The Real Deal (It Started in Texas Book 4)

by Lee, Liz

  His heart soared.

  At least it did until she looked up at him, her blue eyes sad, resigned. He wanted to make the case for why she should give him a chance.

  Instead he sat still and silent and waited for her to speak because she obviously had more to say. She bit her bottom lip like she always did when she worried. But finally she forced herself through whatever troubled her. And even though the words weren’t what he wanted to hear, Sam wanted to cheer her strength and determination.

  “Sam.” His name sounded like an accusation, and he winced. “You can’t possibly think I would ever consider taking you back.”

  Not yet. But give him time…

  “Patty, you can’t possibly think I’d want you to jump into my arms without a fight.”

  She blew out a breath and her eyes turned hard and cold and the look took a chink out of his hopeful armor. His shoulders tensed as she speared him with the gaze.

  “There is no fight, Sam. We are over. I’m not going to be your friend or your lover or anything other than your ex-wife, the mother of your child, the woman who finally learned all the love in the world couldn’t make a difference to you because the world needed you more. Things might have changed for you, and, God, it kills me to see you hurt by those bastards. But telling the world about monsters like those people who hurt you is your calling. I came to terms with that, and I’ve moved on. One day I’ll look back on my time with you fondly. Right now, I can’t. All the chocolate and cherry limes in the world won’t change that.”

  Dammit. Only Patty could wrap a compliment in an eviscerating takedown. So he was heroic and she respected that but she didn’t trust him?

  He wanted to wipe away her hurt. Heal her. Heal them. Win.

  “You feel better now?”

  Her narrowed eyes screamed wrong answer.

  “Dammit, I meant every word. Do not belittle my feelings.”

  Okay, buddy. Retreat, retreat. Message sent NOT message received. Shit. His heart thudded as he tried to recover.

  “Wait, no. Not what I meant,” he said standing, fighting the wince the movement caused, focusing on Patty’s face, on her upturned nose and the scattering of freckles she still had that drove her batshit crazy when they were teenagers, on the lines around her eyes that served as reminders of their good times. “I was being sincere. You’ve obviously been thinking the words and probably even imagined delivering them. Saying them out loud should make you feel a hell of a lot better.”

  Thank God she laughed. And then she shook her head as if she couldn’t believe his audacity, and he wanted to pull her to him and hug her and tell her it would all be okay. Instead took a page out of her book and shared what he’d wanted to say for months.

  “I owe my life to you, Patty. When we were kids after the accident and this year when I thought I was going to die and thoughts of you kept me alive. I just wanted you to know. I’ll go now.”

  God, he’d thought speaking the words he’d practiced for months would give him relief. It didn’t though. Not even a little.

  She followed him to the door, and he saw unshed tears in her eyes, turning them stormy, the way they only were when she hurt terribly or lost herself in passion.

  And he called himself a thousand kinds of fool as he reached forward and smoothed her dark hair from her face. God, she was beautiful. Not just in looks but in who she was. She always had been. Even when he hadn’t been.

  “One last kiss?” he asked, and she closed her eyes, but she didn’t say no and his heart knocked in his chest.

  “Please, Patty. Let us say goodbye the right way–not with papers served while I’m embedded with a special forces team.”

  She stepped into him without actually acquiescing. Her soft black dress brushed against his hands as she stood on tiptoe then sent his heart on a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions when she claimed his mouth without a word.

  His hands moved to her shoulders as the kiss deepened, and Sam told himself to go slow, not to rush things, not to read more into the kiss than was there. To get over the anger simmering somewhere in the back of his mind because he’d deserved those papers and Patty had nothing to do with the hell that came after they’d been served.

  When her tongue slid across his teeth, he groaned and pressed his hands down her arms then up again. His thumb running under the straps of her bra massaging her shoulders.

  His Patty. His wife. God she was hot. So hot. She felt like coming home. Completely his.

  She might say they were over, but no way. They were just getting started.

  This. Was. Not. Goodbye.

