The Chase by Amber Riel (books to read for self improvement TXT) 📖

was losing the battle to make Sam hate me.  I was beginning to want to show more than what I was originally showing the woman.  My thoughts and feelings were troubling me.

          “I’m going to go shopping today, Samantha, would you like to come with me?” Carman asked as she took the seat next to Sam.  “You could pick out some outfits if you want and we could chat.”

          “No,” Sam answered, “I think I’m going to hang around here for today.  I’d like to kind of get use to everything here…. If you don’t mind.”

          “Of course not….”

          “Can I go with you, Auntie Carmen?” Lainie asked, excitedly.

          “Of course and I’ll get you a new pair of shoes because you don’t have any here and you didn’t bring any with you, did you?”

          Lainie sighed.  “I had some with me but we had to leave the hotel and I didn’t grab my shoes in time,” she replied with disappointment.

          “Aww.  Why don’t you go ahead and get ready?  I think Sara left some clothes here the last time that she was here and there should be a pair of her sandals in the closet which should fit you…. Okay?”

          “Okay,” Lainie replied, nodding and jumping out of her seat.  She scurried out of the room in a hurry.

          “So….” Carmen’s voice began after she was sure that Lainie was no longer in earshot as she turned her attention toward Sam and me with an evil grin on her face.  “Did you two have a nice night together?”

          “What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Carmen.

          “You two were cuddled up together this morning….” Her grin grew.  “You can ask Samantha…. She practically had to pull herself away from your grip.”

          Sam began blushing as I kind of covered my face with my right hand.

          “It’s okay, you two,” Carmen continued.  “I remember when I fell in love with Eric and those sweet nights we would spend talking about nothing and laughing…. You two looked so cute together and so sweet….”

          “It’s not like that, Carmen,” I tried to speak, “I was just---”

          An eyebrow raised on Carmen’s curious face as she looked at the two of us.  “I know what I saw, Lou….”

          “Don’t call me that,” I told her with more embarrassment than anything.

          Carmen just laughed.  “So cute and so sweet….” She let out a sigh and stood up as she worked her way out of the room.  “Well, my fun’s done for now…. I’ll be back though.”

          Sam and I just stayed where we were in a long and embarrassing awkward silence.  I took a moment to sigh and worked up the courage to face Sam.  “I’m sorry about my sister.”

          Sam kind of smiled.  “It seems that we have something in common.”

          I kind of nodded as I thought about how Annie would have done the same thing then I began to search the room with my eyes, thinking of something we could do or even talk about.  “Why did you call my name last night anyways?”

          I watched as Sam turned her head away from my attention.  I think she was blushing but I wasn’t quite sure.  “I don’t know…. I guess maybe because you’re the only one I know here and Annie or Ron aren’t here,” she answered.

          I nodded at her words.  “That makes sense,” I agreed.

          She bit her bottom lip.

          “Look…. I’m going to my room for a little while….” I took a moment to swallow then turned my attention back toward Sam.  “I have some things to think about.”

          “Okay.”

          “If you need me, my room is upstairs, the first room on the right…. Right next to the room you and Lainie are staying in…. You can watch TV in the living room…. They have tons of movies you can look through in the drawers of the entertainment center…. Pretty much whatever you want to do you can…. Just stay out of trouble, alright?  I don’t feel like fighting off anymore taxicab drivers.”  I smiled while Sam laughed.

 

 

          I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes.  I figured that I could try to take a nap but I couldn’t sleep for nothing so I just stared up at the white rugged ceiling.  Memories played in my mind as I thought about Christy and wondered if I was going to start losing her memory the more I felt myself falling for Sam.  They were two completely different people but the thought of losing one was horrible.  I had lost Christy to an inhuman enemy which wasn’t easily defeated where as I had to protect Sam from evil men who needed to be stopped before it was too late.  I sat up on my bed and shook my head.  Lord, why am I always the one dealing with these kinds of problems?  I lost Christy to cancer and now I have to protect Sam from men.  Please be with me as I do my job and please keep me from falling into the devil’s trap.  I stood up and walked over to the dresser and opened it.  I picked up a picture I had of Christy.

          I smiled as I remembered the day when the picture had been taken.  I closed my eyes as the memory played.  “Stand right there,” I told Christy, laughing as I watched her shake her head.

          “No, Louis,” she replied with a shy laugh.

          “Come on.”

          “No.”

          “Please?  For me?” I asked with pleading eyes as I held the camera in my hands.

          I watched as she sighed in surrender.  “Fine.”  She smiled as she walked over to the tree and stood there smiling waiting for me to snap the picture.

