“She’s beautiful.”
He smirks. “She sure is.”
I do a double take as I realize he’s looking at me, and I have a feeling he isn’t talking about the bike, I blush starting to feel a little uncomfortable. I turn my attention back to the Harley and notice the detail from the other day is crawling its way over the body of the bike. It’s badass.
Lewis is an artist, who knew?
“I was thinking I’d take you out on her tomorrow,” he fires out.
I tense up, do I feel safe with him? I just smile but I don’t commit to anything. “Thanks for showing me, you’re more talented than you think. Football player, mechanic and artist? That’s quite the combination.”
It’s his turn to blush and I feel the air getting thicker the longer he keeps his eyes trained on me.
I clear my throat. “I should probably be getting back to see if Sam’s okay.”
I take a step back and he follows me, not taking those steely gray eyes off mine.
“I… I should give you my number though,” I stammer, rifling through my purse as an excuse to look away.
He stops moving toward me and takes a big breath, pulling his cell out of his jeans pocket.
“Sure, put it in and I’ll call you tomorrow.”
I take it off him, put my number in, and call myself so I have his. I hand him back his cell and give him a quick wave, wanting to get out of this situation. I start walking toward the door.
“Where are you going?” He asks.
I stop in my tracks as Lewis watches me, arms folded, humor on his face.
“Erm, home to check on Sam like I said?”
Why is he playing dumb?
He chuckles. “No, I meant where are you going without me?”
Is he for real? I cross my arms. “You’re not coming home with me, Lewis.”
He laughs, turns the lights off and locks up. “Jumping the gun there, Keeley. I was only offering to walk you home, I don’t want you walking alone.”
I flush and look away from him. “Oh. Well in that case, lead the way.”
I wave my arm and he takes my hand again. If I’m honest, I really wasn’t looking forward to walking home in the dark on my own, so I’m glad he’s being a gentleman. We walk in companionable silence, but even having company doesn’t stave off the feelings of someone watching me. I feel it in my bones that something just isn’t right. I need to ask Sam what that biker really looked like, even if it will bring on a lot of unanswerable questions. I’ll give her a half-truth then I won’t be lying.
We reach the salon and I say goodnight to Lewis. He cups my cheek before placing a small kiss on the top of my head.
I haven’t been kissed like that in years.
I shake my thoughts away and give him a quick smile, letting myself into the salon.
Walking into the apartment, Sam isn’t out here but her door to her room is open a crack. I knock and when I hear her sobbing, I walk in and comfort her. What happened tonight is shit, but she needs to move on now she knows what happened all those years ago. We spend the next half an hour talking about it until her cell rings out from beside her. She picks it up and her brow furrows as she looks at the screen.
“Who is it?” I ask.
“I don’t know, it’s a withheld number. What if it’s him?” She says, panic etching her face.
I roll my eyes at her. “Just answer the phone!”
She puts her cell to her ear and answers, and I just know that something is wrong. Her face drops and she suddenly looks very awake compared to two minutes ago. “I’m her daughter. What’s happened? Is she alright?”
I walk to her drawers and pull out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt for her before going to get changed out of my shorts and into something a little comfier, this is not how I saw the night going earlier, it looks like we’re going to be in for a long one.
Walking back into her room, she’s dressed but in a daze and doesn’t seem to be getting a move on, so I grab her purse as well as mine, and usher her out of the door. “I’ve only had one beer so I’ll drive, where are we headed?”
“Erm, St. John’s hospital. My mom was taken in earlier and had to have her stomach pumped.” Fuck. “She was fine earlier, Kee, sober as a nun and all pumped up about this potential new job. I don’t understand.”
“That’s the thing, it never makes any sense,” I say faintly.
It never did make any sense when they got themselves in this state. One minute they were the perfect mom, then the next you were holding their hair back as they puked over the toilet.
There was a time I had been in this very situation, running to the hospital on my own at fourteen years old, not knowing what would meet me there.
We arrive at the hospital and run up to the emergency entrance desk, Sam asking where her mom is. I’m wrapped up in my own thoughts as we’re told and I steel myself for what’s to come, tonight isn’t about me. I look over at Sam briefly and squeeze her shoulder, she doesn’t look well at all.
I’m going to try to be there for her as much as I can, but I’m so stuck in my own head, I zone out.