Autumn Getaway (Seasons of Love) (18 page)

“I
am
really hungry,” she admitted. She arched an eyebrow in mock scorn as she said, “Do I look like I pretend I don't eat? Please. And I love sushi. Lead the way.”

They went together to the table that was currently being used as a sushi bar and each picked out several pieces for themselves. Sam spotted an empty bench along the far side of the veranda and motioned for her to follow him there. They made their way through the crowd, sat down, placed their plates and champagne glasses on the bench between them, and began to talk as they ate.

“So,” Sam said. “Have you ever seen so much food at a wedding before? I mean, just at the cocktail hour? My God.”

Lydia nodded. “Actually, I have, and fairly often. Not always of this caliber, perhaps, but of this quantity. The New York wedding is an animal all its own, unlike any other. You apparently haven’t been to many, I take it.”

Sam grinned and placed a spicy tuna roll in his mouth. He waited until he’d finished it before he answered. “No, I haven’t been to many New York weddings. I haven't been to any, actually. You do know, by the way, that we’re in Connecticut, right?” he teased.

Lydia chuckled. “Yes, thank you, Smarty-pants. But this wedding was planned by two New Yorkers; likely, at least in part, catered by a New York company; and we’re within a two hour radius of Manhattan. So, technically, this is a New York wedding.”

“Ah. I see,” he smiled. “Well, hurrah for the New York wedding, then. I'm now a fan.”

“Well hi, kids!” Suddenly Alec was there, standing over them, a glass of scotch in his hand. “I was wondering where you snuck off to, Sammy.”

“I didn't sneak off. I'm free to walk about the cabin,” Sam replied smoothly. “Where’s Paige and the kids?”

“She and Mom are getting the young ones some food,” Alec said. He eyed the two of them, and his grin got bigger.

“Then maybe you should be helping them,” Sam suggested. He popped a piece of sushi into his mouth and shot his brother a pointed look.

“I just wanted to say hello,” Alec said. “And, Lydia, you look lovely.”

“Well, thank you,” she replied.

“And now you have.” Sam smiled brightly up at his brother. “See you later.”

Alec laughed, winked at Sam, and walked back to his family.

“Big brother checking up on us?” Lydia quipped, hoping it sounded casual.

Sam chuckled. “Mmm. You were talking about subtlety earlier?” he said. “Well, Alec possesses very little of that. Not one of his strong suits.”

“We should introduce him to Donna then,” Lydia joked.

“I like Donna,” Sam said with a quick grin. “She's got spunk.”

Lydia laughed at his choice of words. “Yeah, she’s got that in spades.”

“She just seems like an open, dynamic, tell it like it is person,” he said. “Am I right?”

“Completely,” Lydia affirmed. She looked at her plate and contemplated for the briefest second, then chose the piece of eel and cucumber over the California roll. “You got her pegged pretty quickly.”

“I have good intuition,” he said simply, without any trace of swagger. “In fact, it’s been said I’m a fairly good judge of character, that I usually hit the mark early on.”

When she finished chewing, she observed, “I don’t know that everyone would fully agree with that. Between your sister-in-law last night, and your brother checking up on us just now, I’m getting the feeling that they’re not pleased with us… spending time together. Am I right?”

Sam’s expression changed, immediately became contrite. “Lydia. Don’t pay them any mind. Really.”

Her eyebrows raised slowly as she realized she'd hit on something. A touch of surprise, then a touch of annoyance flickered across her features. “Huh. I’m
right
. Wow.”

Sam felt something hot sear through him in an instant—outraged anger at Alec and Paige, because Lydia felt slighted. She was obviously dismayed, trying to hide that it hurt her feelings, but he'd seen it flash in her eyes before she'd managed to contain it. He stared at her, at the barely masked emotions there. His brows furrowed; he wanted to right the situation quickly, do anything to make her smile again. “Wait. First of all, please ignore Alec and Paige. Seriously. Okay? Okay. Second, I’m just going to dive in and say something outright.”

She noted his sudden intensity and waited, listening.

He rubbed at his jaw, a fidgety motion, as he looked at her. His gaze was pensive; he was obviously considering which words to use, being careful. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, firm, and level, and he looked directly into her eyes. “I don’t care that you're so newly divorced, that it just went down so recently. You said you wanted it, that you've been on your own for a while now anyway, and that's good enough for me. Being divorced is… a circumstance you're
in
, not who you
are
. I like being around you, I like talking to you. I… well, I like you, Lydia. No point in trying to hide it, since I’m clearly not doing a very good job of it anyway.”

