Page 61 of Stand

“Nice to meet you. Sam.”

“Oh, yeah? That’s cool! Guy’s name! So yeah, Fielding! Two rooms!”

Yeah!Sam nearly said.You got it!

“So do you have your driver’s license?”

Finally, a sentence without an exclamation point. “Absolutely,” Sam said, giving it to her.

“Hi there!” she sang to the others while she tapped Sam’s details into the tablet. “Welcome to the Show-Me State!” She grinned up at Ty for a second and winked at him.

Well, that was uncalled for, Sam thought, irritated. She turned and scowled at Ty. Just because she wanted to.

“How are you?” Ty said to Tammy. Was it her imagination, or was his voice more gravelly and sexy than before?

“Oh, I’m wonderful!”

Sam caught sight of Matt to one side of Ty. He looked a little smacked-by-a-two-by-four. Yes, Tammy was pretty cute. He was probably hoping like hell the baby wasn’t hers.

“So where are you all headed?” Tammy asked. With practiced elegance, she braced the baby with one arm, reached behind her with the other, and snagged two keys from the board.

“Colorado,” Sam said.

“New Mexico,” Alyssa said at exactly the same time. Then her face fell into horror. “I mean, Colorado,” she mumbled.

“We’re kind of going all over,” Sam covered. Poor kid. Lying didn’t come naturally to her. And really, was there any point to it?

Tammy looked from one to the other. “Well, that’s cool! I’ve never been anywhere other than Disney, but one day we’re going to take Sawyer here, aren’t we, sweetie?” And she gave the baby a big smooch on the cheek.

Sam used to do that with Cat’s kids, back when they were all living together, before she ran away. The twins were fat little cuties back then. Her eyes cut to Ty. What had his kids been like as babies? He didn’t have an ounce of spare flesh on him, that was for certain.

Beyond him, Matt looked disappointed. Sam’s mouth twisted in a smile, and he caught it. He knew she knew what he was thinking. He gave her a scowl that was the mirror image of his father’s, and then, more troublingly, he smiled. He turned to Tammy. “Hey, uh…”

“Tammy!” she said, looking as though it was the greatest thrill of her life to repeat her name.

“Tammy, hi. Listen, this is my dad and my stepmother.”

Sam froze.His what now?

“They just got married; isn’t that great?”

“For real?” Tammy’s eyes were huge circles in her cheerleader-cute face.

“For real,” Alyssa joined in, giving Tammy a big smile, which was interesting, seeing as how she’d looked as dreary as the walls when she’d walked in. “It was so cute, you wouldn’t believe it!”

Sam was trying not to look as though she was planning new and inventive ways of killing her beloved stepchildren. She had no idea what Ty’s expression was.

“And what’s even cuter,” Alyssa gushed on, “is that they wanted to bring us with them on their honeymoon! Isn’t that great?”

“Oh my God!” Tammy echoed. Her blue eyes shimmered with tears. “That’s the cutest thing I ever heard! What a great stepmommy you’ll be!” She reached the hand that wasn’t holding the baby across the desk to grab Sam’s arm. “I just knew as soon as I saw you.”

Knew what? That these children are getting strangled in their beds tonight?“Well, thanks. Um, can you recommend a place to go for dinner tonight?”

“Sure, I can! Joe Cobra’s. It’s two blocks that way.” She pointed to her left. “Everybody goes there. Get the crab cakes—they’re uh-maaazing.”

“Thanks.” Sam took the keys.

“Yeah, thanks!” Matt said. “It makes it so much better when other people get to share how happy we are, doesn’t it?”

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