Beyond What is Given(45)

“That’s a date-night I could get behind. Or I could set the timer for seven minutes and pull you into the closet.” Her eyes sparkled.

“Dinner, movie, closet. Gotcha.”

She laughed, brushed her lips across mine, and skipped off to the shower. It took all my willpower not to follow her in.



“I like this,” she said a couple hours later, her head in my lap as we pretended to watch whatever chick flick she’d chosen.

“Me, too.” I skimmed her cheekbone with my thumb.

“You know what would make this room perfect?”

If you were naked. “What?”

“A window seat. I mean, it’s almost my perfect house. Hardwood in the kitchen, granite counters, porch swing out front, a big backyard… It’s almost there.”

“And the window seat would make it perfect?”

“A window seat and a view of the front range.” She smiled wistfully.

“You want to live in Colorado?” My stomach plummeted.

“It’s the only place that’s ever really felt like home. I still have this hope that I can get back in. Even if I have to face him, it would be worth it.”

“You can. Are you excited to see your mom?”

She nodded. “It’ll be nice to spend a few days with her. Definitely worth making up my classwork for. Her homecoming is still on schedule, so this time tomorrow night, I’ll have her.”

“And this time Thursday I’ll pick you up in the Outer Banks,” I promised.

“That, I can’t wait for.” She cupped my cheek. “Look, just because I’m there, don’t think you have to…” Her gaze fell away. “I mean, I don’t expect to bake brownies with your mom or anything.”

“One, if you bake brownies with my mom, please get her recipe. She’s insanely stingy with it. Second, Samantha, I’m not hiding you. In fact, my parents want all of you to come over for dinner when we get there. You’re a part of my life, and I want them to know you.”

A small family gathering was exactly perfect to introduce her to our madness.

“I’ll wear a longer skirt,” she promised.

“Just be you, Sam. That’s all I need.”

She sat up on my lap and kissed me softly, sweetly. “I’m going to miss you.”

I captured her hand with mine and pressed a kiss to her palm, savoring her indrawn breath. “Same here. Have I ever told you what beautiful hands you have?” Everything was beautiful on her, fingers included.

“You’ll like them better once they’re on you,” she promised, her eyes darkening.

“Anytime you want, Samantha.” Sex wasn’t something we’d really discussed, and our hands had stayed strictly above clothes, although I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep my hands off her skin without going insane.

“Soon,” she whispered.

“Soon.”



“Hey, you should be at the airport,” I lectured Sam, balancing my phone on my shoulder so I could check my watch.

“We’re pulling into the airport,” she said.

“Good. I just got here to help Jagger unload.”

“I’m glad you got out early today.”

“Me, too.” We’d all been able to catch an earlier flight, which gave me a couple hours to kill before I got my hands on Sam. Almost six days without touching her was killing me.

“Don’t be a dick!” Morgan yelled at Carter as he held the tiny strings of her swimsuit high above his head.

“Wear something that covers more than two percent of your body!”

“Or maybe not…”

Sam laughed. “I can hear them from here.”

Comfortable silence passed while I heard the doors opening and shutting. “I’ll see you in a couple hours?”

“Yeah…” She drew out the word.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hold on a sec.” She put the phone down while she said good-bye to her mom, and then picked it up again. “Sorry. She’s not one for good-byes, so I try to give her an excuse to not look all emotionally unavailable.”

“I’m happy to be your excuse. What’s really bothering you?”

She sighed, and I pictured her lower lip between her teeth. “I was at her welcome-home ceremony, and there was this woman there, balancing a little girl on her hip.”

“Okay.”

“It could just be that homecomings are emotional. Especially for me since Ember’s dad died? It’s probably stupid.” There was a rustling of paper. “Roanoke,” she told the attendant. “Thank you so much.”

“So you were emotional?” I kept at her because if I didn’t, she wasn’t going to offer up the truth.

“Yeah. This mom was maybe a year or two older than I am, but she’d held herself together through a deployment with a kid, and I was lucky to have not ended up a stripper.”

“I’m listening.”

“How freaking long is this line? Security sucks.” I heard flights called through her speaker while she debated, so I waited. “She was the kind of woman you’ll need. Someone who can handle her own crap and shoulder yours, too. Someone who isn’t a giant pain in the ass.”