Nantucket Romance 3-in-1 Bundle (8 page)

They spent the afternoon putting another coat of paint on the house, and by suppertime,
she wanted nothing more than a soft bed. Though Landon invited them over, she turned him down, only to receive a pout from Caden. Landon seemed to have won her daughter over quickly enough, and Sam wondered if Caden was starved for male attention. Would spending time with Landon be good for Caden, or would it only hurt her when they left the island?

That night Sam lay awake, the night sounds seeping through the walls. Beside her, Caden softly snored, and Sam envied her peace. She’d lain in this bed a thousand times staring up at the dark ceiling, feeling so alone she had to pinch herself to make sure she was here at all. She remembered the first time she experienced that feeling.

It was the morning her mom left, after Sam watched the ripples from her boat wash to shore. She walked barefoot back up the pier and through the damp grass, then curled up in the chair. The chill from the early morning air pebbled her skin, but she didn’t move.

Time stood still.

It was barely light when Emmett hollered her name from the back porch, the sound of it echoing across the bay.

“I’m here.”

Sam heard his steps across the grass. “Where’s your mom?” He jabbed the words at her.

She stared down the pier, knowing what she’d feared was true.

“Where’s your mom?” He grabbed her arm and squeezed, but she didn’t feel it.

“She left.”

He held her there, staring her down, his bushy brows becoming one. Then he let go. “Her things are gone. Everything.”

A hard lump grew in her throat, but she stuffed it down.

“Except you.” He laughed, but it wasn’t pleasant. “Leave it to her to take everything but you.”

Moments later, she heard the car’s engine and wondered if he would come back. She laid her head against the hard wood. More time passed.

Sam didn’t hear Landon until he slid into the other chair. She was surprised to see that dawn had morphed into daylight and the sun, peeking over the horizon, had burned off the fog.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

She stared out at the sea, watching the shadows play on the surface. “Nothing.”

“Why are you still in your pajamas?”

She looked down. Her long T-shirt hung to midthigh, and she pulled the hem down, feeling the coldness of her legs through the material.

“I don’t know,” she said. Numbness flowed through her veins. She wondered if that was why she didn’t feel cold.

“You should go inside and get dressed. You’re cold.”

She could feel him staring at her and heard the concern in his voice. He always noticed things other boys didn’t.

“My mom left.” She remembered what her mom had told Emmett the night before, about not having any plans for the day. Had she even told Sam good night? What was the last thing her mom had said to her?

“Where’d she go?”

Beyond the bay, a sailboat rode the waves, its sails billowing in the wind. “Away.”

An eastern phoebe called out from the tree limbs above her, nearly swallowing Landon’s reply.

“Is she coming back?”

Sam’s lips were stiff, like they hadn’t moved in weeks. “I don’t think so.” She didn’t know if Emmett was coming back either. As much as she feared him, she feared being alone more, but she didn’t tell Landon that.

Emmett did come back, much later, his clothes reeking of beer, his lips loosened by excess. “
Don’t ever let yourself love, Sam,”
he’d slurred. “
Just soon as you do, they leave you. It’s the one thing in life
you can count on. Love never brings anything but pain.”

Later, she weighed his words against her own experience. She had only loved three people—her mom, her dad, and Landon. Two of them had left. What Emmett said held more than a grain of truth, and she wondered for the first time if Landon would leave her too.

Now, she looked at Caden lying beside her, the moonlight washing over her hair, and it hit her fresh that her daughter was nearly the same age she’d been when her mom ran off. So young, a tender age that carries enough of its own problems. She imagined trying to leave Caden and couldn’t. What kind of selfishness brings a parent to abandon a child and never look back?

Sam’s eyes burned. A stone hardened in her throat, and she pushed it down, just as she had all those years ago. She turned on her side and reminded herself the past couldn’t hurt her anymore. But Emmett’s words chanted at her through the night.
Don’t ever let
yourself love anyone. Don’t ever let yourself love anyone. Don’t ever let
yourself love anyone . . .

Eight

L
andon fell into a new pattern the next week. Instead of savoring his work, he waited impatiently for the last appointment of the day, after which he could go help Sam. At first, she’d been resistant, but as time wore on, she loosened up. Their friendship was finding its footing again.

Thursday, as he walked toward her house, she smiled, and he felt like he’d won the lottery. Sam turned off the mower when he entered the yard.

“You should have waited,” he said. “I would’ve done that for you.”

She wiped her hands on her khaki shorts, and he followed the long line of her legs before meeting her eyes again.

“I like mowing.”

Caden ran up then, her hair hanging in wet strings alongside her face. With her brown eyes and button nose, she was a miniature of Sam, and something caught in his gut.

“Can we go now, Mom? Can Landon and Max come?” Caden asked.

“I have to finish the yard first.” Sam looked at him. “We’re taking some food up to Brant Point.” Sam lifted a shoulder. “You’re welcome to come along.”

“A picnic on the beach,” Caden added. “Can you come?”

“It’s about time you took a break,” he said to Sam. “I can finish the yard if you want to grab a shower.”

She quirked a brow, and he quickly added, “Not that you need one.”

