Free Bound to You by Vanessa Holland Page B

ground.
    “ He gets grumpy right before lunch,” she explained. “He woke up grouchy this morning, actually. I moved him around too much last night.”
    “ No, it’s all right,” Sam said, watching Ethan slow to a walk. “I understand. He doesn’t know me.”
    Unexpectedly, the sadness in his eyes made her feel hard and unforgiving. He wanted to know his son? If he hadn’t decided their future all by himself he could have known Ethan from the very first day. If he hadn’t used her and dropped her like a poisonous spider, he wouldn’t have missed a thing.
    He had once gazed deep into her eyes and told her she was someone he could see spending his life with. He’d said she was different from the others. The fact that they’d been parked in a shopping center parking lot where she’d left her car should have tipped her off. Not once had he picked her up at her house. That fact still gnawed at her dignity. He’d never taken her on a proper date. They’d always met up, goofed around in Nashville, or gone out to his brother’s house to sit by the pond.
    She cracked her neck from side to side. Not that any of that mattered now.
    With her nerves buzzing wildly, she watched Ethan standing in the circular drive swinging the rattle, beating it against his hand, trying to figure out what fun it could be.
    When she dared another glance at Sam, he smiled at her. Not a bright smile. One of his tender smiles. “You’re more beautiful than I remembered,” he said with that charming flirtation he’d probably mastered by the time he’d posed for the picture in her hand. “I woke up this morning thinking about you.”
    More sweet words, all she needed on a day like this. She resumed the trip to the house. “Lucky you, I was up all night worrying.”
    “ What about?” he asked.
    She stopped walking and stared at him in amazement. Didn’t he realize the significance of what was happening? How could he have slept last night? “About bringing you into Ethan’s life. What do you think? I’m taking a huge risk. You say Ethan doesn’t know you? I don’t know you, either.” She’d probably never known him. Not really.
    A heavy silence fell between them and she looked at her son again, noticing Ethan’s arms had a pink tinge to them. He would be just like her, burning at the mere hint of sunshine. “He’s not wearing sunscreen or a cap,” she mentioned, leaving Sam behind as she ushered Ethan inside the house.
    Sam’s skin was well bronzed, she noticed when he took long strides onto the porch to hold the door open for her. From a life spent outside on a ranch. And she couldn’t help but notice how his biceps flexed beneath his t-shirt.
    Once inside she stopped to check Ethan for ticks after his trip into the woods. Then she noticed Sam still standing in the doorway, holding the door open, and letting bugs into the house.
    “ Did you want to come in?” she asked him.
    He nodded and stepped forward, but glanced all around, as if he hadn’t been in the house only the night before. He glanced into the den, up the stairs, then into the living room before smiling nervously at her.
    “ It looks different in the day,” he said. “Bigger.”
    Sam wandered into the living room, tossed the mail on a sofa, and migrated toward the mantel clock. “This is old,” he commented.
    “ It belonged to my grandmother.” She watched Ethan run to Brianna, who was spying from the kitchen. Brianna took Ethan’s hand and offered to fix him lunch. Jenna made a mental note to thank her sister profusely, later.
    “ It’s a fine clock,” Sam said. “Turn of the century, I’d say. Looks to be German. My great-granddad put this same kind of flair into his clocks. They were all German, on my granddad’s side.” He turned and took a seat on the white leather sofa, absently stroking his hands over the soft surface.
    She crossed her arms behind her back and strolled into the room.
    “ Is it not running or did you forget to wind it?”