Winter Hopes (Seasons of Love) (3 page)

That’s very sweet
, she responded.
And honestly, same here.

Butterflies swirled in her stomach.

Good to hear. I like that
, he wrote.

She sent a smiley face icon back.

Can I call you?
Sam texted.
Now?

She pressed her lips together, the smile on her face bursting through.
Sure
, she typed. Her heart rate picked up a bit as she
waited.

Your phone is ringing…

Her land line phone rang at that moment. She took a deep breath and answered. “Hello.”

“Hi.” Sam sounded like he was smiling too. “How are you?”

“Great.” She trailed her fingers along her leg nervously, back and forth. “A little tired. I had a hell of a weekend.”

Sam laughed, a deep and warm sound. “You did, huh? So did I. Went to a friend's wedding and met this fantastic woman. Couldn’t take my eyes off her all weekend. This afternoon, she ravaged me in my hotel room, and then I had to—unwillingly, mind you—get dressed
and fly
back to Chicago with my whole family. Talk about your head spinning.”

Lydia giggled.

“It’s good to hear your voice,” Sam said earnestly. “Makes it more real. Like I didn’t dream up the whole thing, like I didn’t just imagine this incredible weekend. You're real. It happened. And I'm really happy about that.”

“That’s funny,” she murmured. “I was just thinking the same exact thing.”

ON MONDAY MORNING,
over a cup of strong black coffee, Sam Forrester sorted through the thick pile of mail on his desk with mild irritation. He’d only been away from the office for four days, and this was what he had to come back to? This, and over three hundred emails in his inbox?
Wonderful,
he thought. He exhaled in dismay,
turned away from his computer monitor, and began to split the
letters into two piles: what was vitally important, and what could wait.

Mornings like this, he missed being just another graphic
designer,
being merely part of the team, an element of the department.
Mornings like this, he wished he hadn’t been promoted to Creative Director. While there were many perks, the increased workload over the last
six months had been slightly insane. He had needed his long
weekend away more than he’d realized. His thoughts quickly went to Lydia, not that they'd strayed far from her since he'd left Connecticut, and a small smile lifted his lips.

His phone buzzed and his assistant’s friendly voice came
through
the intercom. “Sam,” Robyn said, “Alec’s on line one for you. He
said you’re not picking up your direct line.”

Sam grunted, the gauzy daydreams flying out of his mind like a
strong wind. He was still angry at his older brother. Alec had
seriously
slighted Lydia the morning after the wedding, and other than a few choice words, Sam had barely spoken to him on the return trip to Chicago.

“Thanks, Robyn, I’ll take it. Sorry he bothered you.” Sam picked up the phone and said without delay, “I should’ve known you’d be
on my back first thing this morning. But talking to you is only
slightly better than going through my mail.”

“Well hello to you too,” Alec said smoothly. “And yes, you
should’ve. You froze me out all the way home yesterday: from the hotel to the airport, even on the plane. Because Mom and Dad—and my wife and kids, who adore you—were all there, I wasn’t going to confront you, or push you into any further argument. But now, let’s just put on our big boy pants and get this over with, shall we?”

“You know why I’m pissed off,” Sam said. He leaned back to swivel his chair towards the windows and take in his impressive view of midtown Chicago from thirty floors up.

“I know, I know, I insulted your one-night stand,” Alec said in a dismissive tone.

Sam gave a hollow chuckle and shook his head. “Even now, you
just have to be a total dick. You deliberately hurt someone who
meant something to me, and you couldn't care less. And what's worse, you actually think you're justified. What’s your problem?”

“My problem is that I watched my little brother chase a newly
divorced woman all weekend,” Alec said sharply. “She hasn't been divorced for even a week! The ink's still wet on the papers, for
Christ's
sake! I don’t care how hot she was—you should have let it go the morning after you hooked up with her, instead of chasing her down
after she stood you up at the brunch. It could’ve just been a done deal right then.”

“Alec.” Sam’s tone was hard and fixed. “Just because Lydia only recently signed her divorce papers doesn't mean she still thought of
herself as truly married. She'd been alone for a long time; they were
separated for months. It doesn't happen overnight. You’re a
lawyer—you of all people should understand the particulars of that.”

