Chapter Forty-Nine

Sam

 

Mom said grace, then we dug into her excellent feast.

But it still wasn’t the Christmas Day I hoped to have.

Kate couldn’t be more obvious about avoiding me all morning. She was running again, even if she wasn’t on the plane back to Nashville, yet.

I hadn’t been alone with her since the car.

If she’d just let me have five minutes…

Look, my head wasn’t in the clouds. I wasn’t trying to go from zero to one hundred in sixty seconds. Wasn’t asking for her to move in with me today.

I only wanted a chance.

This connection was too compelling to not explore. She felt it, too, or she wouldn’t be hiding behind her guests. Or my mother.

Why was she so scared, though?

If it was a lack of interest in anything but sex, we wouldn’t be doing this dance today. She liked me as much as I liked her. I’d given her no reason to think I’d be fickle. If anyone’s heart was likely to get broken, it was mine.

So what terrified her?

Long-distance relationships weren’t impossible. Extra effort, yes, but not impossible. She had to know I’d make every effort to see her in person until we reached the point of being serious and making the choice on where to live. While I wanted my kids to know their mother, I didn’t expect Mandy to stay in their lives permanently, so a few years down the road…

In the meantime, we’d Skype, FaceTime, whatever.

Certainly wouldn’t mind a sexy video.

No, this was merely another negotiation. I wasn’t giving up. I’d achieved everything I’d ever gone for. Won nearly every game I played.

Now I was going to win Kate Carson’s heart.