“He recreated the beach in Bora Bora, right down to the palm trees and double lounge chair. We’ve had a lot of fun up there.” Sam’s face heated as she recalled some of the time they’d spent in their hideaway.

“He’s one hell of a guy,” Tracy said.

“He’s the only one I’d want to do something like that with.”

Tracy began to giggle uncontrollably.

“What?”

“I’m trying to picture you doing that with Peter—”

“Stop! Don’t put that picture in my head! It was all I could do to have regular sex with Peter once a month. He would’ve freaked out about anything more than straight missionary. He was all about keeping it clean and tidy.”

“Why am I not surprised that he wanted to control you in bed too?”

“I don’t even like to think about him. The years I spent with him seem like a bad dream since I’ve been with Nick. It’s night and day.”

“Have you heard from your lovely ex-husband lately?”

“Not since he tried to kill himself and listed me as his next of kin at the hospital.”

“So creepy.”

“That’s Peter for you.”

“All this talk about sex—with Nick, not Peter—makes me want to go home and make up with my husband, who has put up with way too much shit from my kid in the last year.”

“You guys are solid, Trace. You’ll get back on track.”

“I hope so.” She hugged her sister. “Thanks for being here for me.”

“Happy to be here for you the way you always are for me.”

The front door burst open and Scotty came in ahead of Nick.

“Sam, we had the best time. Nick made a ton of money, and all these people wanted to shake hands with me. It was so cool.”

Sam and Tracy shared a smile as Tracy got up to hug her new nephew and her brother-in-law on the way out the door.

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

“Was she crying?” Nick asked Sam as he sat next to her and leaned in to kiss her.

“I’ll tell you about it later. Did you guys eat?”

Scotty sat across from them. “They had all this fancy stuff I didn’t like too much. Nick said we could order pizza.”

“That sounds good to me.”

“I’ll do it!” Scotty got up and ran for the kitchen where they kept the takeout menus.

“He seems like his old self again,” Sam said.

“He’s getting there. We had a good talk about what happened at school.”

“I called the kid’s mom.”

Instantly amused, Nick tipped his head for a closer look at her. “And?”

“I made it clear that we won’t put up with her kid pounding on ours.”

“Define ‘made it clear.’”

Sam laughed at his insistent tone. “I let her know we’ll press charges if he hits him again.”