Tell Me Again

by Michelle Major

  The newly married couple shared a tender kiss when the minister pronounced them husband and wife. At that moment it felt like the new Mr. and Mrs. Bishop were in a world of their own. Then the cheers started, and the guests followed the wedding party toward the flagstone patio behind the main cabin, where Ben’s staff had champagne and hors d’oeuvres waiting.

  Sam stood at the edge of the patio greeting friends of Kendall’s until Trevor and Grace found her.

  Grace gave her a quick hug and Sam resisted the urge to hold the girl to her side. “You didn’t even ugly cry,” Grace said with a sassy smile.

  “I’m not much of a crier,” she protested weakly.

  “You keep telling yourself that,” Grace answered. “Dad, can I go hang out with Claire and Cooper?”

  “Sure,” he answered, and Grace moved to join the group of kids at one of the high tables set up around the patio.

  Sam narrowed her eyes at the way Trevor was grinning at her. “I don’t cry.”

  “Preaching to the choir,” he said, but reached out with his thumb and wiped at the edge of her eye. “Just a little mascara running for no reason.”

  She swatted at his hand, but his grin only widened.

  “Come here, Tough Girl,” he whispered and pulled her closer, dropping a gentle kiss on her forehead.

  “What about Grace?”

  “She’s ok with you and me.”

  “What if I’m not ok with it? We had a deal about keeping things casual and on the down low. I’m not—”

  “Trust me,” he said and tugged a little harder. “You’ll get there.”

  She sighed as his arms wrapped around her waist, and rested her head on his shoulder. “I think I’m already way past there,” she murmured.

  “Me, too, honey.” His fingers traced small circles on the center of her back, soothing her and, at the same time, making her body hum with awareness. “You’ve got me turned inside out and tied up in knots on top of it.”

  He leaned closer so that his lips grazed the edge of her jaw. “I think about you all the time. I want you all the time. I can’t believe you weren’t a part of my life all these years, Sam. I can’t believe I ever let you go. I won’t make that mistake again.”

  The words were like a balm to her soul, even though a tiny warning flitted through her mind. It sounded like “pretty words aren’t the same thing as I love you,” but she ignored it. I love you would come. He was taking it slow.

  But the idea that someone—finally, someone in her life—wanted to hold on to her, thought she was important enough to hold on to. Well, it dulled all those years of loneliness, gave them a halcyon filter so that it seemed the feeling of rejection was a necessary piece of her journey. If she hadn’t suffered, she wouldn’t appreciate this moment as much.

  She pressed her mouth to his gently, because that was what the moment called for on the patio surrounded by her friends and his daughter. But she needed to touch him, needed to take his breath into her lungs like it was their own private bond.

  After a moment she lifted her head to look into Trevor’s eyes and started to say the words. The three most important words. Before she could, a hand thumped her on the back of the head.

  “I suppose telling you to get a room is a little too obvious,” Jenny drawled. “Don’t make me say it anyway.”

  Sam wanted wrap her fingers around Jenny’s delicate throat. Just when she’d gotten up the nerve to tell Trevor she loved him . . .

  “Hey, Jen,” she said through clenched teeth. “Don’t you have someone else to annoy?”

  “Lucky for you,” Jenny answered without missing a beat, “no.” She nudged Trevor. “Hey there, Trevor. Does she sometimes demand that you wear nothing but a tool belt and call it foreplay?”

  He smiled at Jenny. “Interesting idea, but no.”

  Jenny’s gaze flicked to Sam. “Great reception. I hear the food is amazing. Of course it is because it’s Ben. Kendall looks really happy.” She paused then muttered, “Owen brought a date.”

  “Idiot,” Sam said immediately.

  Trevor cleared his throat. “How about a drink, ladies?” Without waiting for an answer, he started toward the bar and called over his shoulder, “I’ll be right back.”

  Jenny gave a shuddery laugh. “Wow, he moves fast when he’s freaked out.”

