Page 66 of Theirs to Treasure

She turned her head away from him. He let it go for the moment, focused instead on lifting her up along with the comforter, and taking her to the living room.

“I can walk, you know.”

“I know. I just like holding you.” He placed her gently on the sofa.

“Where’s Chance?”

“He’s feeling a bit under the weather.”

“Oh, no! Did he catch the flu?” she worried.

“No, it was a totally man-made illness. He drank too much, and passed out,” Sam explained. He grabbed the afghan off the back of the couch, wrapped it around her, too, then handed her the remote control to the television.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she said, trying to hand back the remote. “You need to explain why Chance drank himself into a stupor.” Josie gave Sam a hard look.

“If you really want to talk, Baby, then it is going to go both ways. You’re going to have to explain exactly what happened in Florida. I’ll want to know who said what. Are you really up for having that conversation now?” he challenged.

Josie looked down at the remote control, which suddenly seemed to have a lot more appeal.

“That’s what I thought. Why don’t you and I just sit here and cuddle tonight, and save all the heavy stuff for tomorrow?”

“That sounds really good, Sam. Thank you.” She curled into his warm arms and they spent the night not paying attention to the television.

* * *

The next morning, Chance found them asleep on the couch. He called Elise and told her that Josie was sick and not coming into the bakery. He then went into the kitchen and made some oatmeal and toast for Josie, and bacon and eggs for him and Sam. Sam must have smelled the food or the coffee because he shuffled into the kitchen.

“How’s Josie doing?” Chance asked.

“Her fever was down to a hundred last night. We’ll need to take it again this morning.”

“Did you guys talk about her trip?”

“No, she wasn’t up for it, and I didn’t push. We just vegged out in front of the TV.” Sam reached for a plate and started serving himself.

“Is she awake?”

“Nope, she’s still out cold. I thought you would be, too,” Sam said dryly. “Let’s just eat, then we can wake her up, take her temp, and see if she’s up for solid food. Eat up.” Sam motioned to the food that Chance had prepared.

Chance made a plate and sat down at the island. “You don’t seem worse for the wear,” Sam finally said.

“I got up in the middle of the night and took some aspirin and drank a lot of water. I think all the booze helped to clear my head.”

“Jesus, Chance, you are the only person in the world who would say getting shitfaced cleared their mind.” Sam shook his head at his friend.

“What can I say? I’m a breed of my own.” Chance put down his fork and finished his orange juice, then lowered his voice. “Even if Josie caught some grief from her sisters, we could still work past that.”

“How do you figure that?” Sam asked.

“We win them over. They’re planning on coming to visit in three weeks for spring break. We make sure that they meet every permanent triad relationship in town, and we woo them with our charm. If that doesn’t work, we take out our big guns.” Sam raised his eyebrow. “We sic Betty on them.”

The knot of fear that had started in his stomach yesterday afternoon when Josie started crying, the one that had grown exponentially with every shot Chance had drunk, was now beginning to unravel. Sam hadn’t realized how much he depended on his brother to come up with an idea, but that was his role. Chance came up with the plans, and Sam executed and enforced them. That’s how it had been all their lives. Chance had an idea now, and it had potential.

Sam smiled. “Okay, let’s go wake up our girl, and find out what we’re up against.”

Chapter 26

Josie luxuriated in the feel of her hair being stroked. She couldn’t imagine a better way to wake up, until she felt big, warm hands massaging the arch of her foot. She thrust into the magical fingers pushing into the bottom of her foot. Sam, she thought to herself, recognizing his touch, and the way her hair was being brushed back from her face, she knew those hands belonged to Chance. She was having a tough time remembering how they’d gotten into her apartment, but when they were making her feel so good, who really cared?