He stopped her with two fingers over her lips. “I know you. Do I know everything there is to know? Nope. Do I want to? Absolutely. Will there be other surprises? I sure as hell hope so. But don’t tell me I don’t know you. I know your heart, Samantha. I know what matters.” He didn’t expect her to break down into gulping sobs. Sliding his arm around her, he brought her head to rest on his chest. “What’s going on, babe?”

“I’m sorry for the way I acted with Julian,” she said when she could speak again. “I was way out of line. You were right. He was our guest, and I was baiting him.”

“He’s used to people with strong opinions. You can’t have beliefs like his without generating some controversy.”

“But you weren’t expecting that from me, and I embarrassed you.”

“No, you surprised me.”

“I surprised myself. I had no plans to get into that with him.”

“So why did you?” he asked, more curious than anything.

“All the coverage about him coming to town, about his nomination, knowing I was going to meet him. It’s stirred up some stuff for me.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“It’s kind of a long story,” she said with a wary glance at him.

He sat back against the marble wall and brought her in close to him to keep them warm. “Mr. Lincoln and I aren’t going anywhere.”

She was quiet for a long time—so long that he wondered if she was going to tell him what was causing her such dismay. “I’ve never told anyone this,” she finally said. “Other than my sisters, that is.”

Bracing himself for whatever he was about to hear, Nick linked their fingers and held her hand between both of his.

With a deep sigh, she said, “When I was a junior in college, I dated a French exchange student named Jean Paul for a couple of months toward the end of the school year. You probably don’t want to hear this, but it was one of those relationships that was long on sex and short on relating, if you know what I mean.”

He knew exactly what she meant and hated the idea of her with anyone else, but he kept his mouth shut so she’d continue.

“Jean Paul had already gone home to France when I discovered I was pregnant.”

Sensing where this was going, Nick fought to retain his composure.

“Tracy had just had Brooke,” she said of her fifteen-year-old niece. “I told you about Brooke’s father leaving Tracy to raise her alone, right?”

Nick nodded, recalling how Tracy’s husband Mike was raising Brooke as his own child.