since this was the woman he was going to marry as soon as he could get her down the aisle. “Chloe, what’s going on?”
“Get off him, you tramp!” she screeched. “And you!” she turned to glare at Sam. “Put me down and take it like a man! I’m not going to sit by passively watching you sleep with me one night and hook up with another woman the next! I did that all through college and I’m not so weak anymore. Just let me go!” she yelled and tried kicking and hitting, anything to hurt him as much as she was currently hurting.
“Chloe, calm down and let me introduce you,” Sam called out, setting her down and grabbing her hands before she could take another swing. He chuckled at her livid expression, which only made things worse.
Tears were streaming down Chloe’s face and she lost all her steam. “You did it to me again, you bastard!” she cried and swiped at the tears. “I can’t believe I let you sucker me again. So many times, so many dinners I would sit across the table from you and wish that you would see me as something more than a kid.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked, not having to scream anymore since she was whispering, which was ten times worse.
“In college. You’d show up, you’d take me out to dinner and I thought I was the luckiest woman in the world. And the next night, you’d take out some other woman. I’d have to see you in the newspapers, my friends showing me the pictures if I missed them and all of them asking me if you were the man who had shown up to take me out. Who made me so excited. But no more Sam! You wouldn’t leave me alone even though I knew you’d do this to me again but I’m through! I’m going somewhere where you can’t find me. There’s no way you’re going to toss me over your shoulder and drag me back here because I simply will not endure this from you!”
Sam couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Are you telling me that the reason you wouldn’t trust me when you first came down here, the reason you stopped accepting my invitations to dinner all those years ago, was because you saw me in the newspapers with another woman?”
“Yes! You bastard! You lying, cheating, two timing jerk!” she wished she could say all this with more force, but he’d knocked the breath out of her with this betrayal and the tears were clogging her throat. “Why did you do this to me?”
“Chloe,” he said soothingly, pulling her gently against his chest, “if I’d known that you’d seen those pictures, I would have explained before. But would you please let me introduce you to the woman I’ve hired to coordinate our wedding?”
Chloe stilled and looked up at him. Then at the woman standing several feet away with a gentle smile on her face.
“Wedding coordinator?”
Sam sighed and gripped her upper arms, looking down into her hurt face gently. “Chloe, this is Sandra Manning and she’s one of the best coordinators in Dallas. She’s delegated several other weddings to her subordinates in order to help us get something together quickly.”
Chloe closed her eyes, letting her head fall onto Sam’s chest in shame. “I’m sorry. I overreacted, didn’t I?”
Sam chuckled and hugged her close. “Not in my mind. At least I finally figured out what I’d done wrong all those years ago.”
Chloe rubbed her cheeks with one hand and extended the other, hoping for as much dignity as she could muster under the circumstances. “I’m so sorry, Ms. Manning.”
“Call me Sandra,” she said with a welcoming smile. “And no apology necessary. I’m glad to see two people who obviously love each other so much. I’m also very excited to finally get this man married. So many women in Texas have been after him but now I understand that he’s been waiting for you all these years.” With a wink, she leaned slightly forward and said, “I understand why.”
She picked up her purse and a briefcase that was leaning against a patio chair. “I have to be on my way. I’ll call later this afternoon once the samples have been delivered so you can tell me what you’ve decided.”
With that, she turned on her heel and walked back around the house where she’d just come and disappeared, leaving behind an awkward silence that Chloe knew she’d have to fix.
“I’m sorry,