To his surprise, Sam agreed to the help. By the time he finished mowing, Sam and Caden had packed a bag of food and changed into bathing suits. They all piled into his Jeep, along with Max, and headed the few miles to Brant Point, where they spread a blanket on the sand. He’d been wanting to ask Sam on a date all week. He’d tried at least a dozen times, but when he opened his mouth, the words stuck in his throat. Dating would change the dynamics of their relationship. He was ready for that, but was Sam?

The sunbathers had left for the day, and the trio had the beach to themselves. After they ate, Landon showed Caden a few of Max’s tricks, and she rewarded the dog with chunks of bread. When Max ran to the water, Caden peeled off her shorts, put on a fluorescent orange swimming cap, then followed Max toward the water.

“Don’t go out too far,” Sam called. She lifted her hand to shade her eyes from the sun and said to Landon, “I told her about riptides, but you know how kids are. They think they’re immune to danger.”

They watched Caden plunge into the cool water.

“Is she a good swimmer?” he asked.

Sam nodded. “Our last apartment had a pool. It wasn’t much more than a cement hole in the ground, but she loved it. Used to turn flips off the side and scare me to death.”

“I haven’t seen her flip-flopping down the pier yet.”

“Give her time.” The wind blew a strand of hair across Sam’s face,
and it caught between her lips. She tucked it behind her ear. He hadn’t seen her hair down since she’d come back, and he found himself wanting to draw his fingers through the length of it.

Caden followed Max into the shallow water, where Max shook, splattering the girl.

Unlike Sam, Caden was small-boned and pixie-faced, but she seemed mature for being so young. “She seems like a good kid.”

He saw rather than heard Sam sigh. “She is. Lately she’s been kind of snippy. I think she’s going through some adolescent stuff.”

“She’s awfully young for that, isn’t she? What is she, nine or ten?”

Sam stilled. The wind ruffled the corner of the blanket, and Landon stretched his legs, holding it down.

“She’s eleven.”

He looked at Sam, then at Caden. Eleven. He did the math and felt his gut clench. If Caden was eleven, Sam had gotten pregnant right before she left the island or shortly after. Either before he told Sam he loved her or after, depending on when Caden’s birthday was. He didn’t want to know. Had she been pregnant the last time he’d seen her, at Bailey’s funeral?

He could still see her beside his brother’s grave site. She hadn’t looked like herself. She wore her hair down, and it was the only time he’d seen her in a dress other than at the prom. She stood beside him, and when he took her hand, it was steely cold despite the August heat. She was a sickly shade of white. He wished he didn’t have to leave for college the next day, but he’d already delayed his departure for the funeral. His parents wouldn’t hear of him missing the first days of college.

All this time, he thought Bailey’s death had somehow shaken Sam and made her leave the island. Now he wondered if it was the pregnancy.

She hadn’t even let him kiss her, yet she’d slept with someone else that summer. Someone who hadn’t loved her like he had, someone without the guts to stick around and help raise his daughter.

He felt her rejection all over again. Surely Sam hadn’t been in love with someone else that summer. He’d have known it. But the alternative hardly made him feel better.

Sam leaned back on her hands, her chin raised, her face set. She was an enigma. She’d been his soul mate, a mystery to the rest of the world, and yet he always had his finger on her heart’s pulse. But that last summer, everything had changed. Was it his words of love or Bailey’s death or her pregnancy? He wasn’t sure what had taken Sam away from him, but as he looked at her now, vulnerable even with her false pride, he realized he wanted her back enough to risk everything.

Sam watched Caden play in the water but didn’t see a thing. Beside her, she could feel the realization sinking into Landon. Though she sat still as the lighthouse behind them, her heart hammered.

She was about to jump up and go for a swim when he spoke. “I’m sure Caden will come around. She seems well adjusted.”

He was letting Sam off the hook, and they both knew it. She leaned back on her elbows and crossed her legs at the ankles. He would ask who Caden’s father was eventually, but she was relieved to let it slide for the moment.

They talked about a lot of nothing and chuckled about the old times. She dipped in just enough to wet her legs, but the chill in the water kept her from wading in any farther. Caden begged Landon to come into the water, but he hadn’t worn his trunks. Sam wondered why he didn’t wade in as she did. When they were kids, he’d been in the water constantly.

Sam lay on the blanket until the warm air dried her skin. The sun had set by the time Caden came toward them, shivering, and she realized they hadn’t brought a towel. They packed up, and Sam shook the sand from their blanket and wrapped it around Caden. Landon drove them home and parked in his drive, then walked them back to their house, carrying the cooler.

Max ran ahead with Caden, who left him on the porch in favor of a warm bath. By the time she and Landon reached the door, Max was lying down, his head resting on his paws.

“Caden wore him out,” Landon said, setting the cooler down.

“I think the feeling’s mutual.” She opened the door and set the sack inside. In the background, she heard water running into the tub. She turned.

Landon was closer than she realized. The lamplight from the living room washed over his face. He had bits of sand in his hair, and before she could reason with herself, she ruffled his hair, letting the grains fall to the floor. The strands were soft against her fingers, and she imagined them trailing down several inches, touching the roughness of his jawline.

He stilled, and she slowly drew her hand away. His eyes darkened as they homed in on hers.

“I had a nice time tonight,” he said.

They were date words, but she didn’t mind. Mainly because she didn’t have a straight thought in her head. His eyes always told her so much, and now they were saying things she hadn’t heard in so long. Things her barren soul soaked up like a withered plant.

“Me too.”