Page 80 of Hacking the Holidays
Sam handed over his credit card without hesitation. Without even flinching. I stared at the receipt as the cashier bagged everything, and thoughts popped into my head.
Was this his money? His legitimate, earned-from-his-actual-job money? Or was I watching him spend funds stolen from corrupt millionaires?
The thought made me feel dirty.
Like I’d contaminated something pure just by questioning it. I was focused on the negative, not the positive: the families he was helping, the children whose names he knew, the community he was holding together with his generosity and enormous heart.
“Ready?” Sam asked, hoisting two bags in one hand and reaching for the donation box with the other.
“Ready,” I said, grabbing the food and the other bookstore bag.
I kept stealing glances at Sam on the way back to the library, at the way he nodded to everyone we passed. At the little smile that played on his lips, as if he was thinking about something pleasant.
I was in so much trouble.
Because somewhere between the hot apple cider and the bookstore, between learning more about him and watching him buy toys for kids whose names he knew, I’d stopped thinking of Sam as a case.
Instead, I was thinking of him as someone I could fall for. Someone I could share a future with.
Those positive feelings evaporated the second I spotted Beverly. She was leaning against a lamppost a half block away, arms crossed, watching us with that self-satisfied smirk I’d come to dislike with a passion.
“Can we stop for a second?” I asked.
“Of course,” Sam said without asking why, then he pointed to the bench. “Let’s set these things down here.”
We placed the toys, books, and food on the bench.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his brow furrowed.
“I will be after I do this,” I said.
Without giving it a second thought, I stepped in front of Sam and kissed him with everything I had.
Chapter Nineteen
ZARA
I’d been working in our hotel room for almost two hours, reviewing case logs and files. My thoughts kept traveling back to the kiss, and the absolute recklessness of kissing Sam in broad daylight with Beverly watching from half a block away.
I should have been terrified of what she might tell Agent Thorne. Instead, I kept replaying the moment over and over, savoring it like something precious I might never get to experience again.
The hotel room door swung open, and Chloe burst in, her face flushed from the cold. “My butt cheeks are frozen.”
“Finally,” I said, straightening in my chair. “Where have you been? It’s almost time to connect with Thorne.”
“The line at the pizza place was insane, but I’m happy to report that I am no longer hangry.” She shrugged off her coat, tossed it on her bed, then paused, studying my face. “But clearly, something happened while you were with Samtoday.” Chloe’s eyes widened. “Uh-oh. Did you kiss him again?”
I nodded mutely.
“Zara—”
“Although it’s much more complicated than that.” I stood, needing to move, to pace, to do something with the nervous energy coursing through me. “He knows.”
Chloe’s eyebrows shot up. “Knows what?”
“That we’re FBI.”
The phone fell from her hand and crashed to the floor as she stared at me. “What? How did that happen?”
