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Sam replaced the book on the shelf with more force than necessary. “Fuck! Is it true? Have I never told her?” His fists clenched and his brows drew together, thinking furiously about the past few weeks. He had told her how much he needed her…which he did. But love? Had he really not said those words to her?
“Selfish bastard,” he mumbled, chastising himself. She had told him so many times, sometimes with him prompting her, but others when he didn’t. Maddie had opened herself to him completely, soothing his soul with her words. And he had never said the words back to her.
His heart sank, realizing that she had never had anyone tell her they loved her. Not once. Ever. Hell, even he had heard it from his mother and occasionally from his brother, and now from the woman who meant more to him than anything or anyone else in the entire world.
“I love you, Madeline,” he whispered huskily to the empty room, hoping she could feel it across the distance that separated them.
Sam thought about texting her, but it was something she needed to hear in person. Over and over again. It wasn’t that he didn’t love her. Maybe the problem was that he loved her so damn much that the words seemed inadequate.
There were packing boxes everywhere, everything in place for the movers to come tomorrow and start packing and moving Maddie’s stuff to his place. He pulled a few of them in front of the bookshelves, packing her journals carefully into the boxes and sealing them with a roll of strapping tape.
These are private. Madeline’s written emotions.
After he had made sure the boxes were so taped up that it would take a miracle to get them open, he labeled them with a marker as personal books. He didn’t want anyone else packing them, possibly looking at them. They were chronicles of her heartbreak, pain, thoughts, and triumphs.
Mine. I love her. She fucking belongs to me. Always has and always will.
As he strode toward the door, he remember Simon’s breakdown in their offices when his little brother finally admitted that he loved Kara. Sam shook his head as he locked the door to Maddie’s house, finally knowing exactly how his brother had felt at that time. Sam had an irrational fixation with Maddie, a possessive obsession that would more than rival the one Simon had for Kara. He and Simon might be different, but deep down inside, they were much the same when it came to the one woman in their life who could turn them inside out and upside down.
“She makes me happy, crazy, possessive, insane, ecstatic, maniacal…every emotion all at the same time,” he said in a perplexed voice, getting into his Bugatti. “How the hell can that be?”
Strangely enough, it really didn’t bother him. It made him feel…alive.
Taking a quick glance at his watch as he pulled out of the driveway, his grin broadened. He had time to stop at the jewelers one more time, one more thing he needed to do before he went home.
Tonight, he planned to give Maddie more love than she could handle…in more ways than one.
“He hasn’t told you he loves you? That’s not exactly a shocker. It took Simon a while. I guess the Hudson men just seem to think we’re psychic,” Kara’s disgusted voice sounded from Maddie’s hands-free phone connection in her new SUV. “But you know he does.”
Maddie sighed as she made a smooth right turn, bringing her closer to home.
Home. Sam’s home. Our home. When my things are moved tomorrow, I’ll be permanently together with Sam.
“Are you kidding? The crazy man nearly jumped to his death to save me from getting bruised up and injured. I don’t doubt it. Not for a moment,” Maddie answered Kara emphatically, speaking louder than she probably needed to because she knew her friend was in another country right now.
“I’m so happy you agreed to marry him,” Kara said, her voice sincere. “He loves you, Maddie. I think he always has.”
“I know he does.”I just wish he’d say it. Just once.“How’s my future godchild?”
“He’s fine. Both of us are eating too much,” Kara answered, her laughter and Simon’s growl flowing through the speaker in the car. “Simon, I told you it’s a boy,” Kara’s voice was muffled, the last comment directed at her husband, who was probably sitting right beside her. “When are you moving in with Sam?” Kara questioned, her attention back on Maddie.
“I basically already have, but it’s official tomorrow. My stuff is being packed and brought by movers.”
Kara whistled through the phone line. “He’s not wasting any time, is he?”
Maddie rolled her eyes. Sam had called the movers the day after they had tumbled down the stairs, arranging everything in just a phone call. “Nope. But I wasn’t exactly protesting,” she admitted. She didn’t want to be away from Sam anymore. They had been separated long enough.
“I still can’t believe Max is your brother. Although now that I know, you two both have the same unusual eyes and I can see the resemblance,” Kara mused.
“I still can’t believe it myself, but I’m happy. I just wish he wasn’t so sad. He must have loved his wife very much,” Maddie answered.
“I think he must have, but I really don’t know. She died before Simon and I got together,” Kara answered thoughtfully.
Trying to lighten the conversation, Maddie asked, “So when are you coming home?”
“Next Thursday. And I still have the weekend off, so we can shop since you aren’t allowed to work weekends at the clinic anymore,” Kara replied with laughter in her voice.
Maddie smiled. Sam wanted her home on the weekends, and she had agreed. They would both be busy Monday through Friday. Just being at the clinic every single weekday was enough to make her ecstatically happy. There would be a doctor available on Saturdays to see patients who couldn’t make it to the clinic during the week, but it wouldn’t be her. However, she could review the weekend records and they would all beherpatients.