Page 88 of Tell Me Again
She let out a frustrated sigh.
“Go,” Trevor told her. “This is Kendall’s moment and she wants her friends surrounding her. Grace and I will still be here.”
Not caring who watched, she gave him another quick kiss and went to join her friends.
An hour later, Trevor found Sam at the edge of the temporary dance floor set up on the grass near where the ceremony had taken place. Rows of tiny twinkle lights had been strung between the trees, casting a soft glow on the couples dancing.
Grace and the other kids at the reception were in the middle of the floor, each trying to outdo the other with their crazy moves to the upbeat pop song. Sam was watching them, a wistful smile curving her full lips. Both she and his daughter had specifically mentioned Grace’s lack of a mother.
Of course Trevor knew the facts, but he’d worked damn hard to be everything for her. He’d braided hair and let her paint his toenails. He knew the names of every cartoon princess and had even learned how to bake a decent batch of cookies after his nana died.
But none of his efforts could fill the hole Grace had in her heart caused by losing a mother she’d never even known.
She was so beautiful, laughing and twirling with her friends. It twisted his heart to know she lived with a pain he couldn’t fix.
He couldn’t... but Sam’s presence had already gone a long way to heal some of it. It was obvious in the way Grace gravitated toward Sam. Even now he saw her glance at Sam after completing a particularly ridiculous dance move. Grace’s grin widened when Sam laughed and gave her a thumbs-up. How could he resist a woman who made his daughter happy? Why had he ever thought he needed to try?
The music ended and a slow ballad began to play. The young people hurried off the dance floor and headed back toward the patio. Couples, including Kendall and Ty and Chloe and Ben, made their way onto the dance floor. Sam’s smile dropped as she moved back into the shadows around the clearing’s edge.
He intercepted her as she started down the path toward the camp office.
“May I have this dance?” he asked, holding out his hand.
She glanced over her shoulder and then back at him. “If your slow-dancing moves are anything like your other ones, we could be in trouble.”
“I’m a quick learner when it suits me.” He wiggled his fingers. “You can’t say no. This is my favorite song.”
“You also don’t have a favorite song.”
“Maybe not,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “But I know if I’m holding you in my arms, this one will become my favorite.”
She slid her fingers into his, almost shyly, and he led her onto the dance floor. She placed her hands on his shoulders, at least six inches of space between them.
“This isn’t junior high,” he whispered and drew her closer until their bodies touched. He wrapped one arm tightly around her waist and linked the fingers of their opposite hands together.
“What are we doing here, Trevor?” Her voice was a whisper, her breath warm on his skin in the cooling air of the Denver foothills.
“Isn’t it obvious?” He spread his fingers across her back. “I’m claiming you.”
She sucked in a breath, but he held her close when she would have moved away.
“You are mine.” He repeated the words he’d said when they were wrapped together the previous night. “And not just in bed. You always have been, Sam. I want everyone to know it.”
“But Grace—”
“Let’s stop using her as an excuse.” He swayed to the music with Sam and wondered why the hell he’d never danced before. He’d skipped every homecoming and prom during high school, preferring to get drunk with his friends under the bleachers. But none of the girls he would have asked had been Sam.
Christ, he should have asked Sam. He was pretty certain that if he’d had the balls to claim her back then, it would have made him smart enough not to let her go. He was a hell of a lot smarter now.
“I’m not going to hurt you, and you won’t hurt me. We’re different than who we were before.”
“That’s what Jenny told me earlier,” she said, and he heard the smile in her voice.
“Remind me to tell her how wise she is.”
Sam let out a soft laugh. “No way. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
His hand drifted up until his fingers grazed the soft skin of her back along the bodice of her bridesmaid dress. She relaxed against him and he wished the song would never end. He could stay this way all night, swaying gently with Sam in their own private world.
