She looked back over the form she was filling out. True to his word, Connor had kept her busy, not only with the used cars he had purchased but also with filling it at the shop. However, she only had a few cars left to inspect, so she figured she’d be able to return to Soda Spurs by the end of the next week. “Sure. I can finish these tomorrow.”
“Great, I know of a great place.” A smile lit up Connor’s face and sent his blue eyes twinkling.
“As long as you understand this is not a date, Connor.” While Sam appreciated the temporary job he had offered her, the last few days had been uncomfortable with Connor constantly bringing up their high school past and declaring how much he missed those times.
Connor held his hands out and ducked his head. “I promise. Just dinner.”
“Fine. Let me just gather my things.” Sam tucked her cell phone inside her small purse. The only contents other than her phone were her keys, wallet, and a pair of sunglasses. She was not a believer in big, bulky bags that pulled on your shoulders or whacked others when you moved in crowded places.
“Let’s just take my car.” Connor led her to his Mustang convertible. “I can drop you back off after dinner.”
Sam hesitated not only due to the close proximity of the car but also for the inability to get away if needed, but Connor had made no move yet and it did seem silly to take two cars. “Sounds fine.”
A few minutes later, Connor pulled into the parking lot of a casual restaurant. Not what Sam had been expecting, but at least it wouldn’t be a candlelit dinner.
“Welcome to Charlie’s,” the hostess greeted them as they entered.
“Thank you. Can you sit us over there?” Connor pointed to the corner where a small secluded table sat.
Sam swallowed a sigh. It looked like he had a romantic night planned after all. At least there was a TV nearby. Maybe that could at least create a diversion.
“Of course. Follow me.”
The waitress handed them menus and took their drink order before scurrying off. Sam placed her purse on the table beside her and ran her hands down her thighs. Then the awkward silence descended.
Sam cleared her throat and looked up at Connor. “I only have a few cars to finish. I should be out of your hair by Friday.”
“You’re not in my hair, Sam. You can stay as long as you’d like.”
“I appreciate the offer, Connor, but I need to get back to Soda Spurs. I have my own shop to run.”
Connor rolled his eyes. “You mean you have to get back to him, don’t you? You know it will never work out between you. The two of you are too different, but you and me? We have the same interests, Sam. You could move to Dallas and be my main mechanic. We could run the dealership together.”
While that once may have been a dream come true, Sam realized what she missed the most this week was home and Brent. She had thought maybe her opinion of big cities would have changed, but it hadn’t. In fact, the last week had reinforced her opinion. She hated the traffic and the fact that people barely spoke to each other, much less knew each other’s names.
The waitress arrived with their drinks, stalling Sam’s response, but after they gave their order, Sam looked up at Connor again. “Connor, I appreciate all you’ve done for me. Really, I do, but I don’t belong here. And I know you may not care for Brent, but I do and I miss him.”
“What if he doesn’t miss you?” Connor’s eyes glanced up at the television screen near them.
“What are you talking about? Of course he misses me. He calls me every night.”
“Must be a ruse then because it looks like he’s back together with his ex. Isn’t that him?”
He pointed up to the TV and Sam turned to follow his finger. Coverage of the action hero award show was one, and sure enough, there was Brent smiling on the red carpet. Sam’s heart fell though as she saw the blond in the skin-tight dress on his arm. Brent said something to her and the woman laid her hand on his arm and laughed. The smile she shot at the camera was the one of a woman in love.
Sam pushed back her chair and stood. The need to vomit surged in her stomach, and the room began to close in. She needed air. “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” She scanned the area for the restroom and hurried that direction, holding onto the backs of chairs when the dizziness threatened to take over.
When she finally reached the restroom, she pushed open the door, delighted to a see a small couch in the corner. Her knees turned liquid just as she reached the couch and she fell onto it like a lead brick. How could this be happening? He knew about Greg, and he’d promised he would never do that her. Yet there he was - smiling and laughing with a done-up blond at the same award show he had invited her to. What would he have done if she had accepted his invitation? Would he have come up with some reason not to go?
Sam dropped her head onto her hands and let her shoulders shake with her tears. Connor was right. What was she doing with some billionaire who obviously hadn’t given up the lifestyle yet? If the chesty blond was his type, what on earth was he doing with her? Was she just some distraction or maybe a bet with his buddies back home?
When her tears finally ceased and cold hard anger took sadness’s place, Sam pushed herself up and shuffled to the sink. A look in the mirror confirmed her fears. Her eyes were red and puffy and her face was blotchy. She turned the water on and cupped her hands under the flow. Then she splashed the water on her face. After a few pats with a paper towel, Sam glanced in the mirror again. It was obvious she had been crying, but it was better. She took a deep breath and sent up a prayer for strength before returning to the table.
Their food had arrived while she was gone. Without a word, Sam sat down and bowed her head to pray over the food. When she raised her head again, Connor spoke, “Sam, I’m so sorry -”
“Stop.” She shook her head at him. “I don’t want to talk about it any longer tonight. We will eat and then you will take me back to my car. That is all.” She knew it wasn’t his fault, but she didn’t want his pity. Nor did she want to encourage him to pursue her now that she was apparently single. Again. She wanted nothing to do with men at this moment, and if he were a good friend, he would understand that.
