Kitabı oku: «Magic In A Jelly Jar», sayfa 3

“Thanks, Jess.”

Puzzled, Samantha picked up the phone. She didn’t have any personal business, had made very few friends in the short time she’d been in Virginia, so she couldn’t imagine who this could be.

Unless Joe wasn’t coming.

Samantha picked up the phone and said, “Hello.”

“Sam?” It was a little girl’s voice. “Is that you?”

“Abbie?” Cautious now, she sat back in her chair. In seconds she was all choked up, her eyes brimming with tears. It had been so long since she heard this precious little girl’s voice.

“Hi.” Abbie sounded relieved for a second.

“Hi, baby.” Samantha smiled, finding the moment bittersweet. “How are you?”

“I’m okay,” Abbie said tearfully.

“Really?”

“Well—” Abbie hesitated “—maybe not so okay. I know I’m not supposed to call, but Daddy’s not here. And neither is Monica. There’s just the baby-sitter, and she thinks you’re just a friend of mine from school. So I thought it would be okay. Is it? Okay, I mean?”

“Oh, Abbie.” Samantha closed her eyes, and the tears slid down her cheeks. She knew what she had to do, but she wasn’t sure how she’d find the courage. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was hurt Abbie. “Did your father tell you not to call me?”

“Yes. But I found the number in his desk drawer, and I thought as long as he didn’t know, it would be okay. I miss you, Sam.”

“I miss you, too, sweetie. And Sarah. How is she?”

“She’s okay, I guess. She’s mad that we had to move to a new house just because Monica had to have a bigger one, and she doesn’t like her new teacher, but she has a friend in her class. I do, too. The house is big, and it has a great backyard. But there aren’t any kids close by. And Daddy’s…well, Daddy’s okay. Monica is, too, I guess. But…I still miss you so much.”

“Abbie, I’m sorry. I love you very much. You know that, don’t you? And I always will.”

“I don’t understand why you had to go so far away.”

And Samantha simply couldn’t explain it to her, except to say, “You know the worst thing about being a grown-up is that we don’t always get to do what we want or to live where we want or to see the people we love as much as we’d like. But I do love you. I won’t ever stop. And I love Sarah, too.”

“You just don’t love Daddy?”

Samantha sighed, then drew in a shaky breath. Richard didn’t love her anymore. That was the problem. But she couldn’t make him the villain here, not to his daughter. Samantha wanted Abbie and Sarah to be happy now with Richard and his new wife, even if it had broken Samantha’s heart to lose the girls. And if she wanted the girls to be happy, she couldn’t blame their father for what happened.

“Abbie, I’m so sorry. If I could, I’d wave a magic wand and everything would go back to the way it was before, and we’d all be together again.”

“But you can do all sorts of magic,” Abbie argued. “I saw you. Lots of times. Can’t you fix this? So we can be together again?”

“No, sweetie, I can’t.”

“Well…can I at least call you? When Daddy isn’t here? So we can just talk sometimes?”

“Abbie, it’s long distance. Your father’s going to know you called when he gets the bill and sees my number there.”

“He will?”

“I’m afraid so. You’re going to have to tell him.”

“But he’ll get mad.”

“Maybe not so mad if you tell him first, Abbie. Tell him you’re sorry, and then ask him if it’s okay if you call again sometimes. Maybe on my birthday. Do you remember when it is?”

“May?”

“Yes, in May.”

“But that’s four whole months away! What if I don’t want to wait that long? What if I need to talk to you?”

Swallowing hard, barely managing to keep her voice steady, Samantha said, “You’re going to have to ask your father and do what he says. Because he’s your father.”

Whereas, she was nothing to Abbie anymore, at least not according to Abbie’s father. Never mind that Samantha spent three years mothering Abbie and Sarah, or that she couldn’t love them more if she’d given birth to them.

“Abbie?” she said softly, working hard not to let the bitterness come through. “Your father is the one who gets to decide about these things, okay?”

“It’s just not fair,” Abbie said tearfully.

“I know.” Samantha had to cover the receiver for a minute, because she was crying so hard and she didn’t want the little girl to hear. It would only make this harder. “I love you, sweetie. Tell Sarah I love her, too.”

And then Samantha hung up the phone and wept.

