Stay for Me (4 page)

“When did you quit?” she asked, blowing
off his lame attempt at distracting her. “You just came off stage. I watched—”
But she cut herself off there.

She’d watched.

He wondered if she ever did that. Just
out of curiosity, that was all.
Nothing more.
His ego
soared before he shut down the useless thought involving Emma. She’d always
intrigued him with her huge brown eyes and most importantly, smarts. Those two
things had never changed about her. He looked at her now, playing with fire.
Which is why he never let himself slip.
If sex and a woman’s
attention were what he needed, he could tuck his tail between his legs and go
hit up the woman who’d left her glossy lip prints on him. Or a number of other
women who’d done the same.
Really not what he was after at
this point in his life.
So what was he after?

Sam clasped his hands together and then
circled his wrist, trying to make his fingertips reach like a cuff. He
squeezed. “Just a few minutes ago,” he said and rocked back, nearly landing on
his butt.

“Sam, I know you better than that. What
happened? You don’t quit jobs.”

That was true. She knew him well but had
no idea of the arrangement between him and her parents, which was why he
couldn’t just have the one job right now. He’d done the math enough times to
know he needed two full-time jobs to keep on track. Her cheek pulled in on one
side, making him copycat the motion. It hurt when he bit down hard on the
inside.

“Ellen found you and told you, didn’t
she?” Now she looked hurt and pissed at what she thought their manager had
done. Her small hand formed into a formidable fist and her knuckles tapped
against the desk.

“Not too hard or it will break,” he
said, trying again, knowing she’d get the inside joke. He almost went on about
how it wasn’t Ellen’s fault and how his construction job was in full-swing
right now, even though it hadn’t been since the end of summer.

Instead he lost the rational train of
thought and listened to a new one.

For the first time in a long time, a thought
about
them
worked its way through
mental gates he’d locked long ago.
Had to be that slip and
those eyes of hers.
Sam needed a minute to play catch-up to his brain.

But there it was.

What she’d planned to do for him tonight
meant the world.

That was Emma.
Always
trying to help where he was concerned.
He smiled and towed the line he’d
drawn so long ago in his mind. They were sitting so close to each other. He
could reach out and touch her if he wanted. Damn, he wanted to. Sam curled a
finger and cupped her chin that jutted out. The simple touch amazed him as it
warmed and awakened memories he’d done his best to forget.
Dang it
, he thought. This was no time to get nostalgic.

“Hey, you know me. I was just ready to
make the change.” He pulled his hand back sharply.

But she gave him that “nice try” look.
It would be cowardly to pretend with her.
 

“Fine, I admit.” Sam folded his hands
together to keep from reaching out to her again. “I knew Ellen wasn’t happy
with my day job and wanted me to cut back those hours. But that’s not something
I’m willing to do. Honestly, Emma, it was my choice to quit. Truth be told, the
money here has been great, but my heart hasn’t been in it the past few months.
You know that.”

A long piece of
bang that looked to be bugging her fell down the middle of her forehead.
He tried
putting it back with the others on the side but it fell again. The softness of
her hair jarred another memory back to life from that one night when he’d held
her head to his shoulder after hurting her. He’d ignored what his heart wanted
plenty the past two years. Why should she believe he was listening to it now
where dancing was concerned?

His head hurt, fast-forwarding and recalling
her walking in on him with that barely dressed, drunk bridesmaid wrapped around
his waist a few months ago. For the record, he never got naked in the
S
room but that point was probably moot.
Emma was his best friend but she was still a girl, and he’d learned they could
be sensitive about that stuff, even if they played it tough.
Like
she did.
All.
The.
Time.

“It’s all good, Emma. I’ll find
something else to fill my nights.” He’d meant another night job but kind of adored
the way her eyes grew wide just then and the tips of her one ear poking out
became red. She rubbed her neck and her fingers disappeared behind her hair. Another
speed bump in their sentimental road made his chest burn.

Damn,
not good, man.

That was when the memory he both loved
and hated hit him. He should leave here, now.

Because taking over her rubbing and adding
his kisses along her neck was something he’d done that night he’d hurt her and
vowed never to do again.

Surprised as much as he was haunted just
now, he would not go there. Also, he’d apparently left her speechless which
never happened to Emma Chester.

“Emma, I just meant that I’ll get
another night job.”

“Oh. Well, you are a workaholic, Sam
Jason,” she said. Somehow he knew she was just trying to be funny to lighten
the mood and make up for her misunderstanding just now.

He leaned in for a friendly hug with the
intention of extracting himself from this shrinking room.

Her breath tumbled out and landed on his
neck in a hot little puff.

He never got goose bumps and had to look
around her head and shoulders at his arm to verify that was what had just
happened. Yep, there they were, making the hairs on his forearms stand up. The
way his body responded knocked the air from his lungs and finally took his
footing from underneath him, landing him on his butt as he scooted out of their
embrace.

“Are you okay?” she asked as he felt his
back move against the wall.

No. In fact, he was ashamed of the slip
in control as the thrill of that shot of her breath reminded him. He’d once
thought of nothing else besides making love to her and had been pretty damn
reckless in going after it as a twenty-one-year-old man.
Didn’t
matter that they’d been best friends since they were thirteen.
In fact,
that was what should have stopped him. How much time she and her family had
given to improving his home life should have been his reminder not to touch.
Not to kiss.

