Page 289 of A Matter of Time

“This is fast, Sam, you know it is. I mean, I just saw you Sunday, now it’s Thursday night, and—” His phone rang, cutting me off. He ignored it, intent on me. I couldn’t. “You better get that.”

He answered while I looked out the window, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I was split right down the middle. Half of me wanted to throw caution to the wind and beg him to move in with me; the other half wanted to run away as fast as I could. I was terrified to lose him and terrified of getting hurt again. When he cleared his throat, I looked back at him. The crooked grin made me smile.

“What?”

“Well, this oughta be the clincher,” he muttered.

“What? Tell me.”

“That was my mom calling to remind me that I’m already late for dinner.”

“Dinner? Don’t you guys usually do the Sunday thing?”

“Yeah, but Mike’s girlfriend is a stewardess⁠—”

“Flight attendant,” I corrected him.

“Whatever, Mr. Politically Correct,” he grumbled. “I’m just telling you that his girl flies, like, every Sunday, so the only time to catch her is in the middle of the week. My mom wants everybody to meet her, so…we got Thursday night dinner at the Kages’.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t sound so excited.”

“No, I didn’t mean anything.” I moved to get out of the SUV. “I’ll let you go, and maybe after, if you want, you can pick⁠—”

“Hey,” he said softly, taking hold of my arm, leaning close enough so he could put his hand on my face. “I’m not going without you.”

“Oh no, Sam, you⁠—”

“Listen, I know you’re scared to go over there, because what the fuck does that mean, right? I mean, me being here is one thing, but my whole fuckin’ family? It’s too fast, and you’re starting to panic. I would too.”

“No,” I lied, even though he had hit the nail on the head. “I just think⁠—”

He tilted my chin up and looked down into my eyes. “But you know, it’s fast because it’s right. And make no mistake, I need you to go with me.”

“Can I ask you a question off topic?”

“Sure.”

“What’s with all the swearing I noticed you’ve been doing?”

“I always swear.”

I squinted at him.

“Yeah, all right. It might be two years with other cops undercover in shitholes too.”

“Speaking of; you never told me, did you get the bad guy?”

He looked at me like I was insane.

“Well, I don’t know.”

“Of course I got the bad guy, or in this case, Roman’s father. He’s in jail and their drug empire was dismantled, but of course, since nature abhors a vacuum, there’s a new guy now, Lenkov, so not much changed.”

“I refuse to believe that you left me for nothing.”

“I left to make sure you were safe from him, and you are, love. He also knows who killed his son and who had nothing to do with it at all.”