THE CAB OF the van was quiet.
We had done the obligatory small talk, and it had flowed easily. Quickly becoming something more than two people forced to sit together for the next couple of days who shared people very close to them in common.
He was funny.
Really funny and down to earth. Which surprised me. In my past experiences, guys who looked like Sam were so inflated by their ego, I was sure their feet didn’t touch the ground.
But not Sam.
Sam was different than anyone I had ever met.
I was completely at ease with him. No tripping over my own words or self-consciousness about having something in my teeth or the fact I was completely makeup-less. There was something about him, about the way he looked at me, that made me feel pretty.
At ease.
Like he could see me and whatever it was he saw when he glanced in my direction as he drove, he really liked.
It had all been going great until I got a call.
From my dad.
It’d been clinical, cold, and formal. Very much like my life after my mom passed. The cab was small, and my phone volume had been up, so there was no chance Sam had missed the easy way my father had dismissed me, not even bothering to wish me safe travels or ask me to call to check in when I arrived. What was it about me that made my dad, the one person I was connected to by blood, not want me around? How could I connect easily with a complete stranger like Sam, but with my flesh and blood, nothing?
Suffice to say, it had left me quiet.
Deep in my thoughts as we drove and kept moving forward. We had coolers of snacks and drinks and were only planning on stopping at rest areas, switching drivers at every stop.
“You okay?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. Where were we?”
“Your old man always a dick?” he asked bluntly, and my lips twitched. I couldn’t help it. I liked blunt. There was no wondering where you stood around blunt people.
“Pretty much… well… from what I remember at least.”
“What does that mean?” I looked over at him. His eyes were on me. Something about the way it looked as if he actually cared had me talking more than I had ever talked about my parents. With anyone. Even with Nina.
“The guy I remember before my mom passed was nothing like who I got after she died,” I admitted, having to look away and out the windshield. “He used to laugh. A lot.” I smiled, the few memories floating through the front of my mind. “He was sweet too. He’d do things out of nowhere and for no reason for my mom and me.”
“Like what?”
“Pick up our favorite ice cream on his way home from work. Leave little notes in my lunchbox when he was having a busy week at work. Call off work, out of nowhere, cancelling his entire day, just to take us to the beach. Just because. One time…” I started to tell him, overly excited, just as he glanced back at me. His eyes made my stomach flip.
“One time?”
“Umm, right. We were sick, Mom and I. Some kind of food poisoning or something, I’m not sure. I just know we weren’t feeling good at all. Throwing up and a fever. I was, like, six or something. Anyhow, I could tell my mom was putting on a strong front for my dad, so I did the same. He had this important conference he had to travel to… he’s, umm, he’s a surgeon. Anyhow, he left like they’d planned, right?” I watched as he nodded. His eyes were on the road, but his attention was completely on me. “An hour later, he was back with all the things to make us feel better.”
“He didn’t go to his conference.”
“He was a keynote speaker who cancelled last minute,” I shared. “I remember that my mom was shocked. Like she couldn’t believe her eyes. He got us all settled in the living room. Putting a movie on for me and cuddling with us the couch. She asked him why, and I remember watching him. He shrugged and looked at her and said, ‘My girls come first.’” My nose stung at the memory I had swept to the back of my mind. “Anyhow, after she died, he… he wasn’t him after that. Then nothing at all like the man I knew when he remarried.”
“I’m sorry.” His hand left the steering wheel and grabbed a hold of mine, and my breath hitched in my throat. The feel of his strong hand in mine. The rough callouses and heat of his skin making me keenly aware of every nerve ending of my body. Just by holding my hand.
“Nothing to be sorry about. Shit happens,” I mumbled. “Anyhow, I should be the one who’s sorry.”
“For?”
“For letting it get to me. For being quiet after his call.” His fingers threaded through mine, and we held hands as he kept driving.
“Nothing to be sorry about, babe.” He looked over at me, and in a split second surrendered me, Macie Marks, completely speechless. He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it.
Just like that.
No qualms about it. He acted like it was the most natural thing to do. And I let him. I let him and didn’t let go of his hand when he rested it back down on my thigh, his hold strong and steady as he kept driving.
Just like that, something started.
Minute by minute melted away, drifting past us, and I had no idea how important he would be to my everyday way of life until it was too late.
Sam
The first day of our road trip had my dick in a vice.
I was completely hard for the girl, and she had no idea. Sure, we flirted and teased, but I could tell by the innocence that sparkled in her eyes that she had no clue of exactly how much she affected me. The thing that blew me away was the fact it wasn’t just sexual desire either. It was more than that. I liked her. A lot. In a way I hadn’t expected to feel. Ever.
Sleeping had been close to impossible. We had stopped in Pennsylvania for the night and had agreed to meet in the diner across the street.
“Morning,” she said by my ear. A bolt of lightning shot through my spine as her hands patted my shoulders before she walked around and slipped into the booth across from me. “I think they might have slept in.”
“Brandon called, asked if we could grab a couple breakfast burritos for them.”
“Of course.” She smiled, her eyes shining brightly at me.
I couldn’t help myself. Maybe it was the fact she had been swimming in my head for so long or was so close, but I needed to feel her skin against mine. Whatever it was, I reached over and took hold of her hand. Like silk. It made me wonder what the rest of her body felt like. What she would feel like under me. Over me. In front of me. I didn’t care. She was driving me insane.
Her eyes widened with surprise and something else. Something that held a lot of promise. If that wasn’t enough, the tip of her pretty pink tongue peeked out and she licked her plump little lips, leaving them shiny and me hungry for a taste.
“I, umm…” Her eyes moved to my hand and back up at me. “I wonder if… umm… that’s going to happen a lot.” Me hungry for a taste? Definitely.
“Reunited after all this time, not surprised they wanna spend as much alone time as possible. I’m pretty sure we’ll mostly be on our own on this trip.” Her cheeks pinked, and I was dying to see if other parts of her body would hold that pretty blush. Get your head on straight, Santino! I shook my thoughts and cleared my throat. “You okay with that, Captain?”
“Captain?” Her lips twitched, her focus solely on me. I was a sick son of a bitch enjoying it. I liked the way she seemed to be intrigued by me.
“Yeah, why not? You steered us in this direction.”
“Did I?” she teased. “I have a feeling you’re just giving me the title in case you get us lost.” She laughed, and I joined her, not answering.
I couldn’t.
Not when she had just made a loaded statement that made me think.
It was completely and utterly her fault I’d lost my goddamn mind. It was bad enough when she had just been some girl I had seen and approached on a whim. At that moment she had been someone I’d probably never see again.
Now she was real and in my space.
At least for the next couple of days. And most certainly in my life if I stayed friends with Brandon. Our lives were connected and made trying to get involved past friends a tricky situation. There was something about her that had my control on a thin thread. Holding her hand was evidence enough. I wasn’t the type to hold hands. I was an in-and-out, thank-you-ma’am-glad-we-had-a-good-time, I-probably-won’t-call kind of guy.
She wasn’t that kind of girl. I didn’t want her to be. That was one of my many problems.
She had no idea how lost and head over heels I was already. I didn’t have anything to offer. Not really. Not when it came to the long haul. I was playing life on a whim after having decided not to re-enlist.
I had a feeling the guy I was before I’d stepped into that apartment no longer existed.
Because he would have shat his pants, not only for thinking about the long term but about the possibility of tying himself to one woman and actually creating a life and roots.
