Page 44 of Long Lost Winter

“I can’t promise not to hurt you, Sam.”His hand smoothed over her hair, curled around the back of her neck.“But I don’t want to.”

“Well, I guess I don’t want to hurt you either.And that’s kind of my MO.”

He sighed.“I don’t think that’s fair to say about yourself.It’s not your fault your aunt was hurt because you told the truth.It was an important truth, Sam.”

She just… didn’t know how to believe that, no matter how many times he said it.If love and loyalty were necessary parts of any relationship, what did it mean if you always betrayed both?

“Sam.”He gave her neck a little squeeze until she sighed and looked at him.“I know better than most just how complicated life can be.It’ll take more than you pissing me off to get me to bail.I figure you’ll piss me off most days.”

She snorted out a laugh in spite of herself.Well, at least he didn’t have unrealistic expectations.

“I can take it.Taken a lot worse.”

“I don’t want to be your worse.”Too honest.

Too much.But it was just the basic truth of what worried her about all this.Maybe in the beginning, when she’d first brought him back to Marietta, she figured she was a little morewith itthan Nate.He’d been hurt in war, living in some creepy loner cabin on a mountain in the middle of nowhere Tennessee all by himself.

She’d had a real job, a real goal.Then she’d found out about her father, and as Nate had been rebuilding his life, hers seemed to be falling apart.

“You said you trust me, Sam.And I’m telling you you’re not anybody’s worse.”

She nodded, trying to believe it.Maybe she’d get there, maybe she never would, but when he kissed her, she figured it didn’t matter.She could just… enjoy this and him andwhatever.

So, she let him deepen the kiss.Let it all spin out.Let physical pleasure blot out all the nasty whispers in her brain.

They could see where it went.They’d survive.They’d survived worse than each other, and maybe she didn’t want them to be each other’s worsts, but hey, their dads were murderers.

Could it get worse than that?

She really hoped that wasn’t tempting fate.

*

The trill ofthe phone in Nate’s pocket surprised them both enough to jerk away from the tangle of each other.Sam groaned.Nate considered throwing the phone out into the snow.But he just didn’t get a lot of phone calls that weren’t important.

And since the past twelve hours had been pretty damn nice, he figured it was bad news.He pulled the phone out of his pocket, his free arm still locked around Sam’s waist.

He read the display.“Cal.”

“Does he have a damn radar?”Sam grumbled, causing Nate to smile in spite of himself.

“Knowing Cal, probably.But I should take it.”

“Yeah, you should.”She extricated herself from his hold, adjusted her rumpled clothing, and started collecting dishes from the table and taking them to the sink as Nate answered the call.

“Everything okay at the ranch?”Nate asked.

“Yeah, at the ranch,” Cal said.He sounded… wound up.“Nate.Jesus.We need to talk.”

“I’m not really looking to go out driving in this.”Or leaving Sam’s apartment for the foreseeable future.“Is it important?”

“No, it’s about a football game on Sunday.Of course it’s fucking important.”

Nate sighed, closing his eyes.“What happened?”

“I just had… I can’t even…”

“Cal, spit it out.What’s wrong?”