Resisting Samantha (Hope Parish Novels Book 10) (21 page)

Whoa
.
That thought had just hijacked my brain, but it sounded damn good to
me. We headed for the house. Inside, I oohed and ahhed over her new
kitchen, and I didn’t have to feign it at all. It was very
impressive.

It was going on
eight o’clock by the time we made it back to the kitchen. I
promised to help her assemble her bedroom after we ate. She turned
down the burner on the big pot. The aroma had been unmistakable, but
I had been too busy getting her into bed for it to truly register.
Gumbo. “You tried Mrs. G’s recipe?” My mouth was
already watering.

“Yes, and
there’s corn bread to go with it.”

“Even better.”
We ate out on the back porch, and it was so good, both of us went
back for seconds.

“So, what is
the verdict? Is this the best gumbo you’ve ever tasted?”

“Yes.”

“Would you
have said that regardless to spare my feelings?”

I schooled my
features. “Yes. That’s my final answer.”

She gave me one of
her dry, amused looks.

I grinned at her,
and what I’d planned to say later just blurted out of my mouth.
I had wanted to work up to it, but instead I said, “Will you go
with me to my parents’ wedding anniversary? It’ll be
formal. Brax is catering it, though, so the eats will be great.”

“You’re
asking me to come to a family gathering?” she wheezed. “As
in meeting your parents.”

“You’ve
met my parents.”

“But this is,
you know, formal.” She stood up and began to pace. “I’d
have to put on a dress…heels and everything. That’s a
lot of work.” She looked me up and down. “Do you think
you’re worth that much work?”

I got up and settled
my arms loosely around her hips, letting her explore and taste,
reciprocating in kind, amusement warring with arousal. She turned me
on in every sense. When I pressed her face to my chest, her hair like
silk against my jaw, she felt soft, sensual, and sexy as sin.

“I’ll
endeavor to work at being deserving,” I said, my voice low and
husky. Smiling into her eyes, I gently kissed her again. “So,
what do you say? You wouldn’t want me to have to go alone,
because I’m pretty much attached to this beautiful chef.”

She gazed at me, her
eyes dark and slumberous, her mouth still moist from our kisses, and
my pulse tumbled and caught.

She ran her thumb
over my bottom lip, then leaned in to press a slow, savoring kiss
against my lips. “Are you? You’re so easy.”

I gave a huff of
laughter against her mouth. “You still haven’t answered
my question.”

She gave me a slow
half smile that was a come-on if I’d ever seen one, but there
was a glint in her eyes that wasn’t at all sensual.

That sparkle of
amusement intensified when she tipped her head to the side. “Yes,
I will come to your parents’ wedding anniversary party with
you.”

I started backing
her towards the house.

She giggled.
“Stomach is full. It’s below-the-belt time, then.”

I looked all
innocent. “No, we have to assemble the bed first.”

CHASE

I paced like a
bridegroom right before he was going to tie the knot. Samantha was
still upstairs getting ready. We had plenty of time, and I was smart
enough to know my nervousness didn’t stem from anything other
than facing my family as a unit for the first time since I ran away
from home ten years ago.

“Stop pacing,”
she yelled down the stairs. “Everything will be fine. We’ll
go see your parents, eat cake, and schmooze.”

“So absolutely
nothing could go wrong, like maybe my brother messing up my tux?”

“That’s
what you’re worried about, GQ? Getting your tux mussed?”
she said as she came down the stairs.

“I’m
worried my brother is going to…Christ…” I
straightened and took her in in one big, delicious, sexy gulp. She
took my breath…and I didn’t think she was going to give
it back.

The gown was made
out of a pearl gray, flowy material, with fancy stitching on it. I
couldn’t take my eyes off her.

She smoothed her
hands over her hips. “I look presentable? It’s a
trumpet-mermaid dress. Tulle always makes a woman feel like a
princess. The Cinderella complex. Look at the back.”

She whirled to show
me a lace-up corset back. “I wish we were back home so I could
find out what you have on under that dress…you look amazing,
and that bow looks so damn tempting. What a tease.”

