One Moment (The Little Hollow Series Book 1) (9 page)

Of course I knew that, I’d begged my mom to turn him in more times than I could count. It still didn’t change anything, she was so scared of him and rightly so but she also still loved him. That was what angered me more than anything.

“Sammy, let’s not do this right now, not today.”

She sighed. “What was it for this time?” I couldn’t even look at her but knew I needed to tell her or she would keep prying, so as always, a vague but well voiced answer popped out of my mouth.

“I got in the way again, he wouldn’t stop hurting her.” Turning my face towards hers with the pull of her gentle fingertips, I couldn’t help but lean into her caress.

“You can’t keep waiting for the day to get one up on him, Con, he’s dangerous and it’s getting worse.” Hearing my own thoughts come from Sammy’s lips gave me shivers, I needed to change the subject.

“So, I was looking at college’s yesterday.” I stopped and waited for a reaction off her. She answered with excitement for me but not before I saw the sad look in her eyes. “I’ll come back whenever I can, or you could even go to college yourself, Sam.”

Looking out over the park, she sighed. “You know I can’t do that, Con.” I felt sad for her, she was stuck here but I couldn’t blame her for not wanting to leave. She had responsibilities, her mom wouldn’t magically sober up and she wouldn’t leave Tommy until he was ready to go to college himself. Feeling the need to change the subject again, I turned it to more trivial things, I told her all the latest goings on from school and she told me all of the goings on from around town that she heard in the salon.

Before we knew it, it was five o’clock and we both had to head back. We stopped off and picked Tommy up from his buddies’ house and he came out bouncing and animated.

“Connor!” he shouted and stuck his hand out for a high five.

“Hey, bud! How you doing?” I slapped his hand and he started telling me all about his day, the way only a nine-year-old could. He was a good kid, even after all he’d been through, I guess he had Sammy to thank for that.

“…and then we had ice cream with rainbow sprinkles on. Sammy, can we get rainbow sprinkles?” Looking over at Sammy, she had the biggest grin on her face.

“If you get all your chores done, sure.” With a whoop, he ran on ahead and Sammy watched after him.

“You’re awesome with him, you know that? He’s lucky to have you.” She continued looking ahead, watching what he was doing.

“I’m lucky to have him. At times, I think it would just be easier if he wasn’t here, I could get on with my life and finish school and go off to college. But I wouldn’t change this for anything. He keeps me sane, along with a few others.” She bumped my shoulder and smiled at me so I wrapped my arm around her.

“I’ll always be here, Sam.”

Looking out over the water, the feeling inside of me was still so raw. That heart wrenching night had changed the way I looked at life, it taught me that life was precious but that it could also be taken away within a heartbeat. I couldn’t help but feel the pang of guilt that was hidden away inside me.

My head dropped into my hands as a flashback of that night replayed. Going over every detail I could remember, I needed to find something I could’ve done differently. In all honesty, I had gone over it a million times already but one more time wouldn’t hurt.

Running scenarios in my head was a daily occurrence and it killed me that I couldn’t get closure to make that guilt go away. Looking down into my hands at the key chain I brought here every year, I thought back to the last of mine and Tommy’s ‘man days’.

“Don’t let him climb too high, Con, I mean it.” I laughed at Sammy’s protectiveness.

“Stop being such a spoil sport, I’ll look after him, you know I always do.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Okay, okay. You win, no climbing too high. Yes, sir.” I finished with a salute before giving her a wink and driving off.

Tommy bounced in the seat beside me with excitement. For the past two years we’d made a pact to go on ‘man days’. They consisted of purely ‘man things’ as he liked to call them, like hiking, climbing trees and making fires, although that last one was between us. He didn’t have a male role model in his life so I guess you could say I kind of took it upon myself to be that for him. In all honesty, I really enjoyed these days, I’d always wanted a sibling and Tommy was my substitute for that.

“You ready for this hike, bud? It’s going to be a little longer than the last time we were here.” Turning and giving me his biggest grin ever, he started on one of his speeches that wasn’t really a conversation, it was all on-sided, a barrel of questions; I couldn’t get a word in edge wise.

