Just The Way You Are(43)

"Megan wants to know if you can work on the kite tonight after the soccer game."

Sam groaned. "I forgot about the kite."

"Is there a problem?"

"I planned to work on the Thunderbird tonight."

"You can't wax it another day?" She felt a bit peeved by his response. If Tessa had always had one half of his heart, the T-Bird had had the other.

"I'm not waxing it, I'm showing it to a potential buyer," he replied.

Her jaw dropped. "No way. You love that car. You've spent half your life caressing it with hot wax. I can't believe—"

"I'd hardly call a few weekends half my life."

"I'd hardly call it a few weekends." She searched his eyes for the truth. "You said you'd never sell the Thunderbird. When we had that horrible summer of rain and we had to repair the roof, you wouldn't even consider selling it."

He played with the keys still dangling from the ignition, his gaze fixed on the front window. "You said I was stuck in the past. Well, maybe you were right." He glanced over at her, his eyes serious. "I need some things for the business, equipment, maybe a new boat down the road. I could use the money. And the car is a good place to get it. I saw an ad for a Thunderbird on-line recently and the car went for thirty thousand dollars."

"Unbelievable."

"I know. It's a lot of money."

"Not the money, you. You're unbelievable."

He turned sideways in his seat. "Why?"

"Because you love that car. You worked forever to buy it from Mr. Carlton's widow—nights, weekends, summers. You were obsessed."

"I was sixteen. A car and sex were pretty much all I had on my mind."

"But I can still see you and Tessa driving around town in that car. You thought you were so cool."

"It was a long time ago, Alli. And you and I have driven in the car since then. Hell, we've done a few other things in that car as well, if you remember."#p#分页标题#e#

She cleared her throat at the piercing look in his eyes. She didn't want to be reminded of exactly what they'd done in that car. "I must admit you've surprised me."

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do."

"Maybe I don't," she admitted. "When did you decide to sell it?"

He thought about her question for a few moments, then said, "Since I moved it out of our garage and into my father's garage. I started wondering why I was holding on to it so tightly when everything else in my life was slipping away."

She caught her breath at his words. "I never thought you wanted to hang on to me, Sam. I thought I was hanging on to you."

He opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was going to say was cut off as a loud motorcycle sped into the loosely graveled parking lot, kicking up dust and tiny pebbles. Alli was surprised to see Tessa hop off the back of the bike and pull the helmet from her head, shaking out her blond hair with a laugh. Tessa on a motorcycle? Tessa dressed in faded blue jeans with holes at the knees? Tessa?

Alli snuck a glance at Sam, who seemed as dumbstruck as she was.

"Hey," Tessa called out with a wave.

Sam opened his door and stepped out, leaving Alli to follow.

"I can't believe you're riding a motorcycle. What happened to thinking that was like riding down the road in a garbage can?" Sam asked her.

She laughed again. "Oh, I still think that, but Jimmy has a way of convincing me I should try new things."

"Nice to see you," Jimmy said to Sam, then he flung a charming grin in Alli's direction. "And I'm more than happy to see you again."

Alli couldn't help responding to Jimmy's sexy smile, especially since Sam was staring at Tessa like he'd never seen her before. So much for thinking he was having second thoughts about their marriage. "Likewise," she replied.

"So what do we do now?" Jimmy asked.

"We'll take a boat out to the far end of the bay and pull up some fresh oysters. Hunting for a wild pearl is a little like looking for a needle in a haystack," Alli continued. "We often had to try several oyster farms before we found anything."

"I do hope this involves some actual eating of oysters."

"By the time we're through, you'll never want to see an oyster again," Alli promised.

"Maybe, but I bet my libido will be in overdrive," he replied with a wink in Alli's direction.

"We better get started," Sam interrupted, his tone decidedly frosty.

Alli smiled to herself as they walked up to the entrance. Sam didn't like Jimmy. Good. Not that Sam was jealous on her account, more likely he was afraid that Tessa had something going on with the rugged photographer who had actually convinced her to get on a motorcycle. Oh, well, at least Jimmy would make things more interesting in what was probably going to be a long afternoon.