Paige's Turn, page 17
“I don’t know what you think. How you even dated someone like her is beyond me. But I guess she makes the grade, because she doesn’t have an inheritance or family problems. Or maybe because she’s from the in-crowd. Just leave me alone, Sam.”
He looked up to the sky and back at me. He drew closer to me. “Let me take you home.”
I turned and we came face to face. “You lost that chance.”
Sam’s eyes pleaded and he started to say something, but the valet pulled up with Harris’ car.
“You ready?” Harris headed for his car and opened the passenger side door for me.
“More than ready.” I didn’t give Sam a second glance.
Harris looked warily between Sam and myself. “Everything okay?”
“It will be.” I slid into the passenger seat.
Harris shut the door.
I refused to look out the window at Sam. I think if I did, I would have cried. And did I ever need to. Humiliation swelled within me. I looked down at my red party dress. I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t tonight.
“Where do you live?” Harris gave me a sympathetic smile.
“By the waterfront, east of town off Bayside.”
“I’m sorry about tonight. Some people never grow up. What she did reflected more about her than you.”
I looked out the window at this sleepy coastal town that was slowly killing me. I held in my emotions. “Thanks.” I didn’t know what else to say.
The car ride was mostly silent, except for the directions I gave him as we neared my house.
Harris pulled up the long drive. “My mom used to call this her dream home.”
I gave him a small smile. “Thank you for driving me home.”
He reached into his suitcoat pocket and pulled out a card. “I was hoping to get to know you better. Here’s my card. It has my mobile number on it. I’m in town for the next few days. Feel free to call anytime . . . unless you get back with your boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?”
“It’s obvious you and Sam are or were in a relationship.”
I took the card and looked at his title and doctorate degree, and the fact he taught in Pennsylvania. “The only thing we’ve ever been is friends.”
“Maybe someone should tell him that.”
I didn’t bother going in the house. I headed straight for the beach, but not before stopping at my tree. I paused and looked up at the emptiness. The same feeling coursed through my soul.
I took off the ridiculous gold shoes. What was I thinking? The shoes reminded me of Maggie. I needed to call her before she came to pick me up at the stupid reunion. I couldn’t get over that picture Brianne flashed on the screen. The one of the girl who so desperately wanted to be noticed, but didn’t want to be. In some ways, I still felt the same way living here.
Maggie picked up on the first ring. “It hasn’t been two hours yet.”
“I’m home.”
“Are you crying? What happened?”
I gave her a play by play of the whole mortifying story.
“I’m coming over.”
“Not tonight. I need to be alone.”
“If that wench thinks she’s getting away with a stunt like that, she has another thing coming. I have some embarrassing photos of her from a spring break she’d rather forget. Those babies are going up on Facebook tonight.”
“Please don’t. We aren’t going to stoop to her level.”
“You aren’t, but I am.”
“Maggie.”
“You don’t mess with James sisters.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Me too. Let’s do lunch tomorrow.”
“Okay, but in Mobile, or anywhere but here.”
“What about Sam?” She asked before I could hang up.
“What about him?”
“Did you see him?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I hung up and sank into the sand, not caring that I was probably ruining the most expensive piece of clothing I had ever owned. I let the water wash over my sore feet as I dug my toes into the sand. “Mitzi, I failed.” I placed my face in my hands and let the pain and humiliation overtake me in the form of tears.
Within a few minutes, I heard someone approaching. I turned, hoping to see Jansen, not caring I was a mess. Instead, there was Sam taking off his suitcoat and loosening his tie as he approached.
“Go away.”
He didn’t listen. He plopped down next to me and took off his shoes and socks and rolled up his dress slacks. He placed his feet in the water same as me.
I ignored him.
“Why are you always trying to push me away?”
I whipped my head toward him. “Why are you here?”
He leaned in. “Because this is where you are.”
I looked out over the water. The sun was beginning to set. So beautiful, but I felt anything but that at the moment. “I don’t need your pity.”
“Good, because I don’t pity you. I admire and respect you.”
“Thanks. You can go now.”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
I pulled my knees up toward my chest and rested my head on them. I faced Sam, who looked like he was getting down to business by rolling up the sleeves to his white shirt and unbuttoning several buttons. I held my breath at the sight. He was beautiful. “Make yourself comfortable.”
He gave a low laugh. “It’s hotter than hell out here tonight.”
I hadn’t noticed. I was warm from embarrassment.
Sam turned toward me and stroked my hair, just like he had in the emergency room when the doctor was pulling slivers out of my hand. “You’re so beautiful.”
“You’re just saying that because your girlfriend humiliated me.”
“You really think I would be with someone who acted the way she did tonight?”
“You were with her.”
“A choice I deeply regret, and now so does she.”
“Why is that?”
He continued to stroke my hair. “After you left, I decided that enough wasn’t said about you.”
I raised my head slightly in alarm.
