35
Sam
Sam’s grandma found him in the pool house. Knowing that Ben wanted space, Sam had retreated there, so there was no chance that they would run into each other. Of course, that left Ben vulnerable to seeing his family, but he was smart. He would have locked himself in the bedroom.
At first, Sam allowed himself to hope that Ben was going to be the one to walk through the door. Disappointment mingled with relief when instead, his grandmother stepped through and closed the door behind her. She looked as caring and kind as she ever did—not judgmental, which was a good sign. Wordlessly, she crossed the living room and sat down beside him on the couch, taking his hand. He didn’t look over at her.
“I messed up, Grandma,” he said weakly.
That was putting it mildly. He had lied to the person he cared about most, to say nothing of lying to his family.
To her defense, she didn’t try to sugar coat it. To tell him that everything was going to be fine, and he was over exaggerating. Instead, she just nodded. “Yes, you did. I have to say, I’m disappointed in you, Samford.”
Sam cringed. She never called him Samford unless she was really upset.
“That boy in there deserved better, and I thought you were above caring about money,” she continued.
Shame heated his cheeks. “I am!”
“Are you? Then why the need for the lie? I wouldn’t have cared if he was rich. We talked about it. Money causes more problems than it solves.”
Sam let out a slow breath. She was right. Of course she was right. Grandma Hattie was rarely wrong, though she had the good grace to never say ‘I told you so.’
“He was never supposed to find out,” Sam said eventually. “It was never supposed to go this far.”
His grandma snorted a laugh. “How the hell did you expect to keep it from him?”
Ah. In his preoccupation with the lie he’d told about Ben, he had forgotten about the lie he’d told the rest of his family. There was so much lying going on that to come clean would almost feel a relief. Grandma Hattie wouldn’t judge him—at least, he hoped she wouldn’t.
“Ben wasn’t my boyfriend when the weekend began. In fact, he’s not even my boyfriend now. We were together, but I don’t know if he still wants to be together since I lied to him. He told me he never wants me to speak to him again.”
Beside him, Grandma Hattie blinked. “I’m afraid I don’t quite follow.”
Sam pulled his hand from hers and wiped his face. “I lied to Mom and Dad when I said I had a boyfriend six months ago. Ben wasn’t my boyfriend. I didn’t even know we were friends until he told me we were. My boss and one of my friends promised him free drinks at the coffee shop for a year if he posed as my boyfriend.”
“But you seemed so close. The two of you, together. You looked natural together.”
A sad smile tugged at his lips. It had felt natural to be next to Ben. “It stopped being fake a couple of days ago.”
“What do you mean?” his grandma asked with a frown.
“I liked him. A lot. I’ve liked him for a while, and I made up the part where we were dating because I was lonely and Mom and Dad wouldn’t get off my back. I brought him here, and a couple of days ago I found out that things weren’t as one sided as I thought they had been. So we were…together.” His face flushed as he remembered just how many times they’d been together over the last few days. “It wasn’t official between us. I didn’t ask him out. But I…kind of fell in love with him, and now everything’s ruined because I lied to him.”
Grandma Hattie took a deep breath and clasped her hands in front of her. “That explains why you didn’t introduce me to him in April. You’ve been incredibly short sighted, Sam.”
“I know.”
“You’ve hurt the people you care most about, and for what?”
Sam thought the question was rhetorical until he realized she was staring at him, waiting for an answer. “I just…” He sighed. “I just wanted Mom and Dad to stop worrying. I know they talk about my life. It’s the family joke. ‘Hey, remember how Sam ran away and now he’s working some dead-end job at a café and not making very much money?’ I don’t care that I don’t have the money that they do, but I’m sick of being treated like I’m inferior.”
“And being some artist’s boy toy wouldn’t make you inferior?”
If he never heard his grandma say the words ‘boy toy’ ever again, it would be too soon for Sam. But it did make him think. What would he have gained from having a rich boyfriend? What difference did it make? It wasn’t like it mattered. The damage was already done.
“I wish I could go back and undo everything. Not lie to Mom and Dad, not drag Ben through all of this.”
His grandmother hummed. “Perhaps. But then, you would never have admitted how you felt about Ben, would you?”
“What does it matter now?” he asked a bit too harshly. “It isn’t like it makes a difference. Ben hates me. He never wants to see me again. What good is it to have gotten this time with him if I ended up hurting him?”
To his surprise, Grandma Hattie just chuckled. “You youngsters, always so dramatic. Of course Ben’s going to tell you he never wants to talk to you again. You hurt him deeply. You lied to him, and you lied about him.”
That really didn’t make Sam feel any better, but his grandma wasn’t finished.
“You know, I haven’t told you that many stories about your grandfather, but I think this one’s appropriate. When your grandfather was alive and still working for that insurance company of his, he used to talk all the time about how great my cakes were. They were famous. Everyone loved my cakes. I haven’t baked a damn thing in my entire life. So there comes a potluck for the company and someone says, ‘why doesn’t Hattie bring one of her delicious cakes?’ What does your grandfather do? He can’t tell me that he’s lied to his coworkers for a year and a half. So he bakes a cake, ices it as best he can, and he takes it to his potluck.
“The cake was a disaster. There were egg shells in the sponge, and he’d used regular sugar in the icing, so the texture was all off. Everyone who ate it agreed it was the worst cake they’d ever eaten in their lives. I was the talk of the potluck, and not for the reason I wanted. The worst part was, I had no idea why these people were coming up to me, claiming I had tried to poison them!”
Sam laughed, in spite of himself. He was fairly sure the story wasn’t even a real one, but since he had few stories about his grandpa, he listened anyway. If it was real, he wanted to remember it.
“Your grandfather had to admit in front of everyone that he’d lied about the cake. I was furious. Oh, I was so mad I wanted to punch him. I did make him spend several nights on the couch. But that wasn’t the end of our relationship. I didn’t divorce him. And eventually, everyone forgot how horrible the cake was, except to laugh at it every now and again when it was brought up at the potlucks years later.”
It wasn’t hard to see what his grandmother was trying to say. If he let things blow over, then he and Ben would be able to work through this. Their relationship didn’t have to end just because he’d lied to his family. That was difficult to see, though, especially with Ben being so angry.
“I don’t know if it’s that simple, Grandma. You and Grandpa were already married. You already loved each other.”
“And you don’t already love Ben?”
Sam gaped, unsure whether to answer honestly.
“That tells me all I need to know.”
“I don’t know if he loves me back,” he protested.
She leveled a stare at him. “Do you think he would have been nearly as upset if he didn’t? Besides, all you have to do is take one look at that boy to tell he’s head over heels for you. He looks at you like you hung the moon.”
Maybe he had, but would he still, with everything that had happened?
“I don’t know what to do, Grandma.”
Grandma Hattie cooed and wrapped her arm around him, and he rested his head on her shoulder. “Give him time, my love. The embarrassment is too fresh to bring it up now, but when the dust settles, you’ll be able to rebuild. I’m sure of it.”
Sam was glad that she was sure. At least one of them was. He supposed there was nothing for it, really. He could explain his reasoning to Ben until he was blue in the face, but until Ben was ready to listen to him, he was stuck. The ball was in Ben’s court, and Sam wasn’t entirely sure where they would go from here.