Nantucket Romance 3-in-1 Bundle (14 page)

She wet her lips. “There was nothing you could have done.”

“I could’ve told my parents. He wasn’t fit to raise you.”

She shrugged. Truth was, she had been ashamed. Emmett told her she deserved the things he did, and after a while, she believed him.

“What else did he do?” Landon’s lips tightened, but his eyes . . . his eyes were like the gentlest of touches.

She knew what he was thinking. “Not that.” The thought of Emmett’s hands on her were enough to turn her stomach. Thank God he never touched her that way.

“He was a cruel man.”

Sam picked up her sandwich and held it, her mouth dry. “Never did see what Mom saw in him.”

“I wish he were still alive.”

Sam looked at him. Light glimmered on the surface of his eyes. Was he crying for her?

“If he were, I’d kill him.” His fist squeezed the armrest.

Something seeped into her. A kind of comfort she didn’t remember feeling before. It seeped into the deep place where she hurt, but it would take a million gallons to fill the void. Even then, she had a leak. There wasn’t enough comfort in the world to fill her up.

Landon leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I would have protected you.”

“You were only a child, same as me.” She clutched the forgotten sandwich. Landon would have done everything he could if he’d known. He was like a brother then, the big brother she never had. Even now, he’d move heaven and earth to protect her. She knew it as sure as she knew the tide would come in later.

The front door flew open, startling her. Caden entered, ducking in out of the rain. She turned and lifted her hand, then shut the door. The sound of the car’s engine had been lost in the storm.

“Hi,” Sam said. “Did you have fun?”

She whirled around. Her daughter’s eyes were red-rimmed.

“What’s wrong?” She glanced at Landon, thinking Melanie might have mentioned something on the phone, but he shook his head.

“Amber’s neighbor came over, and they left me out.” She blinked rapidly. “I wanted to come home a long time ago.”

Sam set the sandwich down. “I’m sorry, honey—”

“Miss Walker tried to bring me home, but you weren’t here.” She flung the accusation like a stone. “I had to go back there for the whole afternoon.”

Caden seemed to notice Landon for the first time, but before she said anything, she looked back at Sam. Her gaze flittered over Sam’s robe.

Sam clutched the collar.

“It wasn’t her fault,” Landon said.

Caden’s lips clamped together, and Sam knew her daughter was remembering their conversation from the night before. Fear bubbled up inside Sam like the contents of a hot cauldron. How stupid she’d been to tell her daughter about Bailey. She should have known Caden wasn’t mature enough to keep this kind of secret.

“It’s never her fault.” Caden rushed to her room and slammed the door.

Sam slumped in relief.

Seventeen

F
riday afternoon, Sam reattached the flower boxes below the windows and planted purple phlox in them. Caden had done a nice job of ignoring her since their argument a few days before. Melanie told Caden she’d been locked in the shed, but Caden still blamed Sam, and she carried her grudge like a steel shield.

Sam was hooking up the water hose when Landon pulled into his drive.

He waved. “Be right over.” Max bounded out of the Jeep and across Miss Biddle’s yard, straight to the backyard and Caden. Maybe the dog could draw her daughter out of this sulky mood.

By the time Landon came, Sam had uncoiled the garden hose and was watering the newly planted flowers.

“You been rolling in the mud today?” His tone teased.

She glanced down at her dirty shorts and mud-splattered knees and arms. Globs of mud clung to her tennis shoes. The storm had left a soggy yard, and she hadn’t put mulch down in the beds yet.

She stepped to the next flower box and let water run into the dirt. Landon’s shirt and shorts were streaked with dried gray paint. “Yeah, well, you don’t look so hot yourself,” she teased back.

“I never said you didn’t look hot, just dirty.”

Sam smiled for the first time that day, her spirits rising. Feeling playful, she turned and aimed the hose at Landon.

He jumped back. “Hey!”

Laughter bubbled up in her. She ran toward him, laughing aloud when he bolted. She was nearly out of hose when he suddenly turned and snatched it from her fingers.

He aimed the nozzle at her, ready to fire.

Sam gasped, backing away, not losing eye contact. “Don’t do it.” It was her firm-mom voice. It worked on Caden, but she realized it might not have any effect on Landon.

Landon smirked, matching her steps. “Not so fun now, is it?”

She held her hands up, palms out. A drop of water clung to his nose, and his hair stood up on end at the crown of his head. A giggle slipped. “Landon, stop it.”

“Are you laughing at me?”

She shook her head, her lips betraying her. Sam’s body shook with suppressed laughter.

A shot of icy water hit her in the belly. A squeal tore through her throat. The spray ended as soon as it began. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“You have a count of three.”

“Come on, now.” She gestured at the house. “We have work to do.”

“One.”

Behind her somewhere was a bucket that had filled with rainwater. She backed in its general direction, nearly tripping over the empty flower containers. “We have to get mulch tonight.”

“Two.” He cocked an eyebrow.

She glanced around, now a yard away from the bucket.

“Three.”

She grabbed the bucket at the same time the water hit her. Keeping her back to him, she pitched the water over her shoulder, hitting him square in the face. Laughter escaped her lips.

“You’ve had it, lady!”

Sam ran, her feet slipping in the wet grass. When she’d outrun the length of the hose, she turned.

Landon was right behind her. Before she could escape, he picked her up, tossing her over his shoulder like weightless baggage.

