out of here. If we hurry,” she said to Jed, “we can make it to Jacksonville to catch the red-eye back to LA.”
“Not so fast,” Sam said. “Before you leave, you owe it to me to tell me how you found me.”
“Sorry, but I can’t out a source.” She glanced over at Annie, and her expression softened. “But I will tell you one thing. Once I got to town, it wasn’t hard to figure out where you were. People here love to talk. If I were you, honey, I’d get away from this place, or that unfortunate incident is going to haunt you for the rest of your life.”
“What was that about?” Sophie asked once Tammy and Jed had cleared out. The distrust in her eyes made Sam’s stomach go sour. Not that he blamed her. She was just looking out for her cousin.
It was Annie who answered. “It’s a long story. And one that I prefer to talk to Sam about in private. If you don’t mind?” she said to the girls.
“Okay,” Sophie relented, “but if you need us, we’ll be right inside.” She led the other women away, leaving him and Annie alone on the deck.
Sam dragged a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way. Please believe me when I tell you that I was about to tell you everything right before that camera crew descended on us.”
Annie studied him a minute, then sighed. “I believe you.”
Relief swamped him. “Great.” He reached out to her, but she jerked back.
“Sam, this isn’t going to work.”
He frowned. “How do you know it isn’t going to work?”
“Because for one thing, I still have a boyfriend.”
“Not for long.”
“True, but I owe it to Walter to break up with him before I start anything new. And I’m looking for a new job. And you live in Texas …” She shrugged.
“You could move to Dallas. It’s a great city. Lots of opportunities. Hell, I could get you a job at—”
She put a hand in the air to stop him. “I already uprooted my life once for a man. And that relationship was a lot further along than this one. I’m sorry, Sam, but we’ve only known each other two days. The timing is all wrong. And as tempted as I am to just say the hell with it and run back to your hotel room to finish what we started, I could never do that to Walter.”
“So that’s it? We aren’t even going to try to make this work?”
“Maybe in a few months, once everything has settled down and I know where I’m going to land, we can get back in touch.”
“Get back in touch? Look, I know it’s a huge gamble, but you said it yourself, people who only do the crossword puzzle in pencil never take any real risks. Aren’t you and I worth taking a risk on too?”
“Don’t throw that letter back in my face.”
“Why not? Didn’t you write it?”
She acted as if he’d slapped her. “Of course I wrote it. But there’s a huge difference between doing a puzzle in ink and uprooting my life for a man who could very well end up breaking my heart. It’s just not practical.”
This wasn’t going the way he’d imagined. But if he wanted Annie to be honest with herself, then he was going to have to be honest with himself as well.
“Becks once accused me of being a closet romantic. At the time I thought she was crazy, but you know what? She was right. All that stuff I said on TV? I meant it. My grandfather was a real asshole, but he got two things right in his life. My grandmother Ruth and my mom. He used to say that when he met my grandmother, it was love at first sight. I always thought it was a load of sentimental bullshit. Until I read your letter. I told myself that I was coming out here to hide from the press and to make sure Becks did her college trips, but the truth is, it was your letter that made me travel a thousand miles. Because I wanted to meet the woman who wrote it.”
“That’s … really flattering.”
Flattering? Now he was the one who felt like he’d been slapped. “So, what? That’s it?”
She nodded. “For now. And I understand why you didn’t tell me about the letter.” On what looked like an impulse, she reached out and hugged him. “Best of luck to you, Sam. Whatever