Summer of Love - Carly Phillips Page 0,60
him, she admitted that it was because she’d feared his effect on his nephew. Instead, he’d proven to be an unlikely ally, and she admired how he pulled the family together, forcing her to reassess her opinion of the man. Besides if Ryan liked him, Zoe was determined to give him a chance.
“You always were the voice of reason, Russ.” Ryan’s elderly grandmother smiled. “Ryan, please sit.”
Ryan stiffly and warily took his seat.
While they had been arguing, Zoe realized, the help had cleaned up the mess and replaced everything like new.
“So, Samantha, that’s an interesting necklace you’re wearing. Care to tell us about it?” Uncle Russ strove for a non-threatening topic and Zoe was grateful.
“It was my mom’s,” Sam said, her fingers playing with the keys that always dangled around her neck.
“Why, I don’t think Faith would wear something so—”
Ryan coughed loudly, clearly warning his mother to tread lightly or they were leaving for good this time.
The other woman flushed and said, “I meant, I don’t remember Faith owning those.”
Sam shrugged. “It’s all they let me keep of hers when I went to my first foster family.” She glanced down, picked up the proper fork, and began to eat her salad.
The rest of the family did the same. Somehow disaster had been averted for tonight, but Zoe’s stomach was in complete knots when it came to the notion of Sam coping with these people on a daily basis.
She glanced at Ryan’s strong profile, the mask behind which he hid his pain. Zoe knew he’d placed unspoken hope in his parents’ ability to come around and they’d disappointed him. Meanwhile, she’d placed no faith in Ryan’s ability to stand up to his parents. If he knew that, he’d be disappointed in her, as well. Heaven knew she was disappointed in herself. She shouldn’t have needed to see evidence of where his loyalties would lie.
Ryan had proven himself tonight and the thought ought to give Zoe pure joy. Instead, she was forced to acknowledge that it brought her and her family closer than ever to losing Sam for good.
Chapter Ten
It was midnight, and Ryan lay in his bed, channel surfing because he couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t forget the awful night in his stifling childhood home. He’d disappointed the new women in his life, two amazing women who he realized had come to mean more to him than the family who’d raised him.
From the minute Ryan had walked into the house and seen the formality he’d tried to forget, he knew things wouldn’t go well. Still, he’d tried to let both Sam and his parents be themselves and hoped that the adults would have learned from their past mistakes. Clearly, that hadn’t been the case, and there were only two reasons he hadn’t made good on his threat to walk out—his uncle and Zoe.
Zoe hated his family and all they stood for. He’d seen it in her eyes, her expression and he’d heard it in her tone and hurt voice when she’d defended her parents. Yet she’d backed down and she’d done it for him.
When he heard the soft knock on his bedroom door, he thought he’d imagined it until he heard it again and the door slowly swung wide. He supposed he should have been surprised to see Zoe standing there, but he wasn’t. Not when she was the answer to his dreams and prayers.
He pushed himself up in bed and crooked a finger her way.
She shut the door behind her and leaned back against it. “You don’t mind my being here?”
“Why should I?”
She shrugged. “Sam’s down the hall, for one thing.”
“After three nights I’ve learned the kid sleeps like the dead.”
Zoe laughed. “Isn’t that the truth. I can’t remember the last time I crashed that hard.”
“You haven’t slept well since you’ve been here, that much I know.”
She tipped her head to one side, her dark hair falling over the white satin of her robe. “Snooping on me?”
“No more than you’ve been doing to me, I’m sure. These walls aren’t that thick. So are you going to stand there and make small talk all night?”
She laughed and strode forward, sitting on the end of his double bed. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“How’d you grow up like that?”
He’d wondered the same thing himself. “I guess I was just lucky I survived it and came out sane.”
She nodded. “Well you were amazing tonight,” she said, taking him by surprise.
He laced his fingers behind his head and studied her. “You expected me to let my