The Great Bedroom War (23 page)

“I’m just saying—” His daughter’s mouth snapped shut at the sound of the front door opening.

Two seconds later Sam strolled into the family room holding Adam’s hand. “Good, you’re still up.”

“How come you’re so late?” Dani asked. “I thought you were just going out to dinner.”

“We would’ve been back forty minutes ago,” Adam told them, “but there was a huge pile-up on Rt. 202 that jammed traffic up.”

As Sam placed her evening bag on the island, Dani grabbed her mother’s wrist and slid off the counter. “Oh-my-gosh! Where did you get that? Is it real?”

Nick stared at the huge rock on Sam’s hand, and part of the PB&J sandwich he’d eaten for dinner climbed halfway up his throat. He swallowed hard, praying he wouldn’t puke.

“I gave it to her.” Adam smiled, sliding his arm around Sam’s waist. “And of course, it’s real. I wouldn’t give her a counterfeit engagement ring.”

Dani’s mouth dropped open for a split second as she turned to Sam. “So you’re engaged?”

Sam held her hand out. “Isn’t the ring beautiful? It belonged to Dr. Chase’s great-grandmother.”

Dani glared at Adam. “Yeah, sure. It’s real nice.” She turned her pleading gaze toward Nick. “Da-ad? Aren’t you gonna say anything?”

What could he say other than,
Congratulations, you wife-poaching sonovabitch. You win
? “Will you be moving to Adam’s after you’re married, or are you planning to stay in our house?”

When Sam didn’t say anything, Adam answered for her. “We haven’t really thought that far ahead yet.”

“Well, I hope you’ll be deciding soon. It’s ridiculous for me to add an apartment over the garage if Sam’s moving out. Naturally, Dani can stay here with me. I’m sure you lovebirds will want lots of time alone.”

“Wait.” Dani held her hand up. “This is happening way too fast. When’s the wedding, Mom?”

Sam chewed on her lower lip, refusing to make eye-contact with Nick. “Umm, uhhh, since we haven’t been going out for very long, we, uhhh....”

Listening to Sam hem and haw, he narrowed his gaze. Something wasn’t right.

“....we plan to wait a while before we, umm, think about setting a date.”

“It doesn’t sound like the two of you have thought about much,” Nick said.

Adam hugged Sam to his side. “If I have my way, the wedding will be sooner rather than later.”

“It’ll be at least another year.” She turned to Adam and smiled. “So Nick may as well build his damn addition.” Her feet shifted several times as if she wanted to bolt from the room before she said something she regretted.

In the twenty-plus years Nick had known Samantha, she’d never been able to keep anything from him. If his Spidey-sense was as fine-tuned to her as he liked to think it was, he suspected her financial situation and the asinine way he’d behaved the previous Saturday had pushed her into accepting Chase’s proposal rather than any great passion.

“I guess I’d better get going,” Adam said. “I’ve got office hours tomorrow morning.”

“Wait.” Sam smiled up at Adam, linking her arm with his. “I’ll walk you to your car.”

Nick gritted his teeth as they strolled out to the front porch, no doubt to kiss each other goodnight.

Then again, there was always the distinct possibility she would actually marry the bastard to spite him. If she did, Nick would have his insane jealousy to blame.

Dani released a loud huff. “Dad,
do
something?”

“What would you like me to do,
Princesa
?” He’d already unwittingly shoved Sam into this premature engagement.

“I don’t know. Stop her. You can’t let her marry him. You just came home. She hasn’t even given you a chance.”

“Your mother is an adult. This is her decision.”

“Well, it shouldn’t be. She’s acting totally stupid.” Dani stomped up the back staircase, muttering over her shoulder, “She doesn’t want him. She wants you.”

Yeah, he liked to think that was the case. But what if Dani and he were both wrong? What if it was merely wishful thinking?

Shit
! He slammed his fist down on the granite countertop. His daughter was right. He couldn’t sit back and let his wife be stolen from him. Even if Sam didn’t want him, he doubted she would be considering marriage to Chase if she were financially independent.

More than ever, he needed to make sure her business succeeded in a big way. Not just to prove how much he cared, but to also prevent her from making a huge mistake by marrying a man she not only didn’t love but clearly felt no great desire for, either.

