Page 17 of Theirs to Treasure

“That’s not like them, Josie. I would think that they’d have been sure to be here when you arrived.” He looked down to make sure her coat was inside the car.

“Oh, well, I arrived a week earlier than expected, and Chance said they were at Lake Chelan on a trip that they’d planned. Luckily, he was at their house to meet me.”

“That was very lucky. Chance is always lucky like that.” Sam bent down and kissed her cheek, knowing that anything more would send her running. He wondered just how many kisses Chance had stolen.

Apparently, his friend had been on this hunt for a lot longer than Sam. Now it was his turn to be lucky, because Chance was in Boston for another day and a half, and Sam planned to make the most of the time.

He watched as Josie drove away and immediately called Betty’s cell. When he got the welcome he expected, she said she could whip up some dinner. Sam immediately said no, saying he would be bringing some takeout from the Italian restaurant in town. He was already putting her out enough. He made the call for the takeout order as he went back to his house to shower and change.

When he got to his house, he called Josie and said that Betty and Butch would be ready at four-thirty, so instead of being over in a half hour, he would be over in an hour. She sounded relieved at having the extra time. He was relieved to have just a little more time to think things through. There was more afoot than just Chance trying to woo Josie, but that was definitely a big part of the plan.

He headed for the shower, and when he was under the water’s spray, things started to make sense. He remembered Chance tempting Betty with the resort stay in Chelan, so Chance clearly had designs on some alone time with Josie when she first moved to town. The big question was why Chance, or Betty, hadn’t mentioned Josie by name in the last four to six months? Why hadn’t Chance talked about this woman that he was planning on romancing?

Maybe Sam was reading too much into Chance’s omission. For God’s sake, the man had basically been his nursemaid on and off, up until four months ago. Sam winced, thinking about the other day. True, he’d experienced a couple of recent relapses that required Chance’s continued care. He wanted to handle things on his own, but he wasn’t doing such a great job.

As he toweled off and got dressed, Sam started to reflect on other things as well. Maybe Chance didn’t think of him anymore like the friend he’d once been. Maybe his friend saw him as someone he had to take care of, instead of as an equal. Was it possible that was why Chance hadn’t told him about Josie? Sam winced when he really looked at how selfish he’d been in dealing with Chance. He’d been so wrapped up in his own pain, and so resentful of Chance trying to drag him out of his depression, that he hadn’t realized the burden he had become.

He had his disability benefits, and he had money in the bank. Hell, he had a lot of money in the bank, thanks to the investments that, once again, Chance had made for him. He didn’t need to stick around. But as Chance had said on numerous occasions, if their situations were reversed, he knew that Sam would be there for him. They were brothers. The asshole was right, too.

Sam sighed as he got dressed. Staying here kept him close to his doctors. He was close to Betty and Butch, and he was making progress.

I need to quit my whining!

Sam laughed. He thought about the shit life Chance had been living before moving to Fate Harbor—he’d been working practically twenty-four hours a day, smoking like a fiend and heading for a heart-attack before he was thirty-five. According to Betty, having to play nursemaid to Sam was saving Chance’s life.

As he shaved and viewed his scar in the mirror, he gave one last thought to the fact that Chance was one of the most manipulative bastards on the face of the planet. Granted, Sam had had his head up his wounded ass for the last six months, and it was possible Chance didn’t feel like telling him about Josie and his plans with her…. but there might be something more going on. Sam slowly grinned at himself as he shaved. Betty might be a great co-conspirator for his foster brother, but she couldn’t hold out on Sam if he put his mind to charming information from her. There was a reason he always knew what he and Chance were getting for Christmas every year. Yep, tonight he was going to clear up many mysteries. First, he’d pin down Betty and find out exactly what Chance was up to, then he intended to have Josie securely pinned underneath him.

Chapter 8

Josie was nervous. She hadn’t even thought to ask Sam how he knew the Hutchins. They must be close if he felt comfortable enough to just call and drop by. He must know them through Chance, was the only reason she could think of.

After Sam called and said he would be coming over a little later than anticipated, she took more time with her appearance. Even if it was just with her lingerie that nobody would ever see. That was her own special brand of armor. She’d been doing it for years. She might not be all that and a bag of chips, but knowing she was wearing something pretty underneath her clothes gave her a sense of confidence, and with Sam Booth, she needed all she could get. Hence the gold corset and matching panties.

She bit her lip as she pulled on her oversized blue silk shirt to conceal her corset. She used to wear something a little more figure hugging on top, but she remembered the deriding comments of her one and only lover when he’d gotten her naked. To this day, the memory of his words still sliced through her. He’d accused her of deceiving him with her undergarment. “I didn’t know I’d be having sex with a cow.”

Stop it! I have a new life. It’s time to put that crap in the past.

With that thought in mind, she took a little more time with her make-up and skipped the flat-iron, instead throwing more conditioner and gel into her hair to give her ringlets more of a curl and bounce. For a split second, she tried to lie to herself and say she was doing it for Butch and Betty, but she quickly admitted to herself it was for Sam. She sighed.

Why? What’s the point? He’s out of my league.

She considered wearing her two-inch gold pumps to match her lingerie, just for the added boost of confidence, but she remembered Sam seeing her in pain and decided to forego anything that would put her back in that state. She found her navy ballet flats and grabbed her coat just as the doorbell rang. Force of habit had her checking the peephole. She knew it had to be Sam, but the years of being responsible for her sisters had her checking. She noted that he had cleaned up pretty well himself. Before he had a chance to ring the bell again, she opened the door.

Sam gave her a warm smile, and then his eyes did a slow gaze up and down her body before once again resting on her face. “Baby, you look gorgeous.” There was something about the way he called her “Baby” that made her insides melt. That, combined with the hungry look in his eyes, and Josie was surprised she wasn’t a pile of goo at his feet.

“Come on, we don’t want to be late,” she forced herself to say.

The stairs up to her apartment were narrow and only accommodated one person at a time. Sam had let her go first when they went up the stairs, and she was surprised that he went down the stairs first as they went down. Then she noticed how his arm was braced against the rail, and she figured out that he was ensuring that if she tripped, he could stop her fall. The man needed to stop making her feel taken care of.

When they reached the small parking lot of Sweet Dreams Desserts, she looked around for his red truck, but didn’t see it. He ushered her over to an Audi sedan.

“You have two cars?”

“Nah, I’m just the proud owner of the truck. This belongs to Chance. He has far too many vehicles, but he’s always allowed me to share his toys. He won’t be back until Tuesday, so I commandeered it. The seats are really comfortable.” Sam held the door open, and once again buckled her in. Yep, she was definitely going to be a bowl of softened butter by the end of the night, and she’d decided that the perfect place to melt would be in these divine leather seats, which seemed to mold themselves around her body. When Sam pulled out of the bakery’s parking lot and headed left instead of right, she asked why.

“I’m picking up some food from Dolce Vita. When I spoke to Betty and told her we were going to drop by, she said she would whip something up, but I didn’t want to put her to any trouble. I ordered take-out. I know Butch loves Italian food.”

Josie waited to ask her questions until after they loaded the food into the backseat. As they settled back into the car and were headed toward Hutchins’, she asked, “So, were you and Chance in foster care with Butch and Betty at the same time?”