Page 210 of A Matter of Time

It was a nice couple of hours, and Sam’s family treated me like I belonged. He and Michael talked football, and Thomas joined in, at ease with his sons. I promised Jen that on those weekends the girls spent with their dad, she could come and sleep over at my place. Rachel said she had big plans for her sister, and I said we could go dancing. I wanted her to meet Dylan and Chris. She said she was looking forward to it.

Sam took a call, and afterward he said we had to go. All the women hugged me and the men ignored me, which I took as a good sign since they were completely engrossed with what the Packers and the Broncos were doing. They grunted a goodbye to Sam, and he promised his mother that we’d be there for Sunday dinner.

“I’ll bring my brother,” I told her.

“Oh!” She was thrilled. “I would love that, Jory. Please do bring him.” I swore I would, even as I wondered how I would accomplish that.

“Who was on the phone?” I asked Sam when we were back in the SUV.

“Christ, we left those sandwiches in here,” he grumbled, rolling down the window.

“Sam, who⁠—”

“It smells like sauerkraut. How can you even⁠—”

“Who was on the phone?”

He sighed heavily. “Maggie.”

“Okay. What does she want?”

“She wants to talk to me.”

“And so you’re going to go talk to her?”

“I owe her that much, J.”

“Do you?”

“I think so, yeah.”

I nodded, turning to look at the street.

“Don’t you think so?”

“No.”

“Don’t be an ass.”

“I’m not.”

“I’ll drop you at home.”

“Fine.”

We didn’t talk the entire way to his place, and I got out of the car the second he stopped it. I didn’t even bother closing the door. I was moving as fast as I could to the front of the building when a heavy hand clamped down on my shoulder.

“Just go already.”

He turned me around to face him. “Listen, Maggie’s just lookin’ for some closure, and I’m sure an explanation. She deserves that, J.”

“Sure.”

His hand went to my chin, tipping it up so he could look down into my eyes. “I’m coming home to you.”

I nodded.

“Knock it off. Quit bein’ a brat.”