~*~

After dropping his daughter and Haley off at the Swann’s estate to babysit on Sunday afternoon, Nick took Chewie for a long run. When he stopped to ask Steve to join them, his neighbor declined, offering a music-to-Nick’s-ears excuse.

Steve was much too busy working on Sam’s comic book to spare the time.

Unfortunately, with only his dog for company, Nick had the solitude to do some deep soul-searching, and he didn’t like what he realized.

During their marriage, he’d always insisted it was his responsibility to take care of his family. But, since their argument last week, he’d begun to suspect his insecurity was the real reason he’d subconsciously encouraged Sam’s dependence on him. What an asshole.

Jogging back to the house, Nick noticed his brother’s pick-up truck parked behind Sam’s car. “Come on, Chewie. Maybe Justin brought some plans for me to look at.”

He raced the dog across the lawn and let him in the back door. As Nick stepped into the kitchen, he froze, staring at his brother wrapped in Sam’s embrace.

Evidently there really were still some unresolved feelings between them. So much for her engagement to Dani’s doctor.

The green-eyed monster feasted on Nick’s gut, but it had already compelled his wife to accept another man’s ring. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.

“I guess this settles any question about you being gay.”

Justin recoiled from Sam as if she’d given him a high-voltage shock.

“I thought you were here to bring me preliminary plans for the garage’s renovation. I’m sorry if I interrupted something.” Nick headed for the back stairs. “Although, you might want to ask her about that engagement ring she’s wearing.”

“Wait. It’s not the way it looks.” Justin clutched Nick’s arm to stop him.

He turned and suddenly noticed his brother’s eyes were red. He glanced at Sam’s tear-streaked face. What the hell?

“We were right to be worried about Marc.” Sam sniffed and wiped her eyes with a napkin, speaking directly to Nick for the first time in over a week. “When we had dinner, I made him promise to see a doctor and—”

“He has extensive small cell lung cancer.” Justin’s chest shuddered as he drew in a breath. “It’s metastasized.”

Nick knew from their father’s illness that small cell was the most aggressive variety of lung cancer and common to construction workers frequently exposed to asbestos. “So there’s nothing they can do for him?”

“No. Marc doesn’t even have as long as
Papi
had. Maybe six months. All they can do is make him comfortable.”

He and Marc had been friends mostly through their wives’ friendship and Justin. Memories of barbecues and vacations with the Simmons family bombarded Nick’s mind with images of them fishing with their daughters and riding roller coasters together.

“What about Haley?” Sam asked. “Has he told her yet?”

“Marc needs some time to deal with his diagnosis before he can try to comfort her. He’s hoping to wait until after the holidays. Once his illness advances, we’ll have hospice come in, and I’ll move in to look after Haley.”

Oh, God. Nick squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t imagine what this would do to Dani’s friend, losing both of her parents a year apart. He’d always been consumed by fear that his daughter or Sam might die, but aside from carrying a hefty life insurance policy and naming Lindsey and Marc as guardians in the wills he and Sam had prepared several years ago, he’d never considered how it would affect Dani if he passed away—or worse, if Sam did, too.

Samantha had no family, and his mother’s rheumatoid arthritis had forced her to retire early to Arizona where the drier climate was less likely to cause her pain. So who would take care of their daughter if something happened to both Sam and him? His bachelor brother?

Nick could suggest he and Samantha assume custody of Marc’s daughter. But considering their unstable relationship, Marc would be a fool to entrust his child to them. “What happens to Haley once Marc’s gone?”

“She doesn’t have any relatives except for Lindsey’s dad, and he’s in his seventies.” Justin shrugged. “So Marc asked me to be her guardian. I’m sorry, but with all of this going on, I haven’t had a chance to start the plans I promised you.”

“No problem. I know how close you are to Marc. This has to hurt like hell.” It also explained why Haley had overheard his brother declaring his love for her father.

“Sometimes life sucks.” Justin jerked his head toward the back door. “Anyway, the numbers I gave you for the renovation the other night were off the cuff. I need to check the garage’s dimensions and loft’s clearance before I begin designing anything. You can hold the end of the tape measure for me.”

“Sure.” He followed his brother out the back door toward the detached three-car garage. “Sam has always hated going out in bad weather to get into the car, and she loves plants, so I was thinking we could build a solarium to connect the house to the garage and include a set of stairs up to the apartment inside it.”

