Free Dream of Me by Delilah Devlin Page B

head.
    Jax’s lips pursed around a whistle. “Yeah, she might think you waited so you could get into her pants first.”
    His gut clenched hard. Sam reached out and kicked Jax, nearly toppling him to the floor.
    Deke raised both brows. “Seriously? That’s when you gave it to her?”
    Not able to deny anything they were saying, he felt lower than a beached skiff. Sam leaned forward and braced his elbows on his thighs. “The time was never right. And things…they were going good.”
    Wolf cleared his throat and crumpled the MRE wrapping in a fist. “If she cares about you, she’s had plenty of time to get over bein’ mad.”
    “Anger I can handle.”
    Wolf nodded. “Tears are a bitch.”
    Sam dragged a hand through his hair. “But giving her the ring wasn’t the worst thing I did.”
    All three of his friends groaned.
    Jax leaned back and clutched his chest. “What could be worse?”
    Danny Thornton, the new man on their team, took a seat on the concrete floor near the group. Also an ex-SEAL, but from a West Coast-based unit, he’d melded with their team during training and had done his job well during the raid. His ice blue gaze met Sam’s. “Yeah, what could be worse than givin’ her another man’s ring?”
    Another one against him. Sam gave Danny a glare, which slid right over Danny’s shaggy blond hair.
    “Couldn’t help overhearing.” Danny gave him a quick smile. “Sounds like you made a muck of your chances with this woman.”
    “I did.” Sam slouched in the chair and dropped back his head, staring at the bracing on the hanger ceiling.
    “So, what did you say?”
    “I told her to dream of me.”
    *
    Dream of me.
    For the umpteen-millionth time since that morning, Ash heard Sam’s gruffly spoken words. All the little clues he’d dropped made sense now. Somehow, and realizing the man had some scary resources, she knew he’d been privy to her conversations with Melanie Oats.
    At first, she’d been devastated—by his withholding of the ring, by his betrayal of her privacy. But over the weeks since her return to the mainland, she’d come to accept that the man she’d fallen in love with had done everything out of kindness and concern for her happiness.
    Sure, she’d had to return to her bayou roots to figure a few things out.
    Auntie hadn’t been surprised by her unannounced appearance on her doorstep.
    “I didn’t know where else to go,” were the first words she’d blurted to the older woman.
    Auntie had installed her in Siobhan’s room. Her half-sister hadn’t minded sharing her queen-sized bed. And after the first awkward moments where Ash had mostly mumbled apologies, then wept all over their shoulders, the three had all gotten along famously.
    Auntie brewed her mysterious tea. Siobhan shared all the gossip around the bayou about the people they’d known growing up. Only a couple of days remained before Ash had to leave for New Orleans when her sister pulled out a scrapbook detailing Ash’s life—the announcements for their father’s and her mother’s funerals, the announcement from the New Orleans newspaper of her graduation from the police academy…the pictures from Marc’s funeral.
    She’d relived the memories, cried, and laughed, and in the end, gave both women long hugs and multiple promises to visit as often as she could before she returned to her home. The past wasn’t forgotten, and it wasn’t as horrible as she’d always wanted to believe. Her father had been flawed, but loving. Her mother bitter, but gone so long now, no reason was left to continue the frostiness. Time had a way of dulling the sharp edge of anger.
    Ash felt almost whole when she’d finally met with Melanie Oats.
    “What have you been dreaming about?” the counselor asked, her hands folded on her desk, her expression unreadable.
    “Good times…” she’d said, then smiled. “No more nightmares. I see Marc, but in happy times. And I see Sam.”
    Melanie quirked an eyebrow for only a