“Mind if I sit?” she asked.
“No.”
She eased into his lap. Bold of her, but she needed to be close to him. And he didn’t balk.
He did, however, inquire, “Make your phone call?”
“Not yet. It can wait until the morning. Give Karina some time to adjust. Talk to Mitcham. Figure out how she’s going to pay back the money if she chooses to do it on her own, or if she’ll let him help her.”
“He won’t turn his back on her,” Michael said. “Money’s not the issue. What’ll be most difficult for him to digest is that she didn’t immediately turn to him when Wyatt first showed up. That she would take on something this huge by herself. He’ll understand why she felt it was necessary, but he’ll still be upset about it. That’s one thing I noted when it came to my mother’s cancer. They went through it together and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. He was the one with the connections to get her the best care and he wouldn’t leave it in anyone else’s hands, not even hers.”
“Karina was too vulnerable from the beginning,” Scarlet mused. “Too conflicted by her past and her bleak present to deal with an attack of this magnitude. Yet she did her best. And I can appreciate that. Makes it all the more difficult to hand her over to the insurance company.” Scarlet’s fingertips grazed Sam’s furrowed brow. “I’m not really sure how I’m going to bring myself to do it.”
“You have no choice,” Sam said. Not at all accusatory. He simply stated a fact.
Tears welled in her eyes and crested the rims.
Sam whisked them away, saying, “Don’t cry. This isn’t your fault. You didn’t create this problem; you solved it.”
“Yet I feel villainous,” she admitted. “For what I’ve done to all of you.”
“Scarlet.” Sam gathered her close. Held her to him. His warm breath teased strands of her hair at her temple as he told her, “No one’s blaming you for anything.”
“It changes everything between the three of us.”
“No.”
She pulled slightly away and she stared into his sky-blue eyes. “I—”
“It changes nothing, Scarlet,” he said with conviction.
Her pulse hitched. She gazed at him a few seconds more, then turned to Michael.
He gave a half grin. “Told you.”
“You’ll really forgive me?” she asked.
“Nothing to forgive,” Michael said. “Again … this wasn’t your doing.”
Her attention returned to Sam. “And you?”
“He’s right.” Sam kissed her softly and added, “I’ve been to hell, remember? And what did I learn?”
She stared quizzically at him.
He said, “You can come back. That’s what I learned.”
Her fingers swept through his hair. She gave a shaky smile. “You are the real deal, Sam Reed.” She kissed him. Then she looked over at Michael again. “And you are so much more than a silver-tongued devil.”
“Shh,” he said as he pressed a finger to his lips. “Don’t tell anyone.”
Scarlet laughed quietly. “That’s one secret I’ll keep, if you insist.”
“Better for business.”
“Ah, yes,” she teased. “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Michael leaned in and whisked his lips over hers, murmuring, “A much better image to perpetuate outside these walls.”