Melissa scoffed. “I could see it on your face the first time I saw you and Alex together again.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sam sputtered.
“Everyone knows you belong together, Sam.” Melissa’s tone was surprisingly gentle. “You just had to figure it out on your own. It looks like you finally got there.”
Sam gazed out at the backyard. She smiled and shook her head. “Yeah, well, it took me a minute. But I finally understand where I’m supposed to be.”
Melissa hummed in agreement. “When you know, you know.”
“Thank you, Melissa. For everything.” Sam’s throat constricted. “Look, I know this is costing you time and money,” she said sheepishly. “And I want you to know that I’m good for what your commission would have been. Just let me know what I owe you.”
There was a pause, then Melissa laughed warmly. “Sam, honey, you don’t owe me anything. I knew you were never going to put the house on the market.”
Sam looked down, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I don’t know…”
“Whatever,” Melissa said breezily. “Just don’t cut and run again. This town may have forgiven you once, but who knows what they’ll do next time.”
The call disconnected before Sam even had a chance to reply. She stared down at the phone, heart racing with a mixture of hope and terror. After a long moment, she tapped out a message to Alex.Can we talk?Her thumb hovered for a second, but before she could overthink it, she pressed send.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The screwdriver slipped on the light fixture she was replacing, scraping her knuckle and making her curse. She sucked in a breath, about to try again, when the crunch of tires on gravel stopped her suddenly. She looked out the window at the driveway and saw Alex’s silver SUV coming to a halt. Already? She must have dropped everything after receiving the text. Sam tossed the screwdriver into the toolbox with a loud clatter. She hurried down the hall, catching her reflection in the hall mirror. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, cheeks flushed from exertion, but there was no time to fix it now. The soft knock came while she was wiping her hands on a rag. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and headed to the front door, mentally rehearsing what she needed to say.It’s now or never, she thought, reaching out a trembling hand to open the door.
Alex stood on the porch, a vision in a soft cream sweater and jeans, hair slightly damp from a recent shower. She was hugging herself with her too-long sweater sleeves, gazed fixed down at the welcome mat until she glanced up at the sound of the door opening. When she saw Sam, her face lit up, but not with an overdone, toothy grin. This smile was shy but hopeful, almost like she didn’t want to scare Sam away. “Sorry,” she began. “I got your text and came right away.”
Sam stepped outside, closing the distance between them in two strides, and kissed her—not tentatively but with the deliberate slowness and sureness of someone savoring something they’d beendenied for far too long. Alex’s hands found Sam’s waist, steadying them both. Sam didn’t know if the kiss lasted five seconds or five minutes, but when they finally broke apart, foreheads resting one against the other, she knew without a doubt that this was right.
“Well, that wasn’t the greeting I was expecting,” Alex finally said.
Sam tilted her head to the side in question.
Alex flushed, dropping her hands from Sam’s waist and curling her hands into fists inside the sleeves of her sweater. “Your text…” Her voice trailed off, sounding uncertain. “You wanted to talk…” Alex shrugged and looked down at her feet.
Sam tilted Alex’s chin up with the tip of her finger, urging her to meet her eyes. “It’s okay,” she said. “There’s nothing to freak out about.” She dropped her finger and took Alex’s hand, squeezing it gently. “We’re good. I promise.”
Alex appeared hesitant, chewing slightly on her lower lip and bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet. Sam dropped her hand and stepped back, giving her space to move into the house. Alex smiled shyly as she ducked past her.
“I made coffee,” Sam called after her. When she entered the kitchen, Alex was leaning against the counter looking out the window. Sam refilled her cup and grabbed a second one, filling it up and handing it over to Alex.
“Thank God.” Alex gave her a relieved smile. “I kind of scooted out of the house and didn’t have time to grab any.” She gestured down her body. “I thought a shower was more important, but I won’t make that mistake again.”
For a moment, they just stood in the kitchen, shoulder to shoulder, looking out the window and sipping their coffee together. It was all so normal that Sam’s heart ached. She realized then that this was what she was missing—something as simple as sharing coffee with the woman she loved, and how it had the ability to completely change her day.
“So,” Alex said, bumping Sam’s shoulder lightly with her own. “Are we going to talk or…?”
Sam set her mug down and turned slightly so she was facing Alex. She didn’t want to hide from the conversation they wereabout to have. She paused a moment, searching Alex’s face as she thought about the best way to start the conversation. Then she dove in. “Okay, so. I have to go back to Boston.” Sam cringed internally. That wasn’t how she planned it in her head.
Alex blinked at her. “Oh.”
“It’s…” Sam hesitated, then forced herself to keep going down the path she had chosen. “I was offered a promotion. A big one. Stephanie—that’s my boss—called me on Friday before our date. I would be a director. I’d have my own team. I’d get a twenty-five percent raise.” She swallowed, watching Alex’s face carefully. “I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want to ruin our date, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted it anymore. But they needed an answer by the end of the week.”
Alex nodded, but her lips pressed into a thin line. “That’s…wow, Sam.” She swallowed hard. “That’s really great. You worked your ass off for that. You deserve it.”
Sam tried to read her face, but it had turned into something locked down and expressionless. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
“I mean it,” Alex said. “You should take it. If that’s what you want, you should absolutely take it. Don’t—” She stopped, a muscle twitching in her jaw. “Don’t worry about me,” she finally said. “Or this. Or any of it. Do what’s right for you.”
Sam felt her frustration rising. Once again, Alex was trying to take the easy way out, running when things got hard, or saying something she didn’t mean out of some kind of misplaced sense of making things easier for everyone but herself. “What if what’s right for me isn’t the job?”