“Yes! I can’t wait to get to the top, is there lots of trees? I bet there is. Will I be able to climb the tallest tree? I bet there’s a
giant
one! Oh, have you remembered the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers? I can’t wait for those. I think next time we should try grilled cheese again, it didn’t go so well last time but I bet next time we’ll do it good huh, Con?” This kid made my day.

Chuckling, I ruffled his hair. “Sure, we can try grilled cheese again next time.” Only there was no next time.

After the long hike and climbing of trees we sat around the fire we had made, Tommy beaming with pride whilst roasting his marshmallow. “Have you had a good day? We should get ready to head back soon, Red will think I’ve kidnapped you.” His smile suddenly disappeared.

“Sammy won’t tell me off, it’s okay, Connor, I’ll tell her.” He looked towards the fire. “Mama might though, we should go home now.”

I moved closer to him. “Hey, no one will tell you off, I was just kidding around. You know they both love you and they know I’m looking after you.”

‘They’ didn’t but Sammy did, it’s just their mom who couldn’t care less, although I’d never say that to Tommy, I think he already knew.

“Mama shouts,” he said, shuffling his feet in the dirt.

I turned towards him. “Oh yeah? Parents do that sometimes.”

He was thinking intensely. “Sammy never shouts but mama says Sammy is going to leave us and go to college soon, I don’t want her to leave. Are you leaving me too?”

The question came out of nowhere, I didn’t know what to say. Why would Cindy be telling him something like that? There was no way Sammy would leave him. After a pause, I knew what I needed to say, the truth.

“In about a year or so I’ll need to go off to college, bud, but I promise I’ll come back whenever I can to see you and we’ll still have these special days, and Sammy isn’t going anywhere, she’s staying right here with you so don’t you worry.”

I rifled through my pockets for my car keys and found what I was looking for. “Here, whenever you feel lonely or your mama ever tells you that again, you look at this key chain. That is the one person you can always count on, you know that right?”

He stared at the picture of him and Sammy smiling back at me at her sixteenth birthday picnic and brushed his finger across it. He flung his arms around me and I hugged him back tight.

“I’m always here for you, Tommy, you and your sister”

Brushing my finger over the key chain, I took one last look and placed it down on the edge of the dock. This world was cruel.

Hearing footsteps behind me, I wiped the tear rolling down my cheek away before anyone saw me here crying.

I straightened up and froze as a voice startled me.

“Connor?”

What I was seeing hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. It couldn’t be, could it? He tensed and started to stand up, he was a far cry from the seventeen-year-old Connor I remembered, he was at least six-foot-three now and built like it’d never seen him before. He’d definitely been to the gym more times in one week than I’d been in my whole lifetime.

But as soon as he turned around, I knew it was him instantly, those warm brown eyes bore holes deeper into me than any other person ever could. He was always able to see right through me.

As I got closer, I noticed what he had placed on the dock only seconds ago, that key chain, the same that was here every year at this time. I couldn’t believe it. I felt the rage and the betrayal build up inside me. I could feel the thick tension in the air and before I knew what I was doing, I was charging towards him.

“How dare you show your face here again!” I spat, pointing directly at him. It didn’t go unnoticed how handsome he had gotten with age as my mouth continued to have a voice of its own. “How could you ever come back here?” He tried to take a step back while still gawping at me but I followed him.

“Sammy, I-” That voice, I’d been yearning to hear that voice again for the past eight years and now I was, it just cut me right to the core. It stung and that made me madder at him. Wait? Did he just call me Sammy?

“No! Don’t you call me that! You lost the right to call me that after you left me!” He just stood there, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. What was wrong with him? He was infuriating and I couldn’t just stand here making a fool of myself. The emotion was building up inside me and my eyes started watering. Damn tears! Why now? I turned around and heard his deep gravelly voice resonate through me in a soft tone.

“Sam, I get why you’re mad, trust me I do.” Oh did he? Did he really get it? What, while he was swanning around living his perfect life? Meanwhile, I was left here picking up the pieces of my broken heart with no one left but an alcoholic mom who just bordered on unresponsive after Tommy’s accident.

I sniggered through my tears. “Oh yeah? Please enlighten me. I’m
dying
to hear how hard your life has been!” I heard a sigh and turned back around, feeling like I was a little more in control of my tears.