She felt like she’d stopped breathing and realized she had, she was actually holding her breath. She let it out in a whoosh. “Well. That’s… honest.”

“Yes it is.” He edged an inch closer, still holding her eyes with his, and murmured, “I like honesty. It works for me. But I just made you really uneasy, didn't I?”

Her mind was reeling, clamoring to find a witty and clever comeback. She had nothing. So she went with the truth. “A little,” she admitted. Her eyes were locked with his. “But wasn't that your intention? To throw me for a loop?”

“No. Not at all, actually. Quite the opposite.” Sam smiled gently. He was focused on her, about to say something more, when his younger niece seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Ignoring her fancy pink satin dress and the two plates of food, she flung herself onto his lap.

“Uncle Sam!” the little girl cried in delight, her tiny hands on his cheeks. “I found you!”

“You did, sweetpea.” He smiled down at her and kissed her forehead. The girl's blonde pincurls bounced as he pulled her more securely onto his lap. “Cindy, this is Lydia. Would you say hello?”

“Hello,” Cindy said with a sweet, dimpled grin.

“Hi.” Lydia smiled kindly at her, grateful for the interruption. She carefully moved the plates over so the little girl wouldn't end up sitting on sushi. “Are you having a good time here?”

“I love weddings,” Cindy proclaimed in her helium voice. “The dresses are beautiful. And I like all the flowers, they're so pretty.”

“Cindy is in big time Disney princess mode these days,” Sam explained, wrapping his arms around her tiny waist to hold her in place.

“I’m seven years old,” Cindy told Lydia.

“Wow. You’re a big girl.” Lydia smiled.

“How old are you?” Cindy asked.

Lydia and Sam both burst out laughing. “Older than you,” Lydia answered.

“Do you like weddings?” Cindy asked her.

“Yes, I do. They’re very happy occasions,” Lydia said. “And you’re right, everything around us is beautiful. Makes it nice to be here.”

Cindy smiled at her in approval, then looked down at the last piece of sushi on Sam’s plate and wrinkled her nose. “That looks weird. What is that?”

“It’s called sushi, baby,” Sam said. “I don’t know if you’d like it.”

“I don’t,” Cindy said firmly. “Mommy and Daddy like that. They got me to try it once, but I hated it.”

“Yeah, I didn’t like it until I was a grownup,” Sam said. He grinned and lightly tweaked her nose, a gesture of pure affection.

“There you are!” Paige was a few steps away from them. She came right up to Cindy, bent down low on her strappy gold stilettos to look her daughter in the eye, and said in a stern voice, “I didn’t know where you ran off to. I was scared! You can't do that!”

“Sorry, Mommy,” the little girl mumbled. “I just wanted to see Uncle Sam. I wanted to play with him.”

Paige shook her head and exhaled a deep breath. She stood back up and smoothed out her shimmery bronze colored sheath dress. “I understand that. But next time, you need to tell me where you’re going first, okay?”

“Yes, Mommy,” Cindy said quietly, her eyes downcast.

“Hi, Sam.” Paige finally smiled. “Hi, Lydia.”

“Hi,” Lydia said. “Sorry you were worried, we had no idea—”

“It’s alright, she’s safe, it’s fine.” Paige glanced at Sam as she pulled Cindy off his lap. “Sorry she interrupted you.”

“Don’t be silly,” Sam said. He grabbed Cindy’s hand and kissed the back of it. “My niece can come to me any time, for anything.”

“Careful what you say,” Paige warned. “She’ll take you up on that.” She looked down at her daughter. “Come on back to Daddy with me. Sam and his friend are talking, and you should let them be.”

“We’ll see you later, sweetpea,” Sam promised his niece.

Cindy gave him a huge smile, incredibly endearing with her two front teeth missing. “Okay.”

“Bye, Cindy,” Lydia said. “It was nice to meet you.”

Cindy smiled at her. “You’re nice,” she said.

Lydia smiled back. “Thank you. You’re hired.”

Sam laughed. Cindy looked up at her mother, confused by Lydia’s comment, but Paige just smiled at them, a bit strained, and pulled her daughter back into the crowd of guests.

“She is adorable,” Lydia said. “Cindy, that is.” She ate the last piece of sushi on her plate.

