Page 103 of Give Me Forever

"I do my best." I took a huge cupcake and bit right into it. It had chocolate on the outside and a creamy liqueur frosting on the inside. "This is unexpected, and delicious," I muttered. "Kim, you're a godsend. I didn't even know I needed this."

She laughed softly. "Sam is the only one who calls me Kim."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Listen, I feel so bad for the way I blurted things out at Thanksgiving. I don't know what I was thinking. I thought he told you. I just figured it was up for discussion. I mean, in retrospect I should've known because no one brought it up. But I've been away for too long, and I seem to have forgotten some of the family dynamics. I'm going to get back in the saddle soon, though."

"Don't worry," I said. "These"—I pointed to the sweets—"more than make up for it."

“How's my jewelry coming along?” she asked, batting her eyelashes.

I sighed. “Not at all. I can’t be creative right now.”

Kimberly bit her lower lip. “I totally get that. When I’m consumed by relationship crap, I can only do mindless, robotic stuff.”

“I promise I’ll start working on them soon, though.”

I’d shown everyone stones and designs and took their measurements. I’d agreed to make several designs for each, and they could choose their favorites. It was a far more sophisticated approach than I usually took with clients, but I wanted to go the extra mile for the family.

God, I wanted them to be my family so bad!

"I'm surprised Alana isn't here with you."

“She's on a business trip to Sydney," I said miserably. "Otherwise, she probably would've come in the evening to keep me company."

Kimberly gave me a sheepish smile. "If you want, we can go out and have some girly fun this evening."

"What if Sam comes home? I really want to talk to him."

"When my cousin eventually stumbles home, he'll probably crash and sleep for forty-eight hours straight. And if he doesn't, you probably shouldn't talk to him anyway because he's going to be exhausted and even more of a Maxwell male than usual."

"A what?" I understood the words, but they seemed to have some secret meaning.

"It's what Reese and I sometimes say about our cousins. It's a particular type of stubbornness that was only transmitted to the male side of our family. However, there's also a correlation: the more stubborn they are, the more they care about you."

"You think so?" I murmured.

"I’m positive about it."

“I just want him to come home.”

Kimberly said, “He will, trust me. He so will. We have a plan.”

“Who’s 'we'? What plan?”

She smiled. “Just leave it to us.”

***

Sam

The beds in the on-call room were hands down the worst ones I'd ever slept in. Had they purposefully made them uncomfortable? Doctors needed their rest. I woke up with a stiff neck and a sore elbow, though that was probably not the bed's fault. I needed to go home.

The first two nights, I didn't even purposely stay here. Flu season was rampant, and three of my colleagues got sick. That meant I had to take over their shifts. In the morning, I was simply too exhausted to leave the hospital, so I fell asleep in the on-call room.

Tonight had been a conscious choice. I hadn't wanted to go home after two nights of disastrous sleep and face Avery. It was a well-known fact in the Maxwell clan that I didn't make the best decisions when I wasn't well rested.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in."

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