  He lowered his mouth to her neck sucking gently in the spot he knew drove her crazy.

  “Sam, God,” she pushed her hands up his shirt, brushed them over his chest, that damn bracelet cold against his skin just like always.

  He wanted to say to hell with a divorce that came without a chance to fight. He wanted to worship her body for hours. He wanted to make her crazy with want and need. To remind her of the magic that was them.

  But they didn’t have hours. He didn’t think, just acted.

  He knelt in front of her, ignored the scream of pain from his knee, and pushed up the skirt of her dress, pressed his mouth to her mound over her baby blue lace panties that matched the bra strap he’d spied earlier.

  Patty came alive under his kiss. She gasped his name, and he grew bolder with every word. “Sam, yes. Oh, Sam.”

  She dragged her hands through his hair, and he slid his pinky into the leg of her panties then slicked it over her wet folds.

  She cried out his name again, whimpered and pressed into him, and he stared up at her as she fell apart under his hands, her eyes closed, her head back against the door, her breath ragged. His.

  Victorious. He wanted to pump his fists in the air. To say you’re mine. Instead he groaned and bit back the words. He’d use actions instead. But not with her eyes closed, dammit.

  “Look at me, Patty.” He didn’t mean the words to be angry. Hell, he didn’t even understand where that emotion came from when he was living the dream.

  The waves of her orgasm had started to wane, her breathing was returning to normal.

  “Look at me,” he said again flicking his finger across the nub between her legs that always drove her crazy.

  Her eyes snapped open then and he held her stormy gaze as he pushed her panties to her ankles and claimed her with his mouth and tongue until she cried out again. His name catching on a cry from her as she orgasmed for the second time.

  Yeah. Not even close to over.

  His breathing was more strained than hers. When he was sure he could stand without experiencing an embarrassing ejaculation problem, he did.

  The pain in his knee? One hundred percent worth it. The pain in his groin, collateral damage.

  Placing his hands on either side of her head, he rested his sweaty forehead on hers. Once he’d caught his breath, he lifted his mouth and kissed her where their heads had touched.

  “No way, Patty. No fucking way was that goodbye.”

  He handed her the panties he’d let fall beside them and kissed her softly once more before he let himself out the door then walked away before she could tell him he was wrong.

  Chapter 6

  Sexual shell shock. That’s what Patty told herself caused the glow on her face the next morning. Sam had always been able to rock her socks, but last night had been something different. Almost a marking.

  As if he were declaring his intent to the world.

  Her nipples pebbled in memory.

  As if nothing.

  He’d declared sensory war on her intent to call them over, and she’d given him permission the second she surrendered to the desire to claim a goodbye kiss.

  Only once her lips had touched his, her entire body had screamed hello. Sam was her only lover, and her body recognized him immediately. It didn’t take long for her heart to follow, and now she was afraid.

  Afraid and horny and tempted to take
a stupid trip down memory lane.

  She dropped the mascara brush and retrieved the latest journal she’d poured her anguished heart into.

  Entry after entry spoke of missing Sam. And then of realizing she was better without him. And then of moving on.

  She dug in her memory chest and reread the terror and dread she’d lived through while he was captured. The guilt when she’d moved forward with the divorce in the months before his captivity. The journal before the divorce was filled with hopes and dreams and certainty that their marriage finally came first.

  She could sit hours and hours traipsing through her life with Sam. From falling in love with the broken teen to watching him turn into a superstar in media circles to their world travels.

  Cadyn had been a surprise, a miracle baby who’d fought for life almost from conception. She changed everything. An infant hospital bracelet stamped with all three of their names peeked out from that journal, and Patty closed her eyes.

  “Mom!” Cadyn yelled from the living room. “I’m going to school with Tammy. I’ll see you there.”

  “Hold on.” Patty pushed herself up off the floor and closed the memories away.

  “Let me see what you’re wearing.”

  “I’m going to be…”

  Patty took in Cadyn’s minuscule neon skirt and white half shirt and shook her head.