  “It’s a guy thing,” Sam said with a nod.

  “Don’t be like me.” Jenny turned to her. “This is your chance. It’s obvious that Trevor is crazy about you, and I know you care about him. I won’t say the L word because it will scare you. You can’t let it scare you, Sam.”

  “I’m not . . .” Really, who was she kidding? “I’m trying.”

  Trevor returned with three champagne flutes and handed one to each of them. “I checked out the billionaire’s date,” he said as Jenny took the glass. “She doesn’t hold a candle to you.”

  If Sam hadn’t already fallen in love with Trevor, that statement would have done it. She watched a small smile play at the corner of Jenny’s mouth.

  “You’re not blowing sunshine up my—”

  “Nope,” Trevor answered without hesitation.

  Jenny nodded, squared her shoulders, and downed the fizzy liquid. “I needed that, the vote of confidence and the alcohol. I’m ready to go make nice with Ty’s family and rescue my mom before Libby Bishop tries to coax her out of retirement. I’ll catch up with you two later.”

  For years, Jenny’s mom had been the Bishops’ housekeeper and, in many ways, more like a mom to Ty and his siblings than their own sophisticated mother. Mona Castelli was gentle and soft-spoken, the exact opposite of her fiery daughter. But the few times Sam had met her, Mrs. Castelli’s love for Jenny and Cooper had been obvious and clearly unconditional. Just like Kendall had from her mom. That’s what every child deserved but, as Sam could attest, not everyone received.

  “I’m sorry for what Bryce did to you,” she said, turning to fully face Trevor. “She was my sister, and I loved her. She was also selfish and vindictive. I like to think that if she’d gotten sober, she would have turned into the type of mother that Grace deserves but—”

  Trevor put a finger over her lips. “You aren’t to blame for Bryce’s actions.”

  “I know that,” she said and then added, “sort of. But revenge against me played into it somehow and it makes me sick that you and Grace have paid the price for that. A girl needs a mother, Trevor. There will be dances and boyfriends and broken hearts.” She waved a hand to encompass the guests standing around them. “A wedding to plan someday.”

  “Someday in the distant future,” he said with a laugh.

  “Even so, Grace should have her mom to . . .” Her voice broke and she cleared her throat. “She should have a mom.”

  “She has you,” he said softly and pushed a stray piece of hair away from her cheek. “We both have you.”

  She gave a shaky nod and swallowed against the emotion clogging her throat. Gazing into his blue eyes, she was blown away by the emotion she saw there. Surely it was time to tell him—

  “Sam,” Chloe called, waving her forward from the edge of the patio. “We need you for the toasts.”

  She let out a frustrated sigh.

  “Go,” Trevor told her. “This is Kendall’s moment and she wants her friends surrounding her. Grace and I will still be here.”

  Not caring who watched, she gave him another quick kiss and went to join her friends.

  An hour later, Trevor found Sam at the edge of the temporary dance floor set up on the grass near where the ceremony had taken place. Rows of tiny twinkle lights had been strung between the trees, casting a soft glow on the couples dancing.

  Grace and the other kids at the reception were in the middle of the floor, each trying to outdo the other with their crazy moves to the upbeat pop song. Sam was watching them, a wistful smile curving her full lips. Both she and his daughter had specifically mentioned Grace’s lack of a mother.

  Of course Trevor knew the facts
, but he’d worked damn hard to be everything for her. He’d braided hair and let her paint his toenails. He knew the names of every cartoon princess and had even learned how to bake a decent batch of cookies after his nana died.

  But none of his efforts could fill the hole Grace had in her heart caused by losing a mother she’d never even known.

  She was so beautiful, laughing and twirling with her friends. It twisted his heart to know she lived with a pain he couldn’t fix.

  He couldn’t . . . but Sam’s presence had already gone a long way to heal some of it. It was obvious in the way Grace gravitated toward Sam. Even now he saw her glance at Sam after completing a particularly ridiculous dance move. Grace’s grin widened when Sam laughed and gave her a thumbs-up. How could he resist a woman who made his daughter happy? Why had he ever thought he needed to try?

