Page 43 of Tempt

“Thanks. So, why were you thinking of me?”

I glance at the poem in my lap. “Something weird happened just before Christmas. I ran into Sam on the train. Your Sam.”

Those two words don’t feel right at all, not together, andwhoa, I wasn’t expecting to feel quite like this, like maybe I’ve done something wrong, but also that it doesn’t feel wrong, and wishing history had gone a different way.

“Sam Preston?” She whistles. “Wow. How is he?”

Complicated. Beautiful. “I’m actually in his apartment right now. He’s…good.”

She doesn’t reply right away.

This was a mistake.

I’m not looking for permission.

“Are you seeing each other?” she finally asks.

I can’t read her tone over the phone. “Yes.”

“Ah.”

“Reg—”

“I’m happy for you,” she says in a rush. “That came across wrong. But I’m surprised, that’s all.”

“That makes two of us.” Three of us, probably, but I don’t want to assume. And even if I am right, I want to keep that part of Sam to myself.

“He wrote to me last year. Do you know…?”

“I think so. He told me about his legal troubles.”

She exhales. “Good.” Another pause. “He must have changed a lot in ten years, for you to give him a chance.”

“He spent the morning reading my books.”

“Really?”

I frown. “Yes.”

“He has changed. Reading is hard for him.”

Now I’m the one who’s shocked. “Really? I don’t remember that. I saw him in the library all the time.” Which doesn’t mean anything, now that I say it out loud.

“Don’t tell him I said anything,” she says gently. “But…yeah. It was a big deal for him growing up. He never told me about it, but there were clues along the way. Dismissive things his family would say.”

“Did you ever meet them?”

She made a thinking sound. “His brother was on campus. There was a girlfriend…I liked her a lot. Grace.”

“They got married,” I added.

“Huh.” It was a loaded reaction.

“What about his parents?”

“Only in passing. His father gave a presentation at the business school, and then took Sam and Luke out for dinner. Sam showed up at my place drunk afterwards. It was…not good.”

I’ve pried enough. If I want to know more about Sam’s family, I should ask Sam himself. “He really has changed,” I tell my friend. “And he asked about you.”

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