Michael asked, “Are you okay?”
“Better than okay,” she told them. “Stellar, in fact.”
He chuckled. “Glad to hear it.”
“I had every right to be jealous of Jewel and Bayli,” she said. “What a gold mine I tapped into.”
Sam lightly bit her bottom lip. “Michael and I are also fortunate. You’re amazing. Sexy and seductive.”
“Smart,” Michael added.
“Wow. I must have done something right by the universe to warrant all this praise,” she quietly joked.
Sam kissed her again.
Eventually, Michael withdrew from her and ducked into the bathroom. She and Sam followed suit. Then they all crawled between the sheets with Scarlet happily nestled in the middle. She spooned Sam. Michael spooned her. It was bliss.
And a fantastic night’s sleep.
In the morning, Sam and Michael were flipping through the newspaper at the kitchen table while Scarlet got ready in the bathroom.
Michael sipped his coffee, then said, “That was a hell of an evening.”
Sam nodded. “I didn’t think we’d have another one like that after Misty and Pembroke. I met Cass and the two of you didn’t spark. And the past several years, neither one of us has met a woman we wanted to introduce to the other.”
“Then Scarlet stalked me.” Michael grinned. “I took one look at her and had to have her. I was pretty damn sure you’d feel the same.”
Sam set aside the sports section and said, “I didn’t want to, admittedly.”
“Yeah, I figured as muc
h. There’s no replacing Cassidy. You know I feel like hell over what happened to her—to you.”
“I appreciate that.”
“And it’s understandable that you haven’t connected with anyone else on that level. Or remotely close to that level. But now…” Michael sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. “It’s different with Scarlet, isn’t it? You’re really feeling something for her.”
“You’re not?” Sam coyly countered.
“That’s complicated.”
One corner of Sam’s mouth jerked up. “Indeed. Very unexpected and yet totally undeniable.”
They stared at each other across the table. Several moments ticked by. Michael wanted to say that he could control his involvement with Scarlet. That he could keep it all contained, compartmentalized, whatever, so that he didn’t get attached. So that she didn’t get attached to him.
He had a shitload of work on his plate. This new department store project—especially with the restaurant concept he had in mind—was pretty much an all-consuming venture. He’d wanted this for a long, long time and couldn’t afford to get sidetracked. Not from a momentum standpoint or a distraction one. Literally and figuratively. He wouldn’t blow his budget further out of the water or drop the ball.
But it would be an outright lie to say he wasn’t interested in pursuing more with Scarlet, even if he only admitted it to himself.
And something told him Sam shared his interest.
No, it was more than that. From the moment Sam had arrived at the estate, Michael had seen on his stepbrother’s face and in his eyes that he was already hooked on Scarlet.
Michael also comprehended the natural conflict with that attraction. Sam didn’t want to want anyone as much as he had Cassidy. That was easy for Michael to discern. He’d spent significant time with Sam after the accident. Michael was the only one he’d fully confided in. The only one he’d broken down in front of. The only one he’d told that he could never forgive himself for not keeping his fiancée and his unborn child safe. Had not protected them.
It had torn Michael up to see his usually strong, grounded stepbrother fall apart, even if only in private. Michael could accept the situation for what it was—not Sam’s fault, yet still a difficult scenario to reconcile in one’s mind. Sam had considered himself weak when he’d grieved. Michael had tried to convince him that wasn’t the case. Michael related to his pain to some degree, having lost someone he’d loved as well. At the heart of it all, Michael wished that Sam didn’t have to suffer. But of course Michael had as much control over that as Sam had had when the drunken asshole ran the red light. Absolutely none.
Yet there was a little something Michael could offer to ease some of his stepbrother’s turmoil.