“Listen to her,” he told Samantha. “She’s a smart woman.”
“That doesn’t mean other people will be able to look past this,” Samantha said.
Sophia gave her a long look. “Has one single person in here brought it up today?”
“Well, no,” Samantha conceded, “but they’re mostly tourists.”
“Not so,” her father said, taking a look around. “I recognize a half dozen locals in here right now.”
Samantha knew he was right, knew that it was possible she was as guilty of seizing on this excuse to run as Ethan was. “Okay, maybe it will blow over eventually,” she agreed.
“It will,” her father said with confidence. “Now, shall I tell Tommy to get started?”
Just as her father and Sophia recalled her excitement the day before, Samantha tried to recapture that feeling. She thought about Cass and even Sue Ellen, who might benefit from what she had to offer. Even the community might be enriched by what she could bring to town with her classes and this playhouse.
She drew in a deep breath, seized on her one last shred of confidence, then nodded. “If you’re sure you don’t mind loaning me the money, go for it,” she told her father.
He gave her an approving look. “That’s my girl!”
“You won’t regret this,” Sophia told her. “I just know everything is going to work out exactly the way you want it to.”
Samantha wished she were half as sure about that as Sophia seemed to be, but she was going to fight like crazy to make it so.
* * *
“How about going for a run?” Ethan asked Greg at the end of the day a couple of days after the impromptu intervention by the clinic’s staff. He’d forgiven them all for butting in, since it was so evident how much they cared.
“Sure,” Greg agreed readily. “But only if you understand that I’m going to bug you incessantly about being too stubborn for your own good.”
“Didn’t expect anything less,” Ethan said. “You need to know, though, that you’re wasting your breath. Things turned out for the best.”
“I doubt Samantha would agree. Down deep, I suspect, neither do you.”
“I said it, didn’t I?” Ethan replied with a trace of impatience.
Greg shrugged. “Just expressing my opinion. You don’t have to listen to me.”
“I’m not going to,” Ethan replied flatly.
Greg shook his head. “I’ll get changed and meet you out front.”
Twenty minutes later, they were running along the coastal road. There wasn’t much of a shoulder and the sidewalk was crowded, so they had to be careful to accommodate the nearly bumper-to-bumper traffic. At least it moved at a snail’s pace, unlike the much faster clip on the highway just two blocks west.
They ran past the town pier, curved around to the main highway and started back north on the sidewalk. Ethan deliberately set a pace that made conversation difficult. Add in the traffic noise, and talk was impossible.
When they came to the shuttered property that he knew belonged to Sam Castle, he paused and stared. The driveway was packed with pickups, and the grounds were bustling with activity. He spotted Tommy Cahill in the middle of it.
“Hold on,” he told Greg, pulling up and waiting for him. He nodded toward the activity. “I need to check this out.”
Tommy caught sight of him and walked over. “Nice evening for a run.”
“What are you doing here?” Ethan asked. “Has Sam Castle decided he wants to renovate and move in here?” He made the latter inquiry with a hopeful note in his voice. He wasn’t happy about the more obvious answer, that Samantha was sticking around and moving forward with her plans despite all the obstacles he’d predicted.
Tommy shook his head. “We’re gutting the house and turning it into a playhouse, at least that’s the plan as soon as Samantha and I can get all the designs drawn up and the permits pulled. She’s not wasting any time. The woman knows exactly what she wants,” he said.
Tommy’s admiring tone set Ethan’s nerves on edge. “I thought you were seeing Meg,” he said testily. “Didn’t the two of you hit it off?”
Tommy regarded him with bewilderment. “We’ve been out a couple of times. What does that have to do with anything?”
Greg shook his head. “Man, you are pitiful,” he told Ethan, then turned to Tommy. “Don’t mind him. He broke up with Samantha, but apparently doesn’t want another single male within a hundred yards of her.”
A grin broke across Tommy’s face. “You’re jealous? Of me and Samantha Castle?”
“I am not jealous,” Ethan said, grinding his teeth. He scowled at Greg. “He has no idea what he’s talking about.”
“Sounded to me as if he hit the nail on the head,” Tommy replied, clearly amused. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. Samantha is way, way out of my league. Besides, I thought things between the two of you were all but settled. It’s against my code to poach on a friend’s woman.”
“She is not my woman,” Ethan reiterated, imagining Samantha’s reaction if she heard him trying to claim otherwise. He doubted she’d like the idea of being anyone’s possession, and at the moment, since he’d let her go rather than publicly jumping to her defense, she probably wanted no connection to him at all.
“We need to go,” he said abruptly. “See you, Tommy.”
Greg gave Tommy a sympathetic look. “Don’t mind him. He’s a little stressed.”
As they took off, Ethan frowned at him. “You might want to remember that,” he warned Greg.
“What?”
“That I’m stressed. Shouldn’t you be trying to settle me down, rather than adding to it?”
Greg clapped a hand down on his shoulder. “Nah. My mission is to help you to see the error of your ways. We’re not there yet.”
Ethan gave him a resigned look, then upped his pace. He might not be able to stop Greg from sharing his annoying insights, but it
