Vivian laughed again and then covered her mouth—again. “You didn’t?”
“I did too. He pissed me off. Of course it didn’t stop him. That’s when he went to the bar, picked up Penelope’s friend and took her home.”
Vivian’s shoulders dropped. “What about Penelope?”
Amelia pulled the one live piece of grass from the Earth and wrapped it around her finger. “They were married before he took her to bed.”
“Really?”
Amelia nodded. “She was a virgin and he waited for her.”
Vivian wiped at her eyes. “She’s never been with anyone else?”
“No.”
Vivian sighed. “Neither have I.”
Amelia laughed. She didn’t mean to, but she couldn’t help it. “Okay. It’s official. You and Penelope are going to my self-defense class and then my kickboxing class. You’re going to learn to get your frustrations out with your fists and then at some point we’ll get you laid.”
The roll of laugher came from Vivian and she even lay back in the dirt that was once a yard. Penelope drove up in front of the house and hurried out of her car.
“Are you two okay?” She tore off her shoes and hurried toward them. “What happened?”
Amelia nodded toward Vivian. “She threatened me.”
“What?”
Vivian laughed and sat up. “I don’t think I was a threat.”
“You charged at me.”
“And I’m the one that landed on my butt.”
Penelope held her hands up. “Why are you fighting? Why are you laughing?”
Amelia was sure Penelope was going to burst into tears. “Adam was a son-of-a-bitch.”
“Oh,” Penelope pursed her lips. “We can’t keep thinking that.” She placed her hands on her stomach.
“You do what you want. I’m going to think it.” Amelia pushed to her feet and held a hand out for Vivian. “C’mon. You’re going to my classes tonight. Both of you.”
Penelope’s eyes grew wide. “I can’t. The baby.”
“Is the size of a grapefruit, maybe.” She really didn’t know. “You’re not going to go crazy, but you’re coming.”
“She’s going?” She pointed to Vivian.
“She needs too. She just found out I’m sleeping with Sam.”
“You are?” Penelope’s eyes were as wide as when she’d seen them kiss.
Amelia walked toward her and rested a hand on her shoulder. “You understand how this adult thing happens, right? Did you think we’d stop with a kiss?”
Vivian walked up to both of them. “She saw you kiss him?” She turned to Penelope. “You saw them.”
“I…well…oh, please don’t put me on the spot.” Penelope dropped her shoulders. “Yes. I saw them move in for a kiss. But I didn’t know they…”
Amelia let out a grunt. “You two are prudes. We have to fix that.”
“C’mon now,” Vivian held up her hands. “We’re the two that got knocked up by the same guy.”
The smile tugged at Amelia’s face nearly enough to hurt, but the astonished look on Penelope’s brought the laughter between her and Vivian to a roll.
Vivian pulled Penelope into her arms and hugged her. “We are prudes. We’ve only been with Adam and now we’re stuck with each other. We have to laugh.”
“I can’t laugh.”
“Yes you can. We need to.” Vivian looked at Amelia. “Let her be the slut. We have our kids.”
Amelia brushed them off with a wave of her hand and headed for the house. “You two are jealous I got the lawyer first.”
“I could make a play for him,” Vivian called out.
“Nope. I’m pretty confident tonight he’s going to try and tell me he loves me.”
Vivian and Penelope looked at each other and then ran up the stairs following Amelia.
Who’d have thought they’d bond over her sleeping with the lawyer?
Chapter Eighteen
The night was too damn hot to dress up, but Amelia felt the need to dress to impress. After she’d drug Vivian and Penelope to her class and brought Ava and Emma in to kick the heavy bags for fun, she’d hurried back to the hotel.
She’d wanted to go buy something fun and flirty, but there hadn’t been any time. So a relaxed pair of jeans and a gauze tank top that belted at the waist was as impressive as Sam was going to get.
The knock at the door came promptly at eight. He wouldn’t be anticipating her change in mood. She wondered what he might do with it.
She opened the door slowly and Sam burst right in, hurrying past her.
“Good. I didn’t think you’d even let me in. We need to talk.”
Amelia gritted her teeth and gave the door a mighty shove. She turned to see him laying papers out on her bed.
“I thought we had dinner plans,” she let the snap of her words vibrate sharply.
“Yeah. In a moment.” He’d never even looked up.
She wasn’t getting the right reaction from him. He wasn’t hot. He wasn’t cold. He was preoccupied and that pissed her off.
Amelia walked over to the bed. “What is this?”
“Adam was killed overseas in combat.”
“Not news.”
He looked up from the papers, his eyes wide and bright. “It is when the family receives bereavement benefits.”
“I’d forgotten all about that. My dad didn’t say much about that when Mom died, but he got them.”
“He would have. She was killed in combat.”
Amelia nodded. “He never spoke about it though.”
“Here,” He said as he handed her the paperwork.
She read the information four times. “Soldiers don’t make squat unless they die in combat?” She let out a long breath. “But the kids will be taken care of,” she said looking up at him.
He smiled the sweetest grin she’d ever seen. “You look at that number and that’s what you say?”