  “No way.”

  “I’m going to be late.” Cadyn continued toward the door, clearly ignoring her.

  “Go change.” Patty refused to show anger. She would not lose her temper. She was the adult here. Her heart slamming in her chest just needed to simmer down. “Tammy can wait while you do so, or I can take you with me.”

  “You are such a…”

  Patty held up one finger.

  “Cross that line and you won’t have to worry about going with Tammy for a month.”

  Cadyn rolled her eyes and huffed, but she didn’t finish the sentence, and Patty silently sighed in relief. If Cadyn had called the bluff, Patty knew she’d have lost it.

  “I’ll go tell her it’ll be a minute,” Cadyn said starting forward as someone honked a horn, and Patty felt her blood pressure rise.

  “You go change into your clothes. I’ll go talk to Tammy.”

  “I’ve got it, Mom.” Cadyn pressed forward dismissing her words and something new hit Patty. Alarm bells rang, and she put her hand on the door stopping Cadyn.

  “You go. I’ve got this.”

  She opened the door to Cadyn’s guilty “Mom!” and stopped cold.

  Tammy wasn’t the one honking the horn. Tammy wasn’t anywhere around.

  Patty didn’t recognize the truck sitting in her drive, but she knew the boy behind the wheel. Nick Cannon. No freaking way.

  “Cadyn, go to your room now.”

  “You can’t…”

  “Now.” This steel in Patty’s voice made it clear the argument was over before it began. Nick Cannon had a criminal record. He walked a fine line between the world of those with choices and those who chose a life of gangs. His teachers talked about potential and promise, and Patty felt for the boy with the past that had led to his current life. But no way in hell was Cadyn going to rehabilitate him. Not on her watch.

  When Nick saw her walking toward the truck his smile turned flat. His eyes hooded.

  He rolled down his window.

  “Ms. Jackson,” he said all polite and nice.

  “Nick, Cadyn is riding to school with me today. I’m sorry she forgot to let you know.”

  He knew the truth, and that made her feel bad, but it didn’t change her mind.

  “Sure thing, Ms. Jackson. Tell Cadyn I’ll see her at school.”

  With that he drove away, and Patty knew she’d just been served notice. Nick Cannon wasn’t leaving her daughter alone.

  She shivered with dread.

  How the hell had Cadyn gotten mixed up with him?

  When Patty walked back inside she found Cadyn sitting on the couch in Levi’s and a pink Polo looking like the daughter she knew instead of a pop star wannabe, and Patty breathed a little easier.

  “Cadyn.”

  Her daughter stared at her with such derision it took Patty’s breath away.

  “Don’t mom. Just don’t.”

  “He’s troubled, Cadyn.”

  “So was Dad, and that worked out fine.”

  Patty wanted to laugh. Her daughter called what she and Sam had fine?

  “Things are different now.”

  “You only know that because of your job, and you don’t know the truth anyway. You can’t stop me from liking him, Mom. Don’t even try.”

  Patty wanted to scream, to put Cadyn on permanent restriction. But she didn’t want to set up a Romeo and Juliet situation, so she did the only thing she could think of.

  “You like the boy? Invite him over for dinner. Let him meet your dad and me. He passes muster, you can go on a date. No sneaking around, though. Do that, and you won’t leave this house with anyone for a month.”

  Cadyn tilted her head as she considered the offer. “Dinner. With you and dad?”

  “That’s the deal.”

  Cadyn smiled victoriously, and Patty wondered what trap she’d fallen for.

  “Fine,” Cadyn said.

  With that Patty walked down the hall to make the phone call she’d been dreading. Now at least she had a reason.

  Sam picked up the phone after one ring. Patty’s voice made him instantly hard.

  “Sam, I have a favor.” The last time she’d said his name, she been mid-orgasm.

  “Name it,” he said remembering the way she’d fallen apart under his hands and mouth.