“Relax. How could I ever say anything bad about you after everything you’ve done for me and my family?”
“Well, you did think I stole money from my family.”
He leaned down and kissed my head. “I can be an idiot.”
“I won’t disagree.”
“I hope you’ll agree with what I said tonight.”
“What did you say?”
He ran the back of his hand down my wet cheek. “I said that Paige James is the most beautiful woman inside and out that I had ever met. She’s the kind of woman that takes time to visit my sick Mom and gets her to do things my dad and I never could. And that everyone should see how she makes a room full of children laugh and cheer.”
A tear rolled down my cheek and he wiped it away.
“She’s also the kind of woman that puts her heart into everything. She helps her friends and family, even if they don’t deserve it. And don’t even get me going on how smart she is, or stubborn. She doesn’t do anything for show or to impress others. She’s the kind of woman that I want to come home to every night.”
I sat up and wiped my eyes.
He ran his strong hand through my hair. “She’s the woman I’ve been trying not to fall in love with and failing epically.”
“What about my family and bank account?”
“Remember? I can be an idiot.”
I smiled.
“I’m sorry for ever comparing you to my ex-wife. You are nothing like her. No woman I’ve ever been with has ever taken the time to treat my family the way you have. To support me, the way you have. To drive me as crazy as you have.”
“I drive you crazy?”
“You had me from the moment you opened your door looking all grown up. You were no longer Blair’s little sister. I thought about you day and night.”
“You acted like you hated me.”
“I was bothered thinking the sweet girl I used to know had changed. The girl who blushed when I kissed her cheek and, for a moment, made me think of her as more than my best friend’s sister. But the more I got to know you, I realized that you had only gotten better, and I couldn’t have you. And then tonight, when you walked in, I had never seen anyone look as beautiful as you. I was kicking myself. Watching you drive off with another man killed me.”
I couldn’t believe he had remembered the kiss on the cheek, that it had affected him, even if only a little. “What are you saying?”
He leaned in closer. His warm lips lightly brushed my cheek. My body trembled at his touch. His lips moved slowly over to my ear, trailing small kisses as he went. With each kiss, my pulse increased and my breaths deepened. “I want you,” he whispered against my ear.
In a moment, everything went still. I no longer felt the water tickling my toes or even the sand beneath my bare skin. Sam encompassed my entire being. And the thought that he wanted me felt like a surreal dream. One I didn’t want to wake up from.
His lips kissed the corner of my mouth. He didn’t ask if I felt the same way. He must have known by the way my body turned toward his, or that my hands found themselves across his cheeks and up through his hair. “I don’t have much experience when it comes to kissing or relationships,” I admitted. I felt like he should know.
His fingers felt like silk as he ran them down my bare arm. It caused my back to arch and my pulse to soar. “I have a feeling it’s not going to be an issue.” His mouth covered mine. At first his kiss was gentle. He took his time to savor the taste of my lips. But as soon as he parted my lips, his kiss took on an urgency I had never felt before. Desire enveloped me. I pulled him against my body and I found myself pressed between the sand and him. A fire had been lit between our tangled bodies. I let the heat consume me minute upon minute.
He was the one to pull away. He lay down in the sand next to me. His breath was ragged and sweat rolled down his face. I rested my head on his chest, against his damp skin exposed from his unbuttoned shirt. The sound of his wildly beating heart matched mine.
With my finger I lightly traced circles on his chest. “Was that okay?”
He wrapped his arms around me and a laugh rumbled through his chest. “I think we better keep practicing.”
I smacked his chest. “Thanks a lot.”
“Paige, I’ve never had a harder time pulling myself away from someone.”
I snuggled in closer to him even though the night was steamy in more ways than one. “Are you really falling in love with me?”
“More and more each day.”
“Did you really say all those things in front of everyone tonight?”
His hand glided down my back. “Yes, ma’am.”
“What did Brianne do?”
“Didn’t I tell you? She had already left. Your classmates weren’t all that impressed with her stunt. They roasted her on the stake, figuratively speaking.” I could hear the smile in his voice.
“Will you think I’m horrible if I say how happy that makes me?”
“I could never think poorly of you.”
I settled against him and let the night’s events sink in. The pain and humiliation vanished under the protection of his touch. It was as if I had finally come home, but not to any home I had ever known existed before. I finally understood what Mitzi meant about taking my turn. And with those thoughts, I drifted off to sleep in Sam’s arms.
I woke up in those arms, but found that Sam had placed his suit coat over me as I slept. I didn’t remember that, but I do remember that neither of us wanted to say goodnight, and the kisses that we shared deep in the middle of the night. My body ached for more. What I craved even more was sharing my thoughts with him. I remembered the conversation we had after some of those midnight kisses. We talked about my aunt and my dad. He had a hunch those were who the initials belonged to. It made sense to him, knowing my family’s history. There was no judgment in his words, only words of reassurance. His only concern was how it affected me. I had never had a friend like him before, where I felt so vulnerable and open.
