“I’m a little nervous, if you want the truth,” Charlotte said.
“You’ll have a great time,” Alex said.
“Sam’s really nice,” Evie added. “He comes off as gruff sometimes but it’s all bluster.”
Sam? Gruff? She hadn’t seen that side of him, she supposed. From the moment they had met, that painfully embarrassing encounter at the restaurant when she had thought he was breaking in, he had been wry and quick-witted and extremely sexy but not at all taciturn.
Did he show a different side to her than he did to everybody else?
She really didn’t want to sit here and listen to her friends psych Charlotte up for her date with the man Alex was in lo—er, seriously lusted after.
“I should probably run. I’m going to swing by and check on Caroline.”
“I’ll walk out with you,” Charlotte said. “I need to pick up the dress I’m wearing at the boutique. I had to go shopping. Nothing I had in my closet fit.”
She received a round of high-fives for that, further evidence of how far she had come. Losing eighty pounds tended to completely change a person’s outlook. Alex could remember when Charlotte used to hate shopping for clothes, but now it was one of her favorite things.
She was a terrible person, Alex thought, as they walked out of the Silver Strike Lodge to the parking lot some distance away.
Charlotte was a close friend and Alex ought to be jumping handsprings for her that she had a date with a great guy she liked.
She was the one who had suggested Charlotte was perfect for Sam, right? And she was. He and Ethan both needed somebody just like her—somebody giving and loving who could nurture them.
Instead, just the thought of them together made her want to cry.
She was only emotional because of Caroline, she told herself, but the explanation rang hollow.
“Are you sure you don’t mind, Alex?” Charlotte asked when they walked outside the lodge. “That I’m going to the gala with Sam, I mean?”
Uh. She scrambled for some way to respond and tried to put on a suitably bewildered expression. “Mind? Why on earth would I mind?”
“I don’t know. I just...” Charlotte’s voice trailed off and she chewed her lip, one old habit she hadn’t managed to break. “I heard Claire say something to Maura earlier today, that’s all. About you and Sam. Going out a few times.”
She could feel her face go hot. “We hung out a few times, that’s all. You know how I am. Never happy for long with one guy.”
As much as she hated that mostly unearned reputation and the jokes her friends sometimes made at her expense, in this case it came in handy.
Charlotte scrutinized her carefully and she wondered if she had been too quick, too hearty, with her answer. “Are you sure? I like Sam, of course, I mean, who wouldn’t? He’s a great father, a hard worker, a decorated war hero.”
“Yes. He is.” And a fantastic kisser. Don’t forget that part.
“That’s how we met, actually,” Charlotte went on. “I knew he used to be in the army and I thought maybe he could have some suggestions for how to deal with Dylan.”
“Oh. Of course. Good idea. How is Dylan lately? I haven’t seen him around.”
“Still struggling.” Charlotte’s eyes filled with sorrow. “He’s moved into that awful cabin in Snowflake Canyon. All he does is sit around collecting his veteran benefits and drinking and slamming the door on us when we try to go talk to him.”
“I’m sorry.” Today, with her emotions so close to the surface, she wanted to cry for all that wasted potential. Dylan had been smart and fun, a natural leader.
Why did there have to be so damn much pain in the world?
Life was so much easier when she could shut it all out, keep herself from caring.
“He just doesn’t seem to be getting better, you know? He needs some kind of purpose. I don’t know, I thought maybe Sam might have some advice for how to shake him out of it. Soldier to soldier, you know? He agreed to introduce himself.”
“Did he?”
She wanted to tell Charlotte right now to stop talking. She didn’t want to hear more about the wonderful Sam Delgado, but at the same time she wanted to know everything.
Charlotte nodded, her smile soft. “He managed to track him down at the liquor store and struck up a conversation. And, get this, he offered Dylan a job on his construction crew! Can you believe that? A one-armed, half-blind carpenter?”
“Of course he did.”
Alex began to laugh and once she started, she couldn’t seem to stop. Charlotte was giving her a very concerned look, probably ready to call for the paramedics and a straitjacket, but the laughter still bubbled out.