Page 60 of Stand

“I know who you were then,” he said into her hair. “And I know who you are now. And I like you just fine.”

“Well, don’t.” She tensed up, but he was rubbing her back again, and she couldn’t resist his sympathy.

“I can’t help it,” he said.

Yeah, well, she couldn’t help it either. The longer she spent with Ty, the more she found herself regretting and wishing for the end of this trip. What else could she do? Women like her didn’t get to have relationships with men like him. Forget the whole living-in-different-states thing; Sam was a rolling stone, and thelastthing Ty needed in his life was a woman who might be off on a different dig in a couple years. New zip codes excited Sam; Ty hadn’t moved out of his in a decade.

So she should be standing, brushing off her butt, and driving them where they needed to go. But oh, could she just take one more second to love his arms around her? To breathe in the comfort he offered, a comfort beyond anything sexual she’d enjoyed until now? Could she forget that in two days she’d say goodbye to his kids for the last time and might never be allowed to ask after them again? Never help Alyssa through high school the way Sam wished she’d been? Never help Matt with his college choices? Never get inside Ty’s head and find out why he smelled like wood shavings when his career seemed to be spent on a computer?

“I guess I can’t help it either,” she said.

Ty delicately peeled the wet strands of hair from her face, lifting it toward him. Sam resisted, swiping at her wet cheeks, not wanting him to see her ridiculousness. He shook his head and kept hold of her chin. “Whatever we have, Indy,” he said softly, “you won’t have to hide from me. Of all people, you don’t have to hide from me.”

“What do we have?” The billion-dollar question. She bit her lip, willing him to have the answer.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Just… right now, I guess.”

And since his hands were already on her face, it was easy to angle her mouth and kiss him, ever so lightly.

The burst of longing made Sam gasp out of proportion to the quick touch of his lips. To have this stalwart man by her side! A man who never asked anything from her, who never wanted to control her but would just be there, standing by her when she needed and waiting for her when she needed that. To have an infinity of those kisses that said so much.

Could they even—?

“God, Dad!”

The voice coincided with a pair of furry paws that tumbled into the two of them and knocked them onto the ground.Shit.

“Uh,” Ty said. Which sounded about right.

“I knew it!” Matt said. “The mean girl! Again! Jesus Christ, Dad!”

“My fault,” Sam said at once, though her voice was a mumble, her lips still numb from Ty’s light kiss. “That’s on me.”

“Stop it, Sam,” Ty said. “You don’t have to take the blame for everything.” He stood and pulled her to her feet. Cairo pulled himself out of Alyssa’s hands and gamboled around his mistress, so Sam couldn’t focus on what Ty and Matt were saying to each other. But Matt made his point by stalking away from the scene, and Alyssa followed, glancing back only to give Sam one more reproachful look.

“Well, shit,” Sam said.

Ty laughed. “I don’t even know what we’re in trouble for. Specifically.”

“Me either.” What had they said to each other? Had the kiss just been because of their closeness? Because Sam had been vulnerable? Was Matt pissed because he thought Sam was angling to replace his mother? Or because she wasn’t?

“We’d better follow them,” Ty said. “Or Matt might play on the highway just to tick me off.”

Sam grasped Cairo’s leash more tightly and followed him back to the car.

Chapter 17

St. Louis had so much to see, so much history running through it. But Sam didn’t even bother suggesting that they do a tour when they arrived that night. She could count the number of words they’d exchanged in the car over the last few hours. They’d booked a motel on the outskirts—a cheaper place than where Sam usually stayed—that took dogs and would get them back on the highway quickly the next morning. Tonight, tomorrow night, and they would be done.

Sam focused on getting Cairo out of the back and over to a patch of grass while the others took out their backpacks. But they were waiting for her at the entrance to the lobby, so she had little time to gather herself before Matt strode through the door.

A woman came out of a room separated from the lobby by a bead curtain. Sam hadn’t seen one of those since college, and then only because one of her friends had been trying to relive the ’60s. The woman herself was young, wearing cutoffs and a T-shirt that bared her midriff. She had a baby on her hip.

“Hi there!” she said through a wad of gum. The baby looked just like her, blond and big-eyed, though unlike her cheery welcome, it was solemnly gazing at Sam while one chubby hand had half the woman’s breast in its grip.

“Hello,” Sam said, trying to remember how to be a normal, polite human being. “I called earlier. Fielding? Two twins?”

“Oh sure!” said the woman—actually, the more she talked, the more Sam wondered if she was even twenty-one yet—“so glad you made it!” She sat the baby down on the countertop and pulled a tablet from under it with one hand, keeping one hand on the child’s chubby leg as she did so. “I’m Tammy, by the way.”