The sudden mind game didn’t stop there.

Tight knots shot up through his gut. Damn,
he was not getting aroused, except for damn, he was. It was her eyes and her
hair and what she’d been trying to do for him. He pushed down and adjusted the
growing and inappropriate bulge so it didn’t bust the overworked zipper of his god-awful,
tight pants. As soon as he did that, she finally spoke.

“You’re still in costume.” He watched
her chest rise and fall with her deep breath, wondering what exactly it meant.

God, was she responding to him? He’d lie
if he didn’t still have the clearest picture of her smile taking over her face
when he came off the plane to meet her and her parents. She’d even told him how
good he looked in his Army uniform. Haunted by the knowledge of how badly he’d
hurt Emma trying to make love that night, he prayed for her sake that he was
wrong. And now here he was thinking what? Two years he’d lived up to that vow.
There had to be a way to crawl back into the hole he’d dug where feelings for Emma
were buried.

Then she did the most dangerous thing of
all. She crawled over to the wall where he’d escaped, reached out, and touched
his shoulder.

“Didn’t have time to take it off,” he
said and came out of his squat to rest on his knees, preparing to get up and
leave before he did something stupid.

He could not hurt her again, and he was
dangerously close to breaking his vow.

This was about quitting one job and
replacing it with another, finances, and upholding secret arrangements with her
parents who he loved like his own. Not drudging up the night he’d put
everything on the line and asked her to be his, how eager she’d been to say yes,
and how he’d screwed it all up. But now he couldn’t ignore the flood of fire as
Emma’s brown eyes did their best to lie for her, same as his tried on his
behalf.

“Emma, I should go.
Gotta
clean out my locker.”

Get
some fresh air and a pair of pants that aren’t so damn tight.

He vaguely noticed the slight shake to
the ends of her hair before she said the words that rocked his world, taking
this completely off the playing field he’d been prepared to run around.

She rubbed at the tip of her cute little
nose. “I only took this job because I knew if you left without me that
night,
you’d find a way to stay away for good.
For my good.
Just like you’re trying to do
now.
I’m calling bullshit, on all of this. I’ve wanted to be yours since
the eighth grade, Sam. You tell me how to quit
that
. I’m tired of lying.”

Chapter Three

Whatever craziness she was saying, it
jolted them into the present which was eons better than returning to the raw,
uncomfortable past.
Right?
Maybe
not.

So why had she done it? Why blurt that
out and come off task?

This was just Emma reacting to not
having control of the situation. Her manager stripes were showing. She was
losing her best friend—again—and it had her acting like an amateur. Her toe
tapped and she wiped at the stain on her shirt-dress. Someone should invent a
vacuum to suck stupidity back up.

Sam, meanwhile, could double as a
Caesar’s Palace statue. Physical, Italian perfection on the outside, but who
knew what the hell was going through him on the inside.
 

His stoniness cracked and he cleared his
throat, which left her mesmerized for a secret second.
To be
that strong, that unafraid.
God, he was beautiful, especially in those
military dress whites.

“My civilian clothes got snatched up.”
They glanced together over at the laundry basket where his jeans and T-shirt lay
amongst the rest. They both knew it was her doing.

She nearly died at the way he avoided
her now.

Without looking her way, he said, “Emma,
you know I don’t have the answer to your question.
Aside from
what we’ve been doing this whole time.”

The façade she’d just blasted out of the
water floated around big-bang style. The pieces would never fit quite the same
after this meeting. But if the feelings hadn’t dimmed in all this time, didn’t
that mean something? To be fair, he hadn’t copped to having the same lingering
ones as she did. That would be great, and humiliating.

“You didn’t have to quit, you know. It
was just a suspension. Ellen wanted you to get some rest. Come back recharged. Yes,
cut back on your construction hours, but…
this
is your livelihood.”

He watched the words coming out of her
mouth and she wondered if his toes gripped to the same tight, invisible ledge
as hers. As easy as it would be to answer no, the realest, rawest parts of her
knew that was impossible.
Because she knew Sam too well.
He cared for her, more than any other human being had, aside from her parents.
He was formidable when it came to accepting reality and moving on.

Although, for a
minute, he looked to be reconsidering.

The “I’m two weeks older than you” side
of him came out and he held up a silencing finger. “This place is
not
my livelihood.” He blinked and shook
his head like she’d insulted him. “Ellen didn’t just want me to cut
back,
she wanted me to quit the day job. Is that what you wanted
me to do, Emma? Work here exclusively?” he asked her, letting that bossy finger
fall until it landed on her hand. She pulled away and he let her. Sam grabbed
at his hair like she’d just frustrated the hell out of him. He never did that.
“You know what staying here would mean as much as I do,” he said so low she
thought she’d imagined it. His jaw gave and fell an inch before he raised it
back up.

Brakes.

The kind strong enough to bring a plane
to a dead halt after it had been plucked going full speed from the sky.

That’s what she needed. Because Emma was
pretty darn sure he’d just admitted something huge.

More importantly, just bringing it up
said it mattered to him.

As long as they worked together at
S
, there would never be an Emma and Sam.

****

Shit, he shouldn’t have said that last
part.

Throwing that out there was a pussy move
to pull. He could already see her mind taking orders from her heart.

Bad news.
That would get Emma
hurt.

She dug around in a drawer and another
pouch of candy corn landed in his lap.