I pressed my lips together.
“Or,” she kept going, “it’s clear he didn’t wish to let you slip through his fingers because here you both are.”
“Yep,” I looked away, “here we both are.”
She took my hand and I looked back as she whispered, “Believe, Kiakee.”
I stared into her eyes. Then I nodded.
Celeste and Thomas. Luci. Now Gitte. They all wanted me to believe.
Maybe they saw something I did not. Maybe Sam just needed more time.
Maybe I should just let my mental bullshit go and believe.
We’d only been together a month. Only a month. And he’d been screwed over repeatedly.
I needed to cut him some slack and believe.
So to my nod, I added a smile.
She smiled back and let my hand go.
I took a sip of lemonade and in my head whispered, fearless.
I said it, I wanted to feel it and I tried. But my headache was not going away.
Whatever.
It was just a headache. Eventually it would fade.
Onward.
I made a decision.
“All right, sweetie, let’s call an end to this. Load up the dregs in Dad’s truck, get to Paula and Rudy’s and start the party.”
“Sounds good to me,” Gitte muttered, rolling gracefully to her feet, I followed and moved toward the remaining boxes.
* * * * *
“You okay?”
Sam and I (and Memphis) were in our room at the Hyatt and he’d just tipped the bellman for bringing up our bags on a trolley.
I’d let Memphis out of her doggie carrier. She was exploring.
I was staring out the window at the amazing view of the Capitol and the lights of Indy and I didn’t look at him when I answered, “I can’t shake this headache.”
This was true. Missy had given me aspirin and a couple of hours later Paula had given me ibuprofen. Neither worked.
And I had a feeling I knew why.
Deciding to believe in Sam and in us, being the dork I was, lasted around five minutes and started to melt away when Sam walked out of the house with Lee and Tanner.
I was right. Those men were his hunters, Lee Nightingale and Tanner Layne. He introduced them to me, my family, my friends and then they helped load up the remaining boxes of stuff in Dad’s truck. Then they politely declined invites to Paula’s barbeque doing so with hot guy smiles that left all the females staring (and Teri nearly drooling) and took off.
Since there wasn’t a lot of stuff, Sam and Kyle didn’t have to haul any in Sam’s rental SUV or Kyle’s car, only Dad had to make the trip. So Sam loaded up our suitcases, I grabbed Memphis and we went right to Paula and Rudy’s. My car was already stowed in Mom and Dad’s back shed so I went with Sam.
In the SUV, I’d asked, “So, what was with the powwow?”
Sam’s reply?
“Later, baby.”
It was said gentle, sweet but still, it upset me. As far as I knew, he hadn’t had a face-to-face with them since we got there but I wouldn’t really know since he never told me anything. They’d talked on the phone often but one thing I did know was they had not approached the house. Not to mention, it wasn’t one of them, it was both.
This made me think they had something important to say.
And when Dad got to Paula and Rudy’s, I knew they did because Sam left it for approximately two point five minutes before he negotiated a private huddle with Dad and Kyle, sans me.
I’d let it go in the car because my head was hurting even more and I had to keep a lock on my reaction because I didn’t want to get emotional however that emotional might be, either losing it and snapping at him or losing it and getting teary.
After the huddle, even with my head still throbbing, I’d picked my moment and caught Sam when we could be alone.
“Is something up that I should know?” I asked.
Again gentle and sweet, he lifted his hand, cupped my jaw, his head dipped close and he whispered, “Now’s not the time, honey. Later.”
Then he’d kissed my nose, his hand fell away and then he moved away.
The good news was, he didn’t seem wired and worried. Neither did my Dad and Kyle. In fact, studying my father and brother, they seemed more at-ease then they’d been for ages.
So, clearly, nothing dire had happened.
The bad news was, if it was nothing bad, I didn’t get why Sam wouldn’t tell me.
As I stared out the window, I felt Sam fit his body to the back of mine and his arms went around me. Then I felt his jaw settle at the side of my head.
“Important day for you,” he muttered.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“It’s done,” he stated.
“Yeah,” I repeated.
His arms gave me a squeeze and didn’t let go. He was quiet. So was I.
I waited for him to say something. We had time. It wasn’t early, it wasn’t late. It was just us. Until we had to be at the airport to check in our bags and Memphis for our flight which didn’t leave until eleven, we had nothing to do but be.
He didn’t say anything.
Neither did I.
But I felt my head start pounding.
Before I could figure out what to say, Sam spoke.
“Get ready for bed, relax. I’m gonna take Memphis down and give her a walk. Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Where’s her leash?”
“In my overnight bag.”
His jaw went away and his lips swept my neck. Then he let me go.
I turned and watched him dig through my bag and nab the leash. Memphis went mental at seeing it, Sam clipped it on and then he gave me a smile and chin lift (Memphis gave me a yap) and he was out the door.
I turned back to the window but I closed my eyes against the view.
Everything Sam danced across the backs of my eyelids. All of it, except what happened last night, was beautiful.
I opened my eyes and stared at a view I knew cost more than the average room, something else Sam gave to me since he was paying for it, like everything else.
And seeing that view, knowing he knew I had a headache so he was taking care of my dog, surmising that he was giving me quiet time to reflect on my “important day”, thinking of all that was him and that very day getting rid of everything that had anything to do with the hell I’d lived in my years of Cooter, I could not believe I wanted more.
But I couldn’t help it.
I did.
When it came to Sam, I wanted everything.
And I was beginning to fear he wasn’t going to give it to me.
Chapter Eighteen
Rangers
My headache was gone.
And without the throbbing, a yard sale, my friends and family and with it being the next day, nothing but Sam and me, waiting around, standing in line, hanging in departure lounges (the swish ones where the rich and famous hung which was to say where Sam hung and, now, me) and sitting on planes, I was no longer confused and concerned and trying to talk myself into being fearless.