Thank you for your continued support. I truly appreciate it.
For those of you who are with me on these stories, I want to apologize if I don't make my daily update. I am currently swamped, mostly with my kids' online assignments. There is so much work to check and re-check, to type and send in...I really don't envy teachers. And when I'm not working, I sit in on their face time with the teachers. Sometimes, I have to run from one room to the next...spend five minutes with one child and then back to the other to listen in for a few minutes. Thankfully, my oldest can handle himself and don't need my help with his online work.
Whew!
Standard disclaimer.
Opening the door, Mercedes stared dumbfounded and confused, at seeing Sam on her doorstep.
What was he doing here?
She couldn't even fathom.
Sam turned around, holding a box in his arms.
His eyes deepened to a very dark nepeta green, the moment they met hers.
Without saying a word, he eased passed her.
Silently, she closed the door and turned around, leaning against it.
It took her a couple of moments, to remember how to speak.
"What are you doing here?"
Sam glanced around her tiny apartment with interest.
"It's Christmas Eve."
"Yeah, I know that."
God, she would've straightened up a little, if she had known he was going to swing by.
"Shouldn't you be with your brothers and Marley's family?"
He shrugged, as he placed a box on the coffee table. Something festive-sounding jingled inside.
Sitting down on her couch, like he'd done it a million times before, he grinned up at her and he patted the cushion next to him.
"I like the paint by the way. Miss Wilde said it looked like Sesame Street in here, but I don't think so."
Oh, Lord help her, but she hated that woman.
Her gaze bounced from the blue to the red walls. Okay...it did kind of remind her of Sesame Street...a little.
"You don't?"
"Nope. I like it. It fits you."
Mercedes' little heart got all a-fluttery at the sound of that, which was bad and so needed to stop.
"What are you doing here, Sam?"
"Sit." He patted the spot beside him again.
"You're not leaving, are you?" She winced, as she caught sight of Kellogs peeking out from the bedroom.
"Nope."
More nervous than she'd ever been, in her entire life, she tugged the robe a little closer and sat down beside him.
Sam leaned back and tipped his head towards her.
His gaze traveled over her damp hair and then moved to the V in the robe, before going to the belt, she was grasping like a lifeline.
"I should've swung by about ten minutes earlier."
Mercedes wanted to laugh, but then she remembered...not that she'd really forgotten...what they had done...er...what she had done, actually, in the Jeep after dinner.
Each time they did something, she told herself it wouldn't happen again. It was a useless mantra she realized, as she watched him out of the corner of her eyes.
Without warning, a blob of orange jumped up onto the arm of the couch.
Sam turned, brows rising, as Kellogs stared back at him.
"That is the biggest cat I've ever seen," he said.
As if the cat had understood the difference between big and fat, the cat eased down off the arm and tentatively approached him.
Mercedes held her breath.
And Sam reached out and scratched the cat behind his ear.
"What's his name?"
"Kellogs."
"Kellogs?" He laughed. "Why that name?"
She smiled.
"I found him in a Kellogs box when he was a kitten. The name stuck."
Surprise flickered through her, as the cat climbed onto Sam's lap.
"I'm shocked that he's letting you pet him. He's not that friendly."
Sam glanced at her, a wicked gleam in his eyes.
"What can I say? Pussies love me." A short laugh burst from Mercedes.
"I cannot believe you just said that."
"Yeah, that was kind of bad." He ran his hand over Kellogs' belly. A few moments passed in silence, and then he said casually,
"Marley told me."
"Told you what?" Her stomach immediately knotted.
He threw an arm along the back of the couch, his fingers catching a strand of damp hair.
"About your parents."
Looking away, Mercedes took a deep breath.
"So, you're here because you feel sorry for me? Because, if that's the case, you can save your sympathy. I don't want pity. It's why I don't talk about..."
"Hey..." He gently tugged on the strand of hair. "I do feel sorry for you, but it's not pity. It's empathy."
She turned to him, brows raised.
"Empathy?"
He smiled his lopsided grin, as he continued to shower the cat with attention.
"Yeah, you're surprised, that I know what that means, right? But I do. And there's nothing wrong with feeling empathy for you."
Mercedes stared at him.
"And what happened to your parents sucks. And the fact that, you can't enjoy something like Christmas, is even worse."
He twirled the hair around his finger, and she found that she liked it, when he played with her hair.
"I get why you don't want to. At first, I was against the whole Rose's clan Christmas party, even when I was a kid. You know, it was Stevie who started hanging out with Mitch first. Sawyer and I were older and thought we were too cool, but the Rose's invited us over one Christmas Eve and we were like, what the hell?"
Mercedes settled back against the couch, quiet, as he talked.
What was rarer than her talking about her parents, was Sam talking about his and his childhood.
In a way, they kind of had that in common.
Their families and pasts, were something both of them held close, and they respected that about each other.
"It was strange being around a family...a normal, happy family." His gaze left hers, centering on the box on the table. "My parents really didn't celebrate anything. Both of them were too wrapped up in their own worlds really, to care for much else. When my brothers and I were really little, they'd put some stuff up for Christmas, but that stopped as soon as my father..."
He didn't need to elaborate.
Mercedes already knew, from what Marley had told her.
The senior Evans had been a well-known businessman, he was controlling and loved hard-partying.
And if someone looked up the definition of womanizing in the dictionary, they would find his picture, right beside it.
"Anyway, once I started going to the Marley's house for the holidays, I was glad I did. And I know you have your reasons. I respect that, but you shouldn't be alone on Christmas."
