your ass in that truck if it kills me!” I flinched and Tommy’s lifeless face was all I could see. I stumbled back into my wall and started to hyperventilate.

“Connor, sweetheart, it’s time to go. Give it a few days and you can contact Sammy, I promise. We can stop when we’re far enough away and I can help you but right now I need you to help me get all of this into the truck and drive. Can you do that?”

I finished packing the rest of my things and we took it all outside. Lifting the tailgate down and throwing all the bags in the truck bed, we heard a familiar engine. I panicked and jumped into the driver’s seat, not stopping to put on my seatbelt. I watched my mom pull herself into the passenger side and started the engine. “Connor! Go!”

As I pulled out the driveway, I narrowly missed the mailbox but I didn’t care. All I knew is that I needed to keep going to keep my mom safe. I couldn’t risk him following us, I didn’t know what would happen if he did.

As we passed the town borders, my heart seized and tears started falling down my cheeks.
Get it together, Connor, you’re seventeen-years-old and it isn’t forever, get mom to safety, then come back for Sammy,
I chanted in my head.

Getting my mom out of there was the task at hand so I focused all my mental energy on that until we finally pulled over at a motel five hours away.

Her words stung me to my core. I didn’t follow her, hell, I didn’t even have the guts to move off that very spot. I felt like she’d chewed me up, spat me out and stomped all over me. I didn’t blame her but it didn’t make it hurt any less.

My beautiful, strong Sammy. She was a force to be reckoned with but I was determined I wasn’t leaving this town until she had heard me out. If she only knew why I had to leave, I was sure she would see the situation differently.

Finally shaking myself out my haze, I walked off the dock and started making my way through the sand. I needed an early night and a shower to wash the sting off my skin. I had so many emotions running through me but I knew I needed her to hear my side and make her understand if it was the last thing I did. Leaving her was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do and I wasn’t about to do it again willingly.

Driving back to Sharlington, I started to think about putting a plan of action together. I really needed Sammy to hear me out without shutting me down again but I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t want to turn up when she was working, then suddenly it hit me.

I couldn’t help but think that Keeley may be my way in. I decided I needed to visit Lewis again first thing tomorrow to get the ball rolling, I had to meet with Keeley and make her listen to my side of the story without her flipping out too.

Arriving back at the B&B, I was thankful that no one was at the front desk when I walked in. Talking right now wasn’t what I had in mind, I just needed to get a shower and to be by myself for a little while so that I could think things through.

Keeley didn’t seem the type of girl to mince her words and I had to get this right the first time. Turning the water to cold, I stripped off and stepped in. With the freezing water running down my back, I started to feel the tension ebb away as if the water was literally washing it off me.

“I don’t ever want to see you again, Connor Hartley, do you understand me? Do what you need to do, then get the hell out of town!”

I shivered knowing I only had the one chance to get this right. I needed her to understand that I didn’t leave her of my own accord. I wouldn’t have ever done that to her, coming back every year and not stopping by to see her was another ballpark altogether. I had no idea how I was going to explain that to her. I guess the truth was a good start. Sighing at the momentous task ahead of me, I shut my eyes and let the water cascade over my head.

Ducking out from under my patchwork comforter to check the time, it occurred to me that Kee still wasn’t back yet. It was gone quarter past eight, where was she? Had she really stayed with Lewis so long again? This confirmed my suspicions, she liked him but was too afraid to admit it. She didn’t get close to people and I guess this was just her way of working it out in her head.

I’d been in a heaped pile under this comforter and not moved since I’d arrived back in the apartment. I still couldn’t believe what had just happened, I couldn’t have made it up if I tried.

Every year, I found those key chains. Stupidly, I always thought it was my mom. Finding out it had been Connor this whole time, shook me to my core.

I threw my head in my hands, I had acted like a crazy person but I was warranted to, right? Why did he have to show up now? Forgetting the past had become a talent of mine and right now was not the time to bring it all back up. I closed my eyes as the image of Connor flooded my mind. As angry as I was with him, I couldn’t deny how he affected me still.

The familiar ding of the bell went and I heard footsteps making their way up the stairs a couple of seconds later. Rubbing at my eyes, I shot up and started folding the comforter so I didn’t look like Miss Haversham.

“Sam, you here? We really need to talk. What was I thinking? Sam? What’s wrong?” At her soft tone and worried look, all the emotions came flooding back all at once and the tears started to fall.

“He’s back. Why’s he here, Keeley?” She dropped her purse and came running over taking me in her arms.

“Hey! Shush, it’s okay, Sam. Who’s here? What’s happened?” I could tell from her voice I was freaking her out. “Has someone hurt you? Shall I call the cops?” Her voice started to rise and I had to reel in my emotions enough so I could talk.

“Not physically no, I just don’t know what to do. Connor’s back.”

She had a puzzled look on her face and I realized I’d never told her about Connor before, preferring to keep him in the past, so I started from the beginning.

“Well, shit… and he came here to see you?” I shook my head.

“No, he had no intention of seeing me. But he’s the one that’s been leaving those key chains I keep finding, like it’s some sort of sick joke. He’s been here every year, Kee.”

She pulled a face. “Do you think he wants to make amends?”

I thought about that for a second. “I have no idea what he wants and I’m not quite sure I care. He was more than a best friend to me, he was my lifeline back then and I lost both him and Tommy all in the same night. When I saw him today, I didn’t know what to do. My body just had a mind of its own. I froze at first then I just got this blinding rage and went all hulk on him.”

Getting up to get me a tissue, she looked puzzled. “Were you two ever, you know, together?”

I thought back to our teen years. “There was a kiss once on my sixteenth birthday but it was never talked about, or mentioned, after it happened. It wasn’t like I didn’t want there to be, I just didn’t want to ruin our friendship. Plus, I was sure he only saw me as his best friend, more like a sister type than anything else.”