When I'm With You (Little Hollow Series, #2)(19)

“You don’t know that,” she admonishes.

“Yeah, I really do. He’s too nice, a guy like that deserves a girl that can give him lovey dovey romance shit, and that ain’t me.”

“I think he needs a little fire in his life,” she states, looking out of the window.

I ignore her comment. “I’ll ring around the clients you have booked in for the week, and book them in with me if they’ll let me.” I try to keep the bitter tone out of my voice, but her face screws up so I know she detected it. “If they won’t, they can kiss my-”

“Kee.”

“Fine! I’ll be nice, I’ll just tell them I’m not sure when you’ll be back but we’ll let them know as soon as we know,” I say in a voice laced with the sweetest sugar you’ve ever had.

She snorts. “You really are a piece of work, Keeley Michaels.”

I smirk at her comment. “Yeah, but I’m your piece of work.”

She laughs and I relish in the sound of it. We have fun together, but it’s never easy breezy like this. Connor is good for her, I can feel it in my bones, if I didn’t I wouldn’t be driving her home right now. She’s the only person I care about more than myself. I’d do anything to protect her.

Lewis is already waiting for us outside the salon door when we get back. I’ve hardly stopped when Sam dives out the car and runs into the salon, turning back toward me as she tests the handle. “Kee, did you forget to lock the door?”

I shake my head thinking back to leaving this morning, I remember locking it specifically because I felt that uneasy feeling at not being able to just go straight to my car.

“I could’ve sworn I locked it. Sorry, Sammy. Nothing’s missing is it?”

“You guys stay here,” Lewis says, stepping inside.

I pull him back by his shirt. “We’re perfectly capable of defending ourselves thank you very much, macho man.”

“Well if you’d humor a guy, I’d just like to make sure everything is alright first,” he says sarcastically, staring me down.

Sam holds back a laugh and coughs instead. I can’t help the smile that lifts at my mouth so I don’t say anything, I just nod as my smile gets wider. Sam giggles. “What’s so funny?” I narrow my eyes at her, daring her to say something.

“Oh, nothing.”

She winks at me before turning her attention to the salon door as Lewis pops his head out. “Well, it seems everything is fine here, ladies.”

He gestures for us to go in and I roll my eyes as I push past him and make my way upstairs. Sam starts filling a duffle bag with clothes and to say I’m nervous for her, is an understatement. Lewis still hasn’t gotten a text back from Connor to say where he lives, and I don’t want her to get her hopes up that he’ll even text back.

“Wait!” I hear her say from the other room, and I finish collecting her toothbrush and some other toiletries before going to see what all the fuss is about “Woah!” She exclaims.

I put the toiletries into her duffle. “What?”

I bend down to read what she’s looking at on her laptop. Fuck that! “Sam, that’s an eleven hour drive. There’s no way you’re doing that alone.”

“I’ll get a motel halfway, okay? You can’t leave town too, we’ve gone over this.”

She shuts down her laptop and stands up to zip her duffle. Now my safety radar is in overdrive.

“Just text me when you have an actual address and yes, I promise I’ll call as soon as I stop,” she says nonchalantly, like I’m not over here freaking the fuck out.

She walks to hug me and I stop myself from locking her away in the closet, she’s literally the only person I have left, I don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to her.

She pulls away and offers a quick wave and I watch her face change from excited to nervousness. “What if he doesn’t want me there?”

Lewis answers before I have a chance to form words. “That man loves you. If you don’t do this, you’ll never know just how much.”

Say what? Where did that come from? I watch as Sam’s lips split into a grin and she points at him. “Okay, I’m going. You look after her.”

I need out of this awkward moment so I start pushing her toward the door.

“Just go.”

She gives one last wave and my heart constricts, I struggle to keep the anxiety off my face until she disappears down the stairs, but as soon as she does, I flop down onto the sofa.

“She’ll be okay, she’s a big girl,” Lewis says, sitting next to me.

I jump forgetting he’s here for a minute. “I know that, I just…” I blow out a breath. “Never mind.”

I can tell he wants to push but he decides against it and grabs for the TV control, flicking through aimlessly. We sit in silence for the next five minutes until he looks down at his watch.

“Shit! Are you going to be okay on your own? I’ve got to go take over from my mom’s nurse for a while,” he says while standing up.

I smile at him sarcastically. “I’m a big girl too y’know.”

He laughs and I join in. “Yeah, so, I’ll shoot you a text later on?”

“Yeah, sure.” I wave him off but as soon as he leaves, the apartment feels eerily quiet even though the TV is on.