Alec snorted derisively.

“And,” Sam continued, “she stood me up at the brunch because
you got to her first, when she was vulnerable, and made her feel
ashamed and embarrassed with whatever it was you said to her. Not that I know exactly what that was—she refused to tell me what you said, because apparently, she has more class than you do.”

Alec harrumphed at that. “Yes, she's a very classy lady, jumping into bed with a stranger. Spare me, Sammy, okay?”

“Wow.” Sam's voice got low and tight. “You are dangerously
close to crossing the line here, Alec. I'm warning you.”

“I'm not afraid of your wrath,” Alec said. “However, I
am
afraid of her being a head case and stalking you. Has that not occurred to you? Stirring an emotionally vulnerable woman? Who probably still has baggage and is likely a train wreck?”

“Listen to me. Listen carefully,” Sam all but snarled. “What I do, and who I do it with, is none of your goddamn business.” He felt a
muscle twitch in his jaw as he continued, “Who the hell did you think you were, degrading her the next morning like she was some
cheap whore? You purposely tried to humiliate her. It’s
not
okay. And I’m
pissed at you all over again now, because you refuse to see that. What's coming out of your mouth isn't only offensive, it's just plain
wrong. You're damn lucky you're not standing in front of me right now.”

“Your wellbeing
is
my business,” Alec said. “You’re my brother.
I look out for my family, all of my family. And that will never
change, like it or not.”

“I know that all too well,” Sam said in a dangerously low tone. “We've been here before.”

“Whoa, wait a second!” Alec cried. “I can't believe you would—that was very, very different. We are
not
going back there. Holy shit, that's not fair.”

“What you did to Lydia wasn't fair,” Sam pointed out.

“Screw that, Sam. We all know I'm going to hell for what I did with you and Chelsea, but that was a long time ago, and nothing like this thing with Lydia. One has
nothing
to do with the other. Come
on.” Alec's voice had changed. A note of desperation had entered it at the reminder of his past behavior. “Sam… please. I care about you, and I look out for you. I'm your big brother, it's part of the job
description.
I'm not going to apologize for caring about what happens to you, not ever.”

Sam sighed. Alec was stubborn, strong willed, loyal,
overbearing,
and overprotective. Sam knew that Alec was right about that, at least: he would never apologize for who he was, he would never
change. And most of the time, Sam loved him for those exact qualities.

Sam cleared his throat, collected himself. “How about we come at this from a different angle?” he suggested. “How about this: I get that you feel it’s one of your many duties in life to look out for me. I appreciate that you care about me that much—honestly, I do. But
that doesn’t give you the right to humiliate people in my name.
When you insulted her, you upset
me
. So how about something like: ‘hey, Sam, I’m sorry I made her feel like trash, and I’m sorry I upset you.’ I’d settle for that.”

Without skipping a beat, Alec recited, “Hey, Sam, I’m sorry I made her feel like trash, and I’m sorry I upset you.”

Sam laughed caustically. “You’re such an asshole.”

“Language!” Alec cried. “If your nieces and nephew could hear you now… tsk tsk.”

Sam couldn’t help but grin. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Look.” Alec’s tone turned a bit more earnest. “I’m sincerely
sorry I pissed you off. Maybe subconsciously I was… trying to scare her off,
put her off, so she’d walk away from you, since you obviously
weren’t walking away from her.”

Sam snorted softly.

“Okay, okay,” Alec said. “I admit it, maybe it wasn’t so
subconscious. When I saw her, I was hung over as hell and feeling nasty, and she
wandered into my path like a deer in the headlights. It was too
easy—I couldn’t help myself, my baser instincts kicked in. But I’m sorry now, okay? Really. I’m sorry that I upset you. Okay?”

Sam sighed again, knowing that was the best he would get. “Fine. Okay.”

“Okay. Great. So let’s just put this whole thing behind us and move on,” Alec said. “I mean, it’s not like you’re ever going to see
her again or anything.”