Brent checked his watch for the twentieth time that night. Time appeared to be dragging, and he really needed to get out of here and get back to Sam before he couldn’t change her mind.
“And the winner of Action Hero in a Series is… Brent McKasson as Derek McCloud in the Night Ranger films.”
Brent looked up at the sound of his name. Around him, people were smiling and clapping. One woman at his table waved her hand, motioning for him to stand and take the stage. This was an amazing moment, but all Brent could think about was Sam.
On autopilot, he pushed his chair back and made his way up to the stage. He shook the presenter’s hand with his right and held onto the gleaming gold statue with his left. Slowly he turned to face the crowd. As he looked over the sea of faces, he realized he didn’t care about this award. He didn’t even care if his book ever got published. All he wanted was Sam.
His hand darted inside his coat pocket and touched the velvet box. He knew it was fast, but he loved Sam and he had wanted to propose to her when she returned from Dallas. Now, thanks to Tricia, he wondered if that were even possible.
“You need to make your speech,” the presenter whispered to him and smiled out at the audience as cameras flashed.
Suddenly, Brent had an idea. “Here, hold this.” He shoved the statue back into the surprised woman’s hands and pulled out the box. “First off, let me say thank you for this award. Being Derek McCloud was a high point in my life until a few months ago. Then, I met an amazing woman named Sam Jenkins. She couldn’t be here tonight, but I hope she’s still watching.” He opened the ring case and held it up. Gasps filled the room. “Sam, I know we come from two different worlds, but that is what I love about you. You keep me grounded, and I know that I want that for the rest of my life. I’m coming for you, Sam, but I wanted you to see this,
to know what’s real. Will you marry me?”
He knew of course that Sam couldn’t answer. Heck, she probably wasn’t even still watching if she had been in the first place, but he hoped that with the cheers and clapping, the TV producers would find it newsworthy and run it several times. Everyone loved a Cinderella story; that’s what Julia always said.
Brent turned back to the presenter who was dabbing at the corners of her eyes with her free hand. “That was beautiful,” she sniffed. “This Sam is a lucky woman. I hope she says yes.”
“Me too.” Brent accepted the award from her once again and then he walked off the stage and back toward his table, but he didn’t stop there. He wasn’t up for any more awards and the moment was now his. Dallas and his future awaited him. He walked past the gaping mouths, pushed open the entrance doors, and stepped into the night air.
Chapter 22
“Sam? Can I get you a coffee or something?”
Sam sighed and rolled her eyes. Connor had been at her office door all morning offering her coffees, muffins, massages, but she wanted none of it. She knew she looked atrocious. The dark circles around her eyes hadn’t escaped her attention when she looked in the mirror this morning, but she also hadn’t slept much. She’d tossed and turned most of the night as she thought about where she saw her life going now. “I’m fine, Connor. Just let me finish my work, all right?”
“I can’t.” He walked over to one of the chairs in the room. His hands splayed across the back and he opened his mouth to speak. Then he closed it, sighed, and shifted his weight. Something was definitely on his mind.
“What is it, Connor?” Sam had no patience for whatever game he was playing.
“I need to tell you something, but I don’t want you to get mad.”
“Then now is probably not the best time.” Her eyes returned to the paper in hopes he would get the hint and leave, but he didn’t.
“I made a mistake.”
“Seems to be the trend lately.”
“No, look.” He tapped the back of the chair and sighed again. “Will you just come with me for a second?”
Sam rolled her eyes again and dropped the paper. She had no desire to go with him, but he clearly wasn’t going to leave and let her work until she did. “Fine, what is it?”
He led the way to his office and closed the door once the two of them were inside. “Just watch. Please.” Connor picked up a remote and turned on the TV that hung on his wall. A talk show filled the screen.
“Did you see that romantic proposal last night?” One of the women asked her co-host. “I don’t normally swoon over things like that, but this one was…. Well, do we have footage? Let’s just roll the footage.”
The screen shifted then and Sam recognized Brent standing in front of a podium. A woman with dark brown hair held a gold statue next to him and an apologetic expression as if she had no idea what was happening.
“Sam, I know we come from two different worlds, but that is what I love about you. You keep me grounded, and I know that I want that for the rest of my life. I’m coming for you, Sam, but I wanted you to see this, to know what’s real. Will you marry me?” He held out a box and the camera zoomed in on a beautiful diamond ring.
Confusion flooded Sam and she looked to Connor. “What, what is this?”
Connor sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “It was a setup, Sam. Tricia Daniels, his ex-girlfriend, found out we used to date. She approached me and offered me a large sum of money to get you out of the way. I’ve been a little underwater recently and needed the money. Plus, I really did care for you and thought if we worked together again, you might see it too.”
“You took money to break up my relationship?” The room began to spin again. “What kind of person does that?”
“I’m not proud of it. And after seeing you last night and how many times Brent called-”
Sam shook her head. “Wait, what? Brent called? I haven’t gotten any phone calls.”
