Chapter 8

"You sure everything is set?" Shane asked.

"Yes Shane, I'm sure. Besides I didn't do much. You did everything yourself earlier today." Ally said.

"Ah, okay. I have to go now mom, I'll talk to you again bye."

"Bye honey." She hung up.

Shane waited a moment before dialing another number. He looked at the clock hanging on the wall and found it eight thirty, 'come on answer.'

"Hello," a sleepy voice came from the other side of the line.

"Hey, it's me."

"Shane?" the voice asked "hey, where have you been all this time? I called you twice and when I didn't get any answer I called your office and they said you were out of town."

"Yeah, I arrived few days ago."

"Business trip?"

"No," Shane fell silent for a moment.

"So, oh no don't tell me, you're going out with someone huh?"

"No,"

"No? Well what then? Come on you can tell me..."

"Sam." Shane said her name simply wanting to hear the other guy's reaction.

"Yo... You're... going out with a girl named S-Sam?"

"No Matt, my wife Sam!"

"What do you mean your wife Sam?" Matt asked slowly "what about her?"

"I found her," Shane looked around him in the empty room; Thia was upstairs in her room, changing as they were going out for dinner. They had been here for three days now. After that day at his mom's, she insisted that they spend the night there. To what he thought would be his relief, Ally let Thia sleep in the guest's room and he slept in his old bedroom. But when he woke up the next day he missed the way she looked the day before next to him in bed.

"You what?" Matt whispered "found her how? I... I mean where?"

"L.A, but, well it's a long story, listen when can I see you?" Shane wanted to talk to him face to face, he wanted to know what happened that day after Matt spoke to his mother until he came back and said that there was no one in Sam's room.

"See me? I don't know Shane, ah I don't think I'll be around, I'm leaving for the weekend..."

"But it's still Wednesday, we can meet for a quick drink tomorrow,"

"I don't know Shane; look let me call you back okay. Bye now" He hung up without waiting for Shane's respond.

Shane looked at the phone in his hand and wondered what had gotten into Matt.

He heard someone approach and knew it must be Thia. He'd finished dressing up for dinner half an hour ago and when he found out they still have an hour to go he decided to go downstairs to the guest's room and speak to Matt. He didn't want Thia listening to their conversation.

"Shane, you're in there?" she asked from outside. He got up and opened the half closed door and stepped to stand in front of her.

"Wow my..." He felt his breath taken "You look..." Shane kept trying to find the word he wanted to say but couldn't find the word that would describe how she really looked.

Thia stood proudly looking at him, waiting for him to continue his words "I look okay?" she said spinning around in a full circle which made her dark blue silk dress move a little. It was a beautiful dress that went down to her feet, it was tied from behind her neck with what seemed like a silver necklace and in the middle was a medallion that had some ancient writings on it, 'how did she get this?' he wondered. He'd asked her to wear a dress as they were going to have dinner somewhere nice, but he never thought this was her idea of dressing up for dinner. He knew well she had great taste but this dress, this dress was really beautiful. She had on only small earrings, nothing more and her make up consisted of a dark blue eye shadow that made her baby blue eyes somehow shine, mascara, and lipstick.

"Okay? Sam you..." Thia's smile faded the moment he said her real name, "Ah... I mean Thia, you look fantastic."

She smiled again but still felt bad, she didn't want him to like the way the old Sam looked. That's not her now, and if they made her choose again she wouldn't go back to her old self. After that day at Ally's Shane had done everything he was capable of to make her happy. He took her away from anything that might remind her of the past. She thought that it wasn't a good thing at the beginning. As much as she didn't want to have these terrible headaches again and the snaps she saw from her past, it made her head hurt and made her feel exhausted afterwards. But she also wanted to remember so she can find out why she left her beautiful and peaceful life behind.

