Currant Creek Valley - By RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,61
note in his voice. “Yeah, we can all go a little crazy trying to help out lost tourists. It can be annoying.”
“I didn’t think it was annoying. I thought it was wonderful. I still do. I’ve never experienced that sense of community. I want Ethan to have what Nick and I didn’t, you know? Roots. Traditions. A place to belong.”
He was a loving father who would do anything for his child. “What about you?” she asked, mainly to avoid thinking about how sexy she found that. “What do you see in the stars for your future?”
“Same thing, I guess,” he said after a moment. “It will be nice to have my feet planted in one spot for a while.”
He was quiet while the swing continued its hypnotic movement. “I basically went from the chaos of our childhood straight into taking care of Nick and then into the military, and spent the next decade and a half going where I was sent. When Kelli was diagnosed, we were living in Germany. We both decided being near her family during her treatment was our best option. Not one of our smartest decisions, by the way.”
“They weren’t supportive?”
He sighed. “You don’t need to hear this ugly story tonight. Tomorrow’s a big day for you.”
“Distract me.”
“I could come up with far more interesting ways to distract you than talking about the mess I’m leaving in Denver.”
His words vibrated through the night and her insides quivered. She firmly ignored her instantaneous response.
“How about we stick with you telling me what happened with your wife’s family? Why are you leaving a mess?”
“Her father owns a big construction company. Tanner and Sons. A major player in the area. Despite the name, neither of his sons has much interest in construction. One is a teacher and one is an artist and neither stuck around Colorado. I think J.T., Kelli’s father, had some vague idea of eventually handing over the reins to me. He had been after me for a long time to quit the army and go into business with him.”
That would have meant the world to Sam, she thought. Coming from the hardscrabble beginnings he had shared with her, she could only imagine how he must have wanted acceptance from his wife’s family.
“Once I started working for him, I quickly realized our, uh, ethical baselines didn’t quite mesh.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s not unusual in huge construction contracts to underbid the competition and then cut corners so you can still make a profit. J.T. took that to extremes. I guess I was too distracted while Kelli was dying to really pay much attention to anything else. A few months after her death, I sort of woke up one day and realized I couldn’t do some of the things he was asking of me.”
Sam had a strong core of honor. It was one of the things she most admired about him. How had he developed such a thing through the turmoil of his childhood, with a father who had abandoned him and a drug addict for a mother?
“So you quit.”
His rough laugh held little amusement. “I took things a little further than that. I actually ended up turning him in for gross building code violations for an elementary school he was building. Six months ago, I testified against him and the building inspector he was paying off to look the other way. He was convicted of fraud and bribery, among a host of other things, and is headed to prison pending his appeal.”
“I think I read about that case,” she exclaimed. “It must have been ugly.”
“You could say that. I guess it’s also safe to say J.T. and Margeaux won’t be inviting me over to any family barbecues in the near future.”
She didn’t miss the pain in his voice. How hard it must have been for a man who had grown up in chaos and probably craved a family to make choices he knew would cost him dearly.
Despite knowing it probably wasn’t the wisest thing she’d ever done, she reached a hand out and placed it over his fist curled on his thigh, compelled to offer comfort.
“Losing them must have been hard for you.”
He seemed to freeze at her touch and she could hear the quick inhalation of his breath. He held himself stiffly for just a moment and then seemed to relax on a sigh. He even turned his hand over and entwined his fingers with hers.
The sweetness of the moment nearly took her breath away, sitting here