The Chase by Amber Riel (story reading txt) 📖

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 of 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 wanted to cry at his story, knowing what he been through made me feel like the horrible one.  I just assumed that he hated me for nothing but he had his defenses up.  I shook my 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 some 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….” I looked at the floor and felt the tears crawl down my cheek.  “That’s just something that you’ll have to figure out yourself.”

          Louis took my hand and lifted up my chin to look into his beautiful blue eyes which revealed a lot of sadness.  “Sam,” he spoke softly, “thank you for that.”

          I didn’t know quite how to respond to that.

          “You know you’re beautiful?”

          I felt myself blush at his words.  I could feel my cheeks turn flushing bright red as I looked at him.

          I could tell that by his expression that he wanted to kiss me and I was wondering if he was actually going to do it or if he would decide against it like he had the night before.  “I deserved everything that you said to me from the day I picked up at the airport.”  He kind of smiled.  “I’m actually not as bad as I seem.”

          I kind of smiled in return.  “I figured that…. See you can be nice and sweet when you want to be.”

          He leaned into kiss me but stopped himself he pulled away quickly.  “I’m sorry…. I can’t do that…. At least not yet.”

          I was kind of hoping that would be the moment of tenderness from the one man who was so complex but to my disappointment it wasn’t.  I kind of bit my lip.  “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?”

          He kind of smiled but didn’t answer the question.  “You’ll have to find out.”

          Ruff…. Ruff…. Ruff…. Ruff….

          “Imhotep?  Want to go meet the mutt?”

          “Sure.”

          Louis grabbed my hand and practically dragged me downstairs and opened a door, releasing a huge all black Doberman pitcher.  His ears were small and pointed with light pink on the inside.  His beady black eyes revealed a good sense of security.  He started to jump Louis when he noticed me and slowly worked his way over to me trying to figure out if I was a danger to his home or a new friend toward the family.  His black wet nose sniffed my clothes as he was trying to figure out if I should stay or if I should go.  “It’s okay, boy, this is Samantha, she’s a friend and she’s going to be staying here with me for a little while.... You have nothing to worry about.”

          Imhotep stopped what he was doing and looked at Louis as if he was debating on if the man was lying or not.  Then he looked back up at me and smiled, sticking his long pink tongue out of his mouth, revealing a couple of rows of sharp pointed teeth, including the four canines which sat in the front of his snout.

          “You’re a big boy, aren’t you?” I asked as I smiled at the dog.

          Ruff.

 

          A few hours had past when Carmen walked into the house, followed by Lainie.  Carmen carried a few big bags of groceries while Lainie carried a couple of small bags with clothes and a new pair of sandals.  “Did you two have fun shopping?” Louis asked as we made our way into the room.  I kind of trailed behind him, hoping that maybe Carmen wouldn’t assume anything had happened.

          “Yea, I got a new pair of sandals with the Disney Princesses on them,” Lainie replied as she pulled the sandals out to show Louis and me.

          “Cool,” Louis replied, nodding as he looked at the sandals.  “Did you get anything else?”

          “Yea, Auntie Carmen brought me a couple of new outfits two.”

          Louis nodded again and smiled.  “That’s awesome.”

          “I’m going to go try on my outfits.”  Lainie rushed upstairs and we heard the close behind her.  She kind of slammed it with excitement on accident.  “SORRY!” we heard her little voice shout.

          The three of us adults couldn’t help but laugh.

          “So what did you two while we were gone?” Carmen asked, raising an eyebrow.

          “I watched a movie and then we just pretty much talked after that,” I replied.

          Carmen nodded as her eyes moved from me to Louis.  “What about?”

          “Just getting to know each other,” Louis replied, “apologizing for our behavior toward each other…. That’s about all.”

          Carmen had a look on her face as if to ask if anything might have happened that she was waiting for one of us to admit.

          “What?” Louis asked, raising an eyebrow.

          “Did anything else happen that you two aren’t telling me about?”

          I wanted to blush at the question but I managed to bit my bottom lip to keep myself from blushing.

          “No,” Louis replied.  “Do you think something might have happened?”