Chapter Three

Joe had no choice but to bring Dani along when he took Luke to Dr. Carter’s office. He picked them both up from the late-stay program where they stayed from the time school ended until he got there after work. Then they drove straight to Dr. Carter’s, because that was the only way he was going to make it on time.

In the truck Dani had a million questions about where they were going and why. Once she knew Luke was in trouble, she was beside herself with glee. While Joe tried to deal with whatever Luke had done, she danced around Joe, pointing out that she hadn’t done whatever Luke had.

Joe could be reading Luke the riot act for pulling his sister’s hair, and the next thing he knew, Dani would be smiling and chanting, “I didn’t pull anyone’s hair. I didn’t pull anyone’s hair,” which infuriated Luke even more and didn’t do much for Joe’s mood, either.

Joe finally decided a bribe was in order, because he didn’t want the good doctor to think both his kids were heathens. He told Dani that if she behaved, didn’t break anything or steal anything and managed to keep fairly quiet, they would find out where she could get a glow-in-the-dark toothbrush, too.

“Pink?” she said.

Anything, Joe thought. If only she’d behave for the next ten minutes.

“Pink,” he said, praying that glow-in-the-dark toothbrushes came in pink and that Dr. Carter could find her one.

They pulled into the parking lot and climbed out of the car, Dani singing a limerick at the top of her lungs that had Luke begging Joe to make her be quiet. Joe had the fairy. Luke was dragging his heels. Joe put his hand at his son’s back to propel him toward the door.

“Do y’think she’s gonna be really mad?” Luke said, as if that meant much more to him than making his father mad.

“I think she’s going to be disappointed that you would take something that didn’t belong to you, especially something of hers, because she thought you were her friend.”

“Oh.” Luke looked even more miserable than before, and his steps had slowed to a crawl.

“It’s not going to get any easier,” Joe said, holding open the door so Dani could dance through.

“You sure about that?” Luke hung back on the sidewalk.

“Positive.” Joe motioned for him to move along. “In. Now. She stayed late tonight to talk to us.”

Dani was gazing at the fairies in the display case with the same sort of awe Luke had shown the day before.

“Don’t touch anything,” Joe warned her as he approached the window to the receptionist desk.

A young woman with reddish hair and a bright smile whom he hadn’t noticed the day before was waiting for him. Three more women, all staring at him and smiling, stood behind her.

“Mr. Morgan?” the redhead said.

“Yes.” Lord, he was infamous at the dentist’s office. His kid pulled teeth and lifted fairies from the waiting room.

All four women smiled at him.

“And this is Luke? And…?”

“His sister, Dani.”

Dani turned around and grinned. “Daddy, it’s just like in the book! Luke’s magic book!”

Joe winced, the legend of the tooth fairy growing ever larger in the minds of his children. “Don’t touch anything, sweetheart, okay?”

He turned back to the women, who were still waiting, still smiling. Didn’t they have anything to do?

“Samantha’s in her office. She’s expecting you,” the redhead said. “If you’d like to have a word with her first, Luke and Dani can play here for a few minutes. I’d be happy to keep an eye on them.”

Joe hesitated. Did he trust himself alone with Dr. Carter again? Maybe she’d pull another scarf out of his shirt pocket. Or explain to him how she made the ceiling glitter like that and how stars came to shoot across the starry sky she’d created in her examination room.

He glanced back at the kids, Dani in awe of the fairy collection, Luke sitting miserably in the corner.

“Don’t worry,” the woman said. “I have three kids of my own, and dozens come in here every day. I know all the possibilities for trouble in this room.”

Joe worked up a smile and tipped his head to her. “Thank you, ma’am. I would like to talk to the dentist.”

He told the kids he’d be back shortly, warned them again about behaving, then headed down the hallway grinning like an idiot. He was here to return a piece of stolen property, after all, and to beg for a trick toothbrush for his baby girl.

This in no way resembled a date, even if he had tried to take a bath in the sink at the office after work to get rid of the worst of the grime and the sweat clinging to him, then thrown on the clean shirt he tried to remember to keep in the car for those days he was summoned to Luke’s school on the way home from work.

Hell, he wouldn’t know what a date was, but he for damned sure knew this wasn’t the way to make a good first impression on a woman.

Striding down the hall, Joe thought about how much he’d love to get away, thought about the satisfaction he could find planting himself on the back of a horse and riding from dawn to dusk, even eating dust and smelling bad-tempered cows all day.

