Summer of Love - Carly Phillips Page 0,23

after two days of drought, but as a member of a family who didn’t need to give him any ammunition to take Sam from this home, she wished he’d stayed away.

“We wuz robbed!” Sam jumped up and down, her fear giving way to an obvious adrenaline rush now that the danger was over.

“Not robbed,” Zoe was quick to assure Ryan. “Nothing was taken.”

“Which means whoever broke in here was looking for something.” Quinn, the ex-cop, said, his focus on Sam.

Zoe swallowed hard. “I suppose that’s a possibility.” She forced herself to focus on what she’d been thinking before Ryan’s arrival, and glanced at Sam. “When did you hide in the pantry?”

“Elena came home and started yelling, Nicholas came running, and they were trying to figure out what happened. Next thing I know the police are banging on the door and all I could think of was saving the bacon. So I grabbed Ima and ducked back into the pantry. Smart hiding place if I do say so myself.”

Ryan began to pace. “Am I to understand Sam was here when someone broke in?”

Zoe stepped forward and placed a hand on his arm. The last thing she wanted was for him to find out that the intruder had been in Sam’s bedroom. “I’ll explain everything in a few minutes. I promise. Let’s just let Quinn get a few more facts from Sam first, okay?”

He gritted his teeth. “Okay.”

“Did you see the guy’s face?” Quinn asked her.

“For a second. He was real ugly, and he had dark hair.”

“Tall or short?”

“Medium.”

Quinn shook his head, probably at the vague description. “How’d he get in? What did the cops find? Picked or jimmied lock?”

“Nothing. He just walked right in since I left the door open when I went out for a walk.” Elena stepped forward. In black leggings that ended below her knees and an oversize white tank top, and with her hair in a ponytail, she looked younger than her years. But when she dropped her head in shame, she aged before Zoe’s eyes. “Quinn, I’m sorry. I know you put in a security system and that Medici lock.”

“Medeco.”

Elena nodded. “The point is, I was trusting. And I’m sorry. I never meant to put anyone at risk. Especially Samantha.”

Zoe realized the moment it dawned on her mother that Ryan, the social worker, was here witnessing her admission. She lifted her head and met Ryan’s gaze head-on. Then she dropped to her knees and somehow shuffled her way over to where Ryan stood, concern etched all over his handsome face.

Elena grabbed his hand. “It was a lapse. A stupid one. One that’ll never happen again, so please don’t report us. Don’t snitch. Don’t take Samantha away,” she wailed.

Over her mother’s bent head, Zoe met Ryan’s gaze. He was upset, and he feared for Sam, but still, she could see him biting back a grin because, despite the seriousness of the moment, her mother’s theatrics were way over the top. Zoe was just surprised Ryan realized it, too.

Ryan forced himself to stay calm. He focused on Elena’s dramatics as he tried to regain the ability to breathe. He’d driven up to the house to find the police leaving. He’d walked in to see the place in shambles, obviously ransacked. And Sam was regaling the family with tales of what she’d seen.

His fear for Sam and Zoe had receded as soon as he’d seen them standing in the kitchen, unhurt. But his stomach churned as he’d listened to the end of Sam’s story and now witnessed the unorthodox way the family handled the crisis. They were upset, yes, but the break-in seemed more a cause for drama than concern.

Even Sam seemed to revel in her role in the escapade.

“Mama, I’m going to take Ryan for breakfast and explain everything.” Zoe placed an arm around her mother’s shoulder and helped her rise to her feet.

“You go to Paradeisos, yes?” Elena asked. “Aunt Kassie will take good care of you.”

“Okay. You take care of Dad and Sam, okay?”

Elena nodded. “You’re a good girl, Zoe.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek and whispered something in her ear.

“I love you.” Zoe hugged her mother tight.

Watching the interaction, a lump of emotion swelled in Ryan’s chest, and he wondered if his sister would still be alive had she experienced even one tenth of the love so freely given in this family. No judgments were made, no life-altering repercussions came as a result of bad behavior. Quite simply, this family was as foreign to Ryan