Chapter 29
29
S am woke with the kind of stiffness that only comes from sleeping in an awkward position—something she’d experienced many times when having to stay overnight in airport terminals due to flight delays. As Sam sat up, she was alone and the storm had passed. I t was bright and sunny outside, and she realized she had slept through the entire morning. Sam massaged a spot on her neck as she walked through the hall and toward her bedroom.
Waking up and immediately thinking of the CD player was silly. Almost as silly as the fact that she wanted to check her phone to see if Damon had texted her back. She was not a teenager, and her thoughts shouldn’t be fueled purely by the guy she had a crush on, but well, they were.
She turned the knob on her bedroom door and there, staring her down, was the palm tree. This was what she should be worried about—a hole in her grandma’s house—but instead her eyes roamed the space to try to find the CD player.
“Hey!” Grandma Pearl called out. Sam looked up and out of the space that used to be her window to find Pearl, Jessie and Bonnie in the driveway. “Get out of there, it’s not safe!”
“I’m just looking for my phone,” Sam called back. She tucked her hair behind her ears and glanced around the room again.
“We took a few things out already.” Bonnie was as close to the window as was safe, and held up Sam’s phone in her hand. “I got your phone.”
But did you get the CD player? Sam wanted to ask, though she had the good sense not to. “Okay, I’ll be right out, then,” she said.
Sam waited for Bonnie to leave so she could keep scouring the room, but Bonnie seemed to also be waiting for Sam to leave. Which irritated Sam in a way only her mother could. She’d forgotten this feeling of being closely watched and monitored by her mom, which had occasionally happened throughout her childhood when Bonnie mustered up the strength to act like a parent.
Sam cleared her throat and turned around to leave the bedroom. She’d have to come back for the CD player, because at the moment she was between a Bonnie and a hard place.
When Sam came out through the front door, the sky was dotted with salt-and-pepper clouds that hinted at the storm from the night before. She rubbed her temple as the humidity filled her sinuses with thick air. Squinting out to the street to assess the damage, there was Alligator Alice, power-walking down the sidewalk and stepping over fallen palm fronds as if there hadn’t just been a massive hurricane.
Sam shielded her eyes against the glare of the sun as she approached her mom. Bonnie handed her the cell phone, and when Sam tapped the screen she discovered it was dead. Because of course it was.
“So, the palm tree,” Sam said, resigned to her tech-free fate. “Who do we call for something like this?”
“Insurance first,” Grandma Pearl said. “After your mama cuts the thing in half and we haul it out of the window.”
Bonnie nodded toward the garage, which was open with a chainsaw lying in wait on the concrete slab of the floor.
Then, as if by Southern lumberjack magic, Damon emerged from the garage, talking on his cell phone. His dark hair wasn’t styled, but fell around his face in waves, and his shadow of a beard had thickened overnight. He must’ve sensed Sam’s eyes on him, because he turned and met her gaze. He quickly glanced away, though, and the sinking feeling of all not being well returned.
She didn’t need to recharge her phone to know he hadn’t responded to her message, or, if he had, there would be nothing good to see.
“I called Damon to ask if he could help with the cleanup,” Grandma Pearl said, reading her thoughts. “He thinks Farrah might be able to bring her pickup truck over to cart away the pieces.”
“It was nice of him,” Bonnie added. “Didn’t know you two still kept in touch.”
“We didn’t,” Sam surprised herself by answering. “But now we do.”
“Oh, they definitely keep in touch ,” Pearl said with a side smile. Jessie elbowed her.
Bonnie frowned as she looked between Sam and Damon, likely piecing the not-so-subtle clues together.
“Hey,” Damon said as he walked toward them. Finally, he locked in on Sam. Despite the fact that she knew they had unfinished business, her stomach did the silly fish flip trick again. He hesitated, then wrapped Sam in a hug and brought her into his chest. She closed her eyes as she leaned into the steady solidness of him.
“So, Bonnie’s back, huh?” he said into her ear.