"Sam..." She didn't know what to say, as she watched him gently place the cat on the cushion next to him and sit forward.
Her heart was pounding in her chest, like she'd just run circles around her living room.
"And I've spent a dozen or so Christmas Eves with the Rose's and more than I want to remember with my brothers."
He flashed that teasing smile of his.
"And I haven't spent one with you. So that's why I'm here. And don't argue with me about it."
Mercedes' fingers loosened around the robe, as she shook her head.
Part of her was dancing around like a hippie chick, but the other part was terrified...scared senseless, by this act of kindness and caring.
And then he opened up the box.
"This is what my mom used to put up in the house for Christmas. It's kind of dumb and really pathetic, but I always liked the stupid thing."
Sam pulled out a faint green, ceramic Christmas tree about two feet tall.
Each limb had a tiny bulb attached to it. And an electrical plug dangled from the base.
"Pretty cornball, huh? But this was our tree for years," he ended.
Tears filled Mercedes' eyes, as he got up and sat the tree on the end table and then plugged it in.
The little tree lit from within, glowing a soft green, and the multicolored bulbs glimmered.
"Ta-da!" He straightened and faced her. And his wide smile immediately faded. "Oh no..."
"I'm sorry." She dabbed at the corners of her eyes, with the sleeves of her robe. "I don't mean to cry. I'm not upset."
But Sam looked more confused by each passing second.
"This is just such...a nice thing," she hastily added. "I love the tree, really, I do. Thank you."
And she was pretty sure in that moment, she knew there was no turning back.
She had fallen hard for him, irrevocably so. Nothing was going to change that. Not even the fact that, their whole relationship was built on lies.
But she was in love with him.
That realization couldn't have come at a better or worse time.
Her heart was swelling, while her brain was plotting ways to kick the ever-loving crap out of her.
Falling for him was so dangerous to her heart, but she couldn't help it.
Her heart didn't belong to her anymore.
It belonged to the man in front of her.
Sam's grin was a little unsure, something she'd never seen before.
"Man, if you're going to cry over that, I better find some tissues."
Mercedes started laughing.
"Why?"
"Prepare yourself." He reached back in the box and pulled out a smaller red box, wrapped with red satin. "I got you something."
"Oh, Sam, you shouldn't have." He arched a brow.
"You haven't even seen what it is."
"But I didn't..."
"I don't care that you didn't get me something. That's not what this is about."
He sat back down, and Kellogs rolled over against his leg, like a fat blob of orange fur.
"And besides, you've pretty much given me my future with the team, even if you agreed to do this, to increase your dating pool."
Mercedes' opened her mouth, because that so wasn't the reason why, but she couldn't tell if he was teasing or not, and how could she admit to the truth?
She was basically blackmailed. What a mood killer.
Sam placed the little box in Mercedes' hand.
Very carefully, she hooked her pinkie under the ribbon and pulled. It slid off easily, and then she pried off the lid.
She sucked in a sharp breath.
"Oh my God..."
"I'll take that as you like it?"
"Like it...?"
Mercedes reached inside and with shaking fingers, and lifted the necklace she would've skipped rent to get.
It was the one from the Little Boutique...the garnet on the silver chain.
Sam took the box from her and placed it on the coffee table.
"That is the one you were looking at in the store, right?"
"Yes," she breathed, blinking back fresh tears. "Why would you do this?"
"Because I wanted to."
"And you always do what you want..." The jewel was the perfect weight.
"Not always," he said quietly. "I used to think I did and maybe I did, but not anymore...not always."
She lifted damp lashes and her eyes locked with his.
"Thank you. You shouldn't have, but thank you. And I'm sorry about yesterday. I was such a bitch and you were just being nice. I'm sorry...
"Hey, it's no big deal." He reached forward and took the necklace from her hands. "Turn around and lift your hair."
Twisting at the waist, she obeyed and lifted the heavy mass of hair.
Sam was quiet and quick, as he moved.
It was only the cool slide of the garnet between her breasts, that alerted her to his closeness.
Then, the necklace must've been clasped, because his hands were around hers, lowering them, so that her hair came down over her shoulders. He let go, though.
Mercedes faced him, her heart and pulse pounding, in every part of her body. She didn't know what she was doing.
Leaning forward, she placed her hands on the small section of the couch between them, and she pressed her lips to his.
"Thank you," she said again, and pulled back. But there was no mistaking the hunger in his green eyes.
Sam said nothing, as she stood on suddenly shaky legs.
In the dark room, lit only by the muted TV and the little Christmas tree, Mercedes knew she didn't want him to leave. Not yet. Not ever.
And she also knew, she'd only get one of those things.
Her fingers found the garnet, and her chest spasmed.
"Would you like something to drink? I think I have some wine or..."
Sam was on his feet so suddenly, that the cat shot off the couch and into the kitchen, and a thrill of excitement ran through Mercedes.
There was no mistaking the intent in his expression.
"I am thirsty," he said, taking a step towards her.
A breathless Mercedes moved back. But she didn't make it very far.
He was in front of her in seconds, cupping her cheeks.
Then, he kissed her, as quickly and as gently, as she had kissed him...and she was undone.
"Please..." she whispered. Sam grew very still.
"Please what?"
She wet her lips, and his groan rumbled through both of them.
"Touch me, but don't stop. Please."
Don't know if you've realized it or not, but I've changed from my original idea of having the Hummels as the Evans brothers' go-to family to the Rose's. I think it makes more sense.
Stay safe, stay blessed.