Winter Hopes (Seasons of Love) (26 page)

“Tracey.”

“Ah, the famous best friend. Gotcha.” He studied the photo again, then pointed to the one of Andy as a toddler. “Cute! How old was he here?”

“Twenty-one months,” Lydia answered.

“He was an adorable baby,” Sam remarked.

“Yes, he certainly was. Thank you for saying so.”

He went back to her side and smiled down at her. He stepped close and slid his arms around her waist, pulling her gently against him. “Hey. I'm in your apartment. In your bedroom. I like this.” He kissed her with tenderness and a little bit of heat.

“You know… you'll be the first man I have in this bed,” Lydia revealed, a bit shyly.

That nugget of information pleased him. A smile broke across his features. “Then I definitely intend to help you christen it properly,” he said, his voice low and seductive. Without warning, he
lifted her into his arms.

“What are you doing?!” she sputtered.

“Beginning the christening.” He grinned. He tossed her gently
onto the bed and they both laughed, then he stretched out beside her. He swept her hair back from her face as he looked down into her eyes, ran the backs of his fingers delicately along her cheek. “I'm really glad you
let me come here… into your home. I know what that means to you… for us… and I'm not taking it lightly. I just wanted you to know I get that.”

Her gaze locked with his, and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly. She reached up and pulled his face down to hers, kissing him with soft, heated intensity. He embraced her tightly, wanting her, craving more.

“I missed you,” she whispered.

“Show me how much,” he told her in a husky voice.

She reached over to the end table to turn off the small lamp, but stopped. She looked into his eyes with a hint of a dare in her
knowing grin, and brought her hand back to his face. “I guess we could leave it on,” she whispered. “I mean, if you want to…”

Wow. Thatta girl.
“Oh, honey,” he whispered back, kissing her. “I want to. I want to look at every gorgeous inch of you, all night long.”

Her eyes softened. Then she wrapped her legs around his and moved sensually beneath him, bringing his body to rest on top of and align with hers. In response, he all but lunged at her.

Beyond the small pool of lamplight, pale stripes of light
streamed
through the window. Soft bluish beams that filtered in from the lamp post outside marked the time that passed. As the sky
darkened, the angles of light changed slowly.

***

Sam and Lydia held each other close in a state of stillness and contentment, their energies spent from their passionate reunion. Sam ran his hand along her smooth back in slow, delicate strokes. Lydia curled against him, molded herself to him, and traced gentle patterns along his chest. The dark hair there was soft beneath her fingertips.

“Still awake?” he whispered after a few minutes.

“Barely,” she murmured. Her usually rich voice was even
deeper from fatigue.

“So go to sleep for a while,” he said softly. He reached with his free hand to cradle her and play with the long locks of her thick, shiny hair. “The night is ours, there's no set schedule. We can go to
dinner whenever. Sleep if you want.”

“Mmmm… maybe.” She kissed his neck. “I'm not used to having
such a non-structured evening ahead of me, being free to do
whatever I want. It feels weird.”

“Good weird?”

“Oh, yeah. But it's definitely strange… an odd feeling, like I'm off, like I forgot to do something, you know what I mean?”

Sam shifted suddenly. “Hey,
I
forgot to do something, now that
you said that.” He kissed her forehead, then gently disentangled
himself from her and got out of bed.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Be right back,” he assured her. Unabashed by his nakedness, he walked out of her room.

“Aaagh!” he exclaimed in the hallway. “Too bright out here! It buuuurns!”

She giggled at his outburst and heard him rummaging around. She barely had time to stretch all of her limbs by the time he returned. He got right back into bed, but sat up. “Here we go. Happy Birthday, Lydia.”

“Aww,” she cooed. He was holding a small, wrapped box with a tiny bow on top. She pulled herself up to a sitting position beside him.

“I can't believe I temporarily forgot your present.” He grinned. “Although I absolutely would've remembered later, at some point, of course.”

“You didn't have to get me anything,” she chided him gently. “You're
here
. And you sent me those beautiful flowers. That's more than enough.”

“Yeah, yeah.” His grin turned into a wide, teasing smile. “Shut up, and open it.”

