the foil, and he knew that what had been between them was far from dead.
But that hardly mattered, did it? She’d made her feelings clear two months ago when she’d walked away from him without so much as a backward glance.
Clearing his throat, he buried old hurts and said instead, “You keep eating chocolate like you do and you’re gonna lose all your teeth before you’re forty.”
“It’ll be worth it,” she muttered.
“And when they’re all gone, how will you eat chocolate then?”
She glanced at him. “Chocolate malts. Through a straw.”
“Hardhead.”
“Bully.”
Sam grinned and watched a little smile tug at one corner of her mouth. Damned if he hadn’t missed their little…discussions. Almost as much as he’d missed…other things.
“Well,” he said, and fired up the engine, “what do you say we find a place to ride this storm out?”
“Ya-hoo, Tonto.”
“Hey,” he protested. “It’s my car, I get to be the Lone Ranger. You’re Kemosabe.”
When her cell phone rang twenty minutes later, Karen was so happy it was working again, she didn’t bother to wonder who might be calling her at 3:00 a.m.
She might have known.
“Hi, Mom,” she said, and threw a glance at Sam. His chuckle was enough to make her grit her teeth.
“Karen, honey—” Her mother’s voice came through despite the static. “Where are you? Someplace safe, I hope.”
“Of course I’m safe,” she replied. Physically, anyway. Emotionally, she wasn’t so sure. Being this close to Sam Paretti again wasn’t a good idea. The memories of their time together were too fresh. Too strong. Too tantalizing.
“How far inland are you?” her mother asked, splintering Karen’s thoughts and dragging her back to the present.
“Actually, I’m on my way.”
“On your way?” her mother asked. “You should have left town hours ago.”
“Traffic was too bad to leave earlier,” she said, telling both her mother and Sam.
“Martha…” Karen’s father, apparently on the extension, spoke up. “Now that we know she’s all right, why don’t we hang up and let her get where she’s going?”
“Thanks, Dad.” She could always count on her father to keep a sane head.
“None of this would have been happening if you hadn’t moved,” her mother pointed out. “You could be safe and sound here in California….”
“Waiting for the Big One with the rest of us,” her father interrupted.
“Mom, I’m perfectly safe—”
“Now,” Sam added his two cents.
“Who was that?” her mother asked.
Karen closed her eyes and prayed for patience. “Uh…” She tossed a glare at Sam, who didn’t seem the least bit affected. “I’m with a friend,” she finally said.
He laughed at the strained tone of her voice as she stumbled over the word friend.
Fine, they weren’t friends, she thought. But they weren’t lovers anymore, either. So what did that make them…friendly enemies?
“Which friend?” her mother asked.
“Martha…”
“Say hello for me,” Sam said, in a tone loud enough to carry.
She sighed, giving into the inevitable. “It’s Sam. He says hello.”
“Sam? You didn’t tell me you were seeing him again.”
“I’m not seeing him—”
Sam laughed again and she wanted to scream.
“Karen, what is going on—”
“I hate to interrupt,” Karen said, not really minding at all, since it was the only sure way to get her mother’s attention. “But I really should help Sam watch the road.”
“You do that, honey,” her dad said, adding, “you and Sam take care now.”
“That’s right,” her mom said briskly. “Now, I’ve lived through my share of those hurricanes—which is one of the reasons I left the East Coast—so I know what it’s like. You get inland and call me when you can. The phone lines will probably go down and—”
“Martha…” Stuart Beckett’s voice became a bit sterner.
“I know, I know. Okay, honey, now don’t you stop until you’re safe.”
“I won’t. I promise.” Karen smiled into the phone. Despite the fact that her parents, like any other set of parents, could drive her insane at a moment’s notice, she did love them dearly. Missing them was the only hard part about living so far away. “I’ll call as soon as I can.”
After another round of “Be carefuls,” she hung up and tucked her cell phone back into her purse. Listening to the whine of the tires on the slick highway and the rumble of raindrops hammering the car, Karen turned her head to stare at Sam.
“Why would you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Make sure my parents knew that you were in the car with me?”
He shrugged. “Didn’t know I was supposed to be hiding.”
“You’re not,” she grumbled. “It’s just that now they’ll want to know what’s going on and—”
“And you don’t want to tell them any more than you wanted to tell me, is that it?”
She stiffened slightly at the sting in his tone. “Sam, I told you I had reasons for breaking up with you.”
“Yeah, so you said. Unfortunately, you didn’t feel the need to tell me what they were.”
“Does it matter?”
“Hell, yes, it matters!” he nearly shouted, then caught himself and lowered his voice again. “You know something, I really don’t want to do this again.”
“You think I do?”
He shook his head. “I guess not.”
The tension in the car was nearly palpable. Karen’s stomach twisted and her heart ached. Once things had been so good between them. Now…
“So,”
