Moonlit Wishes
Book II, XXXII

Sami made sure the door was shut and listened for Chris' car to leave the driveway before she let out a sigh of relief. She loved Chris dearly, she truly did, but his way with words and seeing things could get her into tons of misunderstood trouble with EJ if he heard snippets of their conversations.

The one thing she didn't need was more misunderstandings with the man who was in the living room delighting their children with what she supposed most be tales of his trip while he was away from Salem. She could hear the inflections of his voice rise and fall depending on what the children were asking him. She just needed to let them have some alone time together and go about her business of making this house look presentable. It was the least she could do for all that EJ had done procuring the house for them in the first place.

She doubted EJ even had an inkling over how much she loved and appreciated living in this house; it was without a doubt the first place she had felt truly at home, that she belonged here with her children. This house held such memories for her before the children were even conceived and somehow she believed it had been some strange twist of fate that she lived here now. She had put so much time and love into refinishing the rooms. Before she had taken on the projects she had never known how much she could accomplish with hard work, plus the work had helped ease her conscience of living here without EJ.

EJ, she thought no wonder he had been in her thoughts constantly since she had read his heart felt and oft time gut wrenching letters to her. If he hadn't given her that precious gift of his insight she might still be living a lie, hating EJ too and blaming him for all the wrongs in her life when she knew most of them lay at her feet, a product of her many years of scheming to get what she wanted, when she wanted it. She could claim she had grown up, but looking back over the past few years she had run away from her problems, not grown up and matured.

So it wasn't any surprise that it still bothered her conscience, yes she believed she was allowing that pesky attribute have a much bigger voice in her life than she had before, and that he had decided to allow her to stay here. This was his house, yet he had given her this place to escape to after she had left and then ultimately divorced Rafe. She only thought of Rafe in passing these days, he wasn't a part of her or the children's lives anymore. Both going their separate ways when their divorce had been final. She had hoped Rafe would leave Salem, but as far as she knew he was still around working for the Salem PD. Her dad had expressed his disappointment that her marriage to Rafe was over, but for her it had been a liberation, a letting go of something she had tried to mold herself into fit and now that she was free of it, her life held new meaning. For once in her life she was her own person, a man didn't define her, she was uniquely Sami, even if sometimes being true to herself made her family think she was strange. She could finally say that she was on her way to being content, not exactly let's throw and party and celebrate all out happy, but for once her life wasn't one mishap after another. Maybe for now that was enough for her.

She decided to stop her musings and went down to the basement, leaving her children with EJ to find the bucket of royal blue paint she was planning on using in the laundry room. She had found it on sale when apparently someone had brought it back to the hardware store, she guessed they hadn't liked the color, but she had thought it would be perfect for the laundry room.

So she grabbed the bucket of paint by the handle, along with finding her drop cloth, and the various paint brushes she would need to begin this latest project. It would be nice to be able to paint in peace, she bet the children wouldn't even miss her, so entranced they were by EJ at the moment. She couldn't even feel an ounce of jealously that she had sometimes felt before when they were with him because she knew they along with him needed this time together. She had denied his access to his children for far too long.

So she immersed herself into the project, carefully taping around the windowsill edges, and began painting, transforming the room from the stark white color that resided to the lively royal blue. It was time consuming work, but one that she lost herself in as the room was being brought to life with each stroke of her paintbrush. Time passed quickly as she worked, she kept her full concentration on what she was doing and thus failed to hear EJ coming up behind her in his search to see what had become of her after they had parted ways after the rigorous exercise training they had taken together earlier in the morning.

The kids were hungry and wanted to go eat and Allie suggested they go see a movie afterward since she was all enthralled with anything movie related due to her wanting to be an actress when she grew up. After Allie's suggestion of a movie all the children quickly agreed this would be a fun way to spend the afternoon and with little prodding on their part EJ had agreed, so he was curious as to where Samantha had gotten herself off too, he wasn't used to her being so quiet and her giving him so much time alone with the children.

There she was leaning up on the top step of the small ladder she was using to help her reach to the top of the ceiling. She was reaching to a far corner and almost lost her bearings, trying to right herself while doing her best to keep the paint can from tumbling over in the floor.

She muttered under her breath, "Damn it!"

Then he couldn't help himself, he chuckled at her. It was so like her to get frustrated with something even if he knew she wasn't going to ask anyone for help. Her pride got in the way of so many things, too many things.

Holding onto the ladder, she turned her eyes to him noticing EJ was observing her with one of his subtle smiles he had when he looked like he knew better than she did, which was a look she knew by heart, one she had seen from him many times even if she didn't like to admit it to anyone, especially him. She tried to hide the irritation she felt when she saw that look, although she guessed she failed when his expression became one of outright amusement.

