“I’m great. How’s Kayden?” he asked.
The question made her pause a moment, but she mustered out the best response she could.
“He’s OK, but he’s actually in New York seeing a specialist for his arm.”
“I see,” Sam replied, not moving his gaze from her face.
She felt uncomfortable and looked over her shoulder to find the entire dinner party watching them. They all pretended to start talking once they were caught, and she rolled her eyes.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, annoyed.
“You’re here and he’s not. That says a lot,” he said, then winked and walked towards the group as Lana’s blood turned to molten lava.
How dare he?she thought. What part ofspecialistdidn’t he understand? She marched towards the table, ready to chew him out, but stopped herself when her father reached for and grabbed her hand. She hadn’t realized they were all joined in hands, ready to pray over their meal. Sam was indeed saved byfaith at that moment, and she took a seat next to her mother. After her Aunt said a prayer that was about ten minutes too long, everyone began to dig in.
The last thing she wanted to do was eat after her little chat with Sam. It felt wrong sitting around enjoying dinner with him and her family. As if he hadn’t done the things he did to her in the past, and they were suddenly friends.
“What’s the matter, baby? Aren’t you hungry?” Rupert asked as he ripped into a rib bone.
“It’s amazing, you should have some. You’re getting too skinny,” Sam injected, as he dared to reach over and add a scoop of potato salad to her plate.
He smiled at her and gave another wink, and she could see her mother blush. Carmen lit up when he did it.
“Why are you here, Sam?” she asked as he returned to his own plate of food.
Everyone stopped mid-chew, mid-drink, and mid-sentence. You could hear the mosquitoes being zapped by the lamps and tiki torch flames that lit up the backyard; it was so quiet.
“Lana!” Veronica bellowed. “That’s not very hospitable of you.”
“It’s OK, Mrs. McKenzie,” he replied, wiping the sauce from his fingertips.
“It’s actually not OK,” Lana replied.
“I’m here because your mother asked me to stop by. She thought it might be nice to see old friends after everything you’d gone through. That’s all,” Sam replied in one breath.
“Friends? We’re not friends, Sam.”
“Lana, come on. You have to let bygones be bygones,” her Aunt interjected.
“No disrespect, Auntie, but this is between Sam and me.”
Her Aunt put her hands up in retreat and took a long sip of her iced tea. Lana caught the underlying implication of theKermit-the-Frog-meme-like gesture and turned her head back to Sam.
“I appreciate, more than you will ever know, that yousomehowmade it to Hamby,” she looked over at Carmen, who dropped her gaze to her chicken. “And because of that, you saved Kayden. I told you all this in the hospital a couple of months ago. But please let’s call a spade a spade. You wined and dined me and made me feel like we had a future together. Hell, you proposed to me, made me plan a wedding, then humiliated me in front of everyone we both know.”
Sam stopped chewing, then his eyes met hers, pained. Lana continued, “The very people you’re trying to convince that you care so much about me were the ones who had to piece me back together. I thought I’d never get my life back.”
Lana couldn’t help the tears that were freely falling from her face now, and everyone just watched on in silence.
“They may have forgotten or can let bygones be bygones, but I can’t. You hurt me, Sam. You broke me, but I’m not the same broken girl I once was. I love Kayden Capshaw. More than I have ever loved you, so you know that’s saying something. And I won’t let you disrespect me or him a second longer.”
“Lana, I’m sorry...” he started.
“Just stop.” She stood from the table, panting, not realizing during her rant that she had been yelling because she was physically spent delivering her speech.
Sam stood from the table, locking eyes with her, anger crinkling his face.
“I really hope you wake up and realize, Lana, thatI’mnot the enemy anymore. I’m sorry for what I did; I know what I lost. I will have to remember that every day for the rest of my life. But look at what you have been through since you met this guy.”
