Around midnight when the after-party started to dwindle, Sam decided to call it a night. Overall the wedding had been a complete success. For one, an actual wedding where both the bride and groom had shown up on time and enthusiastically said I do had taken place. And as the afternoon had rolled into night, a lot of the guests had gone out of their way to tell Sam how much they were enjoying their time at Big Rock Ranch. Sam couldn’t have been happier for his friends, so he’d felt like a total ass sporting a fake smile for the rest of the reception. He’d danced and mingled, declined more than one indecent proposal, but overall he’d had a pretty good time himself, until Amanda had let him know that whatever he’d seen happening between them that night and beyond was no longer in the cards.

Amanda had split an hour before, not that he’d been paying attention. He’d caught sight of her a few more times as the night had gone on. As she’d enjoyed her slice of cake, when Ignacio’s brother had pulled her back out on the floor to dance to some Latin remix of the new Normani track. When she’d hugged Helene and Ignacio good night. She’d headed back toward the lodge with another female guest by her side. Sam knew no one had caught on to the way the heat between them had thawed. Still he didn’t think it would be a good idea to take off right after she’d left. He’d waited until the mood of champagne and wedding hookups amongst the stranglers became too much to handle, then headed back to the barn, where he’d parked Zach’s truck.

The place was quiet when he got back to Pleasant Lane. He let himself into Miss Leona’s house, then made his way down to the guest room. He should have passed right out. It had been a long few days, and he still hadn’t recovered from the adrenaline rush from being under the spotlights on that Oscar stage. He was exhausted, but he lay awake in bed, just staring at the ceiling, wondering what the fuck was wrong with him.