made it sound like you and she were finished. You said she wasn’t the right one for you.”
“And I meant it.”
“Then why couldn’t you just tell me about her? I was waiting for you to tell me, and—”
“Sounds like you’ve been following up on me,” he interjects.
I look down, regretting that I never gave him the opportunity to tell me about all of this before it got so out of hand. “It wasn’t like that. A friend told me you’d been engaged and that your fiancé up and left you one day. She also warned me you left some girls brokenhearted afterward.”
Sam crosses his arms over his chest, nodding his head in agreement to my statement. “That’s the short story.”
It’s infuriating, always waiting for him to continue. It really tests the strength of my limited patience. “What’s the longer story?” I finally ask.
“I met Roxy when I was twenty-three. You’ve seen her, she’s a beautiful woman. I fell in love and I thought being with me would be enough to make her happy, but she’s always had big dreams, and at some point, I stopped fitting into them.”
I watch him form every word, surprised by his suddenly open manner. I wait quietly for him to continue.
“As for the others, I don’t have a good excuse for the way I was acting. I didn’t have my head on straight.”
“And now you do?”
“I thought so until you showed up at the bar the other night. Your face when you saw us…I don’t know why I kept it from you.”
“Sam, I met her, the other day. The same day, in fact. She came into the shop for some perfume and she told me…”
“She told you what?”
“She told me you’re still in love with her,” I charge, watching him closely for a reaction.
“I’m not,” he says without blinking.
“But are you sure? I mean, I thought you and I… I thought we had something. I thought you felt the same way that I—”
“I do. I do, Ellie. Roxy is my past.”
“Is she really?”
“Yes.” Sam’s hand reaches out for me and this time his hold on my arm is strong and steady. “I’m crazy about you. I’ve been cursing myself for not just coming clean with the whole Roxy mess. I’m sorry if I hurt you, but you can trust me.”
It’s those words more than anything else that ease the tension running through my body. I can hardly remember a man ever telling me he’s sorry for hurting me, not in the unabashed way Sam’s doing right now.
“Thank you,” I say, taking a step closer to him.
“For what?”
“For coming here, for not giving up on me.”
Sam’s other hand comes around me and rests solidly on my lower back. I place my own steady hands against his warm chest and look up into his gorgeous hazel eyes. Despite my lingering unease about Roxy and her intentions, I still want to trust him.
“I want this to work,” he says, his hands moving around my back, embracing me. “I’m not used to begging, you know,” he teases.
“I can easily believe it,” I say, a tear escaping as I smile up at him.
Sam leans in close to me and wipes the tear from my face, his eyelashes dropping as he stares intently at my lips.
Amber’s voice rings out, “She’s not here, Tim. I think she went to her support group meeting for Ex-Girlfriends of Assholes.”
I jump away from Sam, heeding the warning which Amber’s shout has provided. I see Tim over Sam’s shoulder as he rounds the corner of the tent. Sam’s arms are still half-stretched between us and Tim’s eyes narrow for a fraction of a moment on our closeness, but he recovers quickly. The flash of anger from a second before is replaced effortlessly with a smile that would make the Kar King jealous.
“There you are. I was just wondering where you’d disappeared to,” he says easily. “Hi. Timothy Donahue, nice to meet you.” Tim extends his hand to Sam, his Rolex watch dazzling as it catches the sun.
Sam pauses for a moment then turns to face Tim, placing me squarely behind him. He accepts the handshake while I squirm my way around him to stand across from both men.
“Sam James, friend of Ellie’s.”
“Is that so? Can’t say I’ve ever heard her mention your name before.”
“Sam,” I start, in a slightly high-pitched, breathy voice, “owns the auto shop down on Fifth Street.” And he’s great in the sack.
“Sure, I know the place,” Tim says, finally dropping the handshake