Lydia laughed. “Okay.” She took the box and ripped delicately
at the paper. In her hands lay a gray, velvety square that opened to
reveal a pair of teardrop earrings. Tiny clusters of sparkling diamond chips dotted the top of the hanging pear-shaped stones, each one easily about a carat.

“Are these tanzanite?” she asked, staring up at him in disbelief.

“Of course,” he smiled. “Your favorite stone.”

“Sam,” she breathed. "You—this is too much.”

“No, it's not.”

Touched by his thoughtfulness, she could only shake her head at him in astonishment.

“What, you don't like them?” he asked, his eyebrows shooting up in mock alarm.

“
What?
My God, Sam, they're beautiful,” she stammered.
“Absolutely exquisite.”

“Just like you,” he murmured quietly. The corner of his mouth curved up in his signature half smile. His eyes rested on her face with patience and affection.

She shook her head at him again, but smiled in surrender and leaned in to kiss him firmly. “Thank you,” she whispered against his
lips, kissing him again. “You were too generous. And very
thoughtful. And I love them.”

“Good. You can wear them to dinner.” He kissed her once more. “Are you more hungry than tired, I hope? Because I just realized I'm starving.”

“I just got a second wind,” she smiled. “Let's go to dinner.”

IN THE HEART
of town, there were many restaurants and bars, all kinds of cuisine and varying levels of volume. Most of them were
only a ten minute walk from her apartment building. Despite the cold, they held hands as they walked to the Japanese restaurant Lydia had chosen. It had a few private booths in the back, shuttered away from the rest of the customers by decorated folding wooden screens. Lydia had reserved one for them. The table was low, almost
to the floor, and they left their shoes at the entrance to sit
comfortably on pillows.

Sam rubbed his eyes as he glanced over the menu for the third time. The words were fuzzy, almost swimming; his headache was returning. The one that kicked in by the end of the day, every day.
Annoyance rushed through him. He refused to give in to it, refused to let it ruin the pleasant evening he'd been enjoying so much.
Focusing on Lydia's beautiful face across the table, he ignored the dull throb behind his eyes and looked up gratefully when a waitress came to take their drink orders.

“Are you sure you don't want any?” Sam asked a few minutes later, offering her a taste of his heated sake.

Lydia wrinkled her nose in disdain. “No, thank you. I never liked it. Hey, more for you.”

“Alright.” He grinned and raised his small porcelain cup to her. “To your birthday. Many happy returns. Here's to a fantastic year ahead.”

“Well, it's certainly starting off beautifully.” She smiled. “Thanks to you.” She clinked her glass to his cup and took a long sip of her pomegranate martini.

“We need to thank your
sister
,” Sam said after he'd swallowed his sip of sake. “Promise me you'll do that for me.

“Well…” Lydia slowly traced the rim of her glass with a fingertip. “About that. What if I told you I've changed the plans slightly for tomorrow, and you'll have the chance to thank her
yourself?”

Sam stared at her. The slightest hint of a smile curved one side of his mouth. “Go on.”

She pressed her lips together briefly before saying, “I asked Jane if you and I could go over there for breakfast in the morning. Like,
instead of just picking up Andy and taking off, we stay to have breakfast. With all of them. Hang out a little. You up for that?”

Sam's dark eyes seemed to light up with elation. The grin broadened, unrestrained, into a radiant smile. “I am absolutely up for that.”

Lydia nodded, smiling back. “Okay then.” She took another sip
of her drink. “We have to be there at nine-thirty. Too early?”

“Nope. I'm always up early to go running, you know that,” Sam
said. “I've gotten up earlier than you every time we've been
together—you sleep in until I wake you.”

“Because I
can
,” she stressed with a smirk. “Because those are the only times I don't have a small child climbing on me at the crack of dawn to wake me up.”

“Gotcha.” Sam winked, smiled, and took a long swallow of his sake. His gaze deepened, fixed intently on her face. “So… okay. You're not only introducing me to your family, you're letting me meet Andy tomorrow. And spend a little time with him.”

Lydia nodded, gazing back at him with significance. She knew he got it.

“Wow,” Sam said, his voice deep with appreciation. “Thank you.”