She looked at me
over her shoulder with wouldn’t-you-like-to-know mystery in her
eyes and cocked her brows, giving me a soft, sexy smile. “You
won’t get to unwrap me until we get home, but I think you’ll
like what’s underneath. “Look, I’m wearing heels.”

She lifted the skirt
and placed her heel, modeling the pretty, open-toed shoes for me.
“Cinderella would be jealous,” I said.

She gave me an up
and down perusal as I pulled at the cuffs of my white shirt like
James Bond. “Devastating. You clean up good, Chase.”

I rubbed my jaw. “I
even shaved.”

“If I had my
way, I’d take you all scruffy and sexy-looking, straight from
the bayou.” She moved closer and rested her hands against my
chest. “You don’t have to make an impression, you know.
This is your family. They love you.”

“Jake—”

“Loves you,
too.” She said, her expression sincere and comforting. “Why
do you think he’s acting out? He’s trying to compensate
for his anger and bitterness, reconcile it with his love for you as
his brother. It’s been ten years. You can’t expect him to
get through and over ten years of your absence and all the crap he’s
built up over time. Just be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a
day.” She reached up and adjusted my bow tie. “No matter
what changes in our lives…,” her voice caught a little,
“…family will always be family, and that love doesn’t
die. Even when we do.”

“We’d
better go. We wouldn’t want to be late.”

I reached for the
door, ready to embark on making changes in my life that were long
overdue. I would find out if Thomas Wolfe was right. Can you ever go
home again?

There were so many
cars in front of my parents’ house, we had to park out on the
road and walk up the driveway. I clasped Samantha’s hand as we
passed through the tall, intricately vine-worked, black wrought iron
gates that stood open in welcome.

Majestueux, my
family’s estate, stood at the end of a traditional
allée
or, in English, alley of ancient, moss-draped live oak, a testament
to the old South and Colonel Beauregard’s money. My gut twisted
with anger that this house and Suttontowne were part of that ugly
legacy. The plantation was old, had probably been there long before
the Colonel claimed it, renovated it, and made it his home. A lot of
plantations fell to the carpetbaggers after the War of Northern
Aggression, and it must have played to ole Beau’s pride to make
this place into a showpiece. It sat just outside the city limits, on
emerald green, manicured lawns, butting up against the bayou to its
back, a testament to his pride in his position as founding father.

Samantha stopped and
swallowed. “Wow,” she said when she spied the big white
columns. “You used to live here?”

The stark white
structure sported six twenty-four-foot-tall Doric columns supporting
the four sides of the house and the jutting Caribbean-style roof. The
doors, centered on both the upper and the lower levels of the house,
showed off fan lights and sidelights, and were bordered by two sets
of French doors with louvered shutters painted a rich emerald green.
Three dormers with Palladian windows set off the gray slate roof. A
glassed-in cupola capped the magnificent mansion.

I chuckled. “Yep.
I was born here.”

She tucked her arm
through mine. “Then I can see the kind of pressure you must
have been under, and how the shattering of your birthright must have
affected you and your family. Just because you don’t want it
anymore, doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect you.”

I stopped and she
turned to look up at me. “You’re right,” I said. “I
never really thought about it before. How I felt
was
right at the time. What I worked for, what I
was
,
had merit.” I might not want the trappings of that golden boy
from my past any longer, but everything changes and grows, or goes
stagnant. I think, even as young as I had been, I realized that I had
to get past all of it, work through the devastation of knowing my
life was founded on a lie. But it didn’t make that life any
less real or important.

She pressed her hand
over my heart. “You did what you needed to do to make yourself
into someone you could live with. That takes enormous courage,
Chase.”

“I was scared.
It was fear that sent me out into the bayou, not courage. I had a
secret I didn’t know what to do with, but I knew it was wrong
to keep silent. I didn’t want to be the one who shattered my
families’ belief in themselves the way mine was shattered when
I read that journal. Jake was right. I was a coward.”

“If you hadn’t
run away, you would have remained trapped in this…” she
gestured to the house, “…life, with no way to find out
who you were after the fall from grace. It would have been weak to
stay on a path that would have made you go against what you believed
in.”