  “Come to dinner tonight to meet a friend of Cadyn’s. To see if he’s someone she can date.”

  Holy hell. Talk about instant ice treatment.

  “Date? You said she’s not old enough to date.”

  “Yes, I did,” Patty said carefully, and Sam wondered at her unspoken words. But then she continued.

  “Sam, Cadyn turns 16 next month. We had a 12-year-old sixth-grader give birth this year. I was wrong. She’s definitely old enough to date.”

  Shit. Any amorous thoughts he had dissolved at her words. Fear replaced them.

  “You are freaking me out, Patty.”

  He could imagine her strained smile even though she was on the phone.

  “Wait until you meet the boy,” she said and then, “I’ll call you later with the time.”

  “I’ll be carrying concealed,” he said, and she laughed. His heart lifted at the sound.

  “No need. I made it clear to Cadyn her new friend passes the parent test, or he’s no longer a new friend.

  Sam stared at the phone when Patty hung up. And then he smiled.

  The parent test. He and Patty working together. That had to be a good thing. Right? Only then he remembered the boy he’d been. He needed help. Big help.

  Sam walked into the library and made his way to the circulation desk where Ida Mae was restocking bookmarks. Today she wore a royal purple dress with a black scarf and some head wrap that might or might not be a crown.

  When the librarian saw him, her full smile told Sam her happiness at seeing him was genuine.

  “Second visit to the library without a book. You must need to talk.”

  “Something like that,” he said tilting his head toward her office.

  She made sure someone was prepared to take over circulations, and they walked past the transients that called the library home during daylight hours. Before Patty and her parents, he’d been headed to a homeless existence. When he’d told Patty she saved his life the words hadn’t been hyperbole.

  Ida Mae closed the door and pointed to the chair he’d sat in before.

  “What’s bothering you, Sam?”

  He jumped right to it. “Cadyn wants to date a boy.”

  Ida Mae didn’t even blink when he stopped. She just sat silently waiting for him to go on. If Ida Mae wanted to change careers, she already knew
the biggest weapon in the reporter’s arsenal. Silence.

  He gulped then continued. “Patty wants me to gauge whether the boy should be dating material for our daughter.”

  Ida Mae nodded sagely. “Sam, this is a prime father moment. Definitely a way to re-win Patty’s heart.”

  He knew that, but he also knew the truth. He needed to make Ida Mae understand.

  “I know I’m the worst kind of father, and no way should I judge a boy’s character. As far as I’m concerned Cadyn shouldn’t date until she’s 30, and this boy needs his ass kicked for even thinking of my daughter like that.”

  Ida Mae leaned forward and shoved a notebook in his direction.

  “Write down every lousy thing you think about yourself, Sam.”

  Sam blinked then laughed.

  “Ida Mae, there’s not enough paper in the world.”

  She pushed the notebook forward again.

  “You try. I’m going to go take care of the e-kiosks to give you some quiet time. When I come back we’ll talk.”

  She left the room, and Sam picked up the notebook. He didn’t like to think of his past. As far as he was concerned his life started the day he woke up from a four-week coma to see Patty dressed in her Pink Darling uniform, breaking hospital rules by adding flowers to an empty vase just barely in his eyesight.

  Before then he’d been a thug. A punk kid running his mouth regularly, dealing pot to high school thrill seekers who wanted to walk on the wild side, staying out of the reach of his father’s fists and his mother’s tears. Both his parents and his two younger sisters had died in the accident that nearly killed him. For whatever reason he’d survived.

  He’d wanted to die once recovery started. Probably would’ve given up if not for Patty’s daily visits.

  She reminded him of the fresh-faced girls who handed him cash for dimebags they could share with their preppy friends at Friday night parties. Except she wasn’t like them at all.

  She came in and read him S.E. Hinton novels as if she thought maybe he couldn’t read. He didn’t disavow her notion because he loved the sound of her voice.

  She hooked up a six-disc boombox and loaded it with classical music because she read an article that said listening to the cello helped healing efforts.