Sam kissed her then, he couldn’t resist. Her lips were so full and so soft that they were like magnets drawing his to them. Releasing her hands, he slid one up her arm and cradled her head in his palm, his fingers tangling themselves in her hair. His other hand wrapped around her waist, drawing her closer. Naomi’s hands slid up under his shirt, her fingertips skimming over every inch of his chest and abs. She tasted so good, she felt so good, he wanted her upstairs, naked, in his bed, now.
He was about to pick her up when the doorbell rang. Naomi immediately froze, a brief flash of fear crossed her face. “Who is it?”
“Relax. It’s just your family.”
That didn’t help her relax, in fact it made her more agitated. “Why are they here? They shouldn’t be around me right now. I'm dangerous.”
Brushing a stray lock of hair off her cheek and tucking it behind her ear, he leaned down and kissed her again. “You need your family around you right now.”
“Do they know? Did you tell them?”
“No. And I won't unless it winds up being pertinent to this case. But maybe you should tell them,” he suggested. Leaving her to consider it, he went to let Jonathon, Clara, Nick, and Aggie in. Clara looked good after yesterday’s attack, and he hoped that seeing her sister would put Naomi’s mind at ease.
“Is she okay?” Clara demanded as soon as he had the door open. “Jonathon said she refused to come and see me yesterday.”
“This is rough on her,” he reminded her.
“I know, I'm not mad at her, I'm worried about her.”
That went quadruple for him. Sam knew that he’d temporarily dissuaded Naomi from going to search for her stalker, but he also knew that couldn’t last. She would feel compelled to sacrifice herself to keep the people she loved safe.
Following the others, they all walked into the living room just as Naomi was attempting to flee.
“Naomi.”
She froze as her sister said her name. “I'm so sorry, Clara.”
“You know sometimes your crazy protective streak is kinda cute, and sometimes it’s just downright annoying. This is one of the annoying times. What happened was not your fault. There was nothing you could have done to prevent it,” Clara over-enunciated every word. “I love you, Naomi.”
Naomi’s shoulders shook as she tried to conceal her cries. Sam knew how hard it was for her to let her family see her vulnerable, but perhaps it was a good thing. He shook his head in amazement at himself, it was like he had taken a crash course in emotions the last couple of days.
Unfazed by her sister’s tears, Clara went to Naomi and held her. After resisting for a moment, Naomi rested her head on Clara’s shoulders and wrapped her arms around her sister. Aggie joined them and the three sisters clutched each other and wept, and Sam found himself surprisingly not uncomfortable with the emotional scene before him.
At last, the sisters lifted tear-stained faces and smiled at one another. “Thank you,” Naomi whispered.
“For what? Being your family,” Aggie rebuked. “We love you.”
“I have news.” Clara grinned. “I … we,” she corrected with a smile at her fiancé, “wanted to tell you all together. We’re pregnant, well I am, we just found out this morning.”
“Pregnant?” Naomi and Aggie squealed in unison.
Clara giggled. “We were shocked too, we weren’t trying.”
Sam could read Naomi’s eyes like a book. While her face maintained an excited smile, her eyes said that she was battling guilt, thinking that she had almost lost her sister and her unborn niece or nephew because of her stalker. As he watched, he could see her composure cracking. She didn’t want to let her sister down, but again this pressure she put on herself to always be perfect was going to crush her.
She needed him. He could feel it. He sidled up to her, slipped an arm around her waist and immediately felt her relax as she leaned into him. She hadn’t said the words yet, and it might take some time before she was ready to take that step, but Sam knew without a shadow of a doubt that she loved him every bit as much as he loved her.
* * * * *
9:57 A.M.
Ugh.
How could she feel so ugh so early in the day?
It was early in the day, wasn’t it?
Sometimes when she was high, or in-between bouts of being high, she kind of lost track of what was going on around her.