So he pulled her to him and pressed his mouth to hers.Here where he’d once been a kid.Not sure why nothing ever felt quiteright.Or fully wrong.
He’d lived most of his life in that space between.The army hadfit, but it hadn’t been right.Running away had been right—the only thing to do, really—but it hadn’tfit.Even coming back had been an awkward balance of both.
Sam wasn’t.Sam just felt right.
He heard a sound, and Sam must have heard it too, because they broke the kiss at the same time and looked toward the house.
Aly stood there in the doorway.Her eyes were comically wide, and she almost looked like she’d frozen in forward motion.Like she’d seen them and stopped in her tracks.
Nate realized he hadn’t exactly thought this part through, but Sam had said she didn’t care about Hayes putting two and two together, so why should this matter?If they wereseeing where it goes, people were going to know.
His family was going to know.Landon and Cal probably wouldn’t have much to say about it.Well, Cal might, but just a snide comment here or there.Landon would keep his feelings on the matter to himself.Maybe a little moredourthan usual.
Aly, on the other hand, might have a lot to say.To him.To Sam.
“Well, this should be interesting,” Sam muttered, taking a step forward.
The snow was deeper up here, practically up to her knee.He moved forward in one easy stride, caught up with her, and slid his arm around her waist.Just a little extra balance before they made it to the pathway.
She didn’t stiffen.Didn’t act like she wished they hadn’t come.He’d take that as a positive sign.
Aly stood there on the porch, arms crossed over her chest, unreadable expression on her face, but one thing Nate knew for sure.Her gaze was pointed and on Sam.NotNate.
When they crested the stairs of the porch, Aly spoke before either of them could.
“Go on inside, Nate.”She said it so authoritatively and certainly, Nate’s arm fell from Sam’s waist before he’d fully thought it through.He didn’t even hesitate, maybe because she made him think of his mom standing there.“Yes, ma’am.”
“Coward,” Sam muttered.
But he shrugged, flashed her a grin as he skirted Aly.And he didn’t worry about being a coward and leaving her out here, because as much as she was trying to scowl at him, she was failing.Her mouth curved ever so slightly upward.
Like she was happy.
And he realized just how much he liked being the one who’d made Sam Price happy.
Chapter Eighteen
The Bennet Ranch
Sam stood oppositeAly.Sam’s expression betrayed nothing, but her mouth was ever so slightly curved upward as Nate moved around Aly and disappeared inside.
Sam and Nate had beenkissing.Like,reallykissing.Not that it was shocking in and of itself.Aly figured evenLandonhad noticed the sparks between those two, little as he might want to.She just wanted to know…
Everything.
“Well?”Aly demanded.
“Well what?”
Aly reached out and took Sam by the shoulders, gave her a little shake while a grin spread across her face.She just couldn’t hide her amusement.Or the way something,anythingthat felt like a positive was a light to grab on to and nurture right now.“Sam.Oh myGod.”
It was such a weird feeling, pulled in two directions.Because it reminded Aly, in a flash, of the friends they’d been.Theeasylife had been.Before everything had shattered.If they were the friends they’d been, she’d alreadyknowthis.She wouldn’t have to walk in on kissing to know it.
But for a moment, this tiny moment, she could feel that little glimmer of who they’d been.The simple joy ofoh my Godover aboy.And all the aches and pains and traumas of fifteen years could take a little back seat for a minute or two.
God, she wanted that.Even if wistful and bittersweet were mixed up in the glimmer and the joy.It hooked in her chest like a laugh or a sob.Probably just both, but she swallowed down the extremes.
“When didthishappen?”Aly demanded when Sam didn’t say anything.
