One Moment (The Little Hollow Series Book 1) (17 page)

They were full of wisdom that can only come from living, from loving. They said they enjoyed having me around, their two kids were fully grown adults now and they had families of their own but both didn’t live in the area so they only got to see them on the odd occasion.

After breakfast was over, the only thing I could think to do was to take a walk and Lyle offered to come with me. We walked down the street in comfortable silence, saying the odd hello to passers-by.

“What’s on your mind, son?” Not expecting the sudden question, I didn’t know how to answer. “Now me and Betty, we’ve never pushed or asked you any questions about why you keep coming back here every year but I know it must be important to come put up with us old coots.” He winked to put me at ease before taking a seat on an old bench.

I sat down next to him, leaning my forearms against my knees and watched the traffic roll on by. After a few minutes, I took a deep breath.

“I used to live around here. I moved exactly a year before I started coming to the B&B.” He nodded for me to continue. “I didn’t have the best upbringing so I guess you’d think I was crazy for coming back here, but I needed to.” I sighed. “My names isn’t Mac, it’s Connor...Connor Hartley.” He looked a little surprised for a minute and then recovered himself.

“I can’t say I’m not surprised, Ma- Connor, but I’m intrigued as to why you felt you needed to hide your identity.” I turned to face him.

“It was never my intention to deceive you and your wife, Lyle. Everything else about me is true. My name brings a lot of responsibility for me and I didn’t want to be recognized. Eight years ago there was a terrible accident over in Little Hollow.” I closed my eyes and paused. It was hard to talk about.

“The boy?” I nodded my head. When I opened my eyes, Lyle was staring at me intently.

“His name was Tommy. We spent so much time together that we were practically family, he was like a brother to me.”

Realization started washing over his face.

“You’re the teen who tried to save him.” It was a statement more than a question so I just nodded once in response.

“I tried. I tried and I failed. Do you have any idea the guilt that comes with something like that?” I hung my head in my hands, hoping to keep the tears at bay.

“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.