Catching Sam: Book 2 of 5: The MacDonald Brothers Emily Matthews (good books for high schoolers .TXT) 📖

a violent person. Just greedy and narcissistic and well, never mind all that. He isn’t going to hurt me. Or you.”

“God, it’s a good thing I don’t know where you live, or I’d have probably driven him right to you freakin’ doorstep! Annie, I’m so sorry.”

“I know, honey. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure everything out. Does he know where our office is?”

“No. I mean, he knows we work in this building, but I’ve never mentioned what floor or a specific office number or anything.”

“Okay, well, that’s good. You don’t have any plans to see him again, do you?”

“No. I have a feeling he got what he wanted from me. The last time he said goodbye, he was very abrupt, and we didn’t set up another date.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend seeing him again. Just to be safe.”

“Of course not. If he ever tries to talk to me again, I’ll…I’ll…well, I don’t know what I’ll do. But I promise he won’t get any more information from me.” She swiped at the tears on her cheek. “Oh, Annie. I feel like such a fool.”

“Hey,” Annie said as she stroked Beckie’s hair. “Don’t say that. Wayne can be a real charmer when he wants to be. He charmed me too, a long time ago. Why do you think I married him? Don’t feel bad. It’s not your fault.”

Beckie nodded. “Yeah, okay. Is there anything I can do to help now?”

“Please don’t say anything to anyone about Wayne or about Sam and me. It’s probably all over the office by now that I had a baby who died. I pretty much screamed that for the entire world to hear, but the rest of the conversation was quiet, and I think we can still keep the fact that I’m married to an ex-con and that I had a relationship with Sam a secret. Especially now that Sam and I won’t be seeing each other any longer.”

“Why are you still married to Wayne?” Beckie asked timidly. “I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”

Annie sighed. “Long story short, Wayne wouldn’t sign the papers, so we had to do it the hard way, which took much longer. Even waiting, I should have been divorced months ago, but someone in my attorney’s office effed up and didn’t file the proper paperwork on time. So, because of some clerical error, I’m technically still hitched. I only found out about it a couple of weeks ago. I thought the divorce had been finalized months ago.”

“That’s terrible. Are you going to sue the attorney?”

“No, but I’m not leaving a five-star review either. He knows he screwed up and has been working on getting it done as soon as possible. I should actually be single by next week. It won’t do any good to sue anybody.”

“That’s awfully nice of you. Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, but I swear to you that I won’t tell anyone about anything I overheard. I promise.”

“I still trust you, Beckie. I’m going to go home for the day, though. I don’t want to risk running into Sam again. How about we have coffee on Saturday morning? Grinder’s Café at nine?”

“Sure. That sounds great. Be careful, Annie.”

“I always am,” Annie quipped.

Leaving early was also, hopefully, a way to avoid Wayne. Since he didn’t get what he wanted from Sam, she was most likely the next target. It would be hard to confront her if he couldn’t find her. She knew she couldn’t hide forever, but this would give her a minute to catch her breath and recoup from her argument with Sam before she had another one with Wayne.

She still had to come to terms with the fact that Sam had believed Wayne over her. But that was for another time and perhaps a bottle of wine. She packed up her laptop and grabbed everything she would need if she decided to work from home the next day. From what he’d told her weeks ago, Sam was leaving town for his brother’s bachelor party the next day, so she just had to avoid the office until then.

She would take the weekend to work through it, mend her broken heart, and be ready to handle herself on Monday. She didn’t want to admit it, but she’d fallen a little in love with him. Or maybe a lot in love. She wasn’t sure. All she knew was her heart ached.

If she were being honest, from the moment she met him, she’d been falling. He’d proven to be more down to earth than she ever imagined. The way he handled the situation with Beckie and Cooper was amazing, and he was that way with everyone—always trying to help when possible. He liked hard workers but wanted his employees to have a life outside of the office and made it clear that he supported a family-first mentality.

While he was kind to most everyone, she also admired the way he stood his ground against people who tried to take advantage of him. He could be tough when needed. He was smart and a good listener. So many admirable qualities, and all that goodness tied up into one delicious looking package.

His big problem was trusting people. Or, in this case, not trusting people. She’d known that since the beginning and had tried to continually reassure him that she could be trusted but apparently hadn’t gotten through to him. Any progress she’d made went out the window when he found out she’d lied to him about being married.

She really couldn’t blame him. If the situation were reversed, she’d be mad as hell too. Coming clean about it had seemed like a risky move so early in their relationship, but keeping quiet hadn’t kept her out of trouble either. After finding out about that lie, all the rest probably seemed easier to believe.

Why on earth would he think she’d rather be with Wayne than with him, though? Certainly, he wasn’t that modest. When comparing the two, there was no