Chapter 26
When Sam had first left the Sauderbrandt estate, he'd simply sat behind the wheel of his truck and stared. He wasn't sure what to make of all of the emotions that were flowing through him at the moment. As he focused out of the windshield at the leaves falling in shades of orange and red and brown onto beautifully manicured lawns, he couldn't help the comparison that came to his mind. The bittersweet passing of summer as much of nature prepared for the deathlike state of winter. It was both sad and beautiful. His parents had died in the fall.
The memories washed over him in waves. The happy times. When his mother had gotten sick. Crying with his dad when they'd lost her. The funeral. And then the next year, another funeral. Afterward, standing alone before their tombstones, leaves falling all around. Other memories drifting over and through him, just like the leaves.
Suddenly, he felt the need to go home. He wanted to see his daughter. Just to hug her, to reassure himself that she still was. He pressed the key into the ignition and moved to start the engine. A rapping at his window startled him out of the motion. He looked up into a pair of furious brown eyes. Cranking the engine, he put down the window so that the young woman could speak.
"Who are you?" she demanded, before the window was even half down. She had a slim build and medium length, fashionably styled blonde hair. He guessed that she was in her very early twenties. He also figured, judging simply by the attitude she was oozing, that it really didn't matter who he was, just that he was there.
"I'm Sam Wright. From Renaissance Restorations." He told her anyway.
"I figured," she bit out, confirming his suspicions. "I want you to leave my grandfather alone. There are enough gold diggers around here trying to get a piece of what is ours. It's disgusting the way you people take advantage of an old man!"
"I don't know where you get your ideas, but I promise you, the last thing I'd want to do is to take advantage of your grandfather. He asked me to come here."
She looked doubtful. "Did he happen to mention putting you in his will?"
Sam was stunned. "No, and he would have no reason to. The only thing between your grandfather and I is a very short acquaintance and a business contract to restore a few pieces of artwork."
"Good. You should remember that."
She didn't have to say the words for Sam to understand the inference. He should remember his place. Oddly, he wasn't angered by her statement. He was saddened. That sadness was reflected in his voice when he spoke.
"I'll remember that Neilson Sauderbrandt was a good man, full of life. He learned through hard experience what was most important. I'll remember that when he told me goodbye just a few minutes ago, it sounded final, like he knew that this would be the last time we would talk. I'll remember the light in his expression. I'll remember how that light touched my life in a small way.
"If you're smart, you'll remember a lot more than that. And then, you'll stop wasting your time arguing with me and go up there and spend every moment you have left with him. He doesn't deserve to die alone; he should be surrounded by the people he loves."
An unreadable expression crossed the girl's face, and Sam didn't wait around to see if she had anything more to say. He put his truck in gear and started along the lane toward the main road. He didn't look back, his mind already on getting home. He was nearly there when he heard the ringing of his cell phone.
It wasn't in its usual spot, and he tried to track it down while carefully watching the road. By the time he discovered that it had slipped between the passenger side door and the seat, it stopped ringing. There was no way he could get it and drive without possibly causing some sort of accident. When he got home, he'd retrieve it and figure out who had called him.
~*~ Robyn clicked off her phone and stared at it. Sam hadn't answered. She wasn't sure what her next move should be. Deciding to clear away her research materials, namely her laptop, before Beth came home, she gathered up the item and a couple of notebooks and took them upstairs to the room that was to be hers for the next few days.
She'd dropped them off on the bed when she heard keys in the door. Someone was coming in. She hurried back down the stairs, hoping to catch them before the alarm went off. She was half down the steps when Sam appeared in the door way. He looked up at her and she paused, caught in his gaze.
There were storms in those blue eyes, she noted. But then they both blinked, Sam in confusion, she in realization as the alarm began its warning beeps. The proper code needed to be input or it would be activated.
She hurried the rest of the way down the steps. "The installers were here," she told him as she moved past him to close the door, then grabbed his hand and led him toward where the keypad had been placed near the landing at the bottom of the steps.
"The code is . . . " She told him the numbers and explained that they could change it if he wanted. "There is also some documentation that goes along with it. I've put it all on the table. We can go through it later if you like."
"No, it's fine." He looked from her to the table and back. He then settled tiredly on one of the lower steps. Still holding on to her hand, he tugged gently, urging her down with him. "You called me," he said. "Is something wrong?"
Robyn settled beside him and turned slightly to face him. "I just called you a few minutes ago. Why didn't you answer?" Her tone wasn't accusatory, she simply wanted to know.
"It fell between the seat and the door," Sam told her. "I couldn't reach it while I was driving."
She looked at him as he spoke, noting the strain around his eyes. There was something in his gaze as he looked back, something that she wasn't sure she could put her finger on. Almost like sorrow. It made her want to reach out and comfort him, if only he would accept it. She settled for squeezing his hand slightly.
"My father tried to reach you earlier. They'd learned something that he wanted to discuss with you. But he said that it could wait until later. He'll be here for dinner. He wasn't able to reach you at work, or on your cell phone so he called me. I wanted to try you one more time."
A slight smile crinkled a partial dimple into his cheek. "You were worried?" he asked, softly. The sadness lingered about him, but something that looked like determination appeared alongside it as he reached up and rested a hand gently against the side of her face.
Her breath caught in her throat at the more intimate touch. It had been unexpected. "I was worried," she agreed, mesmerized by the storms. She felt drawn forward into the complex depths of those blue orbs. She couldn't have broken the spell that had woven around them, even if she wanted to.
They moved slowly closer. It was like a quiet dance, a carefully choreographed ballet that was graceful and beautiful on the surface, but beneath were bottomless eddies of powerful emotion. Neither dancer was quite sure if they were ready to release those emotions, but drawn together nonetheless.
Sam whispered something softly and his breath brushed against her cheek. It took her drunken senses a moment to realize that it was her name. Their lips were so close and yet, not touching. The electricity continued to build between them. It was almost unbearable. She could take no more. She moved the final centimeter that allowed them to make that warm contact.
It was like the first plunge downward on a runaway rollercoaster. The world seemed to drop out from underneath her feet and there was nothing else but the two of them. And then it all spun out of control. She couldn't focus, couldn't think. All that mattered was that they were there together in that private place all their own. She gave over everything she had as they were both lost to the intensity of the maelstrom that had taken them.