          “I don’t know…. Maybe I mean anything can happen….” She kind of smiled.  “You two really didn’t do anything else that I should know about?”

          “Are you implying something?” Louis asked.

          “No I’m just saying….”

          Louis shook his head.  “Nothing happened…. Why are you so nosey all of the time?”

          Carmen’s smile grew.  “I like being nosey…. Besides it’s boring when there’s nothing interesting to talk about.”

          “Okay.  I’m going to go take a shower,” Louis replied as he headed up the stairs, leaving me alone to fend for myself.

          I had absolutely no defenses and I didn’t know what to expect from Carmen.  She was kind of starting to remind me of Annie which kind of gave me the feeling that her and Annie were working together to set me and Louis up.  Bad situation to be in at the moment.

          “Would you mind helping me with the groceries?” Carmen asked as she headed toward the kitchen.

          “Sure,” I replied, feeling that she was going to use this time to distract me so she could integrate me about what was going on with me and her beloved brother.  I headed out side and noticed a dark blue many van.  I walked around it to the back which was opened and began to pull out bags filled with all kinds of food, from meals to snacks, what needed to be frozen and what could be placed in the cabinet.

          As I grabbed a couple of bags, Carmen had walked out and began pulling out some bags.  “So what’s going on with you and my brother?”

          Oh no…. Here we go, I thought to myself.  The questions had just started.  “Nothing,” I replied, I felt Carmen’s eyes look at me.

          “You sure?”

          “Yea,” I answered as I started walking away with the bags in my arms.

          “Okay,” Carmen spoke as she followed behind, “whatever you say.”  I heard that smile in her voice as she kind of sang the last part of her sentence.

 

          I placed the grocery bags next to the ones Carmen had placed on the floor and turned to face her as she did the same.  “Can I ask you something?”

          “Yea what?  Is it about Louis?” she asked with excitement in her voice.

          “Something like that but it’s a casual question nothing dealing with him personally,” I replied, hoping that would throw her off.

          “Okay go ahead.”

          “You mentioned that you were older than him…. How much older because you two look to be almost the same age, kind of like twins?”

          Carmen kind of laughed.  “Actually, I’m almost a year older than him…. We’re about the same age for a couple of months…. We’re both twenty two right now but I’ll be twenty-three pretty soon.”

          “Oh,” I sighed.

          “Yep…. I’m the oldest and sadly the only girl in the family…. Louis is a year older than our brother Jessie…. Jessie’s a couple of years older than our brother Isaac…. Isaac’s a year older than our brother Quinn…. And Quinn is a couple of years older than our brother Kevin who is the youngest.”

          “Wow…. Sounds like a big family,” I replied, kind of laughing.

          “Tell me about it…. Our mother tried to convince our father to get fixed before she wound up pregnant with Quinn but he didn’t so after Kevin was born…. She got herself fixed because she was done with children, although she loves each of us equally and wouldn’t trade any of us, she doesn’t want any more.  How many are there of you?  I know Annie obviously but are there any others?”

          “We have two brothers…. I’m one of the middle children…. The second oldest while Annie’s the oldest.”

          Carmen nodded.  “Almost as big as our family…. So you know what’s like growing up fighting over food then huh?”

          I nodded in agreement as I helped Carmen place the last of the groceries where they needed to go.

          “You know a few days ago before you were supposed to be arriving here at the airport I talked to Annie.”

          “Oh really?”  I bet I know why.

          Carmen nodded.  “Yea we’re really good friends…. Some times when they come here we let them stay for the weekend or however long they want to stay for and vice versa when we go to visit them…. Ron and Eric usually go fishing or go do guy things while me and Annie stay here or at their house depending on where we are and stay talk about the guys…. And other girl things that the men could care less about.”  She kind of laughed.  “We tell stories about what had happened to us when we haven’t seen each other in while…. Kind of like sisters do…. You’re lucky to have a sister, especially one such as amazing as Annastia.”

          I kind of smiled.  “I know…. She’s pretty amazing.”  Then my mind went back to the day when someone had broken into the mansion and I began to worry.  “I hope that she and Ron are alright.”