My Everything - Seth & Amber (11 page)

Amber could not stop yawning as she worked on
marking all of the tags for the big sale tomorrow. She knew that it
had been scientifically proven that the tryptophan in the turkey
had no bearing on your alertness. But she also knew that it made
her sleepy every time she ate it. So her logical conclusion had
been; it was the turkey.

She looked up at the round clock hanging on
the wall as she stretched her hands over her head. It read
ten-fifteen pm. She still had quite a bit of work to do, but she
was happy that she had decided to take the extra fifteen minutes to
stop by her house to change before coming down to the store. She
was a heck of a lot more cozy and warm in her sweats and Ugg boots
than she had been in her wrap dress and high heeled boots.

But, good lord, her earlier attire had
certainly caused the desired reaction in one Mr. Seth Sloan. She
let a small, sly smile creep onto her face. Amber thought that
caramel colored wrap dress may just be her new favorite. Seth’s
initial response to seeing her could not have been more perfect,
and then all through dinner she kept catching him staring at her
from across the large dinner table.

At first, she had been disappointed that
there weren't two seats beside each other. After their interaction
in the kitchen, she had been hoping dinnertime would be filled with
‘accidental’ brushes and maybe even inside jokes between the two of
them. Flirty banter she could
definitely
do. She had planned
on having some serious bonding time.

As it turned out, by the time she had made it
to the table, the only two available seats were directly opposite
one another. It had worked out
just
fine, though, because
the distance had almost felt – to her at least – like foreplay.

His stare was one of the sexiest things Amber
had ever been on the receiving end of. When he looked at her, it
felt as though she was all he could see. Several times, other
people would be talking to him and, although they continued to
speak, his eyes never wavered from hers. He definitely did not
suffer from the need to uphold social graces.

He was raw. He was real. He was
hot
.

She had made sure to say goodbye
specifically
to him when she left. If she wasn’t mistaken a
look of disappointment had flashed across his face when she had
told him she was taking off. Okay, that was probably just wishful
thinking on her part…but still.

Her phone rang. She pulled it out of her
sweats pocket.

Her mom. She took a deep breath and pressed
the answer icon.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Mom.” She figured might
as well remind her mother of the day in case she was so trashed she
had forgotten.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Sweetie.” Surprisingly,
her mom did not sound drunk or high. She sounded…sad.

“Where are you?” Amber felt a need to see her
mom, well up inside of her.

“Nowhere,” her mom’s voice sounded quiet,
reserved.

Okay, that was not an answer.

“Mom, are you okay?” Amber’s heart started
beating rapidly.

Her mom sounded subdued, distant. Amber did
not like this. The only other time she had heard her mom sound like
this was a month after they had lost Aaron, and that had ended with
her mom landing in the ER and then the psych ward after a suicide
attempt.

“I’m fine, Sweetie. I just miss you. And
Aaron.”

Tears filled Amber’s eyes. “I miss you too,
mom. And I miss Aaron so much.”

“Do you remember when you were probably
around twelve and we were in...oh, Iowa I think, and we burned the
turkey…”

“And ended up going to the grocery store and
getting TV dinners,” Amber interrupted, laughing at the memory.
“That was the best Thanksgiving ever.”

“It was, right?!” her mom agreed, her tone
sounding a little more upbeat. “I remember you standing in the
frozen food aisle in Fareway’s, hands on your hips, steaming mad at
Aaron because he didn’t want to get the turkey TV dinner. He
wanted…”

“Salisbury steak!” they both said loudly in
unison.

Her mom continued chuckling, “I have to admit
that I
really
wanted the fried chicken meal, but I was
scared I would scar you for life if I didn’t pick the turkey.”

“You’re right, it probably would have
traumatized me,” Amber laughed in agreement. “It was Thanksgiving
and I thought we should be eating turkey.”

There was a moment of silence on the line and
Amber continued, “Then we stayed up playing Monopoly and Clue and
we all fell asleep on the couch watching Fletch.”

