by Ines Saint
Sam laughed hard. Unable to resist his charm, she turned to look at him and ask, “What moves would your eleven-year-old self have put on me?”
Tony searched her eyes and took longer than she would’ve expected to answer. “I would’ve told you that you were a forever girl,” he finally said.
Sam’s heart ached at the lovely sentiment. “That’s pretty smooth for an eleven-year-old,” she joked, trying to hide how deeply his words touched her.
His smiled. “Unfortunately, my moves haven’t improved much because I would still say the very same thing.”
His lips were inches away from hers. “That’s not unfortunate,” she whispered, feeling as if she were in a trance.
Slowly, he lowered his mouth onto hers and brushed his lips against hers once. Sam’s breath hitched, and she closed her eyes to savor the sweet sensation. The tender nip that came next lit a sweet, swirling fire inside, and she snaked her hand around his neck to pull him close. His mouth began moving over hers, achingly slow, and she held him to her, opening her mouth when he sought to deepen the kiss. He tasted of salt and sunshine, and she met him stroke for stroke, unable to get enough of him. When his fingers began tracing her throat and shoulders, she shivered, and her mind was brought back to the present, and to her fears, and she broke the kiss.
He fell back onto the blanket, searched for her hand, and gently stroked it with his thumb. They stayed like that for a long time, until the sounds of the surf lapping the shore got closer, informing them that high tide was near. Tony got up and began gathering their belongings without a word. Sam scrambled up to help him stuff leftovers into her picnic basket. As she knelt in front of him, the anxious thoughts that were suddenly on her mind tumbled out. “I’m going to see Brad tomorrow. I’m going to meet his two little girls.”
For a moment he froze, and she couldn’t look at him. A moment later, he stood, helped her to her feet, and kissed the crown of her head.
They paddled their way back to Captain Cook’s, their mood mellow and serene, talking about everything except their kiss and Brad.
Tony gave her a tour of his new-old legendary house, complete with scandalous tales of betrayed lovers, wicked ghosts, and stolen treasures. He built a fire and they lay in front of it, the sweet scent of wood smoke enveloping them. Sam told him of a few new tales she’d heard of over the years, and reminded him of a few he’d made up when he was younger, which made him laugh and roll his eyes at the kid he’d been.
“How about we trade stories about the years between then and now? Real stories instead of tall tales?” he suggested with a smile when their laughter died down.
She looked into his eyes, realizing that for the first time in a long time, she was eager to share. “Okay, but let’s start with you,” she said, as she rolled onto her stomach and laid her head on her hands to watch his expressions against the firelight. “Would you mind telling me a little more about your foster parents?”
“Not at all.” They talked until the sun disappeared, and the night grew chilly despite the fire crackling behind them.
~4~
Monday came too soon for Samantha. She chose a pretty pink dress and strappy white sandals, and drove out to Burlington, once again, this time under thunder and rain. Her GPS guided her to a beautiful, fairytale-like home. She parked her car on a paving stone driveway and walked up to the blue and white colonial, admiring the wraparound porch, only slightly aware that she was dressed up, and getting soaked.
She paused and peered into one of the windows. A small, golden-haired girl sat coloring on a table. Brad was on the phone, sitting on a sofa arm.
Samantha released a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding and walked up to the door. It opened before she had a chance to knock. A sullen girl with pretty, light brown curls looked up at her. “Are you my daddy’s friend?” The little girl who’d been coloring slid off her chair and came over to look at Samantha, too. Brad’s eyes caught hers, he brightened, and made a signal that he was about to get off the phone.
She smiled at the little girls and squatted down to their eye level. “Yes, I’m Samantha.” Lilly’s girls studied her, the golden-haired girl still and curious while the brunette swayed side to side at the door. Before she could ask them their names, Brad tossed the phone aside and talked toward them.
“Samantha, hi! Please, come in,” he called to her, but Samantha remained on the other side of the threshold. “I see you’ve met my girls,” he said when he got to the door. “Abigail and Sophia. Girls, step aside and let our guest in.”
The girls moved to the side, but Samantha didn’t get up. “It’s nice to meet you. I can see you’re both very good, very well-behaved girls, and I wanted to come by and see you because I’m an old friend of your father’s, but I’m actually not staying.” She extended her hand to each girl, and could tell they were relieved she was not staying. They tried to shake her hand, but Sam pretended it was weak and wobbly, which made them giggle and try to shake it harder and harder. When they let go, still laughing, Samantha got up.