The world turned upside down. “Put me down, you cretin.” It was hard to laugh with his shoulder pushing into her stomach.

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” He rounded the corner of the house, nearing the spot where he’d dropped the hose.

Sam swatted him on the backside and tried to kick her feet, but he grasped her legs firmly.

“Am I interrupting something?” Sam didn’t recognize the male voice.

She tried to crane her neck but couldn’t turn far enough.

Landon bent his knees until her feet touched the ground. She righted herself, swinging her now-loose hair over her head. Then she smacked him in the gut for good measure. His stomach was as hard as a plank of wood.

“Hey, Scott.”

The man walking across her yard was a grown-up version of Landon’s friend. His buckskin-brown hair was longer, parted in the middle and tucked behind his ears. He stood a few inches shorter than Landon, and he was still trim, except for a little paunch under his tucked-in shirt. Scott was the first guy she’d dated, the first guy she’d kissed. The first guy whose heart she broke. She felt the smile sliding from her face.

“Sam.” Scott nodded his head upward. He’d ignored her ever since the night of the homecoming game. Not that she could blame him.

Sam’s belly hurt, more from laughing than anything. She caught her breath. “Hi, Scott.” She pulled the wet material of her shirt away from her body.

He tore his gaze from her. “I brought that segment on pets and poisons I taped for you,” he said, holding it out to Landon.

Landon took it, stepping slightly in front of her as if to guard her. “Thanks.”

Sam looked from one man to the other, feeling an awkward silence fall into place. Water dripped from her hair down the center of her back.

Caden tore around the corner, gathering their attention. “What’s going on?” She looked between them, no doubt noticing their wet clothing and hair. Sam realized she’d heard them playing.

“Scott, this is Sam’s daughter, Caden.” Landon looked at Caden. “This is my friend Scott.”

“She’s got a kid?” Scott asked, disbelief in the angle of his eyebrows.

Landon watched Sam disappear through the front door. Caden had trotted away with Max, pitching a stick for him to fetch.

Landon rubbed his neck. “You didn’t have to be so rude.”

“I wasn’t.”

He cared about Scott. He did. But he cared about Sam too, and he was tired of being caught in the middle. “We aren’t in high school anymore, Scott. It was a long time ago.”

His friend shoved his hands into the pockets of his Dockers. “You were looking awful cozy.”

He wanted to tell Scott to take a flying leap. So Sam had hurt him. How long would it take the man to recover?

Then again, he still hadn’t recovered from losing Sam. What was it about her that bewitched them?

Scott watched Caden walk around the side of the house.

“Must not have taken her long to get over you.”

Landon clenched his teeth and felt heat bleeding through his veins. Scott had known about Landon’s feelings for Sam back then and warned him against telling Sam how he felt. Though Scott’s words stabbed him, they only echoed his own thoughts. How could Sam have been with someone else so soon after he told her he loved her? Had she met the guy at a bar? Had it been a one-night stand? A long-term relationship? He imagined another man’s hands on her smooth skin and felt sweat break out on the back of his neck.

“Don’t do this to yourself, man.”

Landon looked at the front door of the cottage. Scott didn’t understand Sam. He only knew the pain he clung to from Sam’s betrayal. And Landon could hardly blame him for that.

Landon looked at his friend. “I can’t help it. I love her.”

Sam grabbed a dry tank top and pair of shorts from the stack on top of the dryer. After changing into them, she peeked through the front curtain and saw Scott hadn’t left. Having no desire to face the silent one-man firing squad, she sank onto the sofa.

All teenagers did dumb things, things they weren’t proud of—especially when observed through the eyes of their grown-up selves. She was no exception.

Scott had been her first boyfriend. He was quite the stud back then, with a different girl turning his head every few days. Landon reminded her of that after Scott kissed her, and she got so angry at him they didn’t speak for a week.

They’d been going out for three months—a record for Scott—when it happened. The Whalers were three quarters into whipping the Vineyarders, and Scott and Sam sat side by side in the home section of the bleachers.

The cheerleaders chanted below them, flipping their hair across their shoulders with each snap of the head. Scott’s attention darted to Elizabeth Wittington, a pretty blonde with slender legs and major cleavage.

She smiled at Scott, and Sam’s stomach knotted. He had an eye for pretty girls, but when she was alone with him, he acted like she was the only girl in the world. She’d wondered the night before as she lay in bed if she was falling in love with him.

Now the notion frightened her.

The Whalers scored another touchdown, and the bleachers shook as fans shot to their feet. The band blared out their fight song.

Two rows down, Aaron Stevenson, the varsity baseball pitcher, turned and aimed a crooked smiled at Sam. Funny how popular she’d become with the boys since she started dating Scott—as if all the guys suddenly wanted to find out what was so special about her.

Scott high-fived his buddies, then they sat down. He tucked the stadium blanket around her and smiled. “Warm enough?”

“Sure.” With all the bodies crammed around her, she was sheltered from the cold fall breeze.

The cheerleaders started another chant, and she watched Scott’s eyes slide down to Elizabeth again. The girl swung her hips in time with the words, and he watched every move. Sam’s stomach took a dive.

She hated the ache that sprang up inside. She wished she’d never started dating Scott. What if he broke up with her? The ache inside her grew, and she wrapped her arms around her stomach. Why hadn’t she listened to Landon? She’d let herself care for Scott, let herself need him, and she knew better than anyone how dangerous that was.