right now. Who wouldn’t with a guy swearing to love you forever in front of Notre Dame? Shit, I would fall for him if he said that to me. I just don’t want you to make another mistake like Ed and get hurt. Slow down, and give it time.”
“I am. I’m not going anywhere.” It bothered her that Sam was so distrustful of him. She was certain that Nigel was real.
“You need to be sure there’s no ulterior motive behind this. Ed wanted to have a twenty-one-year-old sex toy. What is this guy after, if anything? You can’t forget that your father left you a hell of a lot of money. You need to be sure that’s not the draw here.” She was disappointed by Sam’s reaction. She was sure that there was no ulterior motive with Nigel. He just loved her.
“My boss has known him since they were kids, she went to school with his cousin. She says he’s a great guy. He doesn’t know I have money. He just thinks I’m a young girl working in London.”
“Don’t be so sure. You don’t look like a pauper. I’m sure the place you’re renting is more than a girl in your job could afford. And you’ve been places and done things that poor girls can’t. Trust me, he knows. He may not know how much you’ve inherited, but he’s figured out some of it. And it sounds like he loves the good life and admits he has no money. If he’s for real and not after anything, I will run you down the aisle, not walk you. Just give it time, and see what he does. You’ve got another highflyer here. Normal guys don’t take you to Paris to make love for the first time, or take you to castles for the weekend.”
“No, they lure you into the back of their car, and you get knocked up at sixteen,” she said, and he laughed.
“Well, not quite.” Despite her strong religious convictions, he had finally managed to have sex with Tamar on a night that her parents were in New Jersey with relatives, sitting shiva for a great-aunt who had died. She lived at home too, which gave them few opportunities, so they took what they could. He said he loved her, but was in no rush to do anything about it. Unlike Coco, whom he didn’t trust not to do something extreme now that her parents were gone and not there to reason with her and hold her back. Her father would have kept a close eye on her. And without them, she was desperate for stability in her life. Sam wasn’t convinced she was looking for it in the right places. Certainly not Ed, a married man in his fifties, cheating on his wife. And Nigel was a dark horse in the race. She didn’t know him well enough to judge him objectively after a month. Sam was sure her parents would have agreed, even though they had married young, but they had known each other for several years before they eloped. “I just want you to take it slow and be sure.”
“I am taking it slow. At least be happy for me that I’ve met a nice guy.”
“I am happy for you, if he turns out to be everything he appears to be. Right now, he’s a dazzler. That can be blinding. Like Ed.”
“This is nothing like Ed. He’s not married, and he’s not a liar.”
“That’s a good place to start,” he said, but Sam wasn’t convinced.
“How’s Tamar?” she asked to get the spotlight off her for a minute.
“Great. She got a promotion at the bank. She wants six kids, and a kosher home. I introduced her to my mother, now my mother thinks I should marry her immediately.” It sounded like a death sentence to Coco, and an end to his freedom. She was just as worried about him as he was about her. “I think I need to come over and meet this guy. I want to see him for myself,” Sam said seriously.
“Any excuse is good. I would love you to come over. Do you think your father will let you?”
“I’ll tell him I have to.” As her self-appointed guardian and big brother, he wanted to meet this guy and make his own decision about him. He could tell that Coco had stars in her eyes, and he didn’t blame her. “I’ll let you know if I can do it.”