“You’re not staying?” Brad asked, sounding surprised. Samantha shook her head no. The girls looked up at them. “Girls, why don’t you go and pop in a movie, I’ll be right there.”
Sophia didn’t need to be told twice, but Abigail pouted. “You always say that and then you only see the end,” she scolded her daddy, but she ran after Sophia anyway.
Brad stepped onto the porch and closed the door behind him. “So,” he began. “Is it that you don’t think the four of us could get along, or that you don’t want to try?”
Sam hesitated. Rain pelted the roof in varying rhythms, filling the silence. She knew then that she’d only come to convince herself that she wouldn’t have been happy with Brad, even if she had been able to bear his children. But she couldn’t do it. Couldn’t lie to herself and pretend she wouldn’t have been happy living in the pretty house on the hill, with two little girls to call her own.
“I don’t want to try because I can’t love you anymore, Brad,” she finally answered.
“How can you know if you won’t even try?” He took a step toward her and looked into her eyes.
Sam stepped back and shook her head, not sure she could hold back. “Because I don’t even know if I ever connected with you in a way that was truly fulfilling for me, Brad. You always had it all. Some people just do, and I’m not criticizing you for it or holding it against you. I think the first time you ever suffered was when we were told there was no way I could ever have children, and looking back, it was almost as if it happened to you, more than it happened to me.”
“I know that it happened to you. I always knew that.”
“But you left the moment I gave you an out. You didn’t try to consider the different avenues we could’ve taken. I have no doubt you would’ve come to the same conclusion, and you would’ve left anyway in the end. Not everyone wants to adopt, and that’s okay. Not everyone is comfortable hiring a surrogate. That’s okay, too. It was the way you left that told me it was more about you than it was about me.”
They were quiet until it became unbearable.
“What can I say, Samantha? Tell me what I can say.”
“It’s Sam. And you don’t have to say anything. I’m not angry. I would’ve loved this life with you.” She swept her hand toward his home. “But I love my life now, too, and I’m proud of it. I built it on my own. And I’m stable enough that I can adopt a child now. I was approved by an adoption agency a few weeks ago.”
“That’s not the life you wanted.”
She cocked her head and studied him. “That’s not true. It’s not the life you wanted.” She shook her head at the stubborn doubt she saw in his eyes. She turned to make a dash to her car over the now heavy downpour, calling goodbye over her shoulder.
Sam didn’t think. She simply drove, the pounding of her heart soon becoming louder than the pounding rain.
When she reached the pirate’s house, she got out of her car, ran up th
e gravel driveway, and didn’t stop, not even when she spotted the shirtless, sculpted buccaneer through the window. She didn’t want to observe him from afar. She wanted to throw herself into his arms.
She knocked on the door, but the moment he answered, her heart got caught in her throat. She tried her damnedest to talk past it, but she couldn’t, so she took his free hand and simply squeezed it hard.
Tony dropped the paint roller he was holding, pulled her into his arms, and said, “Baby, what’s wrong? You’re soaking wet.”
The endearment undid her, and she began to cry against his chest. Through tears and a few humiliating hiccups, she explained, “I said goodbye to Brad today. For good. And I needed a friend. A forever friend. But then you called me baby, and I used to be your babysitter, so now I feel as though I’m being as impulsive and reckless and wild as eight-year-old you.”
Both touched and distressed by her words, Tony picked her up and carried her to his porch swing, where he held her to him and whispered, “Hey, it’s Happy Time, you’ve gotta leave it all behind.”
She looked up at him, and seeing her tear-streaked cheeks and wet lashes tied him up in knots, “You remember?” she asked.
“Of course I remember. I’d come home from school, sad cause I’d been assigned yet another detention, and there you were. Not my babysitter. My best friend. Yes, I was impulsive and reckless and wild, but I also knew too much about life, stuff way beyond my years.”
“You were my friend, too, but I was paid to watch you. And do you know what I did?” She looked down. “I saved all that money up, and the summer before high school—the summer you left— I spent it all to become the person I thought I wanted to be. I bought new clothes and makeup and lightened my hair… and it worked. You thought I was real, but how could I be when I wanted to be someone else? When I became someone else?”
He smoothed her hair behind her ear and spoke softly. “That’s not the only thing you spent your money on, Sam. You also made a twelve-hour trip on a bus to make sure I was okay. You never stopped being you.”
“You saw me?” She went very still in his arms.
