Page 16 of One Last Kiss
Abby looked up. That was just it. She couldn’t be talked out of something she wanted, but shecouldbe argued out of something she didn’twant. It had never been her dream to host a cooking show. Her dream had always been to be here with Sam. To raise a family that would flow in and out of a restaurant that she was proud of.
That was still her dream…even if she didn’t believe it was possible anymore.
Late that afternoon,after Grace and Krista had gone home to their families, Abby felt restless. Her life these days could fit into twenty-two neatly marked boxes. There was something sad about that fact. Even worse than the melancholy that had fallen over her was the silly little desire she had to call and talk to Sam.
What did they possibly have to talk about?
She went so far as to pull up his contact and let her finger hover over the CALL button. Needing a distraction, she threw on a pair of tennis shoes, grabbed her purse, and headed out the door. She had no idea where she was heading. It didn’t matter as long as she wasn’t alone with her thoughts and a bunch of cardboard boxes.
The air was cool now that the sun was on its descent. Bypassing her Honda CR-V in the driveway, she headed down the street on foot. The road was bordered by the Intracoastal Waterway. Out in the distance she saw several commercial fishing boats bobbing on the water, and wondered if Sam or his brothers were onboard. Pete Sawyer would certainly be resting at home. Perhaps she could walk by his house and, if none of the brothers’ cars were in the driveway, she could go in and give Pete her well-wishes.
Deciding that was a good plan, she took off in that direction.After trekking a mile down the road, Abby stood in front of Pete’s house. With no sign of Jack, Noah, or Sam, she headed to the front door and knocked. The door opened with the slightest pressure, and she poked her head inside. “Pete?” she called. “It’s Abby. I came to see how you’re doing.”
Pete had always been like a dad to her.She didn’t harbor good thoughts about her own father who’d died five years ago, but Pete held a huge space in her heart.
“I’m back here,” he called. “In the living room.”
Abby was familiar with the house, having come here since her senior year of high school. When she stepped into the living room, she found Pete lying on the recliner with a food tray on his lap.
He smiled weakly. “You caught me at the one moment today that anybody has left me alone.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. But she really wasn’t. If this was the only time she could come visit without running into Sam, she’d take it.
“Don’t be. I’ve been wanting to see you.I hear you’re selling your restaurant and moving out of Blushing Bay.” His brows arched over pale blue eyes.
“That’s the plan.” She walked further into the living room and sat on the couch across from him.“It’s time to spread my wings.”
Pete shook his head. “That’s a bunch of cockamamie if I ever heard any. It’s something college kids say when they want to do something they know they shouldn’t. They say they’re spreading their wings. And no offense, but you’re not a kid anymore.”
Abby laughed out loud. Pete had never been one to mince words. “You think I’m doing something I shouldn’t?”
“What doyouthink?” he asked.
“I’m not divorcing you, Pete. I’m divorcing Sam. I want you to know I’ll always consider you like a father.”
Pete frowned, causing wrinkles to fold along his leathered cheeks, a product of years on the sea. “You don’t visit as much since you and Sam separated. If you get divorced and move away, I’ll never see you. We all love you, Abby, not just Sam. Maybe he had a bad way of showing it, but blame that on me.I raised the boys the best way I knew how, but they didn’t have a mother to teach them how to be soft or how to talk about matters of the heart. We were a household of males who talked about fishing and boats, and that’s it.”
Pete sighed. “Sam loves you. He needs you. And yeah, I think you’re making a big mistake.”
“This will be our last session,”Sam told Dr. Dumont as he sat across her desk.
Dr. Dumont lifted one eyebrow up, looking at him through her wire-rimmed glasses. “And why is that?”
“Because I’m done.” He shrugged stiffly. “Abby is selling the restaurant and moving,and she doesn’t want me in her life anymore.”
Dr. Dumont was silent for a long moment. Did they teach therapists that trick in school? To stare at their patients and make them feel like they needed to talk more to fill up the silence? Well, Sam didn’t have anything else to say. He’d already told Dr. Dumont about his time being locked in the basement with Abby. He’d told her every detail, including the news about Abby’s miscarriage. He’d told Dr. Dumont about how they’d kissed and had almost done more. And how the latter had been on his mind ever since.
What he wouldn’t give to have his lips locked with Abby’sand his arms wrapped around her one more time. What he wouldn’t give to hear her whisper that she loved him while they made love the way they used to.
And what he wouldn’t give to have his heart ripped right out of his chest so that he didn’t have to feel anything for his soon to be ex-wife anymore.
“If it was over,” Dr. Dumont said, “then she wouldn’t have kissed you back, Sam.”
“Maybe she needed closure. And after she was done kissing me, she got it. Doesn’t matter. Abby has already packed up her apartment. She made up her mind despite me telling her I still loved her. I even offered to go with her.” And that was one tidbitthat Sam had yet to disclose to Dr. Dumont.
Dr. Dumont’s eyes widened. “Did you mean it?”
Sam scratched the side of his face. Hell yeah, he meant it. At that moment, he would’ve been willing to cross to the other side of the world if that’s what Abby needed. The family business could survive without him, but he wasn’t sure he could survive without Abby in his life for one second longer.