She smiled lightly, but her brows furrowed. “What are you
thanking me for?”

“Trusting me,” he said. “Trusting me enough to let me meet your son, your family. For trusting in
us
. I know what that means… and it's not lost on me. I'm flattered, and I'm thrilled.”

She reached across the table and took his hand. He squeezed it gently, raised it to his lips and kissed the back of it.

“So then, what's the whole plan for tomorrow?” he asked.

“Breakfast at Jane's,” Lydia began. “We'll hang out there for a
while, but then we have to take Andy over to Matt's apartment; he
has
to be there at three. After that, we'll head back to my place, get
ready,
and go into the city for this surprise dinner you keep teasing me
about.”

Sam grinned, but looked distracted.

“What?” she asked.

“We're taking Andy to Matt's?” he asked. He seemed confused. “Have you told Matt about us? I thought you hadn't yet.”

“You're right, I haven't,” she said.

“You’re letting me meet your family, your son, but you’re not telling your ex about me yet.” Sam’s dark eyes held hers. “Can you tell me why? Just… curious.”

She sipped her drink, wondering how to phrase it. “Um… I don’t think it’s any of his business. He doesn’t need to know. It has no impact on him. So until it does, I just… I don’t know, it seems like I’m rubbing his nose in it to tell him about you. I don’t need to do
that.”

Sam nodded as he seemed to turn that over in his head. “Okay. Hey, it’s your decision. It’s not my business either, really. Whatever you want.”

“Thanks.” She brushed her hair back from her face, fidgeting. “So, I'm not going to leave you at Jane's while I take Andy over to Matt's; to get there and back will take an hour. So you can come for the ride, and while I take Andy upstairs, you can wait in the car. I'll only be five minutes. Then the rest of the day is ours.”

“Sounds good. Fine by me.”

The waitress, a petite Asian woman, opened the folded screens to bring them two bowls of steaming miso soup. After she left, Sam said to Lydia, “So tell me a little bit about Jane.”

“Jane?” Lydia asked as she reached for her deep white spoon.

“Yeah. I mean, I know she's older than you, and married to Tyler, who's a surgeon. And that she's a stay at home mom to her three kids, and that she helps you with watching Andy a lot, that's
she's been an amazing help to you.” Sam shrugged. “Those are all great things to know, but tell me about
her
. She means so much to you. I want to know, what’s she like?”

“Alright.” Lydia smiled. She watched Sam take careful sips of his soup while she tried to think of things to say. She swallowed a
mouthful of her own soup before she started. “Well, she's thinner
than me, the nasty bitch.”

Sam snorted out a laugh. “Maybe. But not prettier.”

“Aww. Actually, she is, but I won't get into that. Seriously, Jane
has a very… powerful personality. I always think of her as a powerhouse, a Wonder Woman. She's strong, funny, and very smart.
She makes me laugh, hard and often.” Now that Lydia had started, she couldn’t seem to stop. “She's quick to say what's on her mind and quick to act on it. She's one of those people who always seems like she's got it
together, even on the rare occasions that she doesn't. She's a source of light and a rock of strength for everyone who knows her. She's a go-to person, active, a giver; she does whatever she can for the
people she cares about. She doesn’t have a lazy bone in her body, or the ‘sit still’
gene. Unlike, say, me—I got enough of the ‘sit still’ genes for both of us.” She shrugged and grinned, feeling almost sheepish at her
gushing over her sister. “How's that? Enough basic information?”

Sam was studying her. “That's a pretty flattering picture you paint,” he said. "You really admire her.”

“I do. And it's all true. She's just an amazing person. I'm just lucky that she adores me and my kid. She's a tremendous ally to have in your corner.”

“You make her sound like a force of nature,” Sam remarked.

“She is. But she's very loving, very generous…” Lydia's eyes flitted down to the ring on her left hand, the “freedom ring” Jane had given her as a present when she and Matt had separated. It was
a beautiful two carat round cut tanzanite, surrounded by a swirl of diamond chips on a delicate band. Lydia smiled to herself as she remembered Jane saying, “Can't have you walking around moping every time you look at your now naked hand. So I got you a little something to cheer you up…”