Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“You were staring at me,” Sam whispered in my ear as we got on the tram, his warm breath down the side of my neck breaking me out in goose bumps.
“I was not,” I lied, head up, shoulders squared, refusing to agree. But when he wrapped me in his arms and kissed my cheek, I gave in quickly. “Fine, I was. Happy now?”
“Well, yes,” he teased me. “Why wouldn’t I be? You’re still under my spell even after all these years. How lucky am I?”
We both were.
Michael, on the other hand, was not so lucky when he and Sandra arrived at Sam’s parents’ house for dinner a week later on Saturday night. Once we were all sitting down, Doug, Jen’s husband, innocently asked how the bachelor party had been in Vegas. Both he and Straub, Rachel’s boyfriend, had been invited, but neither of them could take the time off work.
“It was great until my brother bailed on me,” Michael answered, sounding surly.
I didn’t even have time to say a word before Sam dropped his fork on his plate, which was loud, and turned on Michael fast.
“It wasn’t us, it was your homophobic piece-of-crap friend,” Sam growled at him. “And I need to know if Tony is going to be at your wedding, because if he is, then not one member of my family will be.”
“What?” Sandy asked sharply, turning to Michael. “Was Tony at your bachelor party?”
He stopped glaring at Sam to look at his fiancée. “He was. Yes.”
“But, Michael, we agreed that––”
“Yes, I––”
“I won’t have that man at my wedding,” she announced, sounding horrified. “I made that abundantly clear. He was utterly abhorrent to Bianca, and as she’s my matron of honor. I won’t have her see him again.”
“No, I know. I told him. He knows,” he snapped, looking back at Sam as he spoke. “Tony was never coming to the wedding, so you didn’t have to worry about that.”
“But I do worry,” Sam nearly snarled, but then took a quick breath to steady his voice. “I failed Jory when you got married the first time. I agreed not to tell people we were married in case it would have made them uncomfortable. It was a long time ago, and I went along to get along, and that is one of the biggest regrets of my life.”
“Sam,” I whispered, “you don’t––”
“I do.” He clipped the words without looking at me, his focus still on Michael. “I told myself at that time that it was the best thing, but that was a lie. It was the easy thing, and that’s the truth, and that’s why I did it.”
I took hold of his hand, and he turned and gave me his attention. “Sam, you––”
“No,” he murmured. “I made a mistake, and I’m so sorry that I––”
“You told me already,” I reminded him with a chuckle. “You’ve told me a million times, and we put this to bed years ago, long before we became parents.”
“But––”
“This was done before you were even a marshal, love. This is absolutely ancient history.” Regina sniffled, and I glanced over at her. “And you apologized as well.”
“I should have told everyone that the two of you were married,” she said, her eyes suddenly swimming. “I was a coward at Michael’s wedding, telling myself that for him and Beverly that you and Sam had to be less than what you were. I’m so sorry, my darling.”
“Yes, I know,” I groaned, letting go of Sam so I could lean the other way and hug her.
“Why are we bringing this up?” Michael yelled at Sam. “Tony’s not coming to the wedding, so what does it––”
“Because you let your idiot misogynistic, homophobic friend insult Jory in Vegas and you didn’t say a goddamn word!” he roared, and that time he was really loud. “You didn’t say shit to him! What the hell, Mike? Why wouldn’t you say something? Speak up when Tony was attacking Jory? Why would you––”
“Why wouldn’t you invite me with your friends, with Dane,” he spat back, “on your birthday trip to Mexico? Why am I always an afterthought but Pat and Chaz are not? Dane Harcourt is not? Duncan Stiel is not? Jory’s family, your friends, all of them rate higher than your own goddamn brother!”
The words came rushing out of him with so much venom that I understood then that Michael had been holding his anger in a very long time. He’d been pushing it down and pushing it down like everyone in his family did until now, finally, it was exploding out of him, unable, unwilling to remain buried any longer.
“You were mad about the wedding for so long afterward,” Michael rasped, standing up, hands on the back of his chair squeezing tight. “And that wasn’t even my fault.”
“You’re the one who asked me and Jory to keep our status under wraps,” Sam told him. “For Beverley. For her family.”