          “Good,” I told her as I looked into the screen of the digital camera and hit the button.  Once I took the picture I smiled as I watched it turn into a video.  “That wasn’t so bad now was it?”

          Christy smiled as she shook head.  She looked so beautiful even with the wig on.  I smiled as I watched her walk over toward me.  “So what’s next?” she asked.

          I lifted my head as I thought for a moment.  “I was thinking that maybe we could walk over to that little restaurant that’s only two streets away.  If you’re up to it?”

          “Yea that sounds nice.”

          I took Christy’s small delicate left hand in my right and lead her down a path as we worked our way toward the restaurant.  I kept her on the side of the street with the buildings as I was closer toward the road as we walked.

          “Is that her?  Your wife?” Sam’s voice asked, bringing me back to the present.

          I sighed and nodded as I kind of held my head up toward her.

          “She’s beautiful….”

          “She was even more beautiful without the wig on….”

          “What happened to her?”

          “She had childhood cancer,” I answered, “it wasn’t leukemia…. But it was another deadly cancer…. No one thought she would make it to twenty but she did…. We weren’t even married for about six months when she lost her battle….”  I felt Sam turn her attention toward me as tears began to fill my eyes.  “I would have loved her even more if she was alive today but she’s gone now….”

          I could tell that Sam was regretting some of her words from before.

          “We were eighteen when we met….” I continued.  “I was twenty when we got married and she was about to turn twenty…. A few weeks after her twentieth birthday she had past…. I couldn’t believe it…. I was by her bedside every day and night until she was finally gone…. When she was alive and when she was well, I would tell her that she was beautiful and I didn’t see the point in her wearing the wig…. It only hid her true beauty but she wouldn’t listen…. She felt better with it on…. Of course, she was still beautiful but I felt she was hiding what I seen…. She was modest and that was one thing that I loved about her was her modesty…. When she died, I felt as if my heart was ripped out…. It’s my job to protect people but I couldn’t protect her from that nonhuman enemy…. Carmen was partly right about me…. I’m not afraid to fall in love…. I’m afraid of what I could lose if I love…. That’s only part of it though…. The other part is that I’m afraid that if I fall in love again then I’m going to replace her…. And when I replace her, I’ll lose her forever…. Like she was never there…. I don’t expect you to understand what I’m going through…. That’s why when Annie wanted us to hit it off because she was hoping that something would happen between us I acted like a jerk and I’m sorry I had to put you through that…. It’s just I don’t want to lose Christy again but for good….”

          I watched as Sam shook her head.  “I need to apologize too…. I mean if I had known what you had gone through then I wouldn’t have acted the way I did toward you.  I’d be lying if I said that I understand what you’ve been through but I don’t…. Even though I don’t understand, I would have let you have your time…. And I’m sure that your wife would want you to move on…. She wouldn’t want you to live life alone and miserable…. She’d want you to be happy…. To find someone else who will make you happy…. I’m sure that’s what she would want…. And when you do find that someone who you do fall in love with that she wouldn’t replace your first wife…. No one could replace her…. You’d love them both the same but in different ways….”  Sam’s attention moved from me to the floor as I watched tears fall from her eyes and slid down her the curves of her cheek bones.  “That’s just something that you’ll have to figure out yourself.”

          I grabbed Sam’s hand and lifted up her chin to lock eyes with her.  “Sam,” I said gently, “thank you for that.”

          I waited for her to respond but she just stared at me as if confused.

          “You know you’re beautiful?”

          Sam’s cheeks turned into a light shade of red as she blushed and then grew brighter.

          I wanted to kiss her, wondering if it’d be right or not.  “I deserved everything that you said to me from the day I picked you up at the airport,” I admitted then kind of smiled.  “I’m actually not as bad as I seem.”

          A smile kind of grew on Sam’s face in return.  “I figured that…. See you can be nice and sweet when you want to be.”

          I began to lean in to kiss Sam but quickly stopped myself and I moved away from her.  “I’m sorry…. I can’t do that…. At least not yet.”

          Sam kind of bit my lip.  I wished I had known what she was thinking.  “The night we left the hotel and we were arguing…. You told me that you were worried about me just as much as Lainie…. What did you mean by that?”

          I couldn’t help but smile at her question and let it dangle in the air for a moment.  “You’ll have to find out.”

          Ruff…. Ruff…. Ruff…. Ruff….

          “Imhotep?  Want to go meet the mutt?”

          “Sure.”

          I grabbed Sam’s hand and dragged her behind me as I hurried downstairs and opened a door which let the giant Doberman pitcher race out into the room.  He began to jump at me when his attention quickly darted over to Sam and he worked his way over to her trying to find out if she was a threat or not.  “It’s okay, boy, this is Samantha, she’s a friend and she’s going to be