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“Didn’t think I was a natural, huh?” His wry tone teased free another laugh.
“No. But it works for me. Just like the rest of you. So…that getting to you know you stuff. Tell me about your family. Parents?”
“Two. Both still alive. Wonderful, solid people. Mom’s a stockbroker. Dad’s a vet.”
“Mine are both alive too. Still together, mostly. They fight. For good reasons.” She sighed. “Mom’s a homemaker, Dad’s a lawyer. He spends
a lot of nights at the office. You know?”
A long moment passed. “With his secretary?” he asked quietly.
“I honestly don’t know. But that’s as good a guess as any other.” She pressed on. “Siblings?”
“Four brothers. You?”
“A younger brother. He doesn’t live around here. Split as soon as he hit eighteen and moved to Nashville. His plan is to become the next Kenny Chesney.”
“As good a plan as any other.”
“Guess so. Are your brothers normal?”
“What’s normal?”
“Good point.” She laughed and tucked her cheek against her pillow. Snowdrop shuffled over to curl up under her arm, already purring. “Tell me more.”
He talked at length about them, sharing stories of how the two youngest, Toby and Luke, still pulled crazy pranks every time he stopped by the house. Which was often, she gathered, since his affection for his family dripped from every word. Billy worked with him at his shop and was his best friend. He had twin girls, a wife and a mohawk, in that order. And Owen drove long-haul trucks, making his life on the road. He ran through women like newspapers and liked drinking Coke with lime.
“And he loves stupid hats.” Sam’s rich laugh flowed over her skin as if he were right there in the room. “The best is the cap with the mini keg and a straw. He fills it with Coke while he’s on the road. Doesn’t care who he meets, the hat never comes off.”
She laughed with him, drifting on his voice. On the stories. The Millers sounded like an amazing family. Tight, loving. The kind she’d always wanted and had almost given up on ever having.
But right now, in the darkness, his voice on the line gave her hope that anything was possible. He held her fate in her hands. Just like he already held a part of her she hadn’t offered to anyone else.
“Ror? You sound sleepy.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“I’ll let you go then.”
Her happy warmth began to dissipate. “No,” she said, a little too desperately. “Don’t. Just keep talking. Tell me about your childhood. Or college. Or about how you started your business.” Just don’t hang up.
“All right. I’ll tell you about all of those things.” A pause, then he murmured, “I don’t want to let you go either.”
She closed her eyes and let out a trembling breath as she squeezed Snowdrop a bit too hard. “So…how do you feel about sushi?”
“Hate it. You?”
“Me too.” She grinned in the dark. “You know, maybe I should get a beer hat.”
Chapter Eight
Dani,
It’s been so long that if you came back to me now I don’t know who we’d be anymore. Couples eventually grow to have a sort of united personality, their own footprint almost. Ours has changed. Neither of us is the same as we were. Even if we tried, even if we fought like hell to get back where we were, what if we can’t? What if love is a moment and once you step away from it, it’s gone? You can’t get it back just like you can’t rewind time. And if that’s true, then letting you go is the kindest thing I can do for you. It’s the truest love we have left.
~ Sam
If he’d expected things to get easier with Rory’s agreement to go slow, he’d been wrong.
