Grounded By You (2 page)

She stopped outside the door and looked up at him. “Thanks again.”

“Despite the awkward circumstances, I had a really nice time tonight, Millie.” She could tell by the look on Will’s face that he wanted to say something else. She was already mentally kicking herself for putting herself in this situation. She barely noticed the shadow peel itself from the wall a few feet away, but then a familiar face emerged in the pool of light and her breath caught in her throat. Her past had come back to haunt her.

“Sam?” His name strangled in her throat.

“Hey, Millie.” He offered a small, nonchalant wave, and Millie lost all use of her words for a few moments. The clearing of a throat reminded her of the man standing next to her. She couldn’t help but compare the two men before her. Sam was dressed completely Will’s opposite in a pair of jeans and a long sleeve dark t-shirt. She didn’t fail to notice that his chest and arms looked significantly larger than the last time she had seen him. Sam’s appearance was rougher around the edges, but it held a certain primal appeal.

“Um, Will, this is Sam…my friend. Sam, this is Will Colton. He’s a friend of my brother’s and was just making sure I made it home,” she said lamely.

The two men shook hands and then they both looked at her. She wasn’t sure what to do, but Sam had obviously arrived on her doorstep for a reason. It had been almost a year since she’d last seen him. Truth be told, her curiosity was full piqued, and having him there so close to her made her feel warm all over. She had to do something. Fast.

“Thanks again for walking me home, Will. I’ll make sure my brother knows that he’s in the dog house with both us,” Millie said. Then she turned to Sam. “We should probably go inside. I’m freezing.”

She knew it was rude to dismiss Will like that, especially when he had been nothing but a perfect gentleman all evening, but there was no elegant way out of the situation. It was also almost impossible to be cold in the warm summer night air.

“I hope to see you again soon,” Will said. Before she knew what was happening, he took her hand and lifted it to his lips. Then he turned away and strode back in the direction of the restaurant.

She let loose a breath that she didn’t even realize she was holding.

“Sorry if I interrupted something,” Sam said tersely.

She couldn’t help herself. It might have been the wine or the fact that she had been doing nothing but arguing with herself about what she was going to do with her life. More than likely it was because the cataclysmic shift in her life occurred during the time that she spent with Sam
Groveson. They were together almost twenty four seven for the better part of the previous summer. It was as if the universe was trying to tell her to get out of her own way and accept that he was part of her life.

Millie threw herself into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She felt his arms encircle her a moment later. “I missed you,” she said softly.

She felt his chuckle as it rumbled through his chest, and she felt a flush of heat all the way to the tips of her toes.

“I missed you, too,” he said.

He had almost talked himself out of going to her apartment. After the way things were left with Millie when she left the Willoughby at the end of the previous summer, he had no idea if she ever wanted to see him again. But when he spoke with Kate, Millie’s best friend, and his former boss, earlier that day and she told him that Millie was back in the city, he couldn’t stay away. He left his apartment intending to get a bit of fresh air, and his feet brought him to her building.

He’d been standing outside trying to screw up the nerve to ring the buzzer when she appeared from down the street. He hadn’t expected the twist of jealousy in his gut when he saw she was with a guy. In all honesty, he should have expected it. Sam thought he was past all of that, but seeing Millie’s face in the soft light from the street lamp brought back a rush of feelings he thought he had buried.

That’s why he stepped out of the shadows and announced his presence when he saw the guy move in on Millie clearly intending to make a move. Sam wasn’t about to watch her make out with some creep right in front of him. What he hadn’t expected was her reaction as soon as the guy was out of view. He thought she’d toss him out in the street on his ear for interrupting her evening. Instead, she practically threw herself into his arms.

He resisted the urge to bury his nose in her long, blond tresses. Her perfume coiled into his nostrils. He tightened his arms around her enjoying the feeling of her long body pressed against his. Millie was tall, just a few inches shorter than he was, but he didn’t mind. Her lithe body haunted his dreams for months. Before she could tell just how much her close proximity affected him, he took her by the shoulders and gently pushed her away.

Sam saw the confusion on her face and could guess what she was thinking. She wouldn’t have expected to see him in New York. He had even kept the fact that he transferred schools from Kate. He didn’t want anyone to know how pathetic he was that he had hoped in the back of his mind that some day this exact moment would happen if they were both in the same place again.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Let’s go inside, and I’ll tell you,” Sam said. For a few moments, he had forgotten what was happening in his life, and it was nice. He was living on borrowed time now, and he knew it.

“Sure,” Millie said. She cocked her head toward him. “I didn’t even know you were in the city.”

Sam followed her through the door. His fingers itched to touch her again, especially as he watched the swish of her backside in the tight black skirt that she wore. Millie looked just as good as he remembered, even better. Having a woman who looked like a model as a close friend for the summer had been an exercise in torture, and he still didn’t understand why he was willing to subject himself to that again.

“I’ve been here since right after Christmas,” he said. “I transferred to NYU for spring term.”

He stood next to her in the elevator as it made its slow ascent to the fourteenth floor and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. He was aware that compared to the guy that she arrived with, he looked like a backwoods rube. Millie came from a wealthy family, and although she never acted as if she were better than him, there was no way he could compete with the kind of guy she was used to. He had always known that.

“That’s terrific,” Millie said as she led him down the hall to her door. “You’re exactly where you need to be if you’re still thinking about pursuing that acting career.”

Somehow he managed not to blurt his news out at that moment. As soon as he told Millie, their conversation would become all about that, and Sam wanted to know about her, and what she had been doing since he last saw her. He wanted to know about her senior year of college, and if she was relieved or scared to have graduated. A part of him definitely wanted to know if the guy he just met was her boyfriend. Most of all, he wanted to know if she was happy.

