Page 108 of Running to You

When she opened it, some of her color had returned.

“You all right?”

A quick nod. “Can I get some gum?”

“Anything you need, sweetheart.”

A tiny smile graced her lips, gone in a moment. But it was there. Maybe she trusted Michael to protect her, but she loved Sam. She might not have said so, but he knew.

And God help him, he loved her. He’d never stopped, no matter the lies he’d told himself. Thinking of what could have happened to her today—on the street in North Conway and just now at her mother’s house…

He couldn’t lose her again. If that meant putting up with Michael, so be it.

Whatever it took to keep her safe.

* * *

After Michael checked them into connecting rooms at the airport Hilton, he disappeared into the bathroom of the smaller room with the two queen beds, leaving Sam in the attached sitting area of the king suite.

He called his client, who answered the phone with, “I’m not paying you to ignore me all day.” Ernest Topp’s voice was louder and stronger than Sam had ever heard from the eighty-something businessman. “If I wanted crappy service, I’d have gone with your competitor.”

“I’m sorry for the delay getting back to you,” Sam said. “It couldn’t be helped.”

“Why? What’s so dad gum important you blew me off all day?”

Probably not the best idea to tell him he’d been trapped in a police interrogation room when he’d first called. “Like I said in my text, I had a family emergency.”

“Thought you were a bachelor. That was your whole spiel, that you didn’t have a family to distract you.”

Yeah. That’d been Sam’s life—and lie. “How can I help?”

He listened to Ernest rail against his business’s potential buyers for ten minutes, asking questions to discover the true problem. As angry as the client was, it seemed his issue was pretty small, related not so much to the price the buyers had offered but the timeline.

“All right, I hear you,” Sam said. “I’ll contact them and straighten it out.” The client was still miffed, but Sam managed to talk him down. For now.

He didn’t want to lose this deal. But if he had to choose between money and Eliza, she’d win every time.

She returned from the bathroom, where she’d changed into cotton pajamas.

He patted the cushion beside him but spoke into the phone. “I’ll get back to you tomorrow.”

“You’d better,” the man huffed.

He ended the call. Biggest deal of his life, and he was going to blow it if he didn’t pay attention.

He kissed her on the forehead after she sat beside him. “One more minute,” he said, and typed an email to the buyers, outlining Ernest’s objections to their latest offer. He sent it, then tossed his phone on the coffee table. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. You have to work.”

He pulled her against his chest, where she cuddled as if she belonged. She did, and unlike him, she hadn’t forgotten that.

He inhaled her fresh scent and tried to push aside the memories of the night. “Good idea, calling my brother.”

“Mmm.”

She’d hardly spoken on the ride to the city.

“I’m sorry about your neighbor.”