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“Fiona,” Sam says, scratching the back of his neck, “I feel like I still know you, but I don’t.”
“It’s all a little bit déjà vu.”
“Could we play the old game?”
It takes me a second to remember what he’s talking about. But then it hits me. Twenty questions. When we first started going out, we’d play our own version of twenty question, ten each back and forth, and they had to be the truth. It helped us get to know each other. “Okay. You go first.”
Sam crouches, patting Zeus on his side as he noses around some leaves on the ground. “What’s your favorite candy now?”
I know why he’s asking. I used to be absolutely mad about gummy bears. I couldn’t get enough of them. To the point where Sam bought me a five-pound gummy bear for my birthday. “Still gummy bears,” I say. “But I try not to eat too much sugar now, being a nurse and all.”
“Fair enough,” he says.
“Did you play any sports in college?” Sam played every sport imaginable in high school, and he was an amazing swimmer. I never knew if he went on to play something.
“Basketball. I swam for a little bit, but the people on my team were more serious about it than I was. I wasn’t interested in competing on that level,” he says. “Why didn’t you ever go somewhere like New York, the way Rose did?”
I smile. I knew he would ask. “I think the idea of home means more to me than it does to Rose. I like that I know everything in this town. I like that everything is familiar.” I pause, trying to think of a question that isn’t going to totally break our truce. “Where do you live now? You said that Zeus is with you.”
“Not far from here actually,” he says. “I wanted to be a bit farther from the center of town. I’ve got a nice piece of land that Zeus likes to explore. But this park makes him the most happy.”
We’re near the edge of Hawthorne on the west side. I think I know where he’s talking about, some larger houses and estates are just outside the town line. I’ve always thought I’d done a good job avoiding his side of town, but now I realize that not running into him was more luck than planning.
The squirrels appear again, and Zeus snaps to attention. They start running, and he sprints after them like he’s a youthful pup again. Sam and I are laughing together, and for a second I remember why I fell in love with him. He’s sweet and genuine, not to mention the fact that he’s sinfully hot. It makes the fact that he won’t tell me the truth about why I wasn’t enough all the more frustrating. Because Sam never does anything without a reason.
“Do you want to be a vet one day?”
“Maybe,” I say, “but I’m not sure. I became a nurse because it always seemed like nurses got to actually take care of people more than doctors do. It’s more personal. I think vets are the same way. The techs do the actual work of caring for the animals.”
Sam stares at me, and I see that familiar intensity there. It makes me want to hide, to look away, but I’m drawn in. The question pops out of my mouth before I can stop myself. “Why didn’t you leave? You always swore that you would go off and have grand adventures.”
He doesn’t look away, and I see him swallow. I see the struggle—he doesn’t know if he wants to admit the truth, but because of the rules of the game, he’s not allowed to lie. “I never left because you were here.”
It feels like the breath has been knocked out of me, and it has. Zeus has crashed into my legs chasing the squirrels. I’m knocked into Sam and we go down together. I land on top of him, and suddenly our closeness and his admission charges the air around us. Sam’s arms are around me and I realize he’s grabbed onto me to protect me from the fall. His hands slide up until they’re fully wrapped around me, and I’m pressed closer to him. “God, I want to kiss you,” he says.
That is such a bad idea, but his eyes are level with mine and I feel like I’m falling into them. Being this close to Sam messes with my head, and no matter what I do when he’s touching me, I feel like I’m home. Bad ideas be damned. “Do it.”
Sam pulls my lips down to his, and God—
I can’t even think.
His hand curves around the back of my neck, holding us together. I open to him, and his tongue possesses me in a way that takes what little breath I have away. I feel his hand slide down my body to my ass, and then our hips are pressed together and I can feel how hard he is. My body remembers the shattering orgasm from the other night, and suddenly I’m wet.
