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“You’d probably say that no matter who she dated.”
“I’m serious. The last guy she dated lived in his mom’s basement. How’s that for creepy?”
Gillian tried to stifle her laughter that time. “Maybe he was saving up money to move out.”
Sam shook his head. “He was saving money to buy a new gaming system.”
She chuckled under her breath.
“I’m not kidding. Ask Kristina.”
Then he pulled into a gravel driveway that was lined with evergreen trees. She couldn’t even see the house until he crested a hill and drove down the other side. The view opened up, and she saw the house, a colonial-style red brick home that looked like it belonged on a plantation.
“Wow. It’s beautiful.”
Sam nodded. “There’s a pond in the back and ten more acres beyond it.”
He pulled up and parked behind Kristina’s car and two others.
“I’ll come around and help you out so you don’t drop the pies,” he said and winked. He hopped out of the truck, let the dogs out of the back seat, and then came around to the passenger side.
The dogs immediately ran around to the back with Rocky in the lead, since he was familiar with the lay of the land. Sam helped her out and kept a hand on her elbow as they walked up to the front door.
“Tell me everybody’s names again,” she said, experiencing a last-minute surge of panic.
“Ellen and John are my parents. Then there’s Aunt Nancy and Uncle Andrew, my cousin Katelyn, her husband, Tony, and their kids, Mia and Lucas.”
“Katelyn is James’s sister, right?”
“Right. See, you got this.”
“I hope so,” she said as she carefully went up the porch steps.
The front door was open, and the storm door was steamed up. Mouthwatering scents seeped out through the cracks in the door, and voices and laughter floated out from somewhere in the back of the house.
Gillian took a deep breath as Sam opened the door and motioned her inside. A set of curved stairs led up to the second floor, and a long hallway stretched in front of her with rooms off to either side.
She noticed a pile of shoes in a plastic tray by the front door. “Should I take off my shoes?”
“Only if you want to.”
“Are you?”
He chuckled. “We’ll keep them on. Relax, sweetheart. I’m right here.”
She looked into his deep brown eyes and felt a wave of calmness wash over her. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
He led her down the hall to the back of the house, which opened into one long space that contained the family room/kitchen/dining room. Sam’s family was gathered around the stone fireplace, and everybody stopped talking when she and Sam walked in.
If she hadn’t been so busy looking around at all the faces, she might have noticed Sam’s stricken expression. Then the man sitting beside Kristina slowly stood up, shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and said, “Hey, Sam.”
“What are you doing here?” Sam said.
Kristina sprung up from the couch. “Before you say anything—”
“This is the Dave you were talking about? My co-worker Dave?”
Her own case of nerves forgotten, Gillian wished she could slip into the background while this confrontation played out. That was impossible, though, since Sam was gripping her hand so tightly she thought she might lose feeling in it, and she was still clutching the pie container in her other hand.