“She came last night,” Sam answered. “Along with the tree in my room.”
Damon looked from the tree, to Sam, to Bonnie and scratched his head, maybe feeling as overwhelmed as Sam did.
For her part, Sam didn’t exactly want to be in this situation, either, and she was starting to get anxious about the possessed CD player. “I might grab a few things from my room before the tree trimming starts,” she said. She didn’t know if she wanted to listen to a song anytime soon, but she did want to have the option. And she felt weirdly protective over the thing.
“Is it safe to go back in?” he asked.
“I’m sure it’s fine.” Sam brushed his comment off. But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, an overweight water rat scuttled across the trunk of the fallen palm, rushing for Sam’s bedroom window.
“Stop!” Sam shouted at the rat, who turned just long enough to sneer and continue its route into the house.
“Never seen one that big,” Damon said.
“I have,” Pearl said, and a dark look crossed her face. “They don’t call Panama City the Redneck Riviera for nothing.”
“Okay, well, we’ll get an exterminator,” Sam offered.
“Honey, you need more than an exterminator to fix the hole in your house. Especially if you let Pearl get her way with selling this place.” Jessie gave Sam a there-there pat on the shoulder. “Pearl, you can bunk with me for the week. And Bonnie can use the couch.”
“And Sam...” Pearl looked over to Damon, which made Damon shift from one foot to the other.
“You can stay at my place, Sam-Sam.” He met her gaze.
“What a smart man you’ve grown into, Damon.” Pearl elbowed Sam. “And what a generous offer, which we will of course take you up on.”
“You do not need to do this,” Sam said. She knew he was only agreeing to help because Pearl had asked. But there were other easier options, like Jessie’s floor, or the middle of the road. “I’ve obviously intruded on your space enough already.”
“A Rat Queen just moved into your bedroom,” Damon said. “I’m taking pity on you.”
Well, Sam couldn’t think of anything to say to that, really.
“Before you go, can we talk?” Bonnie’s frown lines increased, as if already bracing for the no . “Is now a good time? It will only take a minute.”
Sam knew enough about life that when anyone said it would only take a minute that meant a solid ten. And it was not a good time for whatever nonsense Bonnie had planned. “No, no, thank you,” Sam said, then gave her a hard look.
“Do you want to go?” Damon asked in a low tone, likely sensing her angry vibration.
“Yes.” Sam fisted the side of her shirt and gritted her teeth.
Damon headed toward his motorcycle, and she did, too.
“Sam,” Bonnie called out. When Sam glanced back, she knew she was breaking a piece of her mom’s heart, but hadn’t this woman done the same thing to Sam, and worse?
“Let her go,” she heard Grandma Pearl say. “She’ll come back in her own time.”
Damon handed Sam a helmet and then settled his own on. He scratched at the back of his neck and then looked over to her. Their eyes met, and she saw a flash of something that was distinctly apprehension. He quickly glanced away.
“I promise to be a better house guest than the Rat Queen,” Sam said as she settled in behind Damon.
“For all you know the Rat Queen is very tidy and thoughtful. Maybe she’s making your bed right now.” Damon flipped the kickstand up.
Sam gagged and Damon laughed. “I love that for her. I hope she stays,” she said.
“Ready?” he asked.
She’d done this once before with him—hopped on the back of his bike, held on to him fiercely and taken a ride. But now...
“Sam?” he tried again.
She wrapped her arms around him, and his body momentarily tensed. “Is this okay?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. Though his voice was low and deep and coming from a place inside him she’d only heard a day ago.
He revved the engine, which was when she saw Bonnie across the lawn, watching them with tight lips. Bonnie’s words once again rang in her ears. Don’t end up stuck in this place .
But she was stuck in this place, at least for now, and Sam couldn’t help but feel safe pressed up tight to Damon.
So maybe Sam was a disappointment, but she also no longer cared what Bonnie thought. Still, she hated the fact that her mom had a smug look on her face, like she’d always known this would happen, and was finally proven right.