Stella’s face warmed, but she did her best to hide her smile. With every word, Sam was softening her heart, but she liked Madison’s suggestion of making him squirm a bit. Regardless of whether she wanted to forgive him or not, he had messed up, and Stella thought he deserved to be a little uncomfortable.
Sam ran a nervous hand down his graying scruff, pulling on his jawline and shaking his head. “I felt guilty about it, but I couldn’t find it in me to feel guilty enough to let you go. Every minute we spent together, I liked you more and more. I knew eventually I’d have to tell you your car was fixed, but I hoped by the time that came up, you’d like me, too.”
There was an unspoken question in his words. A hope he was still too nervous to give voice to. Regardless of the advice she’d been given, Stella couldn’t stay quiet. She couldn’t let him live through the anguish of not knowing, no matter how temporary.
“Of course I like you, Sam.” The smile she’d been suppressing rose to the surface, her face splitting wide. “I think every woman who has ever met you has liked you. I’m not rare in that regard.”
Sam’s entire expression lifted. The worry in his brows eased, his eyes widened as though to take in as much of Stella as possible, and his mouth fell open in awe. Suddenly, he was scrambling up the steps. He stopped one step below her so their eyes were level and grabbed her hands. “But you are rare, Stella. You’re not like anyone I’ve ever met before.”
Stella shook her head and was about to tell him not to flatter her, but Sam kept going.
“You’re generous with your time and your talents, but you’re also humble. You don’t seem to have any idea how beautiful or talented or exceptional you are.” Sam pulled on her hands, drawing her closer to him, to the very edge of the step. He folded her hands up in his and held them between the warmth of their bodies. “I spent so long thinking my dreams had passed me by, thinking there wasn’t time for me to have a family of my own or people I loved and cared about. Then, just as I started to realize I had that, just as I started to grow comfortable with the fact that I had the Baldwins and my shop and my friends, you showed up.”
“Technically, you towed me here,” she corrected.
Sam laughed. “Technically, yes, but I’m not so sure it wasn’t something else pulling us together. I know I manipulated a lot of our interactions since you’ve come into this town, but whether you believe in fate or not, I do. And I think the two of us were supposed to meet.”
Stella loved everything Sam was saying, but it also felt like a lot. They’d only known each other for four days. Should he really be saying all of this to her?
As if reading her mind, Sam squeezed her hand and interrupted her thoughts. “I know I’m laying a lot on you here, but after so many lies, I want to be entirely honest.”
“I’m glad.” Stella was glad. Jace had told her to consider…something. And how could she consider that something without knowing everything?
“I think we were destined to meet now because I’m finally content. I’m happy with where I’m at in my life, and I don’t need you.” He smiled and shook his head. “I know that doesn’t sound romantic, but I think it is. I don’t need you in my life, Stella, but I want you. Deeply. And I think that is so much better.”
If Stella thought her heart had melted before, it was liquefied now.
“Of course,” he said, twisting his mouth into a nervous tangle. “None of this means anything if you can’t forgive me. And you can’t forgive me until I apologize. So, Stella, I am so sorry for lying to you. Can you forgive me?”
Their hands were still clasped between them, Stella’s fingers curled around Sam’s. Based on that alone, she thought her answer should be obvious, but she also understood Sam’s need to hear it.
“I can forgive you.”
His entire body sagged with relief, and their precarious position wobbled slightly, making them both laugh. He grinned up at her. “You can?”
She nodded. “Only because your speech was so good. My son and his girlfriend thought I should make you work for my forgiveness a bit more, but you really laid it all on the line.”
“I used up all of my tricks,” he agreed. “Actually, if all else failed, I was going to kidnap you one final time and take you straight to Romano’s for a cannoli. That was my last resort.”
“In that case, I can’t possibly forgive you. What you’ve done is too horrible, and there is nothing in the world you could do to—”
Before Stella could finish, Sam lunged forward, wrapped his arms around her legs, and threw her over his shoulder. Stella screamed, but it came out more like a laugh, the two mixing together.
Sam dropped her in the passenger seat of his truck, buckled her in, and flew down the gravel drive of the inn like his life depended on it.
“I forgive you,” Stella said around a mouthful of cannoli. “But I’d forgive you even more if you gave me your cannoli, too.”
Sam raised a dark brow and took a defiant bite of his cannoli. “I’m fine with normal forgiveness, thanks.”
After they left the inn, Sam had driven straight to Romano’s, and was only persuaded not to carry Stella into the restaurant over his shoulder when she told him someone might call the police.
“I know all of the cops in this town,” he said. “Plus, you wouldn’t turn me in, right?”
“That depends on how fresh the cannolis are in the middle of the
