Page 10 of Touch of Innocence
FIVE
Dinner was, admittedly, delicious. Sam had been spending pretty much all of his time at the bar, and while they did serve some food, none of it was anything that Sam was highly excited about. He tended to prefer food that didn’t come floating on a pool of grease, and he’d eaten a lot of really bad salads there.
So to sit down to a meal of thick, rich beef stew, filled with chunks of cut up carrot and potato and all sorts of other veggies, it was pretty much heaven. Even the fact that Gunner was sitting right across the table from him didn’t matter that much.
Gunner was trying to get to him. Sam was positive about that. So the only way to win that was just not to play, and Gunner should get bored of that soon enough. That was probably the best thing that he could do for his own mental health
So Sam let the conversation flow around him, and he ate. Hey, he was here, right? That was good enough. It was nice to see Ruby again, to let her chatter at him about school, and it always pleased him that she told him things that she didn’t tell other people.
“This is good,” Gunner told them, mopping up his third bowl of stew with a piece of the bread that Sam knew Isaac would have made fresh today. “Thanks.”
“It’s no problem,” Isaac commented, and it wasn’t that Sam was paying attention, except that he was, a little. There was a stranger in their midst, and that always made him wary.
So he noticed, at least a little, when Gunner frowned, and he opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. A tiny shake of his head, and then he did speak, even while Sam was silently willing him not to.
He knew what the question was going to be, and he really didn’t like talking about it, or even hearing it spoken about. There was a reason that he’d rarely brought anyone home from school when he was younger. A reason that he had always gone over to his friends’ houses if he wanted to hang out.
“Okay, I don’t mean to be rude …” Gunner started, and Sam spoke up, a sick, panicky feeling gripping at his stomach, making his heart flutter so that he was sure anyone who looked at him could see it.
“So don’t be,” Sam interrupted, knowing the whole time that he was the one who was being rude. All of a sudden, the eyes of everyone at the long wooden table were on him, and he bit his lower lip but didn’t try to take back his words.
“Let me guess,” Ben commented, a twinkle of amusement in his green eyes. “You want to know what the deal is with all of the people at the table.”
Gunner turned away from Sam, which was a distinct relief, and then gave Ben a sheepish little grin and a nod.
“I know it’s none of my business …”
“It’s not a big deal,” Isaac commented, though Sam, as always, begged to differ. He had never understood how these people could be so blasé about all of this. They didn’t seem ashamed at all, which sort of blew his mind and always had, from the day he’d moved in with his big brother.
“Isaac and I are married,” Ben said, and Sam recoiled as though he’d been slapped. He knew it already, of course, but that didn’t mean it was fun to think about. Much less to hear it so openly spoken. “Amanda, the blonde at the end there, is Ruby’s mother.” Amanda gave a friendly little smile, though she looked tired.
Oh God, let Ben and Isaac not get into those details. It was confusing enough as it was, without mentioning that Isaac’s father was Ruby’s father, that they were actually siblings. Not only was that none of Gunner’s business, but Ruby was right there, listening, fascinated.
Amanda spoke up, which was something else. She tended to be quiet, even more than Sam was, mostly keeping to herself, so if she was getting in on this, it probably wasn’t a good sign.
“It’s not really that complicated,” she said to Gunner, but she might as well have been speaking directly to Sam, and he knew it. “It was easier for us all to live in this big old house than to try to find separate places in town.”
“Okay,” Gunner said slowly, a bemused look on his handsome face. “But I don’t think I’ve been introduced to everyone.”
All eyes turned to the other person at the table, who gave a small smile and a wave. Despite the smile, she still cut a bit of a tragic figure, small and thin and wasted, the oldest person there by a few decades.
“She’s my mother,” Isaac said, giving her a fond smile. Sam knew that everything hadn’t always been fine between everyone at the table, but he’d never wanted to know the details. She was just another adult who had been around when he’d been growing up, and that had always been good enough for him.
“Okay. It’s nice to meet you all,” Gunner admitted, and to Sam, he sounded sincere. Sam fought back a growl as he finished off his stew and rose to his feet. He didn’t need to watch Gunner charm the hell out of his family, damn it.
“Thanks, guys,” Sam said, looking at Ben and Isaac, who nodded in acknowledgment. With the social niceties out of the way, Sam went to the big old kitchen, ran some water into his bowl, and then started out before anyone else could finish. The bar. That was what he needed. He’d done his duty—no one could ask for more, right?
But it was too late. Isaac was already walking in after him, already dressed for work at the bar. The only bar in town, and the same bar that Sam headed to more often than not instead of coming home.
“Is there a reason you don’t like him?” Isaac asked quietly, and Sam knew that the question was sincere. Isaac was incredibly earnest, and if Sam had something to say against Gunner, he would listen, and he would take it seriously.
Only how to explain his problem with Gunner? How to get into the fact that Gunner might take away the only source of income that Sam had? Could make all of his dreams dissolve into nothing more than smoke? Even to his own ears, Sam knew that he would sound petty, considering Gunner clearly needed the help.
But it was his life, his dreams, his future, on the line. Didn’t that matter? Shouldn’t it?
And then there was the whole issue with the kiss. But Sam wasn’t even going to think about that, much less talk about it. That was just some dumb mistake that was never going to happen again.
“No. He’s just a dick,” Sam spoke quietly, not quite willing to be rude enough to let Gunner hear him. Not that it would be a surprise, he figured, that he felt that way.