My lips skimmed his bare chest, waking him up. He pulled me tighter against him.
“Good morning, Princess.”
Light was barely peeking over the horizon. The cry of seagulls sounded faint above the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.
“Good morning.” Best morning I had ever had.
“How did you sleep?”
I sighed. “You make the perfect pillow. Did you sleep okay?”
“Never better. Are you hungry?”
I stretched and yawned against him. “You know me well.”
“Mabel Lu’s should be open any minute now.”
“Don’t you think we should change and clean up first?”
“No.”
I propped myself up against his chest and looked into his smiling eyes. “You know what people will think if we show up in our clothes from last night.”
He brushed his hands through my hair. “Exactly what I want them to. I want everyone to know you’re mine.”
“I love the sound of that.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Maggie, why are we going to look at another house? And in Pensacola? I thought we decided on the one near Mobile Bay. It’s perfect, or at least it will be once we close and you get your hands on it. I really need to get back to the bookstore. Sam’s almost done with the renovations and I can’t wait to start setting up the media center.”
“You just can’t wait to see Sam.”
“There’s that.” I glanced at her from the driver’s seat and gave her a quick smile.
“You two should call it good and get married already.”
“We’ve only been dating for two months.”
“And you’re inseparable.”
“Have you met him?”
“All the women in Bella Port are jealous, believe me. Brianne included, even though she skipped town.”
“I wonder why?” I gloated.
Maggie laughed. “You do have an evil side.”
“Only when it comes to her.”
“Her scheming ways backfired.”
“I should thank her. Business has never been so good. That sympathy factor has paid off, or maybe it’s the commiseration. I’m not the only person she has tried to hurt over the years.”
“I’m sorry I was ever friends with someone like her. I’m sorry for a lot of things.”
I squeezed her hand. “Me, too. But I’m happy I moved back and discovered the sister I never knew.”
She gave my hand an extra squeeze. “And Sam.”
“Yeah, him too.”
Laughter rang in the car.
We drove the half hour to Pensacola and looked at the shambles of a two-story home. It was beyond the fixing up stage. What it needed was a bulldozer. I was afraid to walk in it for fear we would fall through the floor. The smell coming from the place was nauseating. I looked at Maggie several times and shook my head no as the realtor tried to sell us on the foreclosed property.
Maggie though took her time and walked through every space of the house. It was surprising. Maybe she saw something I didn’t, but if she wanted this place, she was going to have a tough time selling me on it.
I felt like I needed to shower after we got done walking through the house.
Maggie talked shop with the realtor as I used fifty sanitizing wipes on my hands and any other exposed areas of skin. Maggie was all smiles when she finally got in the car. “Let’s stop for smoothies. I’m starved.”
I looked at the time. It was already a quarter to six. “Okay.” I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to wait to see Sam and the bookstore.
She gave me an impish grin.
“What was that for?”
“Nothing at all.”
I didn’t believe a word she said. Something was up.
I made us go through the drive through for the smoothies and Maggie laughed at me. She was also texting incessantly all the way back to Bella Port.
“What’s up?”
She didn’t even look up from her phone. “Nothing. It’s just Darrell. He misses me.”
That was sweet.
We finally made it back to Bella Port around six thirty.
“You should park up front,” Maggie suggested.
“Why? Employee parking is in the back.”
“Isn’t Sam’s truck and equipment back there?” Her eyes were fixed outside the car.
“Probably, but there still should be room for my car.”
“Can you just park up front?” she got a little snippy.
“If it means that much to you, sure.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m just grumpy. This round of hormones they have me on is making me a shrew.”
I gave her a pass. I knew how much she and Darrell wanted to get pregnant. I patted her knee. “It’s going to happen.”
She nodded.
I pulled into one of the parallel parking spots in front of the store.
Maggie looped her arm through mine as we walked toward the store front. She was back to being happy. We walked into the store together and with the jangle of the bell rang shouts of “Surprise!”
I jumped when I realized my store was full of people smiling at me, including my dad, Mabel Lu, the McClain clan, Josie, Adam, Darrell, and of course, Sam.
“What’s all this?” I turned to Maggie.
“You’ll see.” She ran off to be with Darrell.
Sam was to me in seconds. He wrapped me up in his arms and kissed me once before spinning me around. He was all smiles when he set me down.
“It’s not my birthday. Am I missing something?”
He took my hand and pulled me back toward the new teen and YA section. Everyone parted and followed us back. “The school district and I thought you deserved some attention for the services you are going to be offering their students. And since I know how you don’t like the spotlight, we decided to surprise you. Several people came in today to help me finish up and get your media center up and running.”
I looked around, stunned. The area gleamed with new technology and brightly colored furniture. The new bookshelves were full of books and the renovations were perfect, better than the drawings. I threw myself against Sam and hugged him with all I had. “Thank you.”
