Page 27 of Blame It On the Lattes

“I’m so sorry, Avery. I didn’t mean for that to happen. When I thought about getting her the tree for her room, it never even crossed my mind that she might think this was a permanent home. Not that I mind you guys staying with me, because I don’t. You can stay for as long as you want to. I have no timeframe in mind on when you two have to—”

“Sam?” I said, forcing him to stop on the downward spiral he was on.

“Yeah?”

“It’s okay. I promise. It’s not your fault she came to that conclusion. It’s my error in not setting expectations right away that our stay here was only temporary. I’ve been so caught up with everything else that I haven’t even taken the time to think about how she must be perceiving all of this. So much has changed for her in such a short time that I forget to stop and help her process all of it.”

“You’ve had a lot going on, Avery. I don’t think anyone faults you for not knowing how long you’ll be here. But you’re right. She has had a lot of change in a short period. Maybe this is when things slow down some, and you both take a moment to catch your breath. Nobody expects you to have the next step figured out already.”

“I do,” I said with a laugh. “The day I packed up the car and left with Kennedy, I told myself that I would keep pushing forward until we had a sign that we were where we were meant to be. I knew it would be hard to walk away from the life that we knew, but we had to. It was the only choice we had. And now here I am, falling apart and having no idea where to go or what to do.” I sucked in a deep breath to keep from crying.

Sam came and sat beside me on the couch.

“You’re not falling apart, Avery. You’re taking care of your daughter and leaning on family to help you guys through this trying time right now. Like I said before, there is no time limit on how long you guys stay here. Trust me.”

“Thank you, Sam. You don’t have to do all of this, though.”

“I know. I want to.”

I wiped my eyes and smiled as I took the tissue he offered me.

“This would be so much easier if you were my cheating husband who didn’t love me anymore,” I teased, though I felt the sting of my words as I said them.

Sam’s face fell, and a flurry of emotions crossed over it before he pushed them away.

“That would never happen, Avery,” he said, his voice tight.

“I know,” I said, waving dismissively. “I wasn’t trying to suggest that you would ever see yourself married to someone like me.”

“No. I could easily see myself married to someone like you. What I meant is that I would never be that person, Avery. I would never cheat on someone as wonderful as you, and there’s no way in hell that I could evernotlove you.”

The air in the room shifted around us as he stood up and left me sitting speechless on the couch.

Fifteen

Sam

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