Tony smiled. “I saw you. And every time I felt alone, I’d picture you standing there, and I’d know I’d never truly be alone. Not when you were somewhere out there, thinking about me, too.”
Sam snuggled into his chest. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t change in other ways. I would still be someone else if I would’ve been able to give Brad the children he wanted.”
“Is that why you and Brad got divorced, because you couldn’t…?” Sam nodded. “Oh, Sam…” he scooched her up, and began slowly and tenderly kissing her tears away. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She hiccupped. “I’m not crying because I can’t have kids, or over Brad leaving me.” She took in a shuddering breath. “I’m crying because when Brad came back and dangled everything I once wanted in front of me again, I felt like I had to go back and completely reject my old life, and the old hurt, so I could fully embrace my new life. But it wasn’t like that. Everything that happened is a part of me, and part of why I now know, so deeply, what I want and need to do. Then you came back, too, and reminded me also of what I’ve always had to give. And it made me cry.” She sighed. “Am I making any sense?”
“Perfect sense.” He kissed her forehead. “And I know what you have to give, Sam. The only parts I’m missing are what you want and what you need.”
She lifted her head to look into his eyes. “I want to adopt, too, Tony. I was approved by an adoption agency a few weeks ago, and my heart was so full! But part of what filled it was fear, because the old hurt was still there. It took me a while to understand that both the fear and the hurt are okay. They’ll help me understand my child, who will have already been through a lot, more deeply.”
Tony’s heart was so open and so raw at that moment, it was almost too much to bear. “You’ll be amazing, Sam,” he whispered, his voice hoarse from emotion. “How long is the adoption process?”
She smiled her sweet, beautiful smile. “With this adoption agency, anywhere between nine months to two years, but because I’m willing to adopt an older child, they think it will be sooner rather than later.”
He nodded. “You have the career you dreamed about and soon you’ll have a child. Is there anything else you want for yourself?” he asked, almost afraid to breathe.
She put her hand on his chest, and he wondered if she could feel how hard and fast it was racing. “I want to live, and I want to love and be loved by someone real.”
She’d remembered his exact words. He looked into her eyes, as serious as he’d ever been, and stood up, still holding her close. “Get started on your journey, Sam. I promise I’ll be your friend every step of the way. And maybe, if you let me in, we can live the ultimate adventure together.”
“Tell me about this ultimate adventure, and I’ll let you in.” She began to nuzzle his neck, and he had to steady himself.
Securing her against his chest, he carried her into the home that had once sparked their imagination. Between kisses and caresses, he whispered a new story. One about a beautiful house by the sea, where a town doctor, a preschool teacher, and a bunch of little boys and girls lived and loved, like nobody had ever lived and loved before.
~The End~
Full-length Novels by Inés Saint:
*Be the first to know about discounts or when the next book is available! Follow Inés Saint at https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ines-saint to receive new release and discount alerts.
Spinning Hills Trilogy
“A fun cast of family and friends you’ll want to call your own!”
“HGTV hits Lifetime!... could not put this book down from the moment I picked it up” “Small-town charm, banter and sweet moments make it the perfect read for a summer afternoon escape” “Swoon-worthy story” “It is a pleasure to read a story where there are just plain, good people in it.” Amazon Reviews
In Spinning Hills, “quirky” is a good thing—especially the charming houses that line the streets. One by one, the Amador brothers are restoring them, committed to a new beginning for the old-fashioned town. But they’re learning that every house needs a heart to be a home…
Flipped! (Spinning Hills 1) (Award-winning)
Needs a Little TLC (Spinning Hills 2)
Fixer-Upper (Spinning Hills 3)
Full-length Stand Alone Novels by Inés Saint:
Charmed (Amazon Encore) (Reached top 20 in Kindle Bestsellers)
“A must-read, lovely sweet romance from a talented author.” Amazon Reviews
Strangers in the Night (Amazon Encore) (Reached top 20 in Kindle Bestsellers)
“An opposites attract sweet romance that will completely suck you in.” Amazon Reviews
Coming in November 2016
The Piper Sisters Trilogy published by Kensington/Lyrical Press
When three sisters arrive in Spinning Hills, Ohio, home of the third most haunted street in the state, they’re looking for solace and support as they clear out the ghosts of their own pasts. But what they find is something a whole lot sweeter . . .
Perfect Paige (Nov. 8, 2016)
Good Gracie (April 11, 2017)
Haunted Hope (Late 2017)
Connect with Inés
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