The Chase, Amber Riel [learn to read books TXT] 📗

key for her and Lainie’s room.

          “I’ll meet you two at your room when I’m ready.  I would say lock the door but after what that guy said it would be pointless.  I’ll knock three times to let you know that it’s me.”

          “Okay,” Sam replied as she headed into her room with Lainie.

          I went ahead and went into my room as well.

 

          It didn’t take me too long to get ready.  I wore a formal pair of black dress pants well almost formal and my white button up short sleeve shirt which was deceit and one of my shirts I usually wore to church.  I took my comb and watched in the mirror as I combed my hair off to the side.  “You look handsome,” I could hear Christy whisper in my ear as I closed my eyes.

          In a way I felt as if I was about to cheat on her.  Thinking about her made the pain come back a thousand times stronger and worse than I could have ever imagine.  It’s not cheating; Christy gone now and besides this isn’t a date…. Lainie’s going to be there for crying out loud…. Lainie…. Thank goodness for that child because if it was just Sam, I don’t know what I’d do.

 

          I stood outside of the girls’ room waiting for the right moment to knock.  I felt strange in a way but at the same time it was the least I could do.  I figured that they needed to do something after yesterday and besides after spending hours in the car again it was nice to give all three of us a break.  I finally took my knuckles and knocked three times.  I waited for Sam to let me in but for some reason she wasn’t opening the door.  I grew frustrated because of it.  “Sam, it’s me…. Open up.”

          The door opened and Sam stood there.  “Sorry about that---”

          “Kept me waiting?” I asked.  I looked at Sam up and down as I raised an eye brown.  She looked beautiful.  She wore nice dark blue jeans and a nice matching modest top.  I didn’t want to take my eyes off of her.  “Lainie getting ready?” I asked quickly before something stupid spilled out of my mouth.

          “Yea she’s in the bathroom,” Sam answered as she moved out of the way so I could walk into the room.  She closed the door after I was in.  “You look…. Nice,” she said.

          “You don’t look so bad yourself,” I told her.

          I could tell by her expression that she was amazed that I hadn’t said anything rude toward her.  “Thank you.  So can you tell me about your wife?”

          “Not a subject I like to talk about.”

          “Why not?”

          “Because I don’t want to talk about it.”  I looked at Sam as anger and sadness grew bottled up inside of me.  I wasn’t trying to be rude toward Sam but I wasn’t ready to tell her about Christy.  It wasn’t the right time or place.  Someday you’ll know the truth but not yet, Sam.

          Lainie walked out of the restroom.  She walked over to a bed and sat down, sliding her feet into a pair of sandals as she looked up at me.  “I’m ready to go.”

          “Okay.  Come on,” I told her as I held out my hand toward her.

 

          The restaurant was almost fancy.  It had a buffet which meant that all I really had to pay for was the three of us to eat and our drinks.  It wasn’t huge but it wasn’t the smallest place I’ve been too.  There wasn’t a long line for us to wait in so I had the girls stay close to me.  I liked the place; it was clean and deceit.  We were seated within seconds after arriving and paying for the three meals.

          The young waiter had to be about seventeen.  He had either just graduated from high school or had another year.  He was extremely helpful and brought our drinks over to us as quickly as he could.  I wasn’t jealous of the boy because I had a feeling Sam hadn’t found him to be to her taste.  It might have been because of the fact that he was younger than us.  “I’ll be back if I have to refill any of your drinks or if you need help with anything.”

          “Thank you, Mr. Waiter,” Lainie said as she smiling, kind of flirty for a young child really.

          Sam let out a small laugh.

          “No problem,” the boy replied as he smiled at Lainie.  Clearly, he had no idea what was going on in the child’s young mind.  He left.

          “You have a crush, Lainie?” Sam asked.

          Lainie kind of turned red at Sam’s question.

          “I think he’s kind of too old for you though.  Why don’t you go ahead and get your plate?”

          Lainie left as soon as Sam reminded her why we were there in the first place.

          “What is it with women and older men?” I asked as I looked at Sam, raising an eyebrow.

          “Hey if they’re cute then they’re cute…. I have a lot of celeb crushes who are older than me.”

          I kept my raised eyebrow.  “Really?  Like who?”

          “Oh…. Johnny Depp…. Robert Downey Jr.…. Charlie Chaplin….”

          “Wow…. You’re going way back into time there aren’t you….” I kind of laughed.

          “Chaplin was a very attractive man even with that little mustache.  Besides I’m sure you have your share of female celebs who you like.”

          “Of course but none of them are as old as the little tramp himself was.”

          Sam kind of smiled as she shook her head.  “Well, I’m hungry…. I’m going to go join Lainie at the buffet,” she said as she stood up.

