He closed his eyes and swore under his breath before calling out her name, but it was too late to take the words back. They were floating around in the air around them, affecting each person uniquely. The pain in Maya’s eyes cut him, but the fact that he’d hurt Samantha had him undone. He stepped around the cake splatter and was through the door before Maya caught up to him.
“Leave her alone,” Maya growled at him. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
MAYA
New York, 2012
SAMSWIVELEDBACKto Maya. “Don’t I thinkIhave done enough? You were the one with the big secret!” He moved closer to her, his voice rising, his angry heat hitting her in waves. “Don’t youdaretell me I’ve done ‘enough’! Should I have told my fiancée and parents sooner? Probably—but really, it’s only been two weeks. You kept this secret forsixteenyears! And you never would have told me except for that fact that you needed something.”
The pain in his face hit Maya harder than his angry insinuation that Samantha wasn’t his. Her sympathy and guilt must have shown, because he softened. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I need to fix this. So either help me, or get out of my way.”
Sam marched through the back of the shop, his overcoat flailing behind him like a cape, and out the back door. Maya hurried to keep up with his long strides. She found him pounding on the outside door to her apartment, calling Samantha’s name and her gut instantly went back to the last time she heard him pound a door. The memory made her nauseous.
“Damn!” He kicked the brick next to the door.
“If you’re done throwing a fit...” Maya dangled the key and waited for him to step aside.
She barely had the door open before he brushed by her and stopped. He was close enough for her to feel the heat from his body and to take in traces of his cologne. She stepped back.
“Thanks.” He turned and took the steps up two at a time until he reached her apartment. He waited for her to reach the top.
Maya shrugged as she approached him. “Don’t thank me. You haven’t experienced a teenage fit yet.”
This elicited a small smile. “Niki used to throw really good ones.”
At the mention of her young charge’s name, Maya was filled with shame and regret, and she looked away from Sam again. She opened the door to her apartment, and he entered, slipping off his shoes once more, and casually tossing his overcoat on the same armchair. He headed straight for the bedroom with the closed door and knocked.
“Go away, Mom. I’m fine.” Samantha’s voice was thick with tears.
“It’s not Mom.” Sam pressed his lips together.
“Mom? Mom? Are you out there?” She sounded like she did when she was little.
Maya moved closer to the door. “Yes.”
“Tell Mr. Hutcherson we appreciate his help, but we no longer need his services.” And there was the teenage sass.
The depth of pain on Sam’s face was so unexpected, so real, Maya actually felt sorry for him. He never could hide his feelings. She spoke again to the door. “Can you at least talk to him?”
Silence.
“Samantha?” Sam’s voice was hoarse. He cleared his throat and leaned in toward the door with his head bowed. “I did promise that I would tell Paige about you, and I didn’t. I’m sorry. It’s not because I’m embarrassed about you or that I don’t want you—I do. I really do. I just wanted to keep you to myself for a bit. I mean, I missed fifteen years of your life.” He cut his eyes to Maya and she flinched. “In any case, I should’ve told her.” He leaned his shoulder against the door and faced Maya. “And I don’t really want that paternity test.”
Maya raised her eyebrows. Of course he didn’t. The Sam she had known...well, the Sam she had known sixteen years ago wouldn’t have needed it, either. Good to know some things hadn’t changed.
He pressed his forehead against the door. “Samantha?”
More silence.
He pushed his hand against the door and slowly pushed himself upright. He ran his fingers through his hair, avoiding Maya’s gaze. By the time he looked at her again, his jaw was set, but his sadness was reflected in the set of his mouth and in the dimness in his eyes. “Well, I guess you were right to keep her from me, considering it took me all of two weeks to mess it up.”
Maya couldn’t help it. She wanted to be angry with him for agreeing to the paternity test, especially in front of Samantha. But the man standing in front of her was not a would-be congressman trying to protect himself. He was a man who just found out he was a father and was being shot down for things he’d said in anger and pain. Much of which she had caused.
“She’ll come around.” Maya smiled. “Trust me. She’s stubborn and she’s a teenager. A difficult combination.”
“I don’t know. I mean, she’s right to be angry.”
