The Promise (Neighbor from Hell, #10)(89)

Nathan, “the gifted one” as she liked to call him, never had to worry about having the right thing to say at the right time. He was smooth, confident, funny, and if anyone was stupid enough to piss him off he usually just beat the hell out of him.

The only good thing about the news of her humiliation spreading through the small town like wildfire was that it had brought Nathan to the little bakery when Sam couldn’t do more than sputter and pray that she didn’t add to her humiliation by passing out. Her brother simply strolled into the bakery, nodded in greeting to a few friends before coming to stand next to her. He looked from her red face to Craig’s lipstick smeared mouth and wrinkled clothes and smiled like it was Christmas morning. Although Nathan had been disappointed that it had only taken one punch to knock Craig out, she’d honestly never seen him happier.

He’d actually whistled a jaunty tune as he’d put his arm around her shoulders and led her out the door, but not before he’d drop-kicked Craig in the stomach for good measure. That really seemed to make his day. Not even the four hours during one of the hottest days of the summer they’d spent packing up her junk and moving it out of the small house she’d shared with Craig could dampen his mood. For weeks afterwards, she’d look over at him when he sighed dreamily and found him once again smiling fondly.

She flicked on the kitchen light as she walked into the dark room. Why anyone would build the kitchen on the south side of the house, she would never know. Granted, whoever built this house probably hadn’t foreseen two generations of Powers ignoring the upkeep of the property.

Sam walked over to the large porcelain sink and yanked open the yellowed curtains, revealing what should have been a beautiful sight. Instead, all she saw a large ratted nest of briars, old leaves, and twigs with just a hint of sunlight peeking through. She groaned as she reached over and flicked on the coffeepot. It was just another sad reminder of all the work that was waiting for her.

Not that she was really complaining. Thanks to all the work around the house and property she was able to stay busy when she wasn’t working at the hospital. It made pretending that she didn’t have a social life by choice that much easier, because of course, no one would believe that she had to rush home right after work every single night because she missed Charlie, the bane of her existence.

She reached over the coffee machine and opened the cabinet that had seen better days and sighed when the handle broke off in her hand. Without batting an eye, she tossed the rusted handle onto the counter to join the rest and reached into the cabinet for her blueberry pop tarts and almost cried when all she found was an empty box.

Damn it.

She’d have to settle for strawberry pop tarts, her second favorite. She’d really been looking forward to starting her day with some blueberry goodness. Oh well, she thought, placing her breakfast tarts in the toaster. At least she could look forward to eating her breakfast in peace without a hundred-pound hound from hell stealing her food.

Just as the mouthwatering aroma of heated strawberry and icing hit her nose the light in the kitchen flickered out. Her eyes automatically shot to the coffee pot that had just been warming up and ready to spurt out the lifesaving elixir only to find the red light off.

Sam grumbled as she grabbed the flashlight off the counter and extra fuses for the fuse box and headed for the pale-yellow basement door that had been the star of most of her childhood nightmares. It figured that the one time she needed Charlie he was off terrorizing squirrels. It didn’t matter that she was a grown woman, she hated going down into the old cellar.

Always had and always would.

It was creepy, dark, and gave off a sinister vibe no matter what Nathan said. Of course, he’d never been scared of the cellar. Nothing ever scared him. When they used to come here as kids to visit Grandma Powers the little bastard used to hide down there, leaving Sam to Grandma’s cheek pinching, reminiscing, and prune remedies. Hours later he’d come back upstairs smiling, covered in dust and picking spiders off his clothes and god, how she’d envied him.

The one time she’d spent more than five minutes in the basement had been terrifying. Her grandmother had sent her down there for a jar of prunes for a snack when neither of them could find Nathan, who’d smartly ran off when their father had dropped them off earlier that morning. At the time, Sam had dreaded the basement and the prunes in equal measure. It wasn’t until she had the jar of prunes in her hand that her hatred for the basement won out. Her grandmother, eighty at the time, had forgotten that she’d sent eight-year-old Sam downstairs two minutes earlier and shut the basement’s only light off, closed the door, and promptly locked it.

Several things occurred during that memorable ten hours she’d stayed locked in the basement. Her fear of spiders and all things creepy took on a whole new level of terror. She’d also discovered that the old basement was soundproof, given that no one heard her screams. She would have kicked the door at the top of the stairs, but she couldn’t seem to find the narrow passageway that led to the stairwell in the pitch black. It was also when she’d discovered that the basement was haunted, which had only taken five seconds of listening to the eerie growling coming from the wall, that she hadn’t imagined no matter what Nathan says, to help her come to that conclusion. It was also one of the reasons why she avoided going down into the basement.

Of course, her inability to deal with anything stressful was probably her least favorite development from her time spent in the basement, hence the passing out at damn near everything. It was kind of funny how she could handle working a trauma and even help put someone back together, but any hint of embarrassment, confrontation, or stress had her hitting the floor. What made it worse was that everyone knew about her problem. It had made her a target all through school and made her the town joke on more than once occasion. It helped that her brother was the town’s golden boy, but not by much.