He missed Texas. He missed working the ranch and being so tired at the end of the day he just fell into bed and didn’t so much as blink until the sun was nearly up again and it was time to go to work and do it all over.

It had been another life, he reminded himself, one he couldn’t go back to. Besides, the life he had, while frustrating, even infuriating, at times, wasn’t that bad. He had Luke and Dani, and that was forever. No one would ever take them away from him.

And this was all a part of being a parent, Joe told himself.

He’d come here to please his wife; there’d been a time when he’d have done almost anything to make her happy. She’d been pregnant with Luke and uneasy about the whole process and about being a mother, and she’d thought it would be easier having her own mother close by. They couldn’t very well keep following the rodeo circuit—not with a newborn baby. It was time to settle down, and they’d settled here in Virginia.

Joe had considered moving back to Texas after Elena left, but this was the only home the kids had ever known, everything that was familiar in their world at a time when so many things had changed. They’d panicked when he’d even mentioned the possibility of moving, and he’d decided to stay put for their sake. They needed all the stability he could offer them at the moment—same school, same friends, same house. And as much as Elena’s parents had disapproved of him at first, they’d been great to him since Elena had left. They seemed as baffled by their daughter’s behavior as he was, and embarrassed, as well. They were great to his kids and understanding and supportive as Joe fumbled his way through life as a single parent.

He was fumbling right now—over teeth.

Resigned to guiding his son through his apology to the lady dentist, Joe lifted a hand to knock on the door next to the plaque that read Dr. Samantha Carter.

But the door wasn’t quite shut, and as he paused in front of it, he heard something. A muffled strangled sort of sound. Pushing the door open another two inches, he glanced inside and saw the slight figure of a woman hunched over the big desk. Her shoulders were shaking, her head buried in her hands.

Glancing around the office, he saw that she was all alone, and Joe couldn’t quite stomach that. Something about a woman crying her heart out, all alone, just didn’t sit right with him. He had to help her.

Even as he told himself it was none of his business, that he couldn’t let himself touch her, couldn’t hold her, he did, anyway. He didn’t let himself think about the fact that he barely knew her or about how very much he wanted to hold her.

He pushed open the door, then closed it behind him, because she didn’t need an audience right now. She needed a shoulder, someone to hold on to, someone to whisper in her ear some empty meaningless words like “Everything will be all right,” and Joe was the only one here. He’d have to do it. No self-respecting gentleman would have left her alone with her tears.

Joe wasn’t afraid of those tears. He had three sisters, after all. One of them was always crying. He walked across the room and put his hand on her back. “Doc?”

She froze, caught her breath, then turned around slowly, cautiously, as if she couldn’t believe she’d been caught like this. Her eyes were red and glistened with unshed tears. Her nose was a little red, as well. Tear tracks led down her cheeks, giving way to splotches of wetness on her dark blue blouse, and her mouth was trying to work itself into a smile, but failing.

She looked utterly miserable. And adorable. And very kissable.

He wanted to kiss her. That definitely wasn’t part of the plan. He was just supposed to make her feel a little better, to hold her until she managed to dry her tears—no kisses involved.

She hung her head, apparently not willing to meet his gaze any longer. Joe dipped his head low and tried to get her to look at him again.

“Wanna tell me what’s wrong, Doc?” he invited, making himself comfortable leaning against the side of her desk while she remained seated in that huge chair.

She swiped at her tears, missing half of them in her haste, then couldn’t stop more from falling.

“Come on,” he said gently, leaning closer, thinking about pulling her into his arms. “You can tell me.”

He figured he owed her. After all, she’d made him laugh this morning on the phone. How long had it been since he’d laughed like that? The idea of her being stern with a kid just did him in. It was as hopeless as the idea that he’d be able to leave her alone like this.

No way, he told himself.

She rolled her chair back so she could get away from him, but he slid across the desk until he was right in front of her, half sitting on the edge of it. He leaned over, catching her chair by its arms, then reached for her hands, instead. With one fluid motion he pulled her to him, had her plastered against him and clinging to him, this trembling mass of woman, smelling incredible and feeling like a frightened kitten that needed to be gentled to his touch and taught that she had nothing to fear from him.

He drank in the scent of her, because she did smell very good. And she was a tiny little thing, all silky hair and shaky breaths and tears. They just kept falling.

“Tell me,” he said again, knowing she wouldn’t feel better until she got it out.

