He looked up at his mother, feeling like a naughty child about to be scolded.
“I could kill that girl for what she did to you. Jenna should have ended things way before you two got to the altar.” Ella shook her head. “And afterward, I never could figure out how to make you see there was something wrong with her and not you.”
He lifted his gaze toward the afternoon sun. “You know, I wish I’d gotten over myself sooner, but there was no reason. No one who affected me enough to make me want to stop—”
“Feeling sorry for yourself?” his mother asked with a gentle laugh.
His face heated with embarrassment, but she was right. “I can’t change the past, but I want to convince Nicole for the future. But she wasn’t raised by warm, loving parents. She doesn’t have reasons to trust or believe what I say.” He shrugged. “And I took so long to come around, I don’t blame her.”
His mother pulled him into a quick hug. “Gone are the days when milk and cookies hold all the answers.”
Sam laughed. “I figured maybe you’d have some words of wisdom.”
“I’m thinking you might not need any,” she said as a white Mercedes pulled up to the curb.
Nicole’s white Mercedes. He knew she’d gotten the car back from the repair shop, having followed up without telling her.
At the sight, Sam’s breath caught in his throat.
“Something tells me she’s not here to see me.” Ella rose to her feet, and Sam did the same. “I’m going to make myself scarce,” his mother said.
Waving to Nicole as she climbed out of the car, Ella walked down the bluestone path to enter the house through the open garage. When she worked on her flowers, she used the mudroom entrance so she didn’t track dirt inside.
Hands in his shorts pockets, heart pounding, Sam walked to the driveway, waiting for Nicole near his car.
She strode up to him, wearing a white skirt and soft yellow tank. He itched to hold her, to take her in his arms and feel her soft curves against him and know all was right in his world again.
He didn’t know what she was doing here, and he didn’t want to spook her by pushing too fast. Her skin was pale from the hours spent inside working; her eyes were wary. He hated that look, never wanted her to feel unsure with him.
“Hi,” she said softly.
“Hi.”
She bit down on her lower lip, her uncertainty showing. “You’re a hard man to track down.”
“Not if you know where to look. And obviously you did.” He grinned, liking that she’d known how to locate him.
“Your house, the police station, Joe’s . . . this was my final stop.”
“Well, now that you found me, what can I do for you?”
She drew a deep breath, blowing it out again before beginning. “I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I realize I wasn’t fair to you. You stood by me, you told me you loved me, and I turned my back on you.” Her eyes were bright and glassy, self-recrimination obvious in her expression.
“Nic—”
She shook her head. “I need to say these things and you need to let me. Please.”
He nodded, hurting for her. “Go on.”
“You never gave me mixed signals. You weren’t ready for a relationship and I knew that. I was the one who changed the rules midway through. I realized I couldn’t have sex without getting emotionally involved with you. I . . . I fell in love. And even when I told you, I didn’t expect you to say it back. Of course I wished you had.” An embarrassed smile pulled at her lips.
He was dying to end this speech with a kiss, but she needed to have her say.
“And when you finally did, I pushed you away because I was so embarrassed by the things you heard my parents say. My father was bad enough, he was cold and aloof, but my mother? She belittled me and trashed me until all I could think about was, why would you want me after hearing all that?”
His fingers curled into tight fists as he fought with himself to give her the space she’d asked for to say her piece, but he lost the battle and stepped close, pulling her hard against him. “You don’t need to explain.”
She relaxed, her soft curves molding and curling against him until she was in his arms where she belonged.