Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Butterflies fluttered in Amber’s stomach as she stepped closer to Sawyer.
The movie was over now, and it was getting late. After a day of hard work, she was exhausted and needed sleep. But she wasn’t quite ready for him to leave.
She didn’t know if she’d ever be ready for him to leave.
Their time together had been magical. There were so many times when she’d thought of inching closer to him on the couch, maybe even going so far as to lay her head on his shoulder. Yet each time she’d lost her nerve.
Now, as he was standing at the front door, telling her goodbye, she wanted nothing more than a goodnight kiss.
Did he want the same thing? It seemed that way. She couldn’t articulate it, but there seemed to be some sort of energy flowing between them. Almost like an electrical current.
“I want you to lock this door the minute I leave,” he said. “I’m going to stand on that porch and listen for it.”
“Yes, Sir,” she replied.
“And if you need anything—or you get scared—you call me. It doesn’t matter what time of night it is.”
“Thank you, but I’ll be fine,” she said. After taking a moment to read the look on his face, she added, “But I’ll call if something comes up. I promise.”
“Good girl.”
The look that flashed across his eyes for the briefest of seconds told her he regretted saying that.
She didn’t regret it. Her stomach tingled with even more excitement.
And when he leaned down to hug her—wrapping those powerful arms around her slender frame and drawing her in close for a tight embrace—she nearly lost it.
He lingered and for a moment, she thought he was going to bring his lips down and kiss hers. But it didn’t happen. Instead, he pulled away, looked into her eyes as he stepped backward a few paces, and said, “I mean it. Lock that door.”
She nodded, waved, and then watched him a few more seconds as he stepped onto the porch. “Goodnight,” she said before shutting the door and locking it.
Amber leaned against it for a moment, as if that would make her feel closer to the man who was on the other side. She pushed off of it when she heard his boots thudding across the porch and bounding down the steps. A moment later, the sound of the Bronco’s engine reached her ears and she knew he’d pulled away.
The cabin seemed lonely.
“We’re fine,” she told Honey and Jazzie. “Hey, Honey, this isn’t anything compared to sleeping in the park!”
She’d done that more times than she cared to remember.
She grabbed her stuffies and sauntered into the bathroom where she put them on the vanity. Studying herself in the mirror, she winced. Her outfit was pretty skimpy. She hadn’t even considered that when putting it on! But her little dress didn’t quite cover the matching panties she was wearing.
Yikes!
Had she made Sawyer uncomfortable? Did he think she was trying to seduce him?
That last thought actually made her giggle. She’d never seduced anyone and wasn’t sure she knew how to.
Still, she hoped he hadn’t felt weird around her. Her mind replayed various scenes from the night. It had never seemed like Sawyer was weirded out or anything.
“Hey, he’s the one who bought this outfit for me!” she reminded herself with another giggle. Shrugging, she went on with getting ready for bed.
While washing her face, she thought more about the evening.
“Ugh.” She felt ridiculous when she remembered telling him about the teeth-brushing habit. “I shouldn’t have spilled all that.” She looked at Honey and Jazzie. “He’s going to think I want him to feel sorry for me! I didn’t mean to share everything. It just sorta came out.”
The stuffies just looked at her encouragingly.
“You’re right. He doesn’t mind. I think he wants to know more about me.” She giggled again. “He sure seems interested.”
She finished prepping for bed and then carried her plush friends into her room. She stopped for a moment and surveyed the space, a sense of warmth washing over her.
She’d never had a home of her own. The crappy apartments she’d rented didn’t count. It wasn’t that they were small or cheap or anything. It was just that she’d never felt safe in them.
And home was where you felt safe.
She felt safe here and in Big Cedar. Perhaps for the first time in her life.
Except… she didn’t feel safe at the moment. Something was off. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was, but…
A cold shiver traced her spin as she hugged herself, rubbing her arms while she looked around the room.
It was a feeling she’d encountered before. Living on the streets was nerve-wracking and danger often lurked in the shadows. In those times, it was an almost supernatural sixth sense that had warned her. She was convinced it had saved her life more than once.
That sixth sense was going off again now, the alarm bells ringing loudly in her head. Her eyes darted from point to point nervously, scanning to locate the threat.
They didn’t find anything.
“It’s just my imagination,” she told herself. Looking to her stuffies, she said, “Right?”
She wanted to cry. This was her home. She’d finally felt safe and now this!
Her mind spun a million miles a second, telling her the worst.
Donnie was there, having somehow followed her. Or some weird, creepy predator had stumbled upon that cabin and knew she was all alone.
Should she call Sawyer?
“It’s fine,” she said, talking to her stuffies once again. “It’s just because I thought of the streets again earlier. It’s all in my head.”
She turned on the lamp beside the bed, switched off the overhead lights, then jumped into bed with her stuffies. She tugged the covers up and tried her best to burrow beneath them, as if they would shield her from any threat that loomed in the darkness.
“You can do this,” she said. “Just turn off the light, close your eyes, and you’ll feel better in the morning.”
Reaching for the lamp, she realized her hand was trembling.
How had the night gone from wonderful to this in a matter of minutes?
She stopped reaching for the lamp and decided she could just sleep with a little bit of light. Pinching her eyes closed tightly, she said a silent prayer and then tried to sleep.
That feeling of being watched persisted.
It was quite perceptive on her part, too.
As it turned out, two eyes were indeed on Amber, waiting to see what she would do next.