He was right. It would have been awful to show up there alone and watch the place burn without anyone there to support me. It was thoughtful of him, even if he wasn’t really the one I wanted comforting me.
I wondered if Sam had meant what he’d said about coming to sleep on my sofa. I didn’t want him on my sofa. I wanted him in my bed, wrapped around me like kudzu.
But I was an adult. And if I wanted to be treated as such, I needed to act like one. That included fending off Barney’s continued insistence that he stay over in case I needed him during the night.
“Obviously, Sam didn’t mean it when he offered,” Barney pointed out, somehow recognizing my own insecurities. “I don’t see him here. It just goes to show, you can’t trust someone like that. As if you needed an itinerant worker lurking about the place. What do you even know about him? It’s better to circle the wagons and stick with people you know and trust.”
I wanted to laugh at him calling Sam an itinerant worker. From everything Mikey had told me, he was a general contractor who owned his own business and ran large jobs. He was hardly a seasonal apple picker.
But I was too tired to argue. “Okay. Thanks again for taking me and bringing me home. I’ll call you in the morning.” I tried closing the front door, but he reached out a hand to hold it open.
“Sweet pea, I’m worried about you,” Barney said. “You need someone to look after you, especially if this was deliberate.”
“I’m fine. The gate is fixed, and I have the bolt on the door.” I didn’t dare mention the bolt hadn’t kept my note-writer away earlier in the week. But maybe I’d been lax and forgotten to turn it. Stranger things had happened.
“I don’t just mean looking after your physical safety. This has to be upsetting you. I’d really like it if you let me come in and hold you tonight.”
The image of that almost caused me to shudder. “I think what I really need is sleep,” I said as gently as I could. “I’m going to get in bed and stay there as long as possible to avoid thinking about this right now.”
He met my eyes and studied me for a moment before reluctantly nodding. “Lock the doors behind me. Don’t open the gate for anyone but me. Call me the minute you wake up.”
I gritted my teeth to keep from snapping at him to mind his own business. “Will do,” I said instead.
Once he was gone, I let out a breath and locked up. I made my way back to my bedroom and changed into a T-shirt and a pair of threadbare pajama pants. I really was going to fall into bed and hope for hours of oblivion.
But then my phone buzzed.
Sam: I’m at the gate.
I felt the tears come as I pressed the remote to let him in. He was riding a motorcycle I didn’t recognize. When he got to the front door, I flung it open and planted my feet to the floor to keep from also flinging myself right at his solar plexus.
“Hi,” I said instead, quickly brushing the tears away.
Sam’s eyes roamed all over me as if searching for something. “What can I do to ease your pain?”
I stepped forward and climbed his body until my arms were wrapped around his neck and my legs were wrapped around his waist. “Take me to bed and hold me all night.”
So that’s what he did.
He reached back and locked the door again before carrying me down the hall and laying me on the bed. He stripped down to his boxer briefs and slipped into bed next to me, pulling me close again. I let out a shaky breath and let myself fall asleep to the strong feeling of kudzu wrapped around me.
When I awoke, Sam was gone, but the spot beside me was still warm from his body. I went to the bathroom before making my way out to the kitchen where I found him drinking a cup of coffee and scrolling through his phone.
“Hi,” I said nervously.
Sam turned to me with a soft smile. “Good morning. Sleep okay?”
I reached for a mug and poured myself a cup from the pot he’d made. “I slept like a brick. You?”
“Best sleep I’ve had in a while. Gotta say, I don’t mind holding you all night. I think maybe I need to do it more often.” He winked at me and went back to his phone. “They’re going to investigate the fire to confirm its cause. I pulled up some information on insurance claims in the case of fire, and I’m happy to help make some of those calls for you today. It might be a good idea to try and get on a contractor’s schedule for the repairs. Even if you’re not sure about what you want to do, you can ask them for options and estimates. I can sit in on the interviews and help show you what questions to ask. If we call around today, we can get several of the interviews done before I leave.”
Thinking about him leaving was definitely not good for my mental health today, so I dropped it from my mind like a hot potato.
Sam looked back up at me. “But that doesn’t mean you’re obligated. It’s your business, your call.”
I blinked at him for a minute in confusion before he laughed.
“Never mind. You’re pre-coffee. It was stupid of me to bring it up yet. Sit and I’ll fix you something to eat.”
I moved to the coffeepot instead and poured myself a cup. After fixing it and taking a few sips, I let out a breath. “The insurance company will want to know what caused the fire. Do you know who I’m supposed to contact at the fire department?” I asked as Sam nudged me out of the way with his hip to get the eggs from the fridge.
“Yes, I have the investigator’s info, but I wouldn’t think they’d have an update for you until at least after lunch. They have to make sure it’s cool and safe enough to enter before they can start the investigation.”
“Do you think it’s possible it could have been arson? Maybe one of the Stanner brothers?” I asked.
Sam held the egg he’d been about to crack in midair. “Because of the incident with my bike?”
“I filed a witness report,” I told him. “And he probably found out from their uncle, the sheriff.”
“I told you not to do that,” Sam said with a sigh before cracking the egg and adding it to the collection in the bowl. “It’s not necessary. It’s certainly not worth putting you in danger.”
I busied myself getting out some slices of bread for the toaster. “Well, it’s done. But surely that wouldn’t be enough to cause someone to burn down my entire business?” I quickly reminded myself that wasn’t their only motivation. They blamed me for any number of things, all stemming from their father losing his job after the resort closed. Which, of course, they blamed me for.
Sam turned to face me. “Last night you said, ‘No more notes in the kitchen.’ What did you mean by that?”
He wasn’t going to like it, but if I wanted his help figuring this out, I needed to tell him.
“The morning after your motorcycle was hit, I woke up to find a note on the kitchen counter warning me to make sure you dropped the charges.”
Sam threw the stove nob to the off position and crossed his arms in front of his chest. It made him look bigger and broader, but for some reason, I wasn’t intimidated by him the way I was by other men his size. “Where is this note?”
I retrieved it from a drawer in the sunroom and handed it to him. While he was checking it out, the gate buzzer blasted through the house over and over.