Page 103 of The Tattered Gloves
“We can’t run away together, Sam.”
He knew I was right.
“So, let me fight for you. I’ll be with you every step of the way. We can beat this guy together.”
Sam was willing to give up everything for me… willing to fight my demons and slay the bad guy. He really did love me.
Reaching up, I did the one thing I’d been dying to do since the day I met him. I kissed him. For the first time… and for the last.
I felt him kiss me back. I felt the desire, the love, and the endless possibilities that could never be.
As our lips touched for that one brief moment in time, I held on, letting it sear into my memory, hoping it would be enough to last a lifetime.
Because a lifetime without him was what I had to look forward to.
Without Addy.
And without Sugar Tree.
Because, as it turned out… I wasn’t brave after all.
I was a runner.
As I pulled back, my forehead still resting on his, I knew it was time.
“My time to fight was in September, Sam, when my mom found me huddled in my room, scared and afraid. That was when it should have happened. Now? All I have is my word against his. And I’m just a girl from the wrong side of the tracks.”
Wrapping my fingers around the straps of my bag that still rested on his shoulder, I slowly transferred it to mine and watched as his hopeful face turned to something closer to dread.
“Don’t do this, Willow,” he said. “Don’t kiss me like that and just walk away. Please.”
“Take care of Allison and Addy for me? And don’t be too hard on your sister,” I said, grabbing a few extra shirts from my drawer.
He didn’t stop me as I walked out of the room, nor did he see the way my eyes squeezed shut as I crossed the threshold, leaving him and books behind. Finding my way back to the living room, I stopped short. Addy still had the Christmas tree up, something she hadn’t gotten around to taking down with all the chaos of getting the salon up and running.
The lights twinkled and blinked as I took one last look at her precious family heirlooms that hung from each limb while I remembered how special I’d felt when she let me hang them.
“You’re family,” she’d insisted that night not so long ago. “They’re as much yours as they are mine.”
“I’ll never forget you, Addy,” I whispered, wiping a single tear from my cheek.
“You don’t have to,” Sam pressed, stepping in front of the door before I could.
“Sam…”
“Where will you go?” he asked. “Please don’t say D.C.”
“I will never go back there,” I replied adamantly.
“Then, where?”
“Anywhere but here,” I said before reaching around Sam for the door and pulling it open with force.
He jumped away, surprised by my swiftness. I took that moment to run. I knew he wouldn’t let me leave, not willingly. He was too good, too kind.
I listened to him yelling my name as tears fell from my eyes.
But I never stopped running.
I never stopped.
