A Second Chance

Sunshine and Rain

Chapter 35

Caden was enjoying his day off with a nice walk. He was not sure where he was walking too, it was just a beautiful Monday afternoon. The wind outside made it cold enough to need a jacket but the bright sun shined down warming Caden's face.

Surprisingly there was a fair amount of people out today but normally most people were at work. It was a big city though.

The park sounded like a nice place to walk to. Considering it was the middle of the day most kids were at school and most adults at work. A few men and woman were jogging around but the rest were mainly mothers playing with their kids who were not old enough to be in school yet.

"Caden!" Someone called him.

He instantly started to look around for who called him. Looking around at all the faces none seemed to be calling him, until he noticed a familiar face waving at him.

Samantha was sitting on a park bench with a book in her hand. She was bundled up in a warm silver jacket and red scarf. She was wearing dark blue jeans and brown boots. A coffee cup was sitting beside her.

Caden walked over to her happy to run into her. He honestly was not expecting to see her today but he never minded seeing her.

"Good afternoon." She greeted him with a smile.

Of course he smiled back.

"Nice to see you out here today, what are you doing here?" Caden asked, sitting down next to her.

"It was a beautiful day, except for the cold wind, and what place is better to enjoy a nice day than the park?" Samantha stated.

The novel she was reading was thick but small and fit into her coat pocket. She put it away enjoying Caden's company more then she was reading.

"You like coffee?" Caden asked.

Samantha shook her head.

"Not really. It's hot chocolate." Samantha informed.

Caden smiled at the comment. That right there reminded him of Tammy. In fact maybe Samantha was the one Tammy got that from anyway. The two girls were so alike but at the same time not at all. The big difference is how shy Samantha is and how outgoing Tammy was.

"You wanna take a walk?" Caden asked, standing from the bench.

Samantha stood up with him, grabbing her cup.

"Sure!" She agreed.

Just as she stood up with him a loud boom of thunder roared over them. Samantha jumped back started by the noise. The sky was suddenly darkened and out of no where the rain poured down. It was not even called for rain today.

Most people rushed back to their cars but Samantha and Caden just stood there laughing. They both took off their jacket and held it over their heads to try and protect them from the rain.

They both ran to a nearby resturant to escape the rain since neither one had a car and had walked to the park, not thinking it was going to rain. It was the closest store to the park.

Just as they entered they were greeted with questionable looks from all the guests. It was a fancy place where mainly only rich people ate. The curtains on the wall probably cost more than Samantha's car. Every guest was wearing either a suit or a dress. They stared at the two random people who had come in, in casual clothing drenched in rain as if they were aliens and did not belong in the place.

"I don't think we fit in here." Samantha leaned over and whispered to Caden, shyly tucking a strand of wet hair behind her ear.

The random guests looked away and back to what they were doing. Caden had actually been here before a long time ago. You needed reservations and a good paycheck to eat here. He did not really like the place, not because he could not afford it or because he did not like the food, he did not like the attitude of some of the workers.

Caden chuckled at her comment but did not say anything back. He honestly did not care what these people thought of him. They both stood at the front door to the place, looking out the window for the rain to stop.

"Can I help you?" The hostess asked them.

Caden looked over at her to see she did not look very happy with them.

"Just trying to stay out of the rain." Caden assured her politely, offering the smile she did not give him.

"It wasn't suppose to rain today." She noted as if he was lying.

Caden looked down at himself and at his drenched clothes then he looked back up at her.

"Do you think I jumped in the pond or something?" He sarcastically asked her.

She had no comment and Samantha could not help but giggle. In fact if she would just look out a window she would see it was raining.

"We'll just go somewhere else. Have a nice day." Caden told her.

He was not going to stay here and annoy her. He was not going to act as unfriendly as her. There was a much nicer place across the street anyway; Nicer in the sense the workers were friendlier. They should have went there in the first place but they were not really thinking about where to get out of the rain.

Caden opened the door for Samantha and she walked outside first. Looking out for cars the two ran to the other side of the street and into a coffee shop. Neither one were hungry so they figured this place would be fine to wait out the rain.

"I'm gonna get some coffee you want anything?" Caden asked, stepping in line. The place had quite a few people who were also probably waiting for the rain to stop.

"No but I'll be right back." She told him.

Samantha then went into the girls restroom to try and dry off at least a little. Firstly she grabbed some paper towels to dry off her glasses so she could see better. She took off her red scarf and rang all the water out of it in the sink, she then stuffed it into the pocket of her jacket. She rolled up the sleeves on her red sweater that was at least a littler dryer than everything else she was wearing. She had a hairband on her wrist and tied back her wet messy red hair. A few strands kept falling out which was driving her crazy but she could not get those few strands to stay. She looked at herself in the mirror, satisfied that she appeared to look a little better now.

Samantha looked down at the yellow bracelet that was still on her wrist. When she first heard about Looking for Lane, and received this bracelet in the mail after donating money to help, she wore it everyday. It was only recently she started wearing it again.

One thing Samantha never believed that a lot of people did was that, that Lane girl left France herself. From everything she has read she found it hard to believe she would not even tell her best friend that she was leaving.

She believed Lane was kidnapped and she knew that other people had thought it. Whoever it was just covered their trail completely. So if that was true she did not think Brayan nor Lane were alive. Most people abducted don't even live a week, but what if their kidnapper was still out there somewhere, ready to cause more harm?

Samantha shook her head trying to rid the negative thoughts away. She had tried to let the whole thing go, she did not even know Brayan or Lane, but something bothered her about the fact of a killer walking around that no one even knew about. Sure it happens all the time, but what if she could actually do something about this one? She could not even tell herself why she was trying to find out about a kidnapper all the way in France.

She had to ask herself one last "What-If". What if she could stop that kidnapper? I suppose some part of her was a dreamer just like Tammy.

Samantha then left the restroom and joined Caden at a table with a big window at the side of it. The rain still poured down without any sign of stopping so it didn't look like they would be leaving anytime soon.

Well it looks like Samantha has her mind set somewhere else. I hope everyone liked this chapter! I love comments and votes!