Page 41 of Surviving You, Scotch and Sammy 1

She giggles softly and steps back into my chest, wrapping her arms around my waist and burying her nose against my heart. “I love you, Sam.”

My heart slams around in my chest. This is the first time she’s ever told me without me saying it first. Her initiative slays me. I bring my hands to her face and pull her gaze up to mine. “I love you too, Ricci. So much it scares the shit out of me. I’m a man with something precious to lose.”

“We’re the easiest thing there’ll ever be.” She throws my own words back at me. “We’ll be okay, and we’ll always be happy.”

“Yeah.” I kiss her forehead and my eyes snap closed before I weep. “Yeah, we have the rest of our lives together.” I take her hand again, and turn us toward Meg’s landscaped yard. “Ready to go?”

She nods softly, tucks her clutch under her left arm and threads her right through the crook of mine. “I’m ready. I’m really excited about tonight. Do you have a curfew?”

We walk down the stairs leisurely, and her stunning dress swishes around her feet. “Not really. My folks will come looking eventually, but they’re cool. I’m eighteen now. What about you?”

“My mom and dad think I’m sleeping at Meg’s tonight. They won’t come looking until tomorrow.”

“They think you’re sleeping at Meg’s? Where are you sleeping?”

She shrugs casually, but the twinkle in her eyes is obvious. “Dunno. I bet you won’t let me sleep in the street though.”

I frown at what I’m sure I hear in her voice, and my dick swells at the insinuation, but I must be wrong. “I won’t let you sleep in the street, Ricci. Not ever.”

“Where are you sleeping?”

“I dunno. I didn’t really think about it. I would have stayed with you until you had to sleep, then I would have made my way back home.”

She shrugs casually, and as her delicate shoulders lift and drop, her dress shimmers. “I guess we’ll figure it out later.”

“Hey Soda.”

Sammy’s eyes leave mine, and she smiles breathtakingly as she looks at Angelo. “Ooooh boy.” She leaves my arms and steps toward him, taking the lapels of his coat in her hands. “You look so handsome, Angelo.”

A genuine blush covers his cheeks. “Aw thanks.” He squeezes her in a quick hug, then lets her free. She steps back to me, but she bends low to look into the car. “Hey Misty. You look beautiful tonight.”

Misty smiles shyly as Sammy and I climb through Ang’s door and into the back seat. As soon as I settle in and secure our belts, her hand is in my lap and her head on my shoulder. Her candy scent fills my nose, and her warmth envelopes me. I press my face closer, and I murmur time and time again that I love her as Ang drives toward our prom.

Barely ten minutes later, we pull up out front of the fancy Lleytton Hotel, and climbing out first in the long line of cars already in the valet queue, I take Sammy’s hand and I help her out. Her face is flushed a stunning soft pink, and her eyes continue to twinkle as she looks around at the hundreds of people milling around.

Luc and Marc are already here and they’re already set up. Angelo and I helped them for hours today in prep before we went home to dress, so circumventing the long line of my classmates at the front of the hotel, I thread Sammy’s arm through mine and lead us toward the entrance me and the guys used earlier.

We navigate the large hotel using service halls, then finally enter the ballroom with only a handful of people milling around. We both glance over to the stage as Luc wolf whistles obnoxiously.

“Well, well, well.” He jumps down from the platform and swaggers toward us arrogantly. He tugs Sammy from my grasp, dramatically spinning and dipping her. She giggles freely, but the sound comes to an instant halt when Luc drops a juicy kiss on her lips. He’s laughing, but my poor shy Sammy blushes. “You look amazing, Soda. Save a dance for me tonight?”

“Ah, no,” she answers on a nervous giggle. “I’m here with Sam, but thanks.” She recovers some of her usual sass, and steps forward, taking Luc’s lapels in her hands the way she did with Angelo. “But you sure do look good, Luca. Too bad you didn’t get to bring a date tonight.”

He scoffs arrogantly. “That won’t stop me. I’ll take someone else’s date. Everyone knows I’ll be more fun than whoever she’s with anyway.”

“Even me?”

Luc flashes a cocky smile, but he shakes his head. “Not you, Soda. Not even my sexiness could draw you away from him.” He looks up at me finally and punches me in the shoulder. “You look good, bud. Is that your funeral suit?”

I laugh, because he’s almost right. “I rented a new suit for tonight. My girl deserves better than something that smells of mothballs, but I totally would’ve worn the other one for any other event.”

I turn around the room, checking it all out and admiring the fancy crystal chandeliers and ivory marble floors. Someday I’ll buy Sammy this kind of opulence. Someday I’ll be able to provide her with the lifestyle she’s already accustomed to.

A net has been installed above us, holding thousands of silver and gold balloons ready to drop later tonight, and tables are scattered throughout the room surrounding the dancefloor in the center. Students trickle in slowly, and before long, the place is packed with fancy gowns and suits that most of these guys’ moms would have picked out. Sammy follows me mostly everywhere I go. Not because she’s my Velcro, but because I refuse to let her loose.

Marc and Luc start playing, and though I bitch at them, Luc actually can sing well, and he carries our band while Angelo and I hang out. Every third or fourth song, we switch out; I leave Sammy at the table with Misty and Meg and her douchebag boyfriend, or I bring her with me to the stage, and Ang and I join the guys for a set.

Meg’s boyfriend, Drew, picked her up separately tonight, and though they arrived not long after Sammy and I, Meg arrived with a filthy big hickey on the base of her neck and a pissed off scowl on her face. She’s been somewhat cold toward him the last couple hours, but come ten p.m. she’s warming up and he’s prying fresh smiles from her. Fucking asshole.

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