“Yes, she is,” Sam smiled. “I, uh… I have a little secret. I’ve got to admit, I try not to favor her over Hope and Zack, but there’s something about Cindy that I just… she tugs at my heart differently, I don’t know. She’s a trip, she's fun. And a real sweetheart.”

Lydia studied Sam, scrutinizing him for a minute as he finished his sushi.

“What?” he asked with a slightly self-conscious grin. “Seaweed in my teeth?”

She chuckled. “No, nothing like that. I was just admiring how good you are with Alec’s kids. You’re a great uncle. You obviously adore all three of them.”

Sam smiled, shrugged. “They’re easy to adore. They’re great kids.”

“But… well, I know this isn’t going to come out how I want it to come out…” Lydia smirked. “For a thirty-five-year-old single guy, you have a lot of patience for them. Real warmth. They like you so much because you obviously like them. Kids pick up on that, they sense it.”

Sam nodded, considering that. “I do like them. I like kids. Not just Alec's kids, but kids in general. I always thought I'd have a few of my own, but…” His voice trailed off. He cleared his throat and said, “But I understand what you mean. Most single guys my age probably think kids are a nuisance, merely to be tolerated, right?”

“Something like that. And hey, not just single guys your age,” Lydia amended. “Plenty of married ones, too.”

Sam shot her a long, assessing glance. “You just have the one son, right?” he asked.

Lydia nodded. “His name’s Andy.”

“Nice. He, um… I’m assuming he’s with his father this weekend, while you’re here?”

Lydia nodded and struggled to keep her expression placid at the thought of her ex-husband.

“Do you share custody?” Sam asked. “I mean, if you don’t mind my asking.”

“I don't mind. Matt—that's my ex-husband—wanted partial custody,” Lydia said. Her voice had automatically gotten tight and flat. “I didn’t think that was what was best for Andy… so we fought a lot at first, but eventually came to a compromise. Matt gets Andy on Sundays, and spends Wednesday afternoons with him until he has to bring him home for bedtime. So far, it's been working. This is the first sleepover weekend that we've done.”

Sam nodded. He picked up his flute of champagne and finished it.

She didn’t know why she felt compelled to explain further, but she did. “I wanted Andy to have the stability of just being in one place, not being shuffled back and forth. It’s not like I’m a spiteful ex-wife, or a man hater, or anything like that. I don't hate Matt, as mad as he makes me sometimes. I
want
Matt to be a good father to Andy, to be a constant in his life. But what Andy needs comes first, and that's it.
He
is the most important thing in the equation, the most important thing in the world. He’s only three and a half. And he—” Lydia stopped herself, pressed her lips together tightly, and swallowed hard.

Sam looked at her and urged, “Go ahead, what were you going to say?”

Lydia shook her head. “No. I’m sorry. It's enough. You don’t need to hear the ugly details of my life.” Pink blossomed on her cheeks as she looked down at her hands.

He placed a kind hand on her forearm. “Lydia. I
asked
,” he reminded her gently. “Hey, I dumped a few of my ugly details on you last night, didn’t I? But if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. It’s none of my business, really.”

She sighed as he retracted his hand. She reached out to her glass and knocked back the last of her champagne as the mixed emotions swirled inside her. Sam seemed to be a genuinely good person. And honest, and damned bold—stating flat out that he was interested in her, reminding her that he’d let his guard down last night and revealed some intimate information of his own.
Well then
, she figured,
might as well give a few of the gory details, get it out there. Why not.

“My son has a severe speech delay,” she finally said. She looked directly into Sam's eyes. “He’s been getting speech therapy since his second birthday, and now gets it three times a week at his preschool. It’s hard to deal with sometimes. It’s very difficult to try to figure out what he wants, what he needs, since he can’t really tell us. So it can be very frustrating—both for him, and for us. And often… I just don’t feel Matt has as much patience with Andy as he should. He loses his patience too quickly. It was one of the single biggest things that led to the end of our marriage. So, I wanted Andy with me, to be raised with patience, where he would feel supported, and loved, unconditionally.” She blew out a stream of air and concluded quietly, “Maybe my attitude makes a little more sense now… I hope.”

Sam nodded, understanding now why she had so admired his kind manner with his nieces and nephew. He found her devotion to her son's welfare admirable. He admired her resolve, her selflessness where her child was concerned, her obvious strength of character. He admired
her
. “It sounds to me like you’re a wonderful mother,” he said softly.