I wasn’t sure how to respond because I still couldn’t fathom what I had done with her brothers either. “I don’t know.” The answer was honest, but I knew that she expected more of an explanation. “I really care about Seth, and if I had never met Sam, I’m sure that Seth and I could have had a future together. I did meet Sam, though, and he makes me feel…I’m not sure how to describe it, but when he’s in the room, he takes my breath away, Jess. My entire body has a heightened awareness of his nearness, and I can’t focus on anything else. All I want to do is be with him, touch him, and have him touch me. My brain knows that Seth would have been the wiser and safer choice for both me and my baby, but my heart…” I put a hand to my chest to emphasize my words. “No, scratch that, my soul comes alive when Sam is near. He sets my soul on fire. I love him, Jessie.”

“Wow.” Jessie stood quietly for a moment, reflecting on my proclamation of love for Sam. “I had no idea you felt so strongly for him.” I nodded as tears started to well in my eyes. “Don’t cry. You’ll make me tear up.” Jessie made the demand, even as I could see her eyes getting watery. “I thought you said Sam was a pig?”

“He is a pig. I guess there’s no accounting for taste.” We both smiled through our tears, then Jessie held her arms open to me. I rushed into them, and we hugged for a long while. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered the words in her ear.

“It’s not your fault,” she reassured me. “A passion like you have with Sam only comes along once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky. You can’t pass that up.”

Relief swept through me at Jessie’s kind words. I had been beating myself up for so long about what I had done to her brothers. It felt like a soothing balm to my conscience to hear her say that she understood why I had done what I did.

“Seth is the only one who has a right to be angry about what happened,” Jess continued. “He seems to have completely forgiven you, so my parents need to just get over it, and I intend to tell them so!”

“It’s so nice to have you back on my side.” I grinned at her. She was so spunky and full of life, and I had missed her immensely when I felt like she didn’t want to talk to me.