One Moment (The Little Hollow Series Book 1) (18 page)

“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 struggling 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.

“Every time I’ve come back here, I’ve wanted to come tell you why I couldn’t be here for you, why I couldn’t console you when you needed me.” I stopped to clear my throat, now was not the time to cry. “In a roundabout way, it was for you. I couldn’t just waltz right back into your life like nothing had happened.”

She scoffed. “You wouldn’t have had to if you never would have left in the first place.” I couldn’t fault her logic.

“I know that!” I raised my voice a little more than I intended to and I saw her flinch, I kicked the ground completely frustrated with myself. Just spit it out already, I said to myself. “I had to leave because my mom needed me to get her away from here.”

Even in this light, I could see her eyes spark with intensity but she didn’t say anything. “I was planning on going home and coming right back to you. I walked into my house and the photos that were on the walls were strewn across the floor, vases and lamps were broken and scattered over the room too. I could hear crying and banging coming from their room, naturally, I ran towards the commotion but it was just my mom throwing things in suitcases. I tried to tell her what had happened but nothing would come out of my mouth, I just stood there gaping at her. She started telling me we had to go. I was confused and I told her I couldn’t leave. Sammy, Tony had found out about us fixing Ben’s car in the garage a few days before my birthday, do you remember?” I waited until she nodded and then continued, “Anyway, he was drunk and he beat my mom. He told her he was coming after me next and took his gun out, he wanted to hit her where it hurt.”

At that, she gasped but I just continued relaying the night to her. “The next thing I knew, we were in my room packing. My hands were moving of their own accord and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Then we were driving out of town, I drove for miles upon miles that night not wanting to stop but at the same time, fighting myself from not turning back around. It all happened so fast.” Looking out into the woods, a tear rolled down my cheek and I swiped at it before Sammy could see.

“There was not one moment that I didn’t want to come back for you.” I gathered my composure and turned to look at her. Silent tears were falling down her face and I just wanted to gather her up into my arms.

“But you didn’t. You never came back, you never called, you never text. But then again, you did come back didn’t you? A year later you came back. Don’t even think for a minute I haven’t worked it out by now. Those key chains have been there every single year since. I was confused at first and a little weirded out. But then I just figured it was my mom’s way of coping alongside her drinking.” She took a deep breath. “But no, you came back every single year. Stuck that stupid key chain on the dock, then left.”

She was right, it was selfish of me to not have got in contact with her.

“I can’t say anything other than I thought it was for the best. As the years went on, it got harder to even think about attempting it. You started to look like you were getting on with your life, who was I…” What did I say?

“You’ve been watching me? Like some kind of stalker? This has got to be some sick twisted joke. Is this a game to you?”

I was taken aback by her sudden mood change. “Of course I don’t think this is a game, I can’t do anything but apologize to you. I said I came here to explain and I have.” She was silent for several seconds and all I could hear was our breathing sounding harsh against the silence.

“Yes, you have. And you said if I wanted you to leave then you’d leave, right?”