Sam cast him a rueful smile. “What isn’t?”
“Good point. Let’s sit on the couch and relax for a while.”
While Sam went into the kitchen to make a cup of hot cocoa, Alistair poured a scotch and arranged himself on the couch. Sam soon joined him, snuggling up under Alistair’s arm and drawing a light blanket over them both.
The last of the tension drained out of his body. Sam was warm and soft, smelling of ink, cocoa, and the faintest whiff of grease from the restaurant. “We need to go on dates more often,” he said.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so busy.”
Of course Sam assumed it was his fault. “Not just you, sweetheart. Sometimes I think I work too much, but Wanda needs me, so…”
“I understand. She’s your family.”
“Yours, too.” And better family than the one Sam had been born into.
As if Sam had read his mind, he said, “I got a letter from Opal.”
So much for relaxing. Sam’s sister was just as bad as the rest of them. “What did she want?” he asked, because no one from that family would reach out to Sam if there wasn’t something in it for them. They hadn’t even sent a card for his birthday in August.
“She’s having a hard time.” Sam finished his cocoa and set the empty cup aside, before rearranging himself so his head was in Alistair’s lap. “She wanted me to come home, though I don’t know what she thought that would fix.”
Alistair stroked Sam’s hair gently, even as he clenched his teeth. “But you aren’t going.”
“No.”
He sounded sad about it, which only darkened Alistair’s attitude toward the other Cunninghams. Or the Cunningham-Dwights, in the case of Opal and her wretched husband. They’d done nothing but put Sam down, made him feel responsible for everything that went wrong, destroyed his confidence in himself. Alistair wished he could shake some sense into Sam, make him realize just how poisonous they were.
But Sam wasn’t ready to listen to the truth about his family. Alistair could only hope he would be eventually. “I thought they liked the money you send them. Opal does know Sullivan won’t keep paying you if you go back to Gatesville, right?”
Sam sighed. “I would think so. And Dad…he’s not going to take me back after I let Mom die.”
“You didn’t ‘let’ anyone die.” It was all he could do to keep a growl from his voice. “Do I need to pay your family a visit? I’ll take Doris and Wanda with me. They’ll leave you alone if a tiger turns up on their doorstep.”
“What? No!” Then Sam chuckled unexpectedly. “Though I would like to see the look on their faces…”
So would Alistair, but it wouldn’t really solve anything. “Forget them, and throw your sister’s letter in the trash.”
Sam didn’t answer, so they stayed in silence, Alistair stroking his hair. After a while, he felt Sam’s body relax, his breath deepen, into sleep.
Funny—Sam had been the one wide awake, and Alistair the one ready for some shut-eye. Now their positions were reversed.
The phone rang.
Both of them jumped at the sound. “I’ll get it,” Alistair said, as Sam sat up and rubbed his eyes.
No one called at this time of night with good news. “What’s wrong?” he asked without preamble.
“I just heard on the radio,” Wanda said. “Sullivan’s flower shop has been bombed.”
16
Alistair stood on the sidewalk across from the burning shop, along with a growing crowd of onlookers. Sam had wanted to come with him, but Alistair had talked him into getting some sleep. There was nothing he could do right now, and if Sullivan needed him, he could call the house easily enough.
As for himself, he wanted to get a closer look. The florist shop had been Sullivan’s pride and joy—and also the place where he conducted many of his less-legal business meetings above the store.
Now it burned with a ferocity that suggested someone had destroyed all the fire-suppressant hexes before setting off the bomb. Glass covered the street, along with scattered petals and smoldering ribbons. Firefighters sprayed water onto the blaze, but the roof had already fallen in, and the place was a total loss. At least the hexes on the adjoining buildings had kept them from going up, too.
Police milled around, but there wasn’t much for them to do besides make sure the crowd didn’t interfere with the firefighters.
