Remembering You by Sandi Lynn

Chapter 1

Harry and Corinne Montgomery. What can I say? Harry was a doctor, a plastic surgeon, to be exact, and he was the best in Orange County. Corinne, my mother, spent her time, when not trying to run my life, doing charity work for different charities. Sometimes people mistook us for sisters. She didn’t look like she was forty-five, but more like thirty. I guess it helped when your husband was a plastic surgeon. Her best feature was her long, dark auburn hair, which complemented her emerald eyes. Harry and I had the same eyes: icy blue like the sea.

Both of my parents were snobs in every sense of the word. They judged people based on what they didn’t have instead of seeing them for who they were. I kept asking them if I was adopted because I was so different. I wasn’t materialistic, and big expensive things didn’t matter to me as much as they did to my parents and Zoey.

My sister, Zoey, was a Mini-Me of Corinne; they shared the same color hair and emerald eyes and, at the age of twenty-one, she was engaged to a senator’s son. She’d had her eyes set on him since she was sixteen years old. The Desmond’s were one of the most influential families in California, and Zoey was making sure she became a part of that. What Zoey didn’t know was how Dylan Desmond, her beloved fiancé, tried to have sex with me last year. I told him, for his sake, I wouldn’t tell my sister, but he’d better never come within six feet of me again or I would start a scandal, not only for what he tried with me, but with all the other women he had on the side. I had pictures of him that he didn’t even know about. Half the time, he wouldn’t even look at me anymore, which was the way I liked it.

Zoey spent a lot of her time criticizing me for the way I dressed. Apparently, jeans and a t-shirt weren’t her thing. She didn’t like to tell people we were sisters because she was embarrassed of me. Corinne didn’t stick up for me either; she would just tell Zoey to be nice and then the two of them would start to discuss the wedding. I didn’t really care, though. My family was from a different world and it was a world I didn’t belong in.

I was the quiet type, and I had two best friends, Ally and Rachel, whom I’d known since kindergarten. My passion was reading, and I liked to get lost in a good book. It was my escape from my family. Another one of my passions was Sam Snow.

Sam and I met when my car broke down and I was standing on the side of the road trying to call Corinne or Harry, but neither one answered. Sam was driving a tow truck when he saw me, and he pulled over to ask if I needed help. The moment he opened the door and got out of his truck, I knew my life would never be the same. He was the hottest guy I’d ever seen. He stood about six-foot-two with a muscular build. He wore his sandy brown hair short and spikey in a messy kind of way, but very sexy, and his eyes were a blue gray that were mesmerizing to look at.

“Hey, do you need some help?” the handsome stranger asked as he walked towards me.

“Um, my car broke down, and I’ve been trying to call my parents with no luck.”

He smiled at me and my knees started shaking. No one should ever be this beautiful.

“Looks like it’s your lucky day. I can give you and your car a lift to my garage. It’s over in Irvine.”

I really had no choice but to go with him. Should I have been scared? Maybe I should have been, but I wasn’t. There was something about him that made me feel safe. I felt things in my body that I’d never felt before when he looked at me.

“Thank you. I really appreciate it.” I smiled.

He looked down as if he were embarrassed and the smile never left his face. “Okay, let’s get your car hooked up. You can wait in the truck.”

I nodded my head and climbed in. Once he had my car hooked up, he climbed in and sat beside me. He turned and looked at me with those amazing eyes and held out his hand.

“Hi, I’m Sam Snow.”

I bit my bottom lip as I smiled back. “I’m Claire Montgomery.”

The charge that went through my body when we touched was riveting. It was like I suddenly came alive. He started the truck and headed towards Irvine. The radio was on and the song “Yellow” by Coldplay played through the speakers.

“I love this song,” I said.

Sam looked at me as he turned it up.

“I do too. Coldplay is my favorite band of all time.”

“Shut up!” I exclaimed as I looked at him. “They’re my favorite band too.”

He laughed and the rest of the ride to Irvine was made up of us talking about all the other music we had in common.

When we reached Cal’s Towing and Fixit Place, I climbed out of the truck as Sam backed up the car into an empty stall and unhooked it. I walked around, trying to call Corrine and Harry again, but still no answer. So I tried, against my better judgment, Zoey.

“Hello, Claire. What do you want?” she asked in an irritated manner.

“Can you come get me? My car broke down. I had to have it towed and now I need a ride home.”

I heard a sigh. “Where are you?” she asked.

“I’m at a place called Cal’s Towing in Irvine.”

“Irvine!” she yelled. “Listen, I’m with Dylan right now and we’re looking at invitations for the engagement party. You’ll have to wait a couple of hours or call a cab.”

“A cab? I’m not calling a cab. You’re my sister, and I can’t get a hold of Mom or Dad.”

Sam was standing in front of me listening to my conversation with my stuck up, self-absorbed sister. He motioned to me that he would give me a ride home.

“Claire, stop being a baby,” she proceeded to say as I hung up and sighed.