“Sorry, the place is a disaster,” Millie said as they entered her apartment. “I just got back into town, and I’m still unpacking. I got lucky. A girl I went to prep school with is subletting it to me for a steal. It’s barely qualifies as a one-bedroom, but I love it.”

Sam saw that, despite the small space, there was a bank of floor to ceiling windows that covered the far wall that offered a decent view of Midtown. “That’s what Kate said. Hopefully you don’t mind that she gave me your address. She wanted me to tell you hello.” It had felt good finally to confess to Kate that he was in New York. It had been the only way he felt comfortable asking Kate where Millie lived without it seeming weird.

“I used to talk to Kate every day, and now the Willoughby takes all her time,” Millie said. Then she grinned. “What’s left goes to Reed, so I’ve moved way down the priority list. She’s probably delighted about the idea of offloading me and my neuroses to someone else.”

Sam exchanged a knowing smile with her. He met Millie through Kate. At the time, Sam worked at the Willoughby Inn, which was the bed and breakfast owned by Kate’s aunt Patrice. Kate came to the Willoughby to help Patrice out that previous summer, and then Millie followed. When Patrice became ill, Millie helped Kate keep the inn running smoothly, and ended up staying all summer. Kate also met Reed, the man she eventually fell in love with. For a brief instant, Sam had been interested in Kate, but Kate only had eyes for Reed. It was the story of Sam’s life.

When he first met Millie, he thought that she was interested in him. She flirted outrageously with him, but his insecurity made him cautious, especially after being burned by Kate. By the time that he got to know Millie better, and thought of returning the flirtation, something shifted. She was still warm and friendly toward him, and they spent every minute they weren’t working together, but it didn’t feel romantic. He kicked himself that he allowed the relationship to lapse into the friendship zone because he had been too much of a coward to take a chance.

“They seem pretty settled,” Sam said. He turned his eyes back to the view. For as long as he could remember, other than making his dream of being an actor come true, a solid, long-term relationship with a woman he adored was the only thing that Sam aspired to in his life. His parents were about to celebrate their thirtieth wedding anniversary, and he thought they were more in love now than ever before. With that kind of example in front of him, day after day, he was never the guy interested in playing the field. He had been on the lookout for ‘The One’ since he was ten.

Millie joined him in looking out the windows. He looked over at her and saw her wrap her arms around herself. There was something different about her that he couldn’t put his finger on yet. She seemed more reserved, which he couldn’t even believe he was thinking. Millie had a fire and wildness inside of her that he always envied. She was a risk-taker who always spoke her mind, and he appreciated that about her.

“Good for her,” Millie said, bring his thoughts back to Kate and Reed. “You know, I couldn’t believe it when she said she was going to take the year off school. But I’ve never seen her so happy. It comes through in all her emails, and when I’m talking to her on the phone. Don’t ever tell her I told you this, but in a way I’m kind of jealous.”

Sam was amazed how quickly they had fallen back into their old routine. He and Millie had talked for hours about life and their pasts and what they wanted to do with their future. It was because of Millie that Sam considered applying to NYU in the first place. She was one of the three people in the entire world who saw a low budget horror flick that he acted in during his freshman year of college, and she boosted his ego every time it came up.

“You’ve got a gift, Sam. Don’t give up yet.”
She said the same thing over and over to him the summer before, and somewhere along the way, she convinced him to believe in himself. He never would have made the switch otherwise.

When he told her why he had gone through the trouble to seek her out, he hoped that she wouldn’t tell him that she had been blowing smoke up his ass. It was too late to stop the train he was on. Millie was the only person he felt he could trust to tell him the truth.

It was surprising to hear her say that she was jealous of Kate and Reed’s life. Millie had also made certain that everyone around her knew that she had no interest in a relationship that lasted more than a few dates. She said it wasn’t her style. So he thought that her melancholy attitude had to be due to something else.

“Are you finding that life isn’t as idyllic as it once was now that you’re out in the real world? I’m sure the fat job your dad’s been holding for you should sweeten the pot.” He kept his tone light and teasing. Although Millie didn’t beat around the bush that her family was loaded, she sometimes prickled when it came up in conversation.

She collapsed onto the couch and patted the seat cushion next to her. He slid down onto the corner of the couch and turned to face her. She tucked her feet up under her and placed her cheek on the back of the seat. She looked younger than her twenty-three years.

“My father is going to kill me,” she said. “I haven’t told him yet, but I’m not taking the job with his company.”

Sam’s mouth fell open. “You were so excited about getting the opportunity to travel and live the dream of a life of corporate intrigue. What happened?”

Millie looked pensive. “It’s not what I want to do anymore.” Then she stood up and made her way across the small room. Sam hadn’t noticed the draped canvases before that sat in front of her small bed. She pulled the cloth off of them one by one revealing the painted pictures. He wasn’t an art critic, but the pictures were stunning.

“I got an appointment with a gallery owner, Evelyn Ward, who used to be good friends with my mom in a few weeks. I swore her to secrecy because the last thing I need is for this to get back to my mother, but I trust Evelyn’s opinion. I’m hoping that she’ll like my work and agree to a small show to at least test the waters and see if I could make a living doing this.”

It was completely unexpected. Sam stood and walked closer to inspect each of the canvases in turn. Millie went into the kitchen and came back with two bottles of beer. She handed one to him. He sensed that she was waiting for his reaction.

“I think these are really good,” he said, turning to her. He knew it was the right thing to say when her face lit up in a shy smile. “They’re amazing. You’re really talented. Why didn’t you tell me before that you painted? For as much time as we spent together last summer, you never mentioned it.”