“Then go,” she said at once. “I can stay here till you get home.” She saw another of those annoying looks that suggested he didn’t want to inconvenience her. “Or I’ll stay till you can get somebody else, if you don’t want me here.”
Guilt darkened his eyes. He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Carrie, I am so sorry if I’ve made you feel as if you have no place here. I’m not even sure why I let myself get so crazy today. Maybe it was because Susie was trying to take over and I got defensive about that. Then Bobby wanted you with him, not me, and I hate relying on you, on anyone, right now. I need to know I can handle this stuff on my own, but the truth is that I can’t. When I arrived at the nurse’s office at school and saw that black eye and split lip, I felt completely helpless. I wanted to burst into tears myself and curse Laurel for putting me into this position.”
Carrie felt the start of her tension easing. “Welcome to parenthood! Do you think there’s a parent on earth who hasn’t felt that way the first time his or her baby gets a cut or bruise that they couldn’t prevent? The only adult I know who seems to handle that with complete aplomb is Gram. Nell has seen more than her share of injuries and come to accept that the vast majority are messy, but not life-threatening. She’s really the one you want around in a crisis. The rest of us just do the best we can.”
The corners of Sam’s mouth lifted. “Are you suggesting you were as scared as I was?”
“Not so much scared as wanting to cry because Bobby was in pain.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Neither did you,” she reminded him. “You did everything just right, Sam. You even called me when Bobby asked for me, rather than making him tough it out.”
She risked taking a step closer and this time she did put her hand on his cheek. “You did just fine, Sam.”
“I have to wonder if every day is going to bring some new challenge that’s going to make me feel completely inept.”
“More than likely,” she said candidly. “But think about last night. When Bobby was sad and lost, you pulled together exactly the right sort of celebration of his dad. You made everything okay again.”
Sam sighed. “His mom and dad are gone. Nothing will ever be okay again.”
“It won’t be the same again,” she corrected. “But it will be okay, because he has you.” She hesitated, then added, “And me, if you want me around.”
He reached for her then and pulled her into his arms. Carrie accepted the embrace and the apology that was in his actions, if not exactly in his words.
“I want you around,” he said. “More than I probably should. You’re going to get sick of being my go-to person.”
Carrie touched a finger to his lips. “Kiss me.”
Sam looked startled, but then he bent his head and claimed her lips. Like a drowning man, he clung to her and kissed her until they were both breathing hard.
When he finally pulled away, Carrie caught her breath, then smiled. “There are some definite perks that go with being the go-to person in your life.”
“It’s not nearly enough compared to what I owe you.”
“Let me be the judge of that. Now go back to work. I’ll be here when you come home. If we’re lucky, Bobby will be sleeping soundly.”
A grin tugged at his lips. “What on earth will we do, then?”
“I have a few ideas. We’ll discuss them when you get home.” She shrugged. “Or not. Maybe I’ll just show you.”
She laughed as Sam pulled out his cell phone and hit speed dial. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Calling Mack. If there’s a God in heaven, he will have solved that website problem without me.”
“But you won’t be really happy until you see for yourself that it’s been handled properly. Go.”
He hesitated, then asked, “We’re okay, even after my slight lapse into idiocy?”
“We’re okay,” she assured him.
He claimed her lips one more time, then headed for the door.
“Hurry home,” she called after him.
“I like how that sounds,” he said, then closed the door behind him.
Carrie liked it, too, probably a little too much, given how prone Sam was to panicking over where things were headed between them.
Unfortunately the tech issue at the paper hadn’t been resolved. It took Sam and Mack hours of frustrating work and way too many calls to their service provider to get everything back online and functioning properly.
“Do you think Kristin Lewis deliberately left some sort of bug in there just to yank your chain?” Sam asked, referring to the woman who’d initially designed the website and gotten it up and running. He knew she and Mack had a romantic history she’d hoped to recapture when she’d come to town. It had been a messy situation, complicated when a subsequent relationship with Luke O’Brien had fallen apart, as well.