“This is fantastic stuff!” Tammy crowed. “It’s like something from one of those old rom-coms. You’re getting all this on film, aren’t you?” she asked Jed.
Enough, already. Maybe Jed had more sense than Tammy. “If you don’t want to get your ass sued, then I suggest you put that camera down now,” Sam growled.
Jed lowered his camera, giving Sam a long look before he turned to Tammy. “Let’s get out of here before this guy blows. We got enough film to put together a good five-minute clip.”
“Oh … fine,” she snapped.
The light came off. Sam blinked, readjusting his vision. Now that he could focus, he could see that a crowd of bar patrons, including Annie’s friends, had gathered onto the deck, forming a semicircle around them.
“What’s going on?” asked Sophie. “Someone said they were taping an interview for a network show out here.”
Reggie tapped Jed on the shoulder. “Excuse me, but did you get permission before you started filming?”
“We don’t need permission,” Tammy said. “We own this guy for the next six months.”
The crowd began whipping out their cell phones, snapping pictures and taking video.
“Hey!” said a female voice. “Isn’t that Gas Station Sam? What’s he doing here?”
“Sam!” someone yelled. “Can I take a selfie with you?”
“Please tell me this isn’t happening,” Annie muttered.
Sophie marched over and put her arm around Annie’s shoulder. “Break it up,” she told the crowd. “Show’s over.”
One of the servers who’d been gawking along with the rest of the onlookers took Sophie’s lead and began whisking people back inside the bar.
“Let me get this straight. You really don’t want another chance on the show?” Tammy asked incredulously.
Sam glared at her in response.
“Okay, okay. I get it. We’re out of here. If we hurry,” she said to Jed, “we can make it to Jacksonville to catch the red-eye back to LA.”
“Not so fast,” Sam said. “Before you leave, you owe it to me to tell me how you found me.”
“Sorry, but I can’t out a source.” She glanced over at Annie, and her expression softened. “But I will tell you one thing. Once I got to town, it wasn’t hard to figure out where you were. People here love to talk. If I were you, honey, I’d get away from this place, or that unfortunate incident is going to haunt you for the rest of your life.”
“What was that about?” Sophie asked once Tammy and Jed had cleared out. The distrust in her eyes made Sam’s stomach go sour. Not that he blamed her. She was just looking out for her cousin.
It was Annie who answered. “It’s a long story. And one that I prefer to talk to Sam about in private. If you don’t mind?” she said to the girls.
“Okay,” Sophie relented, “but if you need us, we’ll be right inside.” She led the other women away, leaving him and Annie alone on the deck.
Sam dragged a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way. Please believe me when I tell you that I was about to tell you everything right before that camera crew descended on us.”
Annie studied him a minute, then sighed. “I believe you.”
Relief swamped him. “Great.” He reached out to her, but she jerked back.
“Sam, this isn’t going to work.”
He frowned. “How do you know it isn’t going to work?”
“Because for one thing, I still have a boyfriend.”
“Not for long.”
“True, but I owe it to Walter to break up with him before I start anything new. And I’m looking for a new job. And you live in Texas …” She shrugged.
“You could move to Dallas. It’s a great city. Lots of opportunities. Hell, I could get you a job at—”
She put a hand in the air to stop him. “I already uprooted my life once for a man. And that relationship was a lot further along than this one. I’m sorry, Sam, but we’ve only known each other two days. The timing is all wrong. And as tempted as I am to just say the hell with it and run back to your hotel room to finish what we started, I could never do that to Walter.”
“So that’s it? We aren’t even going to try to make this work?”
“Maybe in a few months, once everything has settled down and I know where I’m going to land, we can get back in touch.”
“Get back in touch? Look, I know it’s a huge gamble, but you said it yourself, people who only do the crossword puzzle in pencil never take any real risks. Aren’t you and I worth taking a risk on too?”
“Don’t throw that letter back in my face.”
“Why not? Didn’t you write it?”
She acted as if he’d slapped her. “Of course I wrote it. But there’s a huge difference between doing a puzzle in ink and uprooting my life for a man who could very well end up breaking my heart. It’s just not practical.”
This wasn’t going the way he’d imagined. But if he wanted Annie to be honest with herself, then he was going to have to be honest with himself as well.
“Becks once accused me of being a closet romantic. At the time I thought she was crazy, but you know what? She was right. All that stuff I said on TV? I meant it. My grandfather was a real asshole, but he got two things right in his life. My grandmother Ruth and my mom. He used to say that when he met my grandmother, it was love at first sight. I always thought it was a load of sentimental bullshit. Until I read your letter. I told myself that I was coming out here to hide from the press and to make sure Becks did her college trips, but the truth is, it was your letter that made me travel a thousand miles. Because I wanted to meet the woman who wrote it.”
“That’s … really flattering.”
Flattering? Now he was the one who felt like he’d been slapped. “So, what? That’s it?”
She nodded. “For now. And I understand why you didn’t tell me about the letter.” On what looked like an impulse, she reached out and hugged him. “Best of luck to you, Sam. Whatever else happened, you really did change my life.”
13
Annie was staring out the window, wondering how she was going to get through the next few hours, when she heard the door to her office swing open. There was only one person in the company who didn’t bother knocking. And it wasn’t her father. Or her brother either.
“What do you want, Bridget? Or should I say, Brutus?” She swung around to find her father’s assistant standing in front of her with a cup of coffee in one hand. “Trying to salve your conscience?”
“What? With this?” Bridget raised the cup to her lips and took a long sip. “I already told you. Offering to bring you coffee was a one-time deal. And I thought we were past this. Like I said this morning, while I’m sorry I went behind your back, I’m not sorry I sent the letter. Without that letter, you’d have never met Sam DeLuca.”
Bridget was right. If she’d never sent the letter, Annie would have never met Sam. Thoughts of him and that kiss had kept her distracted all day. There was also the matter of what she was going to say to Walter tonight at dinner. She’d spent the last hour rehearsing it in her head, but nothing seemed right.