CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
After Sam stomped out of his own home he’d walked around for a little while, not really going anywhere in particular but definitely not heading back to Riley. He was still angry and defensive, which didn’t make the best combination to speak rationally about the situation they’d found themselves in.
A standoff.
She wouldn’t marry him if he didn’t talk to Trish, and he wouldn’t talk to his ex-wife. Neither one of them was going to budge.
Somehow he found himself at his friend Nate’s front door, although he hadn’t consciously gone there. But it wasn’t a bad decision. Hanging out with a buddy and talking business was a great way to relax.
Nate invited Sam in and retrieved a couple of beers from the refrigerator, handing him one.
“Drink up. It looks like you could use it. You look like shit.”
Thanks, I feel that way, too.
They settled on the couch and Sam asked Nate about the twins – who were currently sleeping – and the movie that the couple was working on while in New York City.
“Shooting is going great,” Nate said with a huge smile. “And the kids are sleeping for longer stretches which is a miracle from heaven for us. At night we get a good seven hours and it’s awesome. I never realized just how much I loved to sleep until I became a dad.”
“I’m going to become a father,” Sam heard himself say before he could stop the flow of words. He needed to tell someone as if it would make it more real. “Riley is pregnant.”
Nate’s brows shot up to his hairline and his eyes grew round. “Bloody hell…she’s…and you’re…shit…I’m just so surprised. Congratulations, you must be over the moon. When you described her she sounded like a wonderful woman and now you’re having a baby. That’s great. Truly fantastic. I highly recommend being a father despite the lack of quality sack time.”
“Thank you. I’m…we are excited. We got to see the baby on the ultrasound and it was great.”
Nate held up his pointer finger. “Just one? Trust me when I say that you need to check that.”
Chuckling, Sam had a vivid memory of when Nate showed him the ultrasound photos with two babies. “Just one. I made sure.”
“That’s wonderful. You must be very excited.”
“I am.”
Nate rubbed his jaw, those shrewd eyes taking in everything around him. “You’re so happy that you showed up at my front door unannounced, looking like hell. Try again, my friend. What’s going on? Did you and Riley quarrel? Let me give you some advice about pregnant women. Just give them whatever they want. It’s easier.”
That was the problem. The one thing Riley wanted he couldn’t give.
Do I want to talk about this? I wouldn’t have ended up here if I didn’t.
“We didn’t really have an argument so much as a disagreement,” Sam finally admitted. He needed to talk to someone and his mother had already taken Riley’s side. Nate was Sam’s friend and would hear him out and understand his reasoning. “No one raised their voice or anything.”
Nate took a long draw from his beer bottle. “What did you disagree about? Is there a way to compromise on this? A way you can both call this a win?”
“It’s kind of a long story.”
Nate laughed and took another drink of his beer. “The best kind. I’m in for the night and have no plans except to try and get some sleep later. But you better talk fast because the babies will be up in about forty-five minutes wanting to be fed for the last time tonight.”
* * *
Riley could have used a drink but she was stuck with decaf tea, and it was not doing the job. Paula’s calm and unruffled facade wasn’t helping, either.
“You have to be patient with Sam. He has to come to the right conclusion in his own time.”
“How old will I be when that happens?” Riley pushed her teacup away and grimaced. “That tea is terrible. If I drink any more it’s just going to come right back up.”
Shrugging, Paula picked up the cup and emptied it in the sink. “Because it’s decaf. It might as well be colored water. How about a nice ginger ale? That might settle your stomach. Don’t worry about Sam taking forever. He’s stubborn but he’s not stupid. He knows that this has to be dealt with, but he hasn’t had any reason to do it before now.”
“Am I a good enough reason?”
Riley wasn’t sure she really and truly wanted an answer to that question. When Sam had walked out of the condo her heart had broken into a million little pieces that were scattered all over this home. Every place she looked, she could see Sam laughing and smiling. She wanted to make a home and a life with him, but she couldn’t do that until he stepped out of the shadow he’d been living under. Never mind her feelings, it wasn’t fair to him. He’d been blaming himself for something that wasn’t his fault.
“You and the baby are the best reason ever,” Paula assured her, handing Riley a can of ginger ale. “My son loves you and that’s a powerful motivator. He wants to spend the rest of his life with you so eventually he’s going to come around to the fact that he’s out of options. He’s ignored this for years and his time is up. But until then, he’s going to act like a real jerk.”
“I’m not proud of the fact that he feels cornered. There was probably a better way to handle it.”
Paula sat across from Riley, a dubious expression on her face. “Really? What would that have been? I didn’t hear what you said but I’m sure you were as gentle as you could be. Sam’s been deeply in denial about this for a long time, Riley. There was no soft landing here for him. He has to come back to earth with a thump. When you told me that he was thinking about retiring from acting so he could be with you all the time, I knew that he’d finally gone overboard. He knows it too, but he’s fighting it tooth and nail.”
There was still a part of this that Riley didn’t understand, that she simply couldn’t wrap her mind around.
“How could Trish do that?” Riley asked, her hands cupped around the cold can of soda, her fingers going comfortably numb while her mind worked overtime trying to make sense out of what had happened tonight. “Throwing everything on Sam and then walking away. It seems so cruel.”
“What you really want to know is if Trish was always like that.”
Apparently, there was no fooling Paula. That was exactly what Riley wanted to know.
“I haven’t talked to Trish since they split up but I always liked her. She was a good person and she seemed to love Sam.” Paula seemed to choose her words carefully. “They had their problems like all couples do. They were both young and headstrong, and neither of them were good at compromising, although Sam has become better at that over the years like most of us do. When Sam told me what she’d said…well…all I can say is that Trish must have been in a great deal of pain to lash out like that. It’s the only explanation that makes any sense.”
“Why didn’t she ever reach out to Sam then? You’d think she’d want to clear the air.”
“I don’t know. Maybe she was scared, maybe she just wanted to put it all behind her.” Paula sighed and shook her head. “Only Trish knows and that’s why Sam needs to talk to her. Purge all of these demons that had been driving him since that day. I’ve urged him over the years to do it but he’s never listened. Hopefully he will now.”
That’s all Riley had at the moment. Hope.
“Just how stubborn is your son?”
“Let’s just hope the baby takes after you in that department.”
It was going to be a long night waiting for Sam to come home.