Page 15 of One Last Kiss
Sam shrugged. “Maybe. At least we’re on a talking basis again.”
“Great. Well, this is good medicine for what ails me.”
Sam shook his head. “Don’t get too excited. We’re not reconciling.”
“Why the hell not?”
Sam blew out a heavy breath. “Because Abby is selling the restaurant and leaving Blushing Bay.”
“I can’t believeyou’re going through with this,” Krista said as she helped Abby pack the contents of her kitchen cabinet.
Abby was packing up one room at a time. Considering that the living quarters above her restaurant consisted of only one bedroom, a bathroom, laundry room, and a small kitchen, it wouldn’t take long.
“It’s an opportunity—”
“Of a lifetime,” Grace said, completing her sentence. “That’s what you keep telling us. We can be happy for you, but still be sad for us, you know.”
“I’ll be back to visit as often as I can,” Abby promised.
“Not the same.” Krista got up to go check on baby Joshua who was sleeping soundly in his car seat on the floor.
“How’s Pete?” Abby asked.
“He’s leaving the hospital today, I think,” Grace told her.
Abby had wanted to go visit the Sawyer family patriarch, but Sam had apparently been camped out at his side since they’d been freed from the basement Friday night. She wasn’t keen on running into him right now, for many reasons, one of which was the fact that she’d thought of him nonstop since then.
“We’re still waiting to know if the tumor is benign,” Krista added.
Abby swallowed. “Sam must be going crazy.”
She hadn’t meant to say her thoughts out loud. She looked up to find Krista and Grace staring at her. “Jack and Noah too, of course.”
“It’s okay to still care about him,” Grace said gently. “You two shared a marriage, a home, a…” She trailed off.
A baby.
Abby had told both Krista and Grace about her brief pregnancy. They’d urged her to tell Sam after the miscarriage, but Abby had been stubborn. He’d told her just that morning that he might not want to have a child anymore. She knew now it was because he was fed up with the disappointment, month after month. He’d also wanted to protect her because she’d taken it so hard every time they’d failed to conceive.
“Why do men have to mess everything up?” she asked with exasperation. “I was excited about this new opportunity in Atlanta. Now…I don’t even know how I feel.”
“Do you still love Sam?” Krista asked.
“Of course she does,” Grace answered for her. “Sam is the love of Abby’s life. And vice versa.”
“He offered to come with me,” Abby told them.
Both friends gasped.
“What did you say?” Grace asked.
Abby shrugged. “He didn’t give me time to say anything. In one breath he offered, and the next he said goodbye. If Sam loved me,reallyloved me, he’d fight for me, right? He wouldn’t have let me leave two years ago. He would’ve camped outside my door in the pouring rain, and begged me for a second chance.”
Grace laughed. “Someonehas been watching too many romantic comedies.”
Abby offered a weak smile. “He just let me go. Two years ago. Then again this past Friday night. And he’s not breaking my door down to stop me from moving away from Blushing Bay right now either.”
“Maybe he knows you can’t be argued out of something you want to do,” Grace suggested. “You’re pretty strong-willed, you know.”
