Josie laughed. “Nyla is only an intern. You don’t even pay her!”
“I didn’t even pay you at first, but now you’re running Ruth’s House Alabama!” Sam reminded her.
“Yes, and you made me at least get my college degree before you felt safe enough to leave it in my hands. This is your dream, Sam. You’re back in Indiana where it all started, opening another shelter. At least give it a year before you give up on it.”
“I’m not giving up on it, I’m just…” Sam trailed off, not exactly knowing how to finish that sentence.
“Homesick,” Josie supplied for her. “And a little scared about being back in Indiana, even if you are making your dreams come true.”
Exactly. That’s what she loved about Josie. She got her. Really got her. “This conversation isn’t making me any less homesick. I miss you so much, girl.”
“I miss you, too,” Josie told her. “But Beau and I went through a lot of trouble to get you into that party, so go back out there and flirt with the money like a good non-profit director.”
“Well, I’ve already got my coat thanks to the hockey player’s assistant. If I go home now, I can probably get some to work done on another grant application.”
“Or maybe you could get your Russian hockey player to fund the Indiana Ruth’s House like Beau funds our Alabama location.”
“Beau does that because you’re his wife. The Russian hockey player was all, like…” Sam pulled out her best Swedish Dolph Lundgren pretending to be a Russian accent, “‘I do not date. I just want to bone you down.’”
“He said that?!?!”
“No, not exactly,” Sam admitted. “It was more like a bunch of stuff about pleasure, then I called the other woman over so he could bone her instead of me.”
“You are a trip and you have me down here rolling on the floor, but I’m going to cut you off now because I know you’re just using me to avoid hobnobbing with the people who could be giving Ruth’s House Indiana donations.”
“I’m totally not,” she protested. She totally was, but she thought it was truly unkind of Josie to point that out.
“Good, then you won’t mind if I hang up. Bye, Sam!”
“No, Josie, don’t hang up. Don’t—”
The phone went dead.
“…hang up,” Sam finished with a sad sigh.
She started to stand, but then stopped mid-crouch when the alcove’s door swung open with a quiet creak.
Sam’s heart froze. Was it Mount Nik? Had he found her?
But no… it was a boy, creeping through the open door into the dimly lit room.
A bi-racial boy, Sam realized when the light from the next room hit his face. He had golden brown skin and a wide nose that spoke to his African-American ancestry.
Sam took him in with wide eyes. He was painfully thin, but tall. Six, seven, maybe even eight or nine years old. His clothes, she could see even in the low light, were also dirty, covered in various stains. Further signs of neglect could be found in his hair, a mad nest of kinky brown and blond curls that looked like they’d never seen a pair of scissors, much less hair product. And even though he was ten feet away from her, he smelled, to use one of her Alabama bestie’s terms, “like a billy goat.” Like his current living situation didn’t give him regular access to a bath or shower. Like true neglect.
He froze like a deer in the headlights when he saw her crouched down next to the washing machine.
“Hey, buddy, whatcha up to?” she asked with a bright smile.
One that apparently disarmed him, because he didn’t immediately turn tail and run, like she’d suspected he might if she’d shown how concerned she was for his well-being.
“Nothing,” he answered quickly, his eyes darting from side to side as if he were looking for an excuse to bolt.
“Are you playing a game of hide-and-seek?” she asked. “Because not to brag, but growing up, I was the hide-and-seek queen.”
The boy’s stance relaxed. But just a little.
“You’re not better than me. I’m the best at it.”
“No, no… pretty sure it’s me.” Sam answered. “But I’m always looking for pointers. Do you live here? Where are the other good places to hide?”
He shook his head. “I don’t live here. This is my first time being here.”
“Mine, too!” Sam said, keeping her voice light, although the social worker in her was frantically scrambling to figure out who he belonged to and how she could help him. “Did you walk here from your place?”
“No, it’s too far.” He gave her a quizzical look, as if he were wondering how a grown-up could be so silly. “I drove here with my papa,” the boy told her. Then he looked away from her guiltily. “He told me to wait in the truck, but Mount Nik’s my favorite hockey player in the world. I wanted to see his house. Just once.” He sounded apologetic, and Sam could tell he wasn’t normally the kind of kid who disobeyed orders from his father.
“I don’t blame you,” Sam said cheerfully, all the while wondering what kind of asshole would leave a child in his truck in the middle of one of the coldest Januarys on record. “Can I show you around? I just met the guy who owns this house so I can vouch for you.”
“You know Mount Nik?” the boy said, his voice going a few octaves higher, as if she’d just announced she was close personal friends with the King of the Universe.
“Sure do. Want to come meet him?”
The boy immediately stepped forward, the prospect of meeting his hero apparently enough to get him over his fear of the strange woman he’d just met in a dimly lit alcove.
He wasn’t six, she could tell that immediately as he moved closer, because at full height he nearly came up to her chest. She also noted that he looked even scrawnier up close than she’d originally thought. She could easily see the outline of his ribs through his thin, long-sleeved cotton shirt.
