Of course, she no longer felt uneasy now that Kendrick was there. Only an idiot would try something when he was around. But that didn’t change the fact that someone had knocked on her door and run away.
“It’s probably no big deal,” she replied as she pulled away.
“But?”
Samantha shrugged. “No big deal. It’s just… someone knocked on my door right before you got here. When I answered it, no one was there.”
Kendrick cocked his head. “Did you check to see who it was before you opened the door?”
“Well… not exactly.” She grinned sweetly. “But I thought it was you!”
He shook his head. “Honey, always check to see who is here before you just open up. Okay?”
She nodded. “Yes, Sir.”
He looked behind him, down the stairs, and then back at her. “How long did it take you to answer your door from the time you heard the knock?”
Samantha thought it over. “Maybe twenty seconds or so. I was in my bathroom.”
She hoped he wouldn’t want to go in there for any reason. The Tonya wig and clothes were hidden, but still—the further he stayed away from them the better!
“Well, that’s enough time for someone to run down those stairs, obviously. But they probably wouldn’t have time to make it around back. You would have noticed them. So they probably walked around to the front of your place and then just left.”
He was right, she realized. Her building was a two-story box. A perfect square. Standing in front of it and looking straight ahead, the staircase and her door were on the left side. Once someone stepped off those stairs, they could just turn the corner and be concealed by the front of it, by the garage doors. And from there, the building would block them as they walked away, as long as they went left.
“Probably just some kids,” she said. “Ding-dong-ditch. You know? There’s lots of ‘em around this neighborhood.”
Even as they stood there, the sound of children’s laughter reached them from the distance. Two kids rode down the sidewalk on their bikes.
“Might have even been them,” she noted.
“Probably. But just be careful from now on. Deal?”
“Yes, Sir!” She gave him a little salute.
He laughed. “Come on, cutie. Let’s go eat dinner. And, just in case you want to stay—you know, to play with the other Littles—you might want to pack an overnight bag.”
Samantha giggled. She was pretty sure she might stay the night.
But it didn’t have anything to do with playing with other Littles.
Chapter Twenty-One
Samantha was a bundle of nerves as she was introduced to Iris, Cami, Lana, and Annika.
Each girl smiled and shook her hand, looking into her eyes, but no one gave any indication that they recognized her.
The entire time her mind raced. Had she remembered to remove those blue contacts? She’d taken off her makeup. Of that she was certain. The bra with the padding was gone, too. Of course, her wig wasn’t on.
But had she removed those damn contacts?
She needed to get to a mirror to check as soon as possible. Of course, if she hadn’t, there wasn’t anything she could do about it now! She couldn’t just change her eye color in the middle of the evening.
“This is my Daddy, Jack,” Iris said, snapping Samantha from her worry.
“And here’s my Daddy, Ace,” Lana said.
“This hottie right here is my Daddy, Isaiah,” Cami told her.
