Page 46 of Hold on Tight

“Hi, Mom. There’s a weird guy here.”

“Cindy’s gonna take care of you,” Mira told him, wishing she could hug him, wishing she could hold him.

What she wouldn’t give for Jake right now. For someone familiar and competent to be Sam’s advocate, to focus on Sam’s needs.

Maybe …

Probably it was a terrible idea, but it was the best one she had right then. “Sam, put Cindy back on.”

“Hello?”

“I’m going to call Sam’s—”

She’d been about to say Sam’s father, before she thought twice about the advisability of outing Jake to a near-stranger that way. “A friend of mine. I’m going to see if he can get there faster. I bet he can get there in fifteen minutes if he takes a cab.”

She hung up with Cindy and called him. Her heart sped up while the phone rang. It had been three weeks since their Seattle outing, three weeks during which she hadn’t heard a peep out of him. During which she’d kept putting Sam off, telling him they’d see Jake soon, they’d make a date to go to Bainbridge on the ferry together, she promised, soon, maybe next weekend, maybe next weekend, maybe next weekend …

Jake had texted her a couple of times with possible activities for him to do with Sam, but she’d made up excuses. Too many excuses—his last few replies had broadcast his irritation.I’d grab Sam fast, he’d texted last time.You wouldn’t even have to talk to me.

He answered, “ ’lo?”

“It’s Mira.”

“Hey.” Not unfriendly, but not brimming with joy, either. She deserved that.

“Sam’s in a situation, and I think you can get to him faster than I can. I’m on the east side. If you take a cab, I think you can be there in ten or fifteen.”

“What’s going on?”

She explained the whole situation to him as quickly and succinctly as she could.

“I’m on my way.”

“Thank you.” Her voice was thick with gratitude and the need to cry. “I’m an hour behind you. Maybe less if I drive fast.”

“Be careful.”

She hung up the phone and took a moment to compose herself.I’m on my way.

What she had longed for all those years.

A knight in shining armor, galloping off to her rescue. So tempting, so much the fulfillment of her every fantasy.

He wasn’t her knight, though. He was Sam’s. He hadn’t answered the phone all eager to do her bidding, ready to slay whatever dragon she’d presented. But he would slay dragons for Sam in a heartbeat.

Haley came into the hallway. “What’s going on? They’ve got a question for you about whether it’ll work for scarves, too.”

“I just got a call from my babysitter,” Mira said.

But before she could say anything else, Haley said, “Not the babysitter again.”

Her heart kicked up, hard. Bad enough that Sam was in danger, bad enough she couldn’t get there as fast as she wanted, butfuck, did this have to be yet another thing that was going to screw her at work? “There’s a situation.”

“There always is, isn’t there?”

She should have known Haley wouldn’t be sympathetic.

“I teed up this meeting for you, Mira. This is your chance to knock ’em dead.”

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