Her face was pressed against his chest, the contact muffling the sound as she whispered to him, “I was just talking to Abbie.”

“Abbie?” He stroked her hair and bent down closer. “Who’s Abbie?”

“A little girl. A nine-year-old girl. And she was crying and telling me that life just isn’t fair. Which I knew already. But why did she have to learn that at nine? Why does any kid?”

“I don’t know, Doc.” He sighed and tightened his arms around her, because she was still trembling badly.

He should have known this had something to do with a kid in trouble. Any woman who went to so much trouble to help little children not to be so afraid at the dentist obviously had a major soft spot where kids were concerned.

He wondered just what this Abbie was to her. Obviously she cared about the little girl very much. “Tell me about Abbie.”

“She lives in Seattle and I haven’t seen her in months. And I miss her so much,” Samantha whispered.

Joe held her through the worst of it, until her sobs subsided and the trembling ceased, until he felt some warmth come back into her and then tension as she became aware of exactly where she was and who she was with.

He felt her stiffen in his arms, felt her pull away slightly, then saw her staring at him as if she was suddenly afraid. Then she couldn’t get away fast enough. Color flooded her cheeks and she jumped back, hitting her chair. She probably would have fallen if his hands hadn’t shot out and grabbed her again.

“Steady,” he said. “I don’t bite.”

Warily she dried her eyes and curled her bottom lip over her bottom row of teeth. If she even came close to gnawing on that delectable lower lip of hers, he was going to stop her.

By kissing her.

He’d take that lip of hers between his for safekeeping.

Samantha pushed a stray hair behind her ears and looked around the room as if she needed to reassure herself that she truly was in her own office, that this really happened.

“I’m so sorry,” she began, then just stood there with her mouth hanging open.

It made him think of kissing her again, which no gentleman would do right now, because that would clearly be taking advantage of her. And Joe had always thought of himself as a gentleman.

But he was tempted. So tempted.

Flustered, Samantha straightened her coat, then her hair again, then wiped her face dry. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right, Doc. It’s your office. You can cry all you want.”

Color flooding her cheeks again, she reached for him, her fingertips brushing past chest. “I got your shirt all wet.”

He sucked in a breath and fought the urge to catch her hand and hold it there against him. “The shirt’s been wet before. No harm done.”

“I’m sorry.” She looked utterly miserable and embarrassed and at a loss for anything else to say.

Joe decided the woman was in dire need of someone to take care of her, to watch over her and fuss over her and reassure her a little. Wasn’t there anyone around to do that for her?

He reached for her hand and held it in both of his. Her palm was flat against his, his other hand stroking the back of hers. “Who do you go home to at the end of the day, Doc?”

“I used to go home to Felix,” she mumbled, tugging her hand from his.

“Felix?” He certainly didn’t sound like much competition.

“He’s a dog.”

“A real one?” Joe asked hopefully. “Or the kind who walks on two legs?”

She laughed a little then. “Four legs, wags his tail—a real dog.”

“That’s it? A dog?”

She nodded.

“You don’t even have him anymore?”

“No,” she said sadly.

“No family?” He knew her father had died recently, but surely there was someone else.

“No one,” she said, the look on her face making him want to haul her back into his arms.

“No man in your life?”

“Not anymore.”

“No kids?”

She shook her head and turned to look at the painting on the wall to the right, and Joe thought of Abbie. Who was Abbie?

“Well, Doc, sounds like you need a friend.”

She opened her mouth to say something, then obviously thought better of it and closed it again. He watched her waffling back and forth on just what she was going to say, watched the silence make her more and more uncomfortable.

Finally she said, “I haven’t been in town that long.”

“It’s a friendly town,” Joe said, aching to touch her again even in the smallest of ways.

“I’m sure it is.” She turned her wrist over, so she could see the time on that dainty gold watch of hers. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sure I’m keeping you from…something. Where’s Luke?”

“In the waiting room. I thought I’d let him sweat it out a minute before he makes his apology. And I should warn you—my daughter’s here, too.”

She hesitated, looking scared again. “You have a daughter?”

He nodded. “Dani. She’s four. She’s so jealous of Luke’s glow-in-the-dark toothbrush she can hardly stand it. I promised her we’d find her one somewhere.”

“Oh, no problem. I buy them by the case.” She put her hand into the big pockets of her white coat and pulled out a handful of stuff.