“It was his favorite movie,” her mom’s voice
cracked.

“It was.” Amber felt tears falling down her
cheeks remembering her brother’s laugh as he watched Chevy Chase in
all of those ridiculous costumes and situations.

“I still watch it sometimes,” her mother
sounded so…broken, and alone.

Amber could barely get the words out, “So do
I.”

She heard her mom take a deep breath.
“Sweetie, I am so sorry I haven’t been there for you.”

She loved her mom so much. She knew that what
she was dealing with was an illness. She didn’t want her to feel
bad or guilty because of it.

“It’s fine, mom,” Amber said trying to hold
back the tears.

“It’s not fine. And I know that an apology
does not make everything better. But I just want you to know that I
love you so much, Sweetie. You are my princess.” Her mom sounded
stronger than Amber had heard her in a long time.

“I love you too, Mom.” Amber couldn’t stop
the tears from flowing down her cheeks.

Then she heard a loud slam on the other end
of the line. “Who is that, Susan? Who are you talking to?” A gruff
voice yelled in the background.

The line went dead.

--- ~ ---

Seth’s jaw ticked and he flexed his hands as
he stood behind Amber. His body was wound tight, but not with need.
He was on full alert. As soon as he had driven into the back lot to
install security cameras he had noticed two things.

One: Amber’s white Prius was parked beside
the back entrance of Bella. Two: The back door to the building was
slightly ajar.

Visions of her lying unconscious - or worse -
had immediately popped into his head.

He had come in through the back entrance and
made his way through the beaded curtain without her ever being
aware of his presence. Logically, he knew that since he was trained
and specialized in extractions, he could get into almost any
structure undetected. But, honestly, anyone could have gotten in
without Amber knowing.

It was late. She was alone. There was a
break-in just a few days ago. What the hell was she thinking?

“Amber,” he barked.

She jumped, screamed and clutched her chest
as she spun around.

Her eyes were wild with fear. He saw the
exact moment she recognized him, “Oh my God! You scared me!”

“What are you doing?” he asked through
clenched teeth. He could feel the anger radiating off of him in
powerful waves.

He didn’t feel like this often, but the few
times he had, the people on the receiving end of his mood looked
scared and nervous. They cowed or at the very least flinched when
he spoke to them angrily.

Not Amber. She seemed pissed.

Her brow furrowed and she shook her head with
indignation. “What are
you
doing?”

“Installing security cameras,” his tone
remained harsh with anger. He really didn’t give a damn.

“Cranston agreed to pay for those?” she
sounded genuinely shocked.

“No,” he replied. His fury beginning to
dissipate.

He had been told once by The Colonel when he
was a teenager that anger was really just a byproduct of fear or
hurt. He hadn’t believed him at the time. He hadn’t had an ‘aha’
moment, as his cousins (who were obsessed with Oprah) always
claimed they had. As an adult, though, he was beginning to see the
wisdom in that statement. He had been terrified that something had
happened to her. Now that he saw she was okay, he was still mad,
but not furious.

“How much is this going to cost me?” she
asked distractedly. She didn’t seem like herself.

Seth had heard her talking when he came
through the back door. It had sounded to him like she was upset.
The sound of her distraught tone had only added to his panic. Now
he saw that she held her phone in her hand and her eyes definitely
showed signs that she had in fact been crying.

“What’s wrong?” he asked bluntly.

She just stared at him. He nodded his head
down to the phone she was holding in her hand.

Amber waved her hand dismissively,
“Nothing.”

In contrast to the words she had just spoken,
her body language screamed that it was, in fact, something.

He wanted to reach out and pull her into his
arms. To hold her until whatever was troubling her disappeared from
her mind. He was filled with the desire to offer comfort and
security. Not in any kind of a sexual way, purely as emotional
support.