“Yeah. What did you expect me to say? It’s very generous that the government compensates the family for their loss, but I’m not happy he died. This isn’t my wish. I didn’t want him in my life anymore, but what did you think? I’d be happy?”
He took the paper from her hands and set them on the bed. Then he took her hands in his.
“I’ve seen families pulled apart by greed. You’re his beneficiary. You have just been handed an enormous payout. You could walk away with that and live very nicely for a very long time.”
“It’s not mine.”
“It is, but you have a heart the size of the sun. You stayed in Oklahoma to help those women. You want to see their kids thrive. The kids of your late husband.”
Amelia pulled her hands back. “I’m not some saint. Don’t make me sound like that.”
She turned from him, but he reached out to her again and turned her toward him. “I love you, Amelia.”
Her mouth opened and she stared at him. “Oh, I didn’t expect that to be how you said that.”
“Can’t help it. You put up this toughness and here you are changing your life to help these other women and these children that aren’t yours.”
“He hurt them.”
“He hurt you.”
“I broke his nose.”
“He broke your heart.”
She pursed her lips tight to fight back the tremble that was resonating in them. “My mother left me. She died for her country and my father gave us all he could. He worked hard. He volunteered at school. He sewed patches on Girl Scout uniforms. But it wasn’t enough. I needed a mother. I needed my mother.”
“Oh, Amelia.” He reached for her but she backed away.
“Those girls are going to look for their father someday. Oh, they don’t even remember him, but they’ll need that identity. I can make them strong, Sam. I can help keep their vision of him alive, because I know that they need it. We’re all tainted. He made us angry and in that anger there is hate. But he was a damn good soldier. He saved lives before he lost his. They need to know t
hat some good lived in him and in them. Vivian and Penelope have to deal with what he left them. They have to deal with it in their own terms, but I can make them strong too.” The tears were there now, but they welled in her eyes. They didn’t fall.
“Who’s going to keep you strong?”
The first tear fell and then the next. And soon she was sobbing like the others had.
Sam pulled her into his arms. He stroked her hair and just held her.
“Amelia,” he whispered in her ear. “I want to be your strength. I want to be the one that makes you strong.”
She pulled back and looked at him. “You just met me. You don’t really know me.”
He brushed away the tears that rolled down her cheeks. “Oh, I think I do. Give me a chance to learn more.”
Amelia batted her eyes until they dried. “Don’t go doing anything crazy like proposing.”
“Are you sure?”
She held up a finger. “I’m sure. Don’t do it. Don’t even joke about it.”
He was grinning with that dimple that made him so damn cute. “I said what I needed to say.”
Amelia dropped her shoulders and thought about it. He had said it. “You said you loved me.”
“Oh good. You were listening.”
She smiled. “I told the girls you were going to tell me that tonight.”
His face froze in an expression of near terror. “You told them that? You told Vivian about us?”
She bit down on her lip. “She tried to attack me.” Amelia shrugged. “It was a real scene.” She let the smile take over.
“I can’t decide if you’re making that up.”
“I’m not. Not really. But she knows.” Amelia moved to him. “She wasn’t happy, but I think she’s come along.”
Sam wrapped his arms around her waist. “She won’t push me down the stairs when I come to help with the house?”
“I can’t promise it. But she knows I’ll be kissing your wounds if she causes them.” She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“So if Vivian knows what’s going on, then you could move in with me…just for the time being…and get out of this place.”
Amelia pressed her forehead to his. “You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”
“I know. I’m a lawyer.”
“Let’s talk over dinner. I’m starving.”
Sam didn’t drive to Oklahoma City and that pleased Amelia. Perhaps in time the rumors would begin to spread that one of Adam Monroe’s widows had moved on with his lawyer. When the town actually realized there were indeed three wives of Adam Monroe. But she wasn’t worried about it. As long as no one attacked Vivian or Penelope she could deal with that. She was fairly sure no one in their right mind would verbally or physically attack her.
Before they’d left the hotel she’d packed a bag. She’d go back tomorrow and check out. There was no way in hell she was actually going to move in with Sam. She was a woman who needed her space—but she needed her man close by. It didn’t hurt to find out the rental Sam had told her about was literally on the next block from his house.
Over dinner they talked about the payout from the insurance. It would cover the mortgage on Vivian’s house. Pay off the stupid car loan for the Mustang, which she thought they’d keep for now. And it would help get the house on Main and Pine in order so they could start their business. Once all of that was settled, Amelia wanted to get trust funds set up for the kids as well as college investments.
“What about you?” Sam asked as he lifted his after dinner cup of coffee to his lips. “What do you get?”
“So far I’ve gotten a new start in a new place. I’ll have a new business venture. I’ll even say I collected two new friends—if Vivian doesn’t attack me again,” she said with a smile and then leaned in over the table on her elbows. “And who’d have thought—I’d pick me up a boyfriend?”
Sam snorted a laugh. “Boyfriend? I think that sounds childish. Lover has a very nice ring to it.”
Amelia sat back in her seat and clucked her tongue. “Lover? Would you like me to make you business cards?”