He saw scarves in three different colors, coins, thick tongue depressors and a set of plastic teeth. Picking them up, he turned the crank and they started dancing along the desktop.

Joe laughed, as he had this morning, while Samantha fished in the other pocket until she came up with two toothbrushes.

“Pink or purple?” she asked.

“Pink, definitely. What else have you got in those pockets?”

“Tricks of the trade,” she said. “Anything to make the kids smile.”

And then Joe simply couldn’t resist her anymore. Stepping close, tucking her hair behind her ear, then brushing his knuckles against the side of her face, he said, “Who makes you smile, Doc?”

Her eyes got so big and so blue, and she seemed to stop breathing all together. “No one,” she said softly. “Not for a long time.”

“I think it’s time someone did.” He brushed the pad of his thumb across her bottom lip.

She exhaled shakily, her breath skimming across his thumb. Joe caught her face between both hands. Ready to take his time, to savor the moment, because he hadn’t wanted to kiss a woman so much in a long, long time, he started at her eyes, kissing them softly, finding them still wet from her tears. The skin of her cheek was soft, and the tip of her nose was cold. He kissed all of those spots as his hands tangled in her hair.

She relaxed a little against him, her hands landing flat against his back, then hanging on to him, pulling him a little closer. Joe lowered his mouth to hers and teased at her lips with his tongue. Then he drew that lower lip into his mouth and nibbled on it a bit.

She moaned, the soft sexy sound coming from deep inside her.

He wasn’t doing this because he’d come in here and found her crying or because he wanted to see her smile or because the loneliness radiated from her like light shining from the lamp in the corner. He was doing it because he had to have a taste of her, had to crush her against him and see if this kiss was anywhere near as good as he imagined it would be.

She whimpered a little and leaned into him when he set her bottom lip free and made a desperate grab for air before he stopped teasing her and kissed her for real. Her lips parted easily for his. Her hands, which had settled near his waist, near his hips, urged him closer as her whole body opened up to his and she simply melted against him. She tasted so sweet. He stroked her mouth with his tongue, groaned a little when he felt her breasts crush against his chest and felt the dizzying swirl of desire racing through him.

“Mmm,” she moaned when he came up for air again.

It felt so good. Nothing had felt this good to him in the longest time. And he wanted to—

“Dad! Dani’s bugging me!” Luke bellowed, then came charging into the room, tripping over his own two feet just inside the door and not seeming to notice anything that was going on in the room. He righted himself and then proceeded to launch into his list of complaints. “I’m making a tower with the blocks and she keeps knocking it down. And then I tried to make her leave me alone and she started to cry!”

Joe took his time stepping away from Samantha, and he had to remind himself that he loved his son very much, even if the little urchin had the manners of a savage. Try as he might, he couldn’t seem to teach Luke to knock on a closed door, to go find someone, instead of yelling, when he wanted to talk to the person or to respect anyone’s privacy.

Samantha looked mortified and so sad, so kissable. He could still taste her on his lips. Damn.

“Will you come’n make her leave me alone, Dad? Please?”

“Luke, that’s a door,” Joe said, pointing it out to his son, in case Luke missed it. “It’s the door to Dr. Carter’s office, and it was closed. What does that mean you should do?”

“But Dani was bugging me!”

“Luke,” he warned.

“Knock, okay? I should knock. Sorry.”

“Don’t tell me. Tell her.” He nodded toward Samantha. “And while you’re at it—” he dug into his pocket and came up with the pretty fairy “—give her this and see if you can explain what you did and why. I’ll go find your sister and deal with her.”

“’Kay,” Luke said miserably, sighing as he took the fairy into his hand.

“Dani and I’ll be waiting out front,” he said, then allowed himself one more look at Samantha. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips a little swollen, her breath coming in quick little bursts.

Joe winked at her, which had soft color flooding her cheeks once again and making her look even more kissable than ever. Damn.

As he turned to go, he realized she still hadn’t told him who Abbie was or why she missed the little girl so much. And he still hadn’t managed to make Samantha smile.

Samantha’s head was spinning, for reasons she simply couldn’t understand.

All he’d done was kiss her. It wasn’t as though she’d never been kissed. But then, she’d never kissed Joe Morgan. Could it make that much difference which man did the kissing?

