“Shit. Are you okay?” Sam laughed.
“I’ll be fine.” Matt coughed, and laughed, and coughed again.
I shook my head, watching the two of them laughing as Matt kept coughing.
I rose, walking to the tap and filling a glass with water. Returning to the table, I handed it to Matt as I sat. Matt sipped between small coughs, and I patted him on the back.
“I’m sorry for laughing. These are the moments I’ve missed,” Sam said.
I rubbed Matt’s back, smiling as he slipped his arm around my waist.
Sam seemed genuine.
“I’LL GET GOING NOW.” Sam stood after we’d cleared the dishes away. He’d helped Matt stack the dishwasher and now stood near the door, smiling at us both.
What was I supposed to say? ‘It’s good to have seen you’ sounded weird, so I nodded.
Matt and I followed him out, walking the short distance to his car.
“Thanks again.” Sam looked between us.
“You’re welcome.” Matt squeezed my shoulder.
Sam let out a big breath. “I’ll call you in a few weeks. Maybe arrange another visit if that’s okay. Have your numbers changed?”
I shook my head. “Our mobile numbers are still the same. Just drop one of us a text.”
“Just you keep looking after this one,” Sam addressed Matt. “Letting her go was the biggest mistake of my life.”
Matt grinned, and kissed the top of my head. “I don’t plan on ever making the same error.”
“Bye, Sam,” Finn yelled from behind us, standing with his sister on the deck.
Sam lit up like a Christmas tree. “Bye, mate. See you again soon.”
Finn ran, latching onto Matt’s leg, Georgia doing the same to me. Sam leaned over, kissing me on the cheek. “Talk to you soon.”
I nodded. Matt wrapped his arm around my waist and held me tight as we watched Sam climb into his car and start it up. Finn and Georgia waved as he reversed, turning, and with a final wave, drove down the long gravel driveway toward the road.
The kids detached, giggling as they ran back inside the house. “Let’s build a house,” Finn yelled.
Matt leaned in, kissing my hair. “You okay?”
I wrapped my arm around his waist, snuggling against him while I watched Sam’s car disappear into the distance.
“Better than okay.”
I tipped my face up to meet his gaze, and he kissed me softly, pressing his forehead to mine.
“Let’s go and spend the rest of the day with our children,” he said.
“I love you, Matt.”
“I love you, too.”
He linked his fingers in mine, licking his lips. “I’ve been thinking. How about we have another baby?”
My eyebrows shot up in response. “I thought we were waiting until Finn went to school.”
He shrugged. “Give it a bit of time to happen, then nine more months—he’ll be near that. Isn’t that close enough?”
I grinned, pulling him down for another kiss.
“We’ll see,” I whispered.
He traced my lips with his tongue, waggling his brows. “Can we see when the kids have their nap later on?”
“Maybe.”
Yes.
AUTHOR NOTES
Thank you to Lauren McKellar, for helping me out when I was randomly inspired. To Sarah Foster for knocking up another gorgeous cover. And to Amanda Maria and Sarah King who proofread my little story.
I was surprised when I published In a Lifetime when the question I was asked the most was: Is Sam going to get a redemption story?
I had, after all, set a precedent by writing Andrew’s story in the Friends series, but this was a bit different. There was no real reason for what Sam did. However, I knew that at some point he had to come back into Ella and Matt’s life. And for those who asked for more Sam, he has a small part to play in Vanessa’s book, which I’m hugely excited for.
ALSO BY ARIADNE WAYNE
The Friends Series
Loving Rowan
Three Days
Something Real
The Right One
Unexpected
Chances Series
Another Chance
Taking Chances
Lifetime Series
In a Lifetime
In an Instant
In a Heartbeat
Coming 2017 In the End
Writing as Wendy Smith
Coming 2016 Coming Home
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ariadne Wayne is the alter ego of Wendy Smith. She loves books and lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband and two children. Having always had a prolific imagination she now writes the words down instead of storing them in her head where she can't share them. When she's not writing she works in Telecommunications, frequently banging her head on the desk with the random things that can happen to the ordinary phone line.
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Table of Contents
Copyright
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Author Notes
Also by Ariadne Wayne
About the Author
In an Instant (Lifetime Book 1.5) Page 4