Page 123 of Summer People
My heart races as I search our surroundings. The limo no longer feels like a safe place. It feels like a death box. Visions of being trapped in the burning theater pummel me. The heat, the terror, the fear that we wouldn’t make it out. What if she used some type of gas this time? My lungs sting, making it hard to breathe.
“Daddy,” I gasp. “Open the door”
“Libby.” He squeezes my hand. “Breathe, hunny.” Though his words to me are gentle, in the next breath, he bangs on the ceiling of the limo. “Call the police!”
“I just need to talk to her for a second.”
The words barely permeate my frazzled brain. The blood roaring in my ears is too loud.
“Tell her it’s Fisher. She’ll want to see me.” The angry voice gets louder, this time washing over me in a way that instantly drowns out the panic.
“Fisher!” I yell, pushing the door open.
My father grasps my arm and pulls me back. “Stay, Libby.”
Barely able to catch my breath, I shake him off. “That’s Fisher,my Fisher.” I say as if that means anything to him.
I peek my head out and immediately spot Fisher on the other side of the black gate. Though he looks so different from my Fisher. In a black tuxedo with his hair perfectly done, he glares at my security personnel.
“Libby!” The sound of Sutton’s sweet voice has my heart lurching.
It only takes a minute to find her. She’s wearing a pretty pink dress that matches mine almost perfectly.
“Sutton Jones,” I call, my heart racing. “What are you doing here, pretty girl?”
The fury in Fisher’s expression evaporates when he hears my voice, and when he spots me, he sucks in a sharp breath.
“Wade, you can let them in. They’re family.”
My security guard shakes his head, his lips turned down. “They’re not on the list.”
Fisher arches his brows in a teasing way.
“My mistake,” I say as Wade finally releases the lock on the gate, allowing Fisher and Sutton in.
“Hell, Princess,” my man practically growls. “You look gorgeous.”
Sutton giggles, her head tipped back. “That’s a bad word.”
He mumbles an apology, but he never takes his eyes off me.
“What are you guys doing here?” I ask as I hold out my arms.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Sutton runs into them and hugs me tight.
So much for my makeup still being intact, because, on contact, my eyes flood with tears.
“We needed you,” Fisher says as he wraps both of us in a hug.
That’s when I officially lose it. “I needed you,” I whisper. “Both of you.”
Fisher puts two fingers beneath my chin and tilts my face up, then presses his lips to mine. “I know. That’s why we’re here.”
“You’re here. You’rebothhere,” I say through a sob.
He nods, his cheek pressed to mine. “Both of us.”
“This istheguy?” my father says behind me.