She almost lost her balance completely, luckily EJ's reflexes were quick enough to prevent her from falling off the ladder into the floor, and the only downside to it was that she smeared paint on his shirt in the process. He steadied her by the waist and Sami hated the instant fluttering of her heart by his nearness, not to mention what she thought was her clumsiness when she realized the paint was on him too.

She huffed as she tried to move from his embrace, "You startled me!"

"Sorry," EJ couldn't help but grin when she pushed the fallen hair from her kerchief back in place which caused a streak of the royal blue paint to mar her cheek.

"What? Why are you staring at me?" She asked trying to sound more out of sorts with him for surprising her instead of him realizing his nearness was affecting her. When he was sure she wasn't going to fall he removed his hands from her waist, his gesture of preventing her from falling no doubt hadn't enamored him in her eyes as she stepped down from the ladder onto the floor to face him making sure there was some distance between them, this room wasn't very spacious and it started to make her feel claustrophobic with him standing so near.

EJ reached out to her cheek, trying to see if the paint would come off when he touched her and it did onto his fingers, "You've got a smidgen of paint on your face."

"Oh," Sami self consciously tried to remove the residue of the paint with one of her cloths, but she couldn't see what she was doing and only made the area of paint grow on her face.

"Here, allow me," EJ offered taking the cloth from her and wiped carefully. "There all better."

"Thanks," Sami replied warily. She pointed to his shirt, anything for a distraction to get her thoughts away from wishing his hands were back on her waist. "Sorry for getting paint on your shirt. I hope I haven't ruined it."

He looked down at the sleeve of his shirt and shrugged, "If you have, it isn't a big deal. Luckily I have plenty more. The reason I had come to find you was that the children wanted to go grab a bite to eat and then see a movie. I was just wondering if you might like to join us that is if it is all right if I take them out this afternoon."

He looked uncertain as if he might have overstepped his bounds, but he was so happy to see the children again he hadn't even thought that Samantha might not want him to take them somewhere without asking her first.

"It's more than all right," Sami nodded. "They would do almost anything to get out of working on the house. We've put in plenty of weekends just trying to get the place to look more livable."

"You've done a great job with what I have seen so far. I'm impressed Samantha."

Her smile lit up her face by his words of praise, "You really like what we've done so far? I mean we have tons more to do…"

"I hadn't even expected you to come here much less turn this house into a home, but you have a knack with it from the looks of everything."

"Thank you EJ. It means a lot. I love this house," and then she stopped herself from saying more, thinking she was revealing far too much as it was with him.

"I'm glad," he replied softly. "So how about that offer that you come with us then, I mean it could be fun."

Part of her wanted to jump at the offer, but part of her wasn't sure she should, EJ needed time with the children and she'd had so many more memories with them then he did. Maybe it would be better if she stayed at home, finished this painting job and let them all go. Yes, that would be better. The kids didn't need to get all confused thinking she and EJ were getting back together because he didn't seem all that interested in her anyway. She had to keep reminding herself he was back for the sake of the children, not her.

"You guys go and have a good time. I think I'll stay here and finish this project," she pointed to the two unpainted walls that needed a coat of paint on them also.

"Well if you are sure, I mean I hate to go and leave you to it," EJ looked at her questioningly because for a moment there he thought she might say yes and go with them.

"I love doing this type of stuff," Sami added as she stepped back a few more feet away from EJ, acting as if painting these other two walls were of great importance to her.

"All right, well I guess we will go in a few minutes then," EJ stated as Sami's eye caught the splotch of paint on his shirt again.

"Hand me your shirt and I'll try to get the paint out of it while you are gone," Sami said not thinking he would just strip it off and hand it to her, but he did causing her to try to look anywhere else except at his bare chest.

"Thanks Samantha," EJ stood in the doorway for a moment and then he realized he had taken his shirt off in front of her. Feeling rather uncomfortable being underdressed in front of her after the fact.

"You're welcome," She held onto his shirt and shooed him off. "Have a good time and I'll see you all tonight."

"Tonight then," EJ nodded and stepped out of the laundry room, calling to the kids to get ready because they were going out as he headed up the stairs to his room.

Sami stood there still holding his shirt in her hands, feeling the residual warmth from it and the faint aroma of his aftershave. She pressed it to her nose for a brief moment before tossing it in the laundry bin. She'd try to get out the paint stain for him, after all it was the least she could do for him even if it wasn't going to get the vision of him standing there shirtless in front of her out of her mind anytime soon.

She yelled her goodbyes from the laundry room, not wanting to see him. EJ probably thought she was an imbecile anyway. She groaned as she picked up the shirt again, determined not to smell it again as she began to find something to take the paint out of the shirt. Maybe she could accomplish one thing today without seeming like a lovesick school girl; at least she hoped she could.

Living here with EJ was going to be harder than she originally thought.