Perplexed, her spinning head making her dizzy, Samantha concentrated on Luke Morgan, cute as ever and looking absolutely miserable as he stood in front of her, clutching her favorite fairy figurine to his chest.

He didn’t say anything for the longest time, just scuffed one of his sneakers against the other and sighed big heavy sighs. Finally he held the fairy out to her.

“I took it,” he said. “Yesterday, when I was here. But I didn’t mean to keep it. Honest, I didn’t. I just had to take it home for a little while.”

“Why, Luke?”

“I had to see if it was the one, if she was the fairy in the book, and she was. That’s all I had to see. I didn’t hurt her a bit. An’ I’m real sorry I took her, ’cause my dad’s so mad at me.”

“Luke?” He was so sweet and so worried she had to fight not to smile. “Is that why you’re sorry? Because your dad found out what you did and he got mad?”

Luke puzzled over that for a moment, as if it might be a trick question. “Well,” he admitted, “I am sorry he found out. And that he’s mad. But…I’m not s’pposed to take things that don’t belong to me. Is that what I’m s’pposed to be sorry about?”

Samantha couldn’t help it. She smiled, then started to laugh, then felt all the tension leave her body as she hugged Luke close, then kissed him on the forehead, something he endured without too much protest, although she could see she’d probably insulted his sense of dignity. After all, he was seven.

Still smiling brightly, Samantha said, “I think you know what you did wrong, Luke.”

“I really am sorry,” he said. “I liked it here and I liked you. Are you really mad at me?”

“I think I can forgive you,” she said.

“And you’ll still gimme my wish?” he asked earnestly.

“Wish?”

“You don’t have to pretend with me,” he whispered, then looked around as if to see if anyone was listening. “I know who you are.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. I recognized you from when you came to my school that day in your real clothes.”

“Real clothes?” Oh, no. Samantha knew what was coming next.

“You’re the tooth fairy! I know ’cause you look just like the one in my magic book. An’ I saw you do the magic, too! Tell me you’re not really mad. Tell me you’re still gonna gimme my wish.”

Samantha got down on her knees in front of him and told herself not to ask. It was none of her business, and he wasn’t her kid. Much as she might wish for someone just like him in her life, there was no one. And she’d promised herself she’d never fall in love with another man’s kids again.

It was too much of a risk. If she came to love Luke, as she’d loved Abbie and Sarah, then lost him, she simply wouldn’t survive it this time.

“Please,” said the precious little boy, near tears now.

Bracing herself, she ignored the whole argument about her magical powers and asked, “What do you want, Luke?”

“My mom,” he said solemnly. “I want her to come back.”

Samantha stared at him, unable to say anything.

“Can you do it?” Luke asked with absolute sincerity. “I know you can. You have to, ’cause nobody else would.”

Samantha shook her head, trying to clear it so she could think. “What do you mean, no one else would?”

“Santa didn’t do it. And I wished on my birthday candles, but that didn’t work. I wished on a star and a four-leaf clover, but that didn’t work, either. But I didn’t know about you, then. I didn’t understand that the magic is real. And then I saw you do it, and I knew you were the one. I knew you could bring my mom back for me. So will you?”

“Luke,” she began, then looked around in hopes that Joe might come back. Honestly, this wasn’t anything for her to handle. This was Joe’s son, Joe’s problem. It was none of her business.

“I know I don’t have all the teeth yet, but I’m working on it. I thought a hundred would do it.”

“A hundred!” She nearly shrieked. “A hundred baby teeth?”

Luke nodded solemnly, and Samantha had to sit down. She took one of the smaller chairs pulled to the front of her desk, and Luke sat down in the other, as if they were going to negotiate some business between them here in Samantha’s office.

“Is a hundred enough?” Luke asked. “I only have six now, but I’ve got two loose teeth. See?” He opened up his mouth and wiggled two of his teeth with his tongue. “And I know three other kids in my class who have loose teeth, too. One of ’em’s already promised me his for fifty cents and a really cool T-rex sticker I got at the zoo.”

Samantha just sat there with her mouth hanging open, not knowing how to begin to explain this to him.

“T-rex is a dinosaur,” Luke explained.

“Oh, Luke,” Samantha said, then simply didn’t know what to add.

Luke must have known something was wrong, because he looked near tears again. “You’re not gonna do it, are you?”

“No. I mean, I’m not refusing to do it. I just…I have to talk to your father, Luke.”