“I can’t
help thinking that’s exactly what Jake did, is still doing, but
he couldn’t admit it to himself…especially now, with me
coming back.”

“I think
understanding that is what has made you the successful man you are,”
she continued. “Hard work, sweat, and a strong, true heart.
That’s who I know as Chase Sutton. That won’t ever
change. Jake is unhappy, and that unhappiness goes deep. He fears you
coming home.”

“Why?”

“He resents
that you had the guts to leave when he didn’t. It will make him
examine everything he hasn’t faced since the secret was
revealed. He went on a bender that lasted a week. Everyone was
talking about it. He got unruly and caused some fights, mostly big
mouths who wanted to take a poke at him when it came out what the
Colonel had done.”

“Really? I
didn’t know that.” I had been so isolated. I could have
probably helped him then, if I had been aware and not estranged from
the entire family. I’d already been through that fire, and had
consumed enough alcohol to kill me outright.

I looked at the
house and thought it should be sold, torn down, eradicated, just like
every other thing that paid homage to the Colonel. The house was
primarily a place to entertain, and they hosted more than their share
of parties in the high-society circles they enjoyed. Maybe things
couldn’t change. Maybe I was a fool to think they might.
Nevertheless, I had to try.

We climbed a regal,
horseshoe-shaped double stairway that ran from the ground floor to
the upper gallery of the house, giving it its majestic name, and of
course someone was there to open the door. The table normally in the
foyer had been removed, the remnants of our fight nothing but an echo
in the hall. My parents were there, and my momma’s eyes lit up
when she saw us.

“Samantha,
sugar, you’re so welcome to our home.” She bussed my
cheek. “Chase,” she said softly. “I’ve been
waiting so long to get you back.” She brushed at her cheek.

“Amy, darlin’,
don’t start, or you’ll get us all going,” my daddy
said, clasping and shaking my hand. He was happy I was here, there
was no mistaking that. “It’s wonderful to see you again,
Samantha. If Brax wasn’t my son-in-law, you’d be my first
choice for a caterer.”

“Thanks, Mr.
Sutton.”

“Oh, please.
Call me Jim.”

“I heard
that,” Brax said, giving Samantha a narrow-eyed glare, pointing
from his eyes to hers that he was watching her. She grinned at his
playful rivalry. He greeted us and then moved on.

River blindsided me
with a tight hug, holding on to me for a few seconds longer than
customary. “I’m so glad to have you here,” she
whispered.

Jake stood at the
library door, his tie untied, a drink in his hand. His body was taut
and looked ready for battle, even as he leaned against the doorframe
as if he didn’t give a damn. He raised the glass with a
sardonic look on his face.

I mingled and mixed
with the people at the party, including Aubree’s mom and her
stepdad, the sheriff. I saw my Uncle Win with Aunt Evie. It was clear
she was pumping Samantha for information about our trip to the bayou,
then the conversation would most likely move on to Sam’s
decorating challenge. She still had a house to fill.

The party wound down
to after-dinner brandies and more conversation. My mother almost wept
when I gave her and Daddy the keys to the
Amy
as their gift. I could easily get another boat. My investments had
gone through the roof this past year, and I probably didn’t
really need to work as hard as I did.

That made me look at
Samantha and think about spending more time with her. It was time to
seriously consider hiring regular staff.

Brax wheeled out a
six-tier cake, white frosting with lilies cascading down the side. My
Daddy made a beautiful speech to my momma about how much he loved her
and would gladly spend the next thirty years proving it every day.
They cut the cake and passed it around.

As the groups
thinned out, my daddy asked me to stay afterward for a bit. He wanted
to talk to me. I wondered if he was planning to mediate Jake’s
and my difficulties.

My momma had
corralled Samantha, River, and Evie to talk about Samantha’s
decorating challenges. I entered the library to find Jake leaning
against the bar, still drinking.

“Jake has a
proposition,” my daddy said. “I’ll let him present
it.”

Jake smiled, and it
was one I remembered. He had something up his sleeve.