Sam grinned to himself as he said slowly, “Actually… I
am
going to see her again. So I guess you better work on restraining your baser instincts a little more.”

Alec was silent for a few seconds. “You’re going to see her
again?”

Sam laughed darkly. It took a lot to throw Alec for a loop, and Sam enjoyed the sound of his cocky big brother being astonished by something. “Yeah, I am. I’m going out there in two weeks to see her. We have a date. November seventh.”

“You’re flying to New York to see her?”

“That’s what I said, parrot.”

Alec was quiet. Sam could almost hear the steam coming out of his ears.

“Samuel Edward Forrester,” Alec ground out, his tone somber. “What are you doing? What the fuck are you
doing
?”

“Enjoying myself,” Sam said curtly. “Is this the part where I say for the eighty-seventh time that what I do—”

“Is none of my goddamn business, I got that,” Alec huffed. “Sam, I gotta tell ya, this really concerns me. I get that you like a good
challenge, you always have—but this can’t end well. You have to know that.”

“Why not?” Sam asked, flicking a pen back and forth between his fingers. His eyes stayed on the skyline before him.

“Because you’re her rebound,” Alec said bluntly. “Don’t you get
that? I don’t care how nice she seems, I don’t care if she’s great in bed. When you’ve pumped up her most definitely deflated ego
sufficiently, she’ll be done with you and ready to move on. I mean, if you’re just looking to get laid, fine, go for it. But if you’re looking for more than
that, which it actually sounds like you are…” Alec grunted in
frustration. “Whatever. You know what? I’m out. I’m done. You do what you gotta do. But just don’t say I didn’t warn you. Alright?”

“Alright,” Sam said. “Opinion duly noted. Now we drop it,
Counselor. Agreed?”

Alec expelled a heavy sigh. “I’ve said my piece so yeah, agreed. I’ve got my own crap to worry about, and you’re a big boy. End of discussion… for now, anyway.”

Sam gave a short, dry laugh. “I’ll take it.”

***

Lydia used her key to let herself into her sister’s house, calling out “Hellooo?” as she entered the foyer. The Aronson house was, as usual, vibrant with the sounds of young children, random footsteps, and television.

Andy spent every weekday afternoon there, from when Jane picked him up from preschool at noon to when Lydia came to get
him around three-thirty. Jane did this gladly, despite the fact that she had three children of her own. Cooper, at nine and a half, was a quiet, sweet,
and sensitive bookworm who reminded Lydia a lot of herself;
Sophie, at seven, was a carbon copy of Jane, headstrong and charismatic; and Ethan, who at four and a half was only a year older than Andy, was
a highly active, fun seeking boy who loved to run and play. He
never had Andy far behind him. Andy couldn’t speak as well as other kids his age, but he was faster than the wind, and could even outrun Sophie. He made sure he kept up with his cousins.

“We’re in the playroom!” Jane called up.

Lydia went through the large, spacious living room to the open basement door, located in the long hallway adjacent to the kitchen.
Jane and Tyler had invested a lot of money and time redoing their
vast
basement into an appealing, comfortable space: it was mostly a
playroom for the kids, with bins of toys and shelves full of books and DVDs.
Jane’s treadmill and exercise bike had their revered space in the
corner, angled towards the tremendous 60” flat screen TV. Jane was sitting on one of the three leather couches formed in a half circle in front of it, with Ethan and Andy on either side of her. They snuggled in close to her as they watched the movie
Cars
.

“Oh my God,
Cars
again?” Lydia sighed. “You poor thing.”

“I think I have every line memorized at this point,” Jane said dryly.

“Mama!” Andy jumped up when he heard his mother’s voice and ran to her.

“Hi baby,” Lydia cooed, bending down to hug her son. She kissed his cheeks and asked, “Did you have a good day? You had fun at school?”

“Yah,” Andy smiled. He hugged her once more, then went right back to the couch. This time, he didn’t snuggle back into his aunt’s side, but sat next to his cousin. Andy sat very close to Ethan, threw his tiny leg over Ethan’s, and they burrowed into each other. Jane and Lydia exchanged a look of affection, mutually delighted over how cute their boys were together.