Until Fountain Bridge - Young Samantha - Страница 7

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he meant that in a strictly platonic sense or if he was finally opening his eyes up to see I

wasn’t a little girl anymore. For a start I had boobs now.

“I worry about you all the time,” he confessed. “You’re so sweet and kind, too kind

sometimes. I worry someone will hurt you and I won’t be there to stop it.”

It was true I had a tendency to look for the best in everyone, and I had a bit of a hero-complex (I wonder where I’d picked that up from), but I wasn’t incompetent. And I was a

woman now. I could take care of myself, and I told him so.

Adam frowned. “That’s not what I mean. You get a lot of male attention, Ellie, and

sometimes it’s difficult to weed out the wankers. For instance the kid you came with tonight.

He flirts a lot… with everything that has tits and a pair of long legs.”

Glowering at the insult to Liam, I tried to press back. “Liam is a nice guy.”

“Liam is after one thing. I should know—”

“Right, you’ve been hogging her enough.” Braden was suddenly standing beside us,

grinning. “I want a dance with the birthday girl.”

Adam tightened his hold on me and then as if it occurred to him what he was doing, he

threw Braden a grin and let me go. We shared one last look and then he was gone and I was

in Braden’s arms.

What the hell had just happened? Had Adam Sutherland… was he… was that more than

friendly advice? The way he touched me, the things he’d said, the way he’d looked at me. It

had felt different. My heart was racing, a bubble of giddy hope starting to float up inside of

me. Poor Liam was forgotten as I got lost in my longing and fantasies.

“I’m proud of you,” Braden told me gruffly, bringing me out of my head where I was

already picking wedding dresses and deciding who would be my maid of honor. I guessed it

would have to be Allie since I’d known her the longest.

I smiled at my big brother, feeling my chest expand at his declaration. “What for?”

“For many reasons. For getting into Edinburgh Uni. For taking care of Elodie and Clark,

and for being a good sister to Hannah and Dec. And for being a great wee sister to me. It’s

been a tough year, Els, and I’m grateful for all your help.”

I hugged him close for a second, my heart hurting all over again for him. After falling for

and marrying his Australian wife, Analise, Braden had filed for divorce when he walked in

on her and his old school friend having sex in one of Braden’s empty developments in New

Town. The bitch had put him through the ringer for the last nine months of his marriage and

then she’d cheated on him with his friend. It was the ultimate betrayal. Worse, our dad had

been the one who’d cottoned onto it and he’d set Braden up to find the traitorous couple. That

was dad’s way. Rather than pulling his son aside and letting him down easy, he’d let Braden

walk into that. Braden didn’t seem to mind. In fact he was grateful to our father. I, on the

other hand, thought he was an insensitive arsehole. Then again, I didn’t exactly have fluffy

feelings toward Douglas Carmichael at the moment (or ever).

As if he’d read my mind, Braden sighed. “Dad’s sorry he couldn’t be here, Ellie. I’m sorry

too.”

“Don’t apologize for him.” I turned my face away, screwing it up to stop the tears. You

would think after eighteen years of complete neglect I’d be over the hurt by now.

Unfortunately, the hurt never went away. I just couldn’t understand what Douglas found so

unloveable about me that he’d deliberately shun me time and time again. It was my

eighteenth birthday for God’s sake and he couldn’t get up off his rich arse for half an hour to pop into offer me birthday wishes.

Braden sighed again and I heard him curse under his breath. He had a fairly good

relationship with our dad now and I didn’t want to be the cause of any problems between

them so I gave him a squeeze and smiled at him. “I’m fine. I’m more than fine. I’m

surrounded by friends and family who care about me, Braden. And that’s all I care about.”

We shared a smile and another hug seconds before the music changed to up tempo again,

and mum and Clark descended on us. I had a dance with the two of them, giggling as they

pulled out moves that hadn’t been seen in at least two decades.

As the night continued on, I mingled with friends and family but my eyes kept wandering

through the crowds in an attempt to find Adam again. My stomach was a riot of butterflies,

and I couldn’t get his voice out of my head.

“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Els,”

I smiled at something Allie said to Liam and watched it crack him up but I had no idea

what the conversation was about. My head was stuck in rewind.

When the room began to feel too hot, I ordered a bottle of water from the bar and slipped

out of the back of the room and found directions to the exit. It was the fire exit and it led out to the back of the hotel where all the rubbish bins were stored. I crept outside quietly, sucking in a huge gulp of air and enjoying the peace. It could give me a moment to wrap my head

around what had happened and if what I thought had happened had actually happened.

I felt a giddy smile start to stretch my lips when a grunt followed by a moan made me

freeze. The large wheeled bins were situated between me and an alcove of the building, and

the sounds were coming from there. My heart picked up a little bit as I guessed what the

sounds meant and what I’d stumbled upon. When another grunt sounded I covered my mouth

with my hand to keep in the giggle that was threatening to erupt.

“Yes,” a female voice groaned. “Adam, oh my God.”

The giggle instantly died as the blood rushed in my ears. I felt a burn in the bottom of my

throat as some devil, some masochistic thing inside of me, made me tiptoe silently around the

bins.

All the hope I’d been feeling exploded and disintegrated around me.

As I watched Adam screw one of the female catering staff against a brick wall, I realized

what an idiot I was. What a childish, naive idiot.

And then the anger settled in. The frustration. The pain… that somehow I wasn’t good

enough. Not good enough for Adam. Not good enough for my father.

My eyes narrowed. There was one person who thought I was good enough, so what was I

holding out for? For flowers and sonnets and a man on bended knee? That wasn’t going to

happen. This was reality. Sex was sex. There was nothing magical about it.

Clearly.

I wasn’t naturally an angry person, but the burn of jealousy fueled it and I turned silently

back to the hotel. As soon as I was inside, the image of Adam moving against the catering

girl kept flashing before my eyes. I felt sick. Chugging back more water, I made a decision. I

needed to wipe that image out of my brain.

I found Clark talking to his brother in the function room and thankfully Mum wasn’t

anywhere around because what I was going to ask she’d probably not be happy about.

“Els, what do you want to do with all these presents?” He asked, pointing to a table that

had been set up at the back.

“Can I ask you and Mum a big favor?”

He smirked, guessing what that favor was. “You want us to take the presents back home

for you?”

“My friends and I want to go onto a club, if that’s okay?”

Clark studied me for a moment and then finally sighed, “Go on before your Mum sees

you. And be careful.”

I nodded and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Leaving him to it, I pushed my way

through the dance floor and found Liam and Allie dancing together. I pulled Liam off to the

side with an apologetic smile thrown Allie’s way.

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