“Sounds nice.”

“Listen.” Nick grabbed his brother’s shoulder as he stepped into the garage before him. “I’m sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusions about you and Sammy.”

“Hey, I don’t blame you.” Justin shrugged off his hand. “It didn’t look good. By the way, what were you saying about an engagement ring?”

“The handsome doctor proposed to her last night and gave her a rock the size of a gumball.”

Justin did a double take, betraying his shock. “Hey, man, I’m sorry. I know you still have it bad for her.”

“So bad I want to stuff the bastard in a box and mail him to Afghanistan.”

“I can understand that. If I loved a woman like Sam, I’d be jealous, too.”

“You would, huh?” Nick crossed his arms over his chest. “Last night, Dani asked if the reason you don’t date much is because you’re still in love with her mother. I didn’t know what to tell her.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Justin laughed. “It’s been fifteen years,
hermano
. Besides, I don’t think I was ever really in love with Sam. I suspect my crush was more about beating you to the punch.”

“What do you mean?” Nick frowned.

“Anyone with eyes could see you had a soft spot for her. I was just your snot-nosed little brother who could never keep up with you. I liked Sam and thought she was hot, but I think the main reason I asked her out was to keep you from dating her.”

“Nice.”

“When she told me what happened the night she got pregnant, I was actually relieved. I’d been thinking about breaking up with her, but I didn’t want to hurt her.”

“It would’ve helped if you’d told me this back then.” Maybe then he wouldn’t have spent fifteen years feeling guilty about poaching his brother’s girl.

“What can I say?” Justin grinned and removed the tape measure clipped to his belt. “I always envied you because you were older and got to do everything before I did. It felt good to have our positions reversed for a change.”

Nick had always been a reminder to his mother of her mistake, so for her precious Justin to have been jealous of him was baffling. His younger brother was a good-looking, successful architect who drew women to him like a chocolate bar at an overeaters’ support meeting. He had no reason to envy any man.

“So if you like women—which, incidentally, Dani had sincere doubts about recently—why haven’t you gotten seriously involved with anyone?”

“My niece thinks I’m gay?” Justin tossed his hands up. “Wonderful. I guess I’d better start bringing a date to our family get-togethers.”

“You’re evading my question.”

Justin stared past him, wearing a faraway look in his eyes. “I was in love once.” He released a soft cynical snort as he focused back on Nick. “Just not with your wife.”

CHAPTER 12

Monday morning, Dani’s homeroom teacher told her to report to the guidance office at nine o’clock. All the way to the appointment, her stomach did somersaults. She arrived a few minutes early, so the receptionist asked her to wait. Eventually, Ms. Carlson’s door opened, and a woman Dani had never met stepped out and called, “Dani?”

“That’s me.” She rose, uncertain what she was supposed to do.

The woman gestured toward the office. “Come in and sit down. I’m Trisha Mason.”

“Where’s Ms. Carlson? Did she have her baby already?”

“No. But the doctor has put on bed rest, so she’ll be on maternity leave for several months.” Ms. Mason sank into the chair behind her desk. “The district hired me to take over her group of students temporarily.”

“Oh.” The doctor had told her mom to stay off her feet before Dani’s brother was born. But then Dani turned twelve, and her mom threw a huge birthday party for her. The next day, her mother had her brother way too soon, and he died. “I hope Ms. Carlson and her baby are okay.”

“I’m sure they will be. I see, from your file, you’ve had plenty of experience with doctors and hospitals.”

She nodded, praying the woman hadn’t called her in to discuss her illness. It was hard enough thinking about the possibility of dying. The last thing she wanted was to talk about it.

“I also received a note from your Spanish teacher that you were twenty minutes late on Thursday, and you skipped the class entirely on Friday.”

Thank God it was about that. She released the breath she’d been holding.

Thursday and Friday were the two days she’d been in the girls’ bathroom with Haley discussing her dad and Dani’s uncle. On Friday morning, after Dani had finished telling her friend what her parents had said the night before, she’d naturally had to consult Haley about what she should wear to dinner at Ryan’s house. They’d decided on her black jeans and new plum sweater because Ryan had once told her she looked pretty in purple. And then, of course, they’d had to try Haley’s new silver eye shadow.