"So, Samantha, that's an interesting necklace you're wearing. Care to tell us about it?" Uncle Russ strove for a nonthreatening topic and Zoe was grateful.
"It was my mom's," Sam said, her fingers playing with the keys that always dangled around her neck.
"Why, I don't think Faith would wear something so— "
Ryan coughed loudly, clearly warning his mother to tread lightly or they were leaving for good this time.
The other woman flushed and said, "I meant, I don't remember Faith owning those."
Sam shrugged. "It's all they let me keep of hers when I went to my first foster family." She glanced down, picked up the proper fork, and began to eat her salad.
The rest of the family did the same. Somehow disaster had been averted for tonight, but Zoe's stomach was in complete knots when it came to the notion of Sam coping with these people on a daily basis.
She glanced at Ryan's strong profile, the mask behind which he hid his pain. Zoe knew he'd placed unspoken hope in his parents' ability to come around and they'd disappointed him. Meanwhile she'd placed no faith in Ryan's ability to stand up to his parents. If he knew that, he'd be disappointed in her, as well. Heaven knew she was disappointed in herself. She shouldn't have needed to see evidence of where his loyalties would lie.
Ryan had proven himself tonight and the thought ought to give Zoe pure joy. Instead she was forced to acknowledge that it brought her and her family closer than ever to losing Sam for good.
Chapter Ten
IT WAS MIDNIGHT and Ryan lay in his bed, channel surfing because he couldn't sleep. Couldn't forget the awful night in his stifling childhood home. He'd disappointed the new women in his life, two amazing women who he realized had come to mean more to him than the family who'd raised him.
From the minute Ryan had walked into the house and seen the formality he'd tried to forget, he knew things wouldn't go well. Still, he'd tried to let both Sam and his parents be themselves and hoped that the adults would have learned from their past mistakes. Clearly that hadn't been the case and there were only two reasons he hadn't made good on his threat to walk out— his uncle and Zoe.
Zoe hated his family and all they stood for. He'd seen it in her eyes, her expression and he'd heard it in her tone and hurt voice, when she'd defended her parents. Yet she'd backed down and she'd done it for him.
When he heard the soft knock on his bedroom door, he thought he'd imagined it until he heard it again and the door slowly swung wide. He supposed he should have been surprised to see Zoe standing there, but he wasn't. Not when she was the answer to his dreams and prayers.
He pushed himself up in bed and crooked a finger her way.
She shut the door behind her and leaned back against it. "You don't mind my being here?"
"Why should I?"
She shrugged. "Sam's down the hall, for one thing."
"After three nights I've learned the kid sleeps like the dead."
Zoe laughed. "Isn't that the truth. I can't remember the last time I crashed that hard."
"You haven't slept well since you've been here, that much I know."
She tipped her head to one side, her dark hair falling over the white satin of her robe. "Snooping on me?"
"No more than you've been doing to me, I'm sure. These walls aren't that thick. So are you going to stand there and make small talk all night?"
She laughed and strode forward, sitting on the end of his double bed. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"How'd you grow up like that?"
He'd wondered the same thing himself. "I guess I was just lucky I survived it and came out sane."
She nodded. "Well you were amazing tonight," she said, taking him by surprise.
He laced his fingers behind his head and studied her. "You expected me to let my folks get away with belittling you and being so hard on Sam?"
"Let's say I wasn't sure what to expect, but…you impressed me, Ryan." Her voice dropped an octave when she said his name.
The desire that he'd managed to hold at bay washed over him with desperate force.
"Weren't you afraid?" she asked, pegging his deepest emotions, the ones he'd thought were so well hidden.
Obviously they weren't and he wasn't about to explain it to her from a distance. He patted the empty space next to him and without hesitating, she scooted closer, curling up beside him. Only the glow of the television provided light in the room and they lay together comfortably.
"What could I be afraid of?" he asked lightly.
She reached out and caressed his cheek. "Losing your family the way Faith lost her family."
He shut his eyes, unable to believe this woman understood him so well. "My whole life I lived with this double message that always tested me. In my heart I knew what my parents did to my sister was dead wrong and the only way I could make it right was to search for her. Every birthday of mine that passed marked another year closer to finding Faith."
"You're a good man," she murmured, as her soft fingers stroked his skin, encouraging him to continue.
"But I also knew the consequences for stepping out of those boundaries my parents set for us kids. I could lose my family and everything that was familiar to me if I misbehaved. Toeing the line was second nature."
Zoe leaned her head against his shoulder, her breath soft on his neck. "Yet you became a lawyer and didn't go into the family business."
"Only because J.T. did and because being an attorney would help me if they suddenly decreed it was time I helped run Baldwin's, too." He'd just never faced the possibility that that day might arise.
"You became your own man," Zoe insisted and he laughed at her determination to make him see himself the way she viewed him.
"Still, my sister no longer existed for them and I knew…heck, I know that if I cross them, I may no longer exist, either." Despite himself, he shivered at the prospect.
"Yet you stood up to them tonight, and you did it for Sam."
"And for you."
She narrowed her gaze.
"You doubt me?" he asked. "Or do you just want to make believe what I said isn't true?"
"Why would I do that?"
"I don't know. Every time things get intense between us, you back off in some way."
A smile teased her lips, but it wasn't a happy one, more like an acknowledgment of his words.
"Care to tell me why?" he asked.
"If you want honesty, I'll give you honesty. You're a threat to me, Ryan. An honest-to-goodness threat."