          I watched as she began walking away when she lost her balance and almost fell face first into the ground but I quickly grabbed her arm before she had time to touch the ground with her face.  “Wow,” I replied as I pulled her closer to me.  “Just like when we first met.”

          I watched as her expression turned into a confused look.  I knew she hadn’t remembered me and her look proved my point.

          I raised an eyebrow as I locked eyes with her.  “You don’t remember?”

          “A couple of days ago?” she asked.

          “No…. Annie and Ron’s wedding…. You were the maid of honor and I was the best man…. We were walking down the aisle after them and you tripped because of your high heels but I caught you before you could hit the ground….”

          Her mouth opened at the memory.  Somehow she had forgotten.  “That was you?”

          “Yea,” I answered kind of laughing.

          We continued to walk toward the buffet as the memory strolled into my mind.  Annie wore a white wedding gown which made her attractive woman there of course because the bride was supposed to be the most beautiful woman at a wedding or something along that line.  It had been a little before I met Christy so I was a bachelor at the time.

          Ron wasn’t dressed differently from us other men so he didn’t stand out.  All of us other men were happy for him, glad that he had found the woman who made him happy.

          When Ron and Annie began leaving, they had clasped their arms together and waved to the crowd on both sides of the room.  Sam and I followed along.  We walked down the aisle as Sam lost her balance because of her shoes.  I quickly wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her stand up.  She was beautiful.  She wore a long light purple dress and her hair in a bun while her high heels had seemed to be a disaster for her to walk in.

          “First day on your new feet?” I asked, smiling.

          She locked eyes with as she kind of blushed.  The blush had made her even more beautiful.  I figured she probably hadn’t recognized me because my hair had been longer than it was now.  She was embarrassed by the fact she had almost fell but I continued to smile to let her know it was alright.  “I guess you can say that,” she answered.  “I’m not big on high heels or dresses for that matter.”

          “Here…. I’ll help you.”  I helped her out of the room as we smiled at the crowd.

          I continued to walk with Sam to the buffet.

          I could tell she was confused by the names as she grabbed a plate and went to reach for anything.

          “Need any help with the names?” I asked.

          “No,” she answered.  “I know what I’m going to do.”

          “Okay.”

          I watched as she reached for what she thought was a sandwich when I grabbed her arm.

          “Do you like sea food?”

          “No,” she replied.

          “Then you won’t like that.”

          “Okay.  Then what will I like?”

          I took a moment to look around then turned my attention back toward Sam.  “Give me your plate.”

          She handed the plate over to me, confused.

          I began grabbing all kinds of food.  Food I figured Sam would actually like to try even if it didn’t seem to be appetizing.

          “Aren’t you going to eat anything?” I heard Lainie asking Sam.

          “Yea but your uncle is working on getting our plates because I don’t know what I would like.”

          “Oh…. Uncle Louis knows food.  Sometimes when he’s not working he signs up to be a food critic….”

          “Really?”

          “Yea.  He does it at random times for the newspaper company.”

          “Wow…. I didn’t know that.”

          “Can we go sit down?  It’s probably going to be a little while knowing Uncle Louis.”

          “Yea but hold on.”

          By the time the girls had finished their conversation, I had moved on to a few tables down, still in ear shot but examining the food.  I began to ignore everyone else around me as I debated on what Sam would like to try and even picking up food for myself.

          “Me and Lainie are going to sit down okay,” I heard Sam’s voice right next to my ear as she spoke.

          “Yea that’s fine go sit down.  I’ll be there in a minute.”  I felt Sam back away as I continued to block everyone else.

          “I’m sorry,” I heard Sam telling someone.

          I didn’t really hear the other person’s reply but Sam had moved back over toward me.

          “Louis,” she whispered, her tone revealed fear and panic.

          I looked at her and the fear in her eyes told me something wasn’t right.  “What’s wrong?”

          “That…. Uh…. I….” Her words weren’t coming out as she spoke or tried to speak.  She pointed to an odd man.  “That guy…. He was the cab driver who drove me and Lainie back to the mansion…. He’s very strange and creepy.”

          I eyed the man but his back was facing us so I couldn’t see his face but I felt I something was off about him.  “I’ll talk to the waiter about giving us something for the food…. We need to get out of here.  We need to get to Lainie fast.”

          Sam nodded.

          I took both of the plates and Sam followed me as I walked back to the table where Lainie had been sitting.  She was in the process of eating as she looked up at us and smiled.  “Hey.”

          “Lainie, we need to leave,” I told the child.

          “But I’m eating.”  The tone in her voice was filled with disappointment but I didn’t want us to stay any longer than we had too.

          “Lainie, look,” I said as I dropped down on both knees, “this is an emergency.  We need to leave, now.  I’ll talk to the waiter about getting us bags.”

          “How are you going to do that?  This is a buffet they don’t do doggy bags,” Sam asked with confusion in her tone.