Page 76 of Samuel

“Evie, I should have told you—” Sam’s hand landed on her arm, but unlike all the other times he’d touched her, it nolonger felt safe. She pulled away again, afraid to look him in the eye.

“Don’t touch me.” Her words felt bitter on her own tongue. “I just need a minute, Sam. Please.”

“I can’t believe you just did that.”

There were more times in his life than he could count where his younger sister had made him mad. But he’d never felt like he was feeling then. Like all his blood had drained from his body and was replaced with fire that was eating him alive from the inside.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell her yet! You’re fucking her and she doesn’t even know about the precautions you need to take. About the risks you’re taking to be with her!”

“Abby!” Grace gasped.

“You had no right, Dove. None at all. You better hope like hell she’s okay, because I won’t ever be able to look at you again if she isn’t.” Sam pushed away from the table at the same time John moved towards him.

“Sam, it wasn?—”

“I get that you love my sister. And I know that you only want to protect her, but she is in the wrong here. Not me. Go make sure she’s okay. I’m going to do the same for my woman.”

John nodded, clearly wanting to say more, but choosing to walk away. That was the best decision. Sam’s vision was nearly red with how pissed he was at Abby, but he knew he owned a lot of the blame for how upset Evie had looked as she scurried away from him.

No. He owned all of the blame.

Fuck! She’d looked downright terrified when he reached out to stop her from walking away. It flipped his stomachand made him even more desperate to put things back into place after his sister had decided to blow it all up.

He stood outside the women’s restroom door waiting for Evie to come out.

And he waited.

And waited.

Twenty fucking minutes went by, and Sam fought against every instinct screaming through his body to go in there and check on her. The only thing keeping him tethered to the Earth was knowing that women kept going in and coming out. Surely, if something was wrong with Evie, someone would be calling for help.

So he waited some more, chewing the inside corner of his mouth raw. Praying with each passing moment that the next time the door opened, his Bluebell would be the one to walk out.

And when it finally happened, his heart fell through his body all the way to his feet.

Shit, she looked so fucking upset. And he hated himself for being the reason for it. Her eyes were red, and her face puffy. She’d clearly been crying, all because he’d been too afraid to be vulnerable and just tell her the truth.

Her gaze drifted to the floor. “I don’t want to make this a big thing, Sam, but I’d like to go home.” She shook her head. “Back to the ranch.”

“I’ll take you.”

“No. These are all your friends here, you should stay. I’ll go by myself.”

“I’m not letting you leave upset, especially after what happened earlier and then with what Abby said. Come here.” Sam pushed gently on her back and headed down the darkened hallway towards the employee exit. Once outside the door, he walked her over to a bench on the side of the building. “Sit.”

“I don’t want to be out here with you,” she whispered. “But I have to know. Are you okay now? Will you be okay in the future?”

“Yes. I’m fine now.”

She nodded. “I’m happy to hear that. Now, I need to go.”

“You’re upset. Sit, please. I won’t try to hold your hand. Hell, I’ll stand ten feet away if you want me to, but I owe you an apology and I’d like you to sit so we can talk about what Abby said in there without everyone else listening in.”

“No.” There was no emotion behind the words. Nothing. She refused to even look at him.

Evie typed something furiously into her phone.

“What are you doing?”

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