Sam, as she often did when she encountered children who had been neglected or abused by their parents, had to tamp down the urge to go after the kid’s father and punch him in the face. What kind of man didn’t feed his child? Didn’t bathe him? Who would leave him in a cold truck without even a winter coat!?
Just the thought of this child’s father was enough to completely enrage her, but she kept her face calm and composed as she stuck out her hand to the boy.
“Hiya, name’s Sam. What’s your name?”
He not only didn’t take her hand, he frowned in a way that oddly reminded Sam of the house’s owner.
“Sam is a boy’s name,” he informed her.
“Most of the time, yes, but in this case, it’s short for Samantha,” she explained.
“May I call you Samantha?” the boy asked.
Sam was impressed by how politely he asked, but nonetheless responded with a firm, “No.”
“Why not?” he asked, his voice more curious than petulant.
Normally Sam skirted this question, but she decided to tell him the truth.
“Because that’s what my stepfather used to call me.”
The boy nodded, an expression of understanding coming over his face.
“You didn’t like your stepfather?”
That was the understatement of the century, but Sam just answered, “No,” before changing the subject. “What should I call you when I introduce you to Mount Nik?”
The boy opened his mouth, just as a one of the cater-waiters in the kitchen shouted at someone to bring out some more of the garlic roasted shrimp.
Those had been delicious, Sam acknowledged. She’d had a few when she first arrived at the party. But she cursed the unseen waiter when the boy began to back away from her, as if he’d just come out of a spell.
“I’ve gotta go,” he said. “I’ve been in here too long. My papa might be looking for me.”
“Okay,” Sam said, keeping her voice as light as possible under the circumstances. “How about if I go with you? You can introduce me to your dad.”
The boy shook his head, like what she was su
ggesting was crazy.
“No. I’m sorry, but I’d get in trouble if he knew I got out of the car and was talking to somebody. I’ve got to go.”
He turned to leave, and Sam caught him by the wrist. Time for Plan B. This wasn’t the first time one of her careful interventions had been cut short by the intervenee’s impending sense that they’d get in trouble.
“Please, let me go,” the boy said, his voice urgent and distressed.
“I am going to let you go. I am,” Sam assured him. “Just…”
She pressed her old coat into his hand. “Just take this, please.”
“It’s a girl’s coat,” he answered, his eyes going from scared to indignant.
“It’s totally gender neutral and it will keep you warm,” she answered right back. “The Indiana winter’s nothing to mess with.”
He bunched the jacket in his fist. “Fine, I’ll take it. Let me go now, please.”
“Okay, I’m going to, but first let me tell you about the cards in the pocket. They have my name on them. Just my name and telephone number. If you ever need anything, if there’s anything at all I can do for you, just give me a call, okay?”
The boy didn’t answer, just yanked backwards trying to get away from her.
“Let me go, please. I don’t want to get in trouble. Please, let me go!”
Sam reluctantly released him, knowing that keeping him there against his will wouldn’t make her any more trustworthy in his eyes.
The boy took off, pushing out of the alcove door so fast, it felt to Sam like watching a boy-sized rabbit sprint away from a possible predator—which was obviously what he now considered her, even though she’d only been trying to help.
A wave of exhaustion passed over Sam, so extreme, she knew for sure she wouldn’t be going back to the ballroom for more networking with the Richie Riches as she’d promised Josie she would. Maybe next week or next month or next year… yeah, maybe then she’d feel up to it. But not tonight. No, tonight she was taking her tired butt home.
4
“WHAT do you mean I can’t go home?” Sam demanded, her teeth chattering. She was standing underneath a covered carport, which extended out from the brick Colonial mansion on white column legs. The structure, like the rest of the house, was extremely stately, but it did nothing to protect her from the cold night wind, thrashing against her bare arms with no mercy whatsoever.
“I’m sorry, miss,” the middle aged valet with the handlebar mustache and a nametag that said “Jose” answered. His expression became apologetic as he took in her shivering form. “We were told to keep you here for a bit when you came for your car. But why don’t you go wait back inside? I’m sure he didn’t know you’d be without a coat.”
“Who didn’t know?” Sam demanded, even though she was already beginning to suspect, even before the hockey player emerged from the house, closing its crimson red door behind him before once again coming to stand in front of her, large and imposing. It was like getting rolled up on by a tank.
“Mr. Rustanov,” Jose said. “She doesn’t have a coat. Can I go get her car?”
“Da, I will talk with her while we wait,” the hockey player answered, like he was doing her and Jose a favor by only holding her up a little bit, when he never should have given the order in the first place.
“Exactly who the h-heck do you t-think you are?” she demanded after Jose had gone. Her words would have sounded a lot more aggressive if her teeth weren’t chattering, she thought.
“Nikolai Rustanov,” he answered. “I already told you this. However, my assistant can’t find for sure who you are. Maybe you weren’t invited to my party? Maybe you, how Americans say, crashed?”