  The music ended and a slow ballad began to play. The young people hurried off the dance floor and headed back toward the patio. Couples, including Kendall and Ty and Chloe and Ben, made their way onto the dance floor. Sam’s smile dropped as she moved back into the shadows around the clearing’s edge.

  He intercepted her as she started down the path toward the camp office.

  “May I have this dance?” he asked, holding out his hand.

  She glanced over her shoulder and then back at him. “If your slow-dancing moves are anything like your other ones, we could be in trouble.”

  “I’m a quick learner when it suits me.” He wiggled his fingers. “You can’t say no. This is my favorite song.”

  “You also don’t have a favorite song.”

  “Maybe not,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “But I know if I’m holding you in my arms, this one will become my favorite.”

  She slid her fingers into his, almost shyly, and he led her onto the dance floor. She placed her hands on his shoulders, at least six inches of space between them.

  “This isn’t junior high,” he whispered and drew her closer until their bodies touched. He wrapped one arm tightly around her waist and linked the fingers of their opposite hands together.

  “What are we doing here, Trevor?” Her voice was a whisper, her breath warm on his skin in the cooling air of the Denver foothills.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He spread his fingers across her back. “I’m claiming you.”

  She sucked in a breath, but he held her close when she would have moved away.

  “You are mine.” He repeated the words he’d said when they were wrapped together the previous night. “And not just in bed. You always have been, Sam. I want everyone to know it.”

  “But Grace—”

  “Let’s stop using her as an excuse.” He swayed to the music with Sam and wondered why the hell he’d never danced before. He’d skipped every homecoming and prom during high school, preferring to get drunk with his friends under the bleachers. But none of the girls he would have asked had been Sam.

  Christ, he should have asked Sam. He was pretty certain that if he’d had the balls to claim her back then, it would have made him smart enough not to let her go. He was a hell of a lot smarter now.

  “I’m not going to hurt you, and you won’t hurt me. We’re different than who we were before.”

  “That’s what Jenny told me earlier,” she said, and he heard the smile in her voice.

  “Remind me to tell her how wise she is.”

  Sam let out a soft laugh. “No way. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  His hand drifted up until his fingers grazed the soft skin of her back along the bodice of her bridesmaid dress. She relaxed against him and he wished the song would never end. He could stay this way all night, swaying gently with Sam in their own private world.

  Too soon the music ended, and it took them a moment longer than the rest of the dancers to break apart. By the time he realized what song was coming next, Grace had rushed back onto the dance floor and taken his hand.

  “Oh, no,” he told her and tried to move away.

  Sam grabbed his other hand. “Come on, big guy,” she said with a wicked smile. “You can’t chicken out now.”

  He groaned and narrowed his eyes. “Anything but this,” he said as the opening accordion melody of the perennial wedding reception favorite, the “Chicken Dance,” started.

  “Careful,” Sam warned, “or I’ll request the ‘Macarena.’”

  For some reason, his daughter thought that was hilarious. Grace giggled as both she and Sam let go of him so they could shape their fingers into chicken beaks.

  Trevor glanced around for an excuse to get off the dance floor but saw Ty, Ben, and even billionaire Owen Dalton in the crush of people crowding the floor, flapping their elbows and wiggling their hips.

  He put aside his pride and wiggled right along with everyone. To Trevor’s surprise, the dance was kind of like walking around with pink, sparkly toenails years ago. The fact that it made Grace laugh with him, and not at him, made the public humiliation worth it.

  Ben met his gaze and twirled his finger next to one temple, showing that he thought the dance was crazy, but the hot-tempered celebrity chef was clapping as loud as anyone on the dance floor.

