“I love you like a brother, but I’m two seconds away from beating the shit out of you,” Josh fired back.
I stepped toward him. “No offense, but we both know how that fight would end, and I’ll finish you if it means I get to Sam. Grace kissed me. I didn’t kiss her back. You walked in at pretty much the worst possible second.”
“I don’t give a fuck if she tripped into your clothes and landed on your mouth, Masters. Sam was my friend long before you were.” He crossed his arms.
“Let him in, Josh,” Sam said quietly from inside her room.
“Can I hit him first?”
My eyes narrowed, but he looked unapologetic.
“No,” she responded. “Just let him in. I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll be downstairs,” he said to her, looking straight at me.
“I’m the guy who turned himself in with you for that fucking polar bear, Walker. You really think I’d hurt her like this on purpose?”
“I don’t care about the why, only that you did.” He stepped to the side, and I headed into her room.
She’d pulled down a suitcase and two large duffels onto the bed and was stuffing them with her clothes.
“Where are you going?”
“Away from you,” she answered, pulling another stack of clothes from the closet and shoving them into the suitcase, hangers and all.
“That was not what it looked like, and yes, I know how cliché that sounds.”
“You’re right, it is cliché. Then again so was walking in on you and your girlfriend. God, I’m so fucking stupid. I knew. I knew! And I still let it happen.”
“Stop, Samantha. Talk to me.”
She spun, the streaming tears only making the green of her eyes brighter. Misery was etched on every line of her face. “What is the point?”
“You can’t leave. Not like this.”
“Then how? Maybe the next time when I walk in to see your girlfriend wearing your sweater? Then your boxers? Your mouth?”
“She kissed me. I stopped it!”
She clapped. “Bravo. Extra points for stopping it after you obviously let her onto your lap and into your arms.”
Shit. She’s right. “You’re right. God, Sam. You’re right. I should have stopped her when she laid across my lap while I read to her. I should have told her about us right then.”
“I shouldn’t have asked you to wait,” she said, then pressed her lips together as more tears fell.
“We both made mistakes, and we handled this all wrong. Let me get her back to North Carolina, and we’ll figure this out between us.”
She shook her head. “There’s no us. We’re done.”
My breath rushed like I’d been punched. It hurt. Fuck, did it hurt. I blinked, half expecting to see Sam holding my ripped-out heart in her hand.
“I didn’t kiss her!”
“I believe you.”
My mouth opened and closed a couple times, unable to find the words. “Then what the hell are you doing?”
“Just because you didn’t kiss her today doesn’t mean it won’t happen. I’ve sat here for three days and watched you with her. You guys touch each other without noticing. Yesterday at dinner, she drank your sweet tea when hers was gone. You didn’t blink, just took a sip and put it back next to her plate!”
I tried to breathe. “I guess I fell into old habits.”
“And how long until you fall back into the habit of sleeping with her? You’ve loved her your whole life, you told me so.”
“I wouldn’t sleep with her. That would never happen.” I reached for Sam, and she stepped back, bumping into her dresser.
“Well, this morning I would have said that you’d never kiss her, either. And last week, I would have said that she wouldn’t be sleeping in your bed. Do you not see the progression? How stupid do I have to be to stay and watch this happen? Do I need to wait until you accidentally put a ring on her finger?” She let loose a self-deprecating laugh that I instantly loathed. “Then again, with my track record, a ring probably wouldn’t stop me. I’d still let you fuck me while your wife slept across the hall and you snuck out at sunrise.”