Connor bit his lip and crossed to his desk. He opened a drawer and pulled something out. “That’s because you haven’t had your phone.” He held it out to her. “I took it while you were in the bathroom. He called you, probably as soon as he realized she had set him up. I didn’t listen to the message before I deleted it, but I’m sure he was trying to tell you that what you saw with Tricia wasn’t what it seemed. He’s called seven times since then, though you won’t see them because I deleted them all.”
“You stole my phone?” How had she not noticed her missing phone? More importantly, who was this man in front of her? Her friend from high school would never have done such an insidious thing.
His head dropped and his eyes focused on the floor. “I’m sorry, Sam. I needed the money, and I thought I would be saving you. Tricia told me he loved her, and that he’d never really leave the Hollywood life.”
Sam snatched the phone from his hand as white-hot anger flared inside of her. “You had no right.”
“I know, and that’s why I decided to come clean today. The guilt has been eating away at me all week. The more time I spent with you, the more I wanted you to stay here, but it was wrong the way I did it.”
“I don’t even know what to say to you.” Sam wanted to yell, to shake him, to throw something, but another part of her just wanted to curl up and cry. Was anyone real anymore?
“I understand, and you’ll probably never forgive me, but perhaps you can forgive him.” Connor pointed to the TV which he had paused. Brent’s face still filled the screen. “He’s waiting outside for you.”
A barrage of conflicting emotions filled Sam. Brent was here? Sam hesitated, unsure if she wanted to see him or not.
“Go. He’s got a diamond ring with your name on it, and he’s not going away.”
Sam spared one final glance at Connor before exiting his office. She flung open the door only to run right into a solid chest.
“Hi Sam.”
Sam stepped back and looked up into Brent’s chocolate eyes. “Hi.”
“I know you probably saw Tricia and I at the award ceremony, but I didn’t invite her. They sent her an invitation by mistake and she caught me by surprise. I thought if I reacted the way I wanted to that it might ruin my chance at getting my story published, but I hope you also saw what happened after.”
“I did.” The corners of Sam’s lips twitched up as happiness flooded back in. “Did you really propose to me at an award show I wasn’t in attendance for?”
“I needed you to know I was serious, that I had no desire to be with Tricia. I knew she was crazy, but I didn’t think she’d go this far. I filed a restraining order this morning, so she can’t bother us anymore. It wasn’t how I wanted to propose to you, but I didn’t want to come home to find you not speaking to me or worse yet, gone.”
Sam bit the inside of her lip. He knew her too well.
“So, do you have an answer for me?” Hope shone in Brent’s eyes as they roamed her face.
“You can’t be serious, Brent. It’s too soon.”
“Not for me” Brent dropped to one knee and pulled a velvet box out of his pocket. Sam gasped as he opened the lid. The ring had been beautiful on TV but it was even prettier in person. The diamond wasn’t large, but it sparkled brilliantly in the middle and a row of smaller diamonds lined either side. It was perfect as she would never have wanted a large showy diamond anyway. “I was serious, Sam. I need you in my life, and I want to spend the rest of it with you. Will you marry me?”
“Yes.” Sam threw her arms around Brent. “Yes, I will marry you.”
Epilogue
Eight Months Later
“Okay, time to put this on.” Brent held out the satin blindfold.
She smiled at him and closed her eyes. “Why exactly am I wearing a blindfold?”
“So, the surprise doesn’t get ruined.” With a gentle touch, he tied the cloth around her eyes and then used the opportunity to place an unexpected kiss on her lips.
“You needed to blindfold me to
kiss me?” she asked with a laugh.
Brent joined in the laughter. “Oh, honey, that is not the surprise.”
Sam smiled and shook her head. It had been an amazing eight months. After several conversations with Pastor Ron and a counselor, she had started working on her inability to allow people to help her. However, she and Brent had talked together and decided the shop would still lose money due to the higher rent, and they had let the lease expire.
Sam had been sad at first, but then she’d received a call from the local high school. They wanted to add Auto Shop as a class and offered Sam use of their garage, not only for classes but also for her business when there was some. She found she enjoyed teaching the next generation as much as she liked working on cars. Plus, the hours were better. She was home by four most days unless the car project was more than her students could handle and she was forced to put in extra hours. Still, she rarely worked past six and never on weekends unless it was an emergency.
Brent published his book and was getting quite a nice royalty from it. And he had another one in the works. He was making enough money that he didn’t seem to miss the bigger paychecks from movie roles. Plus, he was still getting paid for the Night Ranger movies that were now in syndication. And he had brought her in on the house designs. He had already established the general layout, but as she would be living in the house too, he let her make furniture and color decisions.
They had gotten married during Christmas break when Sam was off from school, and had a short but amazing honeymoon in London.
“You’ve already given me enough surprises. You paid for the wedding and then the honeymoon to London. What else do I need?”
“Just wait and see.”
A few minutes later, the limo pulled to a stop. Sam heard the door open and then Brent grabbed her hand and helped her out. “Well, we’re on something solid. Concrete?” Her face turned his direction as she asked the question.
A Brush with a Billionaire Page 14