And that scared the shit out of him. The plan
to keep his distance was looking better and better all the time.
She seemed fragile and vulnerable and it caused him to want things
he had no business wanting.

He was fucked up. He knew it. Not just
physically, but mentally. For the past year or so he had not felt
like himself. Maybe it was the PTSD. Or it could have been that all
the things he had seen and done in his time in the military were
catching up to him. A strong argument could also be made that he
was still messed up from all the shit he had gone through with his
mom.

Seth had never had a serious relationship. He
had had casual ones with women that knew what he had to offer,
which wasn’t a whole lot. He had always made it clear to women that
he would not be taking any relationship to that 'next level.' Some
women had dealt well with those terms, some women thought they
could convince him otherwise.

When they realized they couldn’t, and it had
inevitably had a messy ending, it never bothered him. In his
military career, he was gone for such long periods at a time and
moved around so much that he could just move on.

What he felt for Amber was more than he had
ever felt for another person, but that didn’t change who he was. He
couldn’t give her everything, and she deserved
everything
.

“How much?” she repeated her question,
pulling him out of his reflective thoughts.

“Nothing,” he answered.

“Well who’s paying-” realization dawned on
her. She firmly stated, “No. Absolutely not. You are not paying for
this.”

She stood in front of him, arms crossed her
brows raised expectantly as if she was waiting for some kind of a
response from him. Well, she could wait all night if she wanted to,
but this wasn’t up for discussion. The security system was going
in. It was non-negotiable.

When he remained silent, she stubbornly
added, “I won’t approve the work order.”

“Cranston approved it,” he explained. He knew
she understood that she didn’t have a leg to stand on, because -
although she leased the retail space - Cranston owned the
building.

Honestly, Seth was pissed that it had taken
the old man two days to reply to his request. He had just needed
Cranston to sign off on the work. He hadn’t asked for a dime from
the stingy SOB.

Seth had wanted to do this install the night
of the break-in and had immediately contacted Cranston, submitting
a work proposal. He hadn’t heard anything back from him until about
an hour ago. He had still been at Jason and Katie’s for
Thanksgiving when he received the approval via email. He had
immediately taken off so he could come and install the cameras and
high tech security system.

Amber closed her eyes and took in a deep
steady breath. When she opened them, she said begrudgingly,
“Fine.”

With that agreement, she turned to go back to
what he assumed she had been doing here in the first place. She was
using what looked like a pricing gun and marking the tags on a rack
of clothing.

“Amber.”

She turned her head looking over her
shoulder.

“Lock. Your. Doors.” He formed the sentence
slowly, with an emphasis on each word.

Her golden eyes silently communicated the
same words he had heard from his brothers growing up: ‘You’re not
the boss of me.’ He half expected her to cross her arms and stomp
her feet. Instead her lips pursed and she exhaled through her nose
loudly before turning back around on her heel and acting as if he
didn’t exist.

Seth headed to the back to install the
cameras. She could pout and ignore him all she wanted, but she damn
sure better lock her doors from now on. That point was also not
negotiable.

Amber’s entire body ached as she stepped out
of her car at the Harper’s Crossing Women’s Shelter. It was a crisp
November day and the wind whipped across her face as she slowly
made her way across the large parking lot. She was glad she had
chosen to wear gloves and a beanie for this errand.

After she dropped off the gift cards – the
ones she hadn’t been able to give the director on the fifteenth
when she had overslept - she planned on going straight home to bed.
She didn’t plan on resurfacing for at least twenty-four hours.

The Black Friday sale the day before had gone
even better than she had hoped. It had been busy. Crazy busy. She
didn’t think she stopped moving for the entire fourteen hours Bella
had been open.

Amber had gotten a few hours of shut-eye
after the sale had ended and before she had to be back at the store
to open this morning, but it hadn’t made up for the completely
sleepless night she had suffered through the night before last.
After Seth had scared the living daylights out of her, she had not
been the most gracious when he informed her (rudely, but still)
that he would be installing security cameras.