“Sam Jackson.” He emphasized his name with his hand as though he were looking at a banner. “Lover to Amelia Monroe.” He gave her that sexy grin that made her insides turn to jelly. “Make sure you include my phone number. Women will be lining up.”
She shook her head. There had been enough men in her past to know this one was different. His body was sculpted differently. His hair was just a bit long and not high and tight. She couldn’t get enough of him in those glasses either. Who’d have thought that just a little un-butch was her type. And to top it all off—he loved her.
Quickly she picked up her wine glass and took a big sip. He loved her and that mixed it all up.
She’d met Adam, taken him to bed, and turned around and married him. In her mind she’d written it off as an adventure to run off and get married. Spontaneity was great. But it all fell apart. The moment Adam said he loved her she had let all common sense go out the window.
Now here was Sam. She’d met him, taken him to bed, and now he said he loved her. There seemed to be a pattern even if the personality types were different.
The waiter brought the check and Sam quickly gathered it up, placed his credit card in the holder, and handed it back to him.
“Ready to go home?” he asked.
It was simple enough. It didn’t mean anything, but it sent her entire body into a panic.
She’d had sex with the man—many times. She could kill him with her thumb pressed in just the right spot. Yet he had told her he loved her and that had her entire body shaking nearly uncontrollably now.
“Are you feeling okay? You’re as white as a sheet,” he said, his eyes wide as he looked at her.
“I am? Oh. You know, maybe I’d better go back to the hotel.”
“Are you kidding me?” His voice rose. “What’s going on?”
Amelia tried to catch her breath, but it wouldn’t fill her lungs. “I just…”
The waiter returned with Sam’s credit card. “C’mon. Let’s get you some fresh air.”
He pulled out her chair and took her hand. “Your hands are clammy.”
There wasn’t much to say. They walked outside and the air was thick and hot. It was nine-thirty at night and she broke out in a sweat.
Sam looked at her. “I’m taking you home and getting you…”
“Take me to Vivian’s.”
His mouth opened and then he snapped his teeth together. “What’s going on?” He moved in closer to her. “You’re not pregnant too are you?”
“No!” She wanted to smack him for saying that. “I just…it’s just…let’s go.”
Sam opened the door for her and then climbed in the other side. The air whirred into the cab after he started the engine. Amelia was glad that it got cold fast. For a moment she was sure she would pass out.
Sam drove away from the restaurant. At the stoplight he looked at her. “You really want to go to Vivian’s?”
She swallowed hard. “Yes. For tonight. I just…I just need to.”
His fingers gripped the wheel and he turned in the opposite direction of his house and headed to Vivian’s.
Chapter Nineteen
Penelope opened the door the moment they pulled into the drive. She stood there as Sam turned off the truck.
“Amelia, what’s going on?” he asked as he turned toward her.
“I need a night. I just need some time.”
Sam ran his hand down her hair. “Does this have anything to do with what I said to you tonight?”
“No. Yes. I mean…” She dropped her shoulders and let out a breath. “I’ve never been flustered over a man before.”
“Flustered?”
“Yes. It’s always been cut and dry. I either like him or I don’t trust him. I train them or I hurt them. I can go to bed with them and wake up and go on with my life. Adam said he loved me. He didn’t.”
“How do you know that?”
>
“Look at my situation. I don’t think he was capable of love. Not like you are.”
Sam’s hand ran over her shoulder and down her arm. “I don’t understand.”
“Then don’t. I don’t understand either. I just can’t go home with you right now. I’m going to go in there and stay.” She looked at the door where both Penelope and Vivian now stood. “I’m not mad. I’m actually not upset. I’m confused.”
Sam let out a breath. “Okay. Can I see you tomorrow? Lunch? You can come by or I can drop by the house.”
“I promise. We’ll figure it out later.” She moved across the console and kissed him softly. She needed to relay in that one kiss that she cared deeply for him.
When she pulled back and looked at him she felt she’d made her point.
She opened her door, stepped out, and then reached for her bag.
“I’ll walk you to the…”
“No. I’m okay, Sam. Go home.”
She shut the door and walked to the house. It wasn’t until she was inside that she heard his tires on the gravel out front and knew he had driven away.
Penelope stood with her hand still on the door knob. “You’re freaking us out. Why did you come here?”
Amelia set her bag down. “I’m sorry. I know it’s late and the kids…”
“Have been in bed for nearly two hours,” Vivian said. “You look like you could use a glass of wine.”
Amelia nodded. “I’d like that.”
She followed Vivian into the kitchen and watched as she pulled out three glasses, just as she had the first time Amelia had been there. She filled two with wine and the other with ice water.
Amelia took the glass when it was offered to her and sipped. Both Penelope and Vivian watched her from over the rims of their glasses.
When Amelia set her glass on the counter the other two lowered theirs.
“Something spooked you. What is it?” Vivian asked. “Did Sam do something? Say something?”
“Yes.” She ran her hands over the legs of her pants. “He said he loved me.”
Vivian shook her head and set her glass down. “You told us he was going to. What’s your problem?”
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