“No, I didn’t c-crash,” Sam answered, knowing it would be too complicated to explain that she came as the plus one of an Indiana football player who couldn’t attend, but used to be on the L.A. Sun’s with Josie’s husband and hadn’t minded letting her use his wife’s name to get into the event.
He regarded her shivering form with thinned lips.
“Where is your coat?” he asked, unbuttoning his tux jacket.
“I g-gave it away,” she answered.
“Why?” He took his jacket off and wrapped it around her shivering shoulders. “It is very cold.”
The large jacket was surprisingly heavy and even though she probably should have told him straight away that she didn’t need it, Sam found herself reflexively pulling its front panels across her chest like a blanket. It was just so warm, radiating heat like it’d just come off a furnace.
“How about you?” she asked him with a worried look.
He looked back at her, confused. “How about me, what?”
“Don’t you need your jacket? Like you said, it’s very cold outside.”
“Da, but I am Russian,” he answered, as if that explained everything about everything.
“Okay, well, maybe I should thank you for loaning me this jacket, but I would have been fine if you hadn’t made sure I had to wait here outside for my car.”
He frowned down at her from his great height.
“Tell me why you gave away your coat.”
She shook her head with a sad sigh, thinking of the poor boy she’d met in the alcove. Who had he belonged to? Someone who worked for the man standing in front of her? One of the fans who had been milling around the front gates at the bottom of the long hill when she arrived?
“Do you know any little boys?” she asked. “Like one who’s maybe a tall seven or eight years old?”
Another confused look from the big guy. “Why would I know little boy?”
“Because…” she trailed off, her instincts telling her a man like this probably didn’t have any children he was close to in his life. And even if the boy had belonged to someone on his staff, Nikolai didn’t seem like the type who would ask after his employee’s families.
“It’s nothing. Nothing you’d understand anyway.”
With a bracing breath, she took off his coat and held it out for him to take back.
He just stared at her. Hard. “You should come back inside my house and explain to me your missing coat.”
She gave him a sad smile. “No, I don’t think so. It’s been a long night and yeah, you’re really hot. So hot, part of me is very flattered you went through all this trouble just to spit some more game. But I can already tell. You…” she circled the palm of her hand in his general direction, “…you’re the kind of guy who would chew me up and eat me for breakfast. So as cute as you are, I have less than zero desire to go there with you.”
To make her point final, she waved his jacket towards him, clearly signaling he just needed to take the damn thing, already. “I’m calling it a night. A really long night.”
But he didn’t take the jacket. In fact, he stepped closer to her, his hard tank of a body pushing the arm holding the jacket back. So close, she could feel the heat coming off him.
“I only agree with one thing you said.” His eyes bore into hers. “The part about eating you for breakfast. But I think you will like the way I eat you for breakfast.”
A hot chill ran over her, despite the cold, and she felt herself clench down below as the image of his face between her legs barged its way into her mind without invitation.
And suddenly he was no longer high above her. Suddenly, his mouth was coming down on hers, a hot shock of an invasion on a cold winter’s night.
Her first thought was that his lips, which she remembered thinking were set in harsh, cruel lines, were actually much softer than they appeared. Her second thought was that he was kissing her. Kissing her! Why was he kissing her? And why wasn’t she stopping him?
Maybe because it was cold and he was warm. Actually, make that hot, throwing off heat like a furnace as his lips took easy possession of hers.
Yeah, that had to be it.
Luckily her Prius pulled up in front of them at that moment with a whisper of tires coming to a stop underneath the low hum of its electric engine.
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“Okay, okay…” she said, pushing away from him. Though only their lips had been touching, it somehow felt like she was ungluing herself from him, and she had to resist the urge to come right on back for another hot kiss.
“You spit great game and your kissing business is on lock, but here’s my car.” She seemed to be pointing this little factoid out to both herself and him. “So, I’ll be going now. Take your jacket, please.”
She held it out to him, this time with insistence.
He stared at her for what felt like eons, before he finally reached out and took the jacket from her.
“I will see you again,” he said, his eyes so hooded now, they almost seemed sleepy.
“No, you probably won’t,” she answered, heading for the car as quickly as her strappy heels would let her. She mentally made a decision to double the number of grant applications she’d been planning to write away for this year, because she wouldn’t be attending any more of these charity events, especially if there was any chance of him being there.
“I will see you again,” he repeated to her retreating back, not like it was a request or even a desire, but something that was inevitably going to happen. Whether she liked it or not.
Sam didn’t answer this time, just took the keys from the valet and got into her Prius. She didn’t even bother to crank up the heat before pulling forward out of the carport, insanely wishing she had one of those superhero cars that turned into a high-speed jet with the push of a button.
Sam risked a peek into her rearview mirror and yes, there he was… staring after her. Though she should have been relieved by her successful exit, she had an uneasy suspicion that she hadn’t truly escaped.
It was more like he’d decided to let her go. For now.
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