Of course after she saw that picture of Shane's friend Matt, she asked him if she could meet him and if they could talk for a while. But Shane kept postponing it, telling her that Matt was busy, that he couldn't reach him, stuff like that. She just heard him talking to him on the phone and understood from the way he answered that Matt was busy and won't be able to meet him, what she didn't understand was why he tried to hide that phone call from her.

"Thia, I didn't mean to upset you. You look gorgeous and I was just taken by, by the way you look, I didn't mean it believe me." Shane had this guilty look on his face that she couldn't handle seeing it. She stepped a little bit closer to him and laid a small kiss on his lips. But of course it wasn't small; the moment she did Shane's hands came to her waist, holding her closer as his lips pressed on hers'. Thia closed her eyes as she felt heat running through her, the way he kissed her made her want nothing more than to stay in his arms forever.

Breaking the kiss slowly Thia opened her eyes and gazed in to his grey eyes, their color was the strangest she had ever seen. As if it held three colors at the same time; very dark grey that you could easily see as black if not for the other two colors; light grey and very light green. She couldn't even breathe from the way they looked from that close, with a flame burning from the kiss they just shared.

"You look good too," she whispered, not knowing what to say she just had to speak.

"Huh?" he didn't seem to understand the words.

She giggled softly "I said you look good too."

"Oh, thank you. You know, I don't usually like wearing a tux," he laughed and she could see his smile reach his eyes and it made her heart melt. Thia knew she was falling deeply in love with him. When she had this stupid idea in her mind that he could have been the mean one she was so stupid.

Shane stepped back a little; being that close to her made him lose any concentration "Shall we go?" he reached a hand for her.

"Yes," She said as she put her hand in his.

"You didn't tell me where we are going." She said while he took a turn with his car. The car was a black Jaguar. When they traveled from L.A to San Francisco he was only driving a Jeep. When they were talking last night about his work, she'd come to know that he was filthy rich and that the Jeep was only for traveling while the Jaguar was his favorite toy. There was a Mercedes for work. 'And I thought Maggie Jackson's husband was rich' she'd thought.

"It's sort of a surprise," He said glancing at the side of her face. She'd been silent for the whole ride. He knew she had a lot of things on her mind and didn't mind at all, he just hoped tonight would be good and she would like it.

"Well, we're here." He said as he parked the car "Come on."

"But I thought we were going to a restaurant," she said as she followed him out of the car.

"I didn't say that." He looked back at her and smiled "I thought you'd like to see our house."

"Our house?" Thia asked as she looked up at the big old house. It wasn't old as in, in bad condition but the style itself was old. The gates weren't so big but looked so old, it was a Victorian house and it reminded her of... "It looks so much like the one we're staying in." She said as she walked to stand next to him, she still found it hard to call it 'my grandma's house'

"Yes, that's why we bought it," he smiled at her "come on let's go." He took her hand in his and walked slowly and entered through the gates.

Thia found it hard to walk on the ground as it had a lot of stones everywhere "Shane, why did we leave the car outside?" she asked looking at the side of his face, he looked happy, exciting and she wondered why?

"Close your eyes." He said stopping to look at her.

"Close my eyes?" She asked not quite sure what his plane was.

"Yes, close your eyes"

"But Shane I can hardly walk, I'll probably..." She wasn't able to continue her words as he lifted her up as if she weighted nothing "Shane!!"

"Just close your eyes Thia." He said apparently laughing but she couldn't quite tell as it was dark.

She sighed then took one last look around her and closed her eyes "Okay, what now?" she asked as she felt him starting to walk again.

"You'll see, just keep your eyes shut."

"But you won't be able to open the door,"

"Who said I'm going to open any doors?" He asked and his voice was no more than a whisper.

"What do you mean?"

He didn't reply and even though her eyes were shut, she could tell there were lights now. Shane carefully put her down but kept her hands in his "Don't open your eyes."

He let go of her and walked away "Hey Shane where are you going?"

"No where, just wait here please, don't move." She could hear him approach with every word. He moved behind her and she felt something so soft on her face.