Summer of Love - Carly Phillips Page 0,41

to say she planned to gather her parents and give them the news. Telling Sam could come later. On the phone, Zoe had been cool and distant, something he both understood and hated at the same time. Though he had no idea whether she’d be in touch with him after she delivered the blow to her parents, his stomach rolled in anticipation.

“Sam should be told soon,” he informed his uncle, taking no pleasure in his own words.

After Sam knew, then the real challenge would begin. Trying to convince her of his sincerity. Trying to get her to appreciate his position as family, not enemy.

“Do you need me? I can come down, you know.” Uncle Russ had always been there to offer his support.

The gesture brought a lump to Ryan’s throat. He might not have much of an immediate family to speak of, but he’d always had Uncle Russ. He hadn’t realized how much he needed to hear a friendly, familiar voice from home, but speaking to his uncle now helped him feel more grounded and cemented to the life he’d temporarily left behind.

He glanced up at the setting sun and closed his eyes, grateful for what he did have and determined to let Sam share in the same things.

“Ryan, are you there?”

“I’m here. No need to visit just yet. Maybe when the initial shock blows over. We’ll see.”

“Well, I’ve got to run. My dinner date is here,” his uncle said.

Ryan grinned. The consummate bachelor, Uncle Russ never had the same dinner date more than a few times, and he wondered who the lucky woman was this evening.

“Have a good time.” Ryan paused, unsure of how to speak his feelings after a lifetime spent keeping them inside. “Before I hang up—”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for being there.”

Silence followed for a moment before Uncle Russ spoke. “You’re the son I never had, Ryan. Always remember that.”

His uncle’s declaration was welcome at a time when Ryan felt adrift from everyone and everything. He hung up and settled into the sand to watch the last of the sun set on the horizon.

He needed time to think about the fallout sure to come, and mentally say goodbye to Zoe, the woman he felt certain he was about to lose.

Chapter Seven

With all the family changes on the horizon, Zoe was lured to the wall of photographs going up the stairs in her parents’ home. Though unorthodox, her own childhood had been a happy one, as documented by the assorted pictures facing her. Part of the reason she’d never moved out of her parents’ house was the feeling of warmth and security she found here, something she never thought she could find anywhere else.

Since her old job had kept her on the road sometimes for days on end, she hadn’t missed having a place of her own until recently. And, she admitted, it helped that her parents no longer kept tabs on her and that she liked their unstructured life.

Was there also an element of inability to commit to anyone or anything, as her father said? She shivered and, instead of dealing with the present, she focused on the wall that showed off her past.

The most recent photo added to the collection caught her eye. The picture showed Sam, Spank the monkey, Ari and Zoe together at Zoe’s welcome-home party after she’d returned from her enforced confinement last year. The three of them looked like real sisters. And her parents truly did treat Sam like one of their own children. They’d even become more structured since Sam had come into their lives. Dinner was served at six, and they all ate seated as a family. Sam’s homework had to be completed before television was allowed, and she had a strict curfew.

Though Zoe wouldn’t call her mother June Cleaver, Elena had become more regimented with Sam around because she understood what the child needed. Despite the fact that Elena had become a certified masseuse, she never scheduled a spa appointment after three, and she was home every afternoon when Sam returned from school. All these changes had been made because the entire Costas family loved Sam and wanted her to have as close to a perfect childhood as possible.

“Looking at the wall of shame?” Ari asked.

Zoe felt her twin’s hand on her shoulder and covered it with her own. “That always was your description.” But Zoe knew that Ari had come to terms with her difficulties within their family. “I was just thinking what a great childhood we had.”

“We did. Even