“You don’t have to worry. I can give you a ride home.” He smiled as he looked down and lightly kicked the dirt with the toe of his boot.

Every time he smiled, I felt weak in the knees.

“I don’t want you to go out of your way; you’ve done so much for me already and I don’t want to be a burden.”

“It’s not a problem at all, and you’re no burden. Please don’t think like that.”

I looked down in embarrassment. “It’s just that my family is really busy with their lives and, well—”

Sam bent over so his face was looking at mine. “I want to drive you home, Claire.”

I gave him a small smile. He wasn’t the only shy one here.

“Okay, then I accept.”

I filled out some paperwork for the repairs on my car as Sam grabbed his keys.

“Hey, Cal, Claire doesn’t have a ride, so I’m going to give her a lift home. I’ll be back soon.”

“Okay, Sam. It was nice to meet you, Claire.” Cal waved.

“Nice to meet you too.” I waved with a smile.

* * *

Sam’s car was a black 1967 Chevy Impala. He walked over to the passenger’s door and opened it for me. So far, he seemed to be a perfect gentleman.

“Nice wheels you have here.”

“Thanks. This baby is my pride and joy.” He smiled.

“Is there a story behind it?”

“I’ll tell you on the way home, but first, you need to tell me where you live.”

A sick feeling settled into my stomach. I didn’t want to tell him I lived in Newport Beach out of fear he would think I was one of those stuck-up rich girls. I began sliding my teeth along my bottom lip as I whispered, “Newport Beach.”

He leaned a little closer to me and whispered, “What did you say?”

I let out a light laugh. “Newport Beach. Please don’t judge me.” The words fell out of my mouth.

Sam cocked his head to the side. “Why would I judge you?”

“Because people normally judge people from Newport Beach.”

The corners of his mouth curved upward. “Sounds like you’re ashamed of living there.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Let’s just say I’d rather live somewhere else. Now tell me about this baby of yours.”

I needed to change the subject. It was bad enough he was going to see my mansion of a house and how I lived. I could see his blue gray eyes light up as he was about to tell me.

“Someone had it towed to the garage. It hadn’t run in years and it was rusting out. Cal told me if I could fix and restore it, the car was mine.”

“Wow, that was very generous of him,” I said.

He showed a small smile. “Yeah, he’s kind of been like a father figure to me for a few years.”

I could see a hurt in his face when he said that, but I didn’t ask any more questions because it wasn’t my business.

“Open the glove box,” he said.

I pushed the button and opened it. Inside, there was a CD in a case that was labeled “Coldplay.” I looked over at him, and we both smiled at each other.

“You can put it in,” he said.

I took the CD out of the case and popped it in the CD player. “Fix You” was the first song to grace the speakers of the 1967 Chevy Impala. We drove, listened, and sang all the way to my house.

When Sam turned into the long, winding driveway of my home, I could see the look on his face as he pulled up to the mansion.

“Wow, this is really nice, Claire,” he said as he hunched over the steering wheel to get a better look.

I shrugged. “It’s okay.”

He got out, walked around, and opened the door for me. That was the one thing that amazed me most about Sam.

“Thank you for helping me today. I would like to repay you somehow.”

He placed his hands in his pockets and looked down at the ground. I noticed he did that quite a bit.

“You could have dinner with me some time,” he whispered.

I leaned into him and whispered, “What did you say?”

He looked up at me and chuckled. “I said you can have dinner with me sometime.”

A huge smile beamed across my face. “I would love to have dinner with you.”

He smiled back as he fidgeted. “How about tomorrow night? I can pick you up at seven o’clock.”

“Sounds great. I’ll be ready.”

The pleased grin never left his face as he walked over to his car, gave me a wave, and drove away.

As I watched him pull away, my phone rang, and Zoey’s name appeared. “Hello,” I snapped as I walked up the walkway.

“Do you still need us to pick you up?”

“No, I’m home now. Sorry to have inconvenienced you,” I said as I hit the end button.

I walked into the house and headed up the stairs to my room when I heard Corrine call my name.

“I saw you tried to call me a billion times, Claire. What was so important?”

I abruptly stopped in place and turned around to face her. “Why didn’t you answer, Mother?”

“I was in a charity meeting, and I couldn’t talk.”

“Well, my car broke down, and I was stranded on the side of the road. But don’t worry, a nice man stopped, offered me some candy, and when I accepted, he gave me a lift to a garage.”

Her eyes widened. “Claire, you could have been raped or kidnapped. What have I told you about strangers? Why didn’t you call your sister?”

“I did call Zoey, but she was too busy with her dog of a fiancé to pick me up.”

“Claire, that isn’t nice to say about Dylan.”

I stomped up the stairs because as far as I was concerned, this conversation was over.

“Where’s your car?” she yelled.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s being repaired, and I can pick it up tomorrow.” I went to my room and slammed my door, then fell across my bed and went to sleep.