A single tear dripped down her cheek. She ignored it, didn’t bother to wipe it away.
Zoe desperately wanted to pull Sam into her arms, but she sensed how much the teen valued her composure. Even at this young age, Sam knew how to keep it together, a function of growing up in foster homes with no one who truly cared.
In her heart, Sam had to know everyone in the Costas family loved and respected her. Enough to give her the space she needed.
“I’d just like you to remember one thing,” Zoe said.
Sam reluctantly lifted her gaze. “What’s that?”
“We love you, whatever happens.” Some words had to be said, Zoe thought, in order to be both felt and remembered.
And then, though Sam had curled into a ball, Zoe pressed a kiss to the top of her head before slipping out the door.
She leaned back, hands flat against the wall and exhaled hard. Despite it all, she felt torn. On the one hand, she wanted to kill Ryan for putting Sam through this pain and on the other hand, she wanted to show up on his doorstep and fill him in on everything that had happened tonight. And then she wanted to let him hold her, make love to her, and ease the pain. She felt that close to him.
What irony. Because if not for Ryan, she wouldn’t feel so gut-wrenchingly bad right now.
The sun peeked through the curtains on the window, but Ryan didn’t need daylight to tell him it was morning. He hadn’t slept a wink all night.
When he hadn’t heard from Zoe by midnight, he resigned himself to not hearing from her at all. Unable to sit still in his small motel room, he’d headed out to a local bar and nursed a couple of drinks. He’d thought he’d consumed enough to put him out for the night, but instead, he’d stared at the ceiling, tortured by the memory of Zoe’s enthusiastic moans, groans and earth-shattering climax. A climax she’d had at the same moment he’d come inside her.
He felt as though those memories were some kind of punishment, though he hadn’t done a damn thing wrong except be related to Sam. He ran a hand through his hair and rose from the bed, determined to take his and Sam’s fate into his own hands.
After a quick shower and shave, he dressed, ready to head over to the Costas home and have this discussion with all interested parties present.
He stepped out of his room onto the catwalk and was greeted by a warm breeze. And then by his uncle Russell walking toward him.
“Well, this is a surprise.” Ryan strode forward and by habit, held out his hand.
“A good one I hope.” His uncle grabbed his hand and pulled him into a hug.
The man always had provided the affection his parents failed to give, and he was grateful. But he couldn’t afford to have him here now, messing up any headway he might have made with the Costas family. Or more important, with Sam.
Ryan stepped back. “It’s always nice to see you, but I thought we agreed you’d wait till I told you it was a good idea to come here.”
The other man leaned against the railing overlooking the parking lot. “You seemed down when we spoke last night, and I thought you could use the moral support.”
“So you drove all this way in the middle of the night?”
His uncle inclined his head. “I told you. You’re the son I never had.”
“And I appreciate the support.” More than he was able to express at the moment, despite his mixed feelings about Uncle Russ joining him here.
“I intend to be here for you every step of the way.”
Ryan glanced at the sky, wondering when the hell his life had gotten so damn complicated. Then, resigned to the inevitable, Ryan turned to his uncle. “Want to go meet your niece?”
His uncle’s face lit up in a way Ryan hadn’t seen in years. “Just lead the way, son.”
Zoe paced the family room, angry at Sam and furious with herself. Early that morning, the family discovered Sam was gone, missing from her bedroom and nowhere else in the house. No matter how many alternatives they discussed, they could come to no other conclusion than she had run away from home. Common sense told them that Sam had bolted the same way she’d done before, to test the family’s loyalty and desire to have her around.
Normally they’d wait her out, give her some time to