Page 136 of Craving Danger

When she takes a shoebox out, she grins at me. “Oooh, all the love letters I received.”

“Give that to me.” I grab it from her before she can hold it out of my reach, and taking the lid off, I open the first piece of paper. “Your hair looks like candyfloss?” I let out a chuckle.

“Don’t laugh. Pete was serious. He even tried putting my pigtail in his mouth.”

I open up another one. “If I give you a Hershey’s bar, will you go steady with me?”

Samantha grins at me. “I told him I wanted a Hershey’s bar once a week. It didn’t last long.”

I shake my head. “I think it’s cute that you kept them all.”

“Look at this one.” She leans forward and searches through the letters until she finds the right one. Opening it, she points to where the letter ends with the words in dots.

“I’m running out of ink, but I’ll write again when I get a new pen.”

“That’s my favorite.”

As we keep working through the boxes, I learn Samantha had a happy childhood.

And, she never throws anything away.

“Time for a break. We can continue tomorrow.” Getting up off the floor, I stretch my body before holding my hand out to help Samantha to her feet.

I head to the kitchen and ask, “Want some coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

She watches as I pour two cups, and when I hand her one, she asks, “Can we sit on the veranda?”

“Sure.”

I follow her past the mess in the foyer, and as we head through the living room toward the sliding doors, I see the men scatter in every direction.

“They don’t have to do that,” Samantha says. “I’ll never get used to them if they keep hiding whenever I come outside.”

She sits down on one of the chairs. “Tell them to come back.”

I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Marcello’s number.

“Yes, boss?”

“Tell everyone they don’t have to clear out when they see Samantha.”

“On it.”

She sips on her coffee as the men resume their places, and not long after, Marcello walks toward us.

“I thought I’d check your hand while you’re out here,” he says, placing the first aid kit on the table.

“Sure.”

When he removes the bandage, I notice she doesn’t cringe.

“I’m going to remove the stitches,” he says.

A smile curves her lips. “Today is turning out to be a pretty good day.”

I watch as Marcello removes the stitches, and when he’s done, she says, “Thank you.”