“Did I say something?” his mother asked innocently, her eyes also watching Natalie leave the room.
“She was in that accident, Mom. She’s the only one who survived,” he said as low as possible, though Natalie was well aware of what happened during the accident.
“Well, you could have said,” his mother defended herself.
“I didn’t want to. The accident has so much to do with her past, I don’t want it to define her now.” He wanted his parents to like her for who she was, not because she had an accident once. One that she couldn’t seem to get over.
“I like her, Sam,” his mom proclaimed. “You can’t let her get away. You need to marry her.”
“Marriage, Mom? You met her less than an hour ago, and we are not dating,” he reminded her, but he was sure she didn’t care.
“I’m with your mom. This one’s a keeper,” his dad added.
Before he could protest more, Natalie came out of the bathroom. He could tell she had been crying again. Without coming to the table, she walked to the stairway. “Is my room up here? I think I’m going to just go to bed; it was a long trip. Thank you for supper, Mrs. Sullivan. It was delicious.”
“Yes, just pick a room. I didn’t ask Sam if you wanted one or two,” his mom sang out and hurried over to Natalie. “If you want to share with him, it’s okay. We are very progressive around here.”
Sam watched them walk up the stairs in disbelief. Never had his mother let her sons share a room with their girlfriends—not until they were married. His mother really wanted him married. Taking another bite of the sandwich, he wondered if she would talk Natalie into sharing a bedroom with him.
He looked across the table at his dad, who was watching them going up the stairs with a big grin on his face. Would they have him and Natalie engaged before they left for Birch Cove in two days?
CHAPTER7
Natalie letthe cold air make her shiver as she leaned against the deck railing. In the summer, she loved the feeling of being cold. In the winter, she loved being warm, sitting by a fire, or snuggled in a blanket. But in the summer, she loved to go out in the dark and just let the cold air surround her and cool her from the outside.
“Are you cold?” Sam’s voice came from behind, startling her.
When had he come out?
After going upstairs with his mom, she hadn’t left her room. Though she hadn’t thought she was tired, she had instantly fallen asleep when she laid down. Her back had woken her nearly an hour ago, and after taking a pain pill, she had sat in bed reading until she couldn’t sit there anymore. She needed to move.
Coming down to the main floor to stand on the deck and look out into the dark night was what she had needed, so here she was. But she wasn’t alone anymore. How was she supposed to get him out of her mind if he was always there?
“No,” she answered. “Just needed to cool down.”
Turning, she saw he was in a deck chair by the patio table. He was just wearing basketball shorts, no shirt, no shoes. Walking over to the chair next to him, she sat down and curled her legs under her.
“Couldn’t sleep?” He looked her over. She was wearing a tank top and short shorts for the warm night.
“My back woke me.”
“Does it wake you every night?”
“No, I have exercises that I’m supposed to do to help, but with the wedding and everything, I haven’t been doing them.”
“Maybe you need to start them again, so you can sleep all night.”
Even though it was dark, there was enough moonlight for her to see his smile. She liked his smile. “Why are you up?”
“Nightmare,” was all he said.
Taking a deep breath, she guessed, “About the accident?”
“Yes. I still get them every now and then. Stress, usually, but we’ve been talking about it a lot these last few days.” He ran his fingers through his sleep-tussled hair.
“I’m glad I have no memories or dreams of that night.” It was a small gift.
“What’s the last thing you remember?”