remind me,” he muttered.
A tiny cry came from the corner of the table and Julia adjusted a baby monitor. “I’m going to check on him.” She padded down the hall, leaving Sam alone with his thoughts. Something he didn’t need right now.
He preferred his emotions tightly bottled. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have feelings. Hell, he’d felt awful after calling off his engagement. He would have made a decent husband: loyal, faithful...
Maybe those were better attributes in a family pet, but he managed okay.
In Sam’s opinion, there was no use wearing his heart on his sleeve. The scraps of memory he had from the months after his mother died were awful, his dad too often passed out drunk on the couch. Neighbors shuttling Sam and his brother to school and a steady diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When Joe finally got a handle on his emotions, it had saved their family.
Sam would never risk caring for someone like that. Feeling too much, connecting to the feelings he’d locked up tight, might spiral him back into that uncontrolled chaos.
He looked around the apartment, taking in more details with Julia out of the room. The dining area opened directly onto the living room, which was filled with comfortable, oversized furniture covered in a creamy fabric. Several fuzzy blankets fell over the arm of one chair. A wicker box overflowed with various toys, most of which looked far more complex than he remembered from childhood.
In addition to the classical CDs, framed pictures of Charlie with Julia, Vera, Lainey and Ethan sat on the bookshelves. Sam had also noticed an impressive collection of books—several classics by Hemingway, Dickens, even Ayn Rand. For someone who clearly didn’t see her own intelligence, Julia had sophisticated taste in reading material.
The baby monitor crackled, drawing his attention. He heard Julia’s voice through the static. “Did you have a dream, Charlie-boy?” she cooed. “Can Mommy sing you back to sleep?”
Charlie gave another sleepy cry as an answer and a moment later Sam heard a familiar James Taylor song in a soft soprano.
He smiled as he listened to Julia sing. Classical for Charlie, Sweet Baby James for his mother.
Sam felt a thread of unfamiliar connection fill his heart. At the same time there was a release of pressure he hadn’t realized he’d held. In the quiet of the moment, listening to her sweet and slightly off-key voice, the day’s stress slipped away. He took a deep breath as his shoulders relaxed.
“I love you, sweetie,” he heard her whisper, her tone so full of tenderness it made his heart ache all the more.
He understood in an instant how much it meant for Julia to keep her son. Knew that she’d do anything to keep Charlie safe.
Suddenly Sam wanted that for her more than he cared about his own future. But he was a man who’d made it through life taking care of himself, protecting number one at all costs. No matter how he felt about one spirited single mother, he couldn’t afford to change that now.
Hearing footsteps, he quickly stood to clear the dishes from the table.
“I think he’s back down,” she said as she came into the kitchen.
Sam rounded on her, needing to get to the crux of the matter before he completely lost control. “You’re right,” he told her. “This deal was my idea and I’ll play the part of doting fiancé because it helps us both.”
“Doting may be pushing it,” she said, fumbling with the pizza box, clearly wary of his change in mood. “We don’t need to go overboard.”
He propped one hip on the counter. “We need to make it believable.” He kept his tone all business. “Whatever it takes.”
“Fine. We’ll make people believe we’re totally in love. I’m in. Whatever it takes to convince Jeff to drop the custody suit.”
“Will he?”
“He still hasn’t even seen Charlie. I get the impression his parents are pushing for the new custody deal. The attorney is really here to figure out if they have a viable case or not before they go public. Jeff didn’t want kids in the first place. He’d even talked about getting the big snip. They probably think Charlie is their only shot at a grandchild, someone to mold and shape in their likeness.”
“I don’t think that’s how kids work.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think they care. If we can convince Lexi that Charlie has a happy, stable home and that he’s better off here than with Jeff and his family, that’s the report she’ll give to them. It will be enough. It has to. Once I get the custody agreement—”
“You’ll dump my sorry butt,” Sam supplied.
“Or you can break it off with me.” She rinsed a plate and put it into the dishwasher. “People will expect it. You’re up for reappointment soon. It should earn extra points with some of the council members. Everyone around here knows I’m a bad bet.”
“I thought you and Ethan had been the town’s golden couple back in the day.”
“He was the golden boy,” she corrected. “I was the eye candy on his arm. But I messed that up. My first in a series of epic fails in the relationship department.”
“Does it bother you that he’s with Lainey?” Sam asked, not willing to admit how much her answer meant to him.
She smiled. “They’re perfect together in a way he and I never were. She completes him and all that.”
“Do you think there’s someone out there who’d complete you?”
“Absolutely.” She nodded. “At this moment, he’s drooling in the crib at the end of the hall.”
He took a step closer to her and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “We’re going to make sure he stays there.”
Her lips parted as she looked up at him. Instinctively he eased toward her.
She blinked and raised her hands to his chest, almost pushing him away but not quite. “We have to establish some ground rules,” she said, sounding as breathless as he felt.
“I’m the law around these parts, ma’am,” he said in his best Southern drawl. “I make the rules.”
“Nice try.” She laughed and a thrill ran through him. “First off, no touching or kissing of any kind.”
It was his turn to throw back his head and laugh. “We’re supposed to be in love. You think people will believe you could keep your hands off me?”
She smacked his chest lightly. “I’m surprised your ego made it through the front door. Okay, if the situation calls for it you can kiss me. A little.” Her eyes narrowed. “But no tongue.”
He tried to keep a straight face. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“My best offer,” she whispered.
He traced her lips with the tip of one finger and felt himself grow heavy when they parted again. “I think we’d better practice to