  In a moment of clarity Trevor was aware that this was a memory he and Sam and Grace would share. The way families could recall funny bits from vacations or holidays, always able to re-create the luminous glow of happiness. And when Grace got married someday, they’d play the “Chicken Dance” at her reception. Trevor and Sam might complain about creaky knees, but they’d swing each other round and round just the same.

  Whoa.

  He stopped mid-swing and Sam frowned. “What’s wrong?” She was gasping for breath.

  “Nothing,” he said and started opening and closing his fingers once again.

  Nothing except that he planned for Sam to be at his daughter’s wedding. He wanted her there and at every other important milestone in Grace’s life. In his life.

  It was a revelation but not a surprise. He felt as though he’d finally washed off the dust and grime that had dirtied his perception and judgment and could finally see his life in clear, colorful light. She’d been forever standing on the other side of his walls; they only needed to be obliterated for him to find her waiting.

  Now that he realized what she meant to him, he’d never let her go again.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “Everyone bunch together and say no shenanigans.” Sam snapped a few more pictures of Grace and her friends as the parents on either side of her laughed and the teens made faces.

  The tradition at Grace’s junior high was for groups to take pre-dance photos at a nearby state park. The early evening weather was as perfect as it had been the night of Kendall’s wedding two weeks ago, the air finally holding the touch of heat that said summer wasn’t far behind. The sun was beginning to set behind the mountain peak that towered in the distance, and the sky was a cotton candy kaleidoscope of pink and purple clouds.

  From Sam’s totally unbiased opinion, Grace was the most beautiful of the group of four girls standing in front of the stone wall that bordered the park. Sam had been thrilled to help Grace with her hair and makeup that afternoon.

  Watching her niece get ready had been one of the sweetest moments in Sam’s life, even more so when Trevor was rendered speechless as he saw his daughter dressed up for her first school dance. A wide smile had broken across his face and he’d actually swiped at the corners of his eyes. “Allergies,” he’d muttered, but both Sam and Grace knew better.

  A thin braid wound around the crown of the girl’s head and the rest of her blond hair was fashioned into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. The dress they’d eventually chosen was elegant but still youthful: a floral-patterned bright blue Carolina Herrera gown with a dainty A-line silhouette and a sheer overlay.

  After a few more photos of the girls, their dates came to stand by each of them. The boy who was Grace’s date, Jackson, started to put his arm around her shoulder then glanced at a space behind Sam’s right ear an
d quickly lowered it back to his side.

  Sam didn’t have to look behind her to know Trevor was standing there. She could feel the intimidating dad vibes rolling off him like the pounding surf.

  “You’re scaring the poor kid,” she whispered out of the side of her mouth.

  “Good,” he answered. “He’s lucky I didn’t bring my knife collection to sharpen while we’re here.”

  She whirled around. “You have a knife collection?”

  “No,” he said with a shrug. “But I’m thinking of starting one.”

  Sam wondered if her life might have been different if she’d had a dad like Trevor. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I love the father you are to her.” These open displays of affection were new, and they still felt awkward and a little silly.

  But Trevor only tucked her against his side, draping his arm over her shoulder the same way Jackson had tried with Grace moments earlier.

  The kids climbed onto the bus driven by the father of one of the girls. The logo for an outdoor adventure company was emblazoned across the side, and Sam thought about how lucky Grace was that Trevor had built such an amazing life for the two of them. How lucky she was to be a part of it.

  They waved and stood with the other parents for a few minutes before heading to Trevor’s truck. Grace was spending the night at a girlfriend’s house after the dance, so Trevor and Sam had the evening to themselves.

  It was only the second real date they’d had, since most of their time together was either stolen moments or spent as a trio with Grace.

  They drove to Denver for a dinner reservation at one of Sam’s favorite restaurants in Lower Downtown. She’d thought about taking him to Not Your Mama’s, Ben’s restaurant in the Highland neighborhood, but they’d already eaten there several times with Grace, and Sam wanted tonight to be just the two of them.

  After an intimate dinner, they went to her house. It was the first time he was staying the night. The first time any man had been in her bedroom.