The Best Man Read online

  “I’d still like to go out to dinner. Unless...you’d rather not,” he said. I was surprised. I thought he would deliver the news and go. He must have misunderstood my hesitation as me turning down his offer because he shoved his hands into his pockets and turned to leave.

  “No. I’d like to go.” I hurried to stop him. “I mean...” I swallowed hard. “If you are sure you still want to.”

  “You owe me dessert.” Samuel smirked.

  “After shooting you like I did, I think I should pretty much pay for dinner entirely.”

  “I won’t argue with that.”

  “I’ll be home later, Dad,” I called over my shoulder.

  Something about being inside the confined area of Samuel’s car in the dusky evening light felt strange and almost uncomfortably intimate. To alleviate the odd tension I felt, I reached for his stereo buttons.

  “Do you mind?” I asked.

  “Not at all.” Samuel shook his head but continued to stare forward while he drove. I pressed my finger against the small black button to search through radio stations, and I stopped when I heard a familiar song. I leaned back in my seat and felt my shoulders relax downward while the edges of my mouth curled up.

  “What is this?” Samuel asked after a minute.

  “You don’t know Shut-up Mouth?” I looked over at him in surprise. Samuel shook his head again. “They’re Andy’s favorite band.” I filled him in. “He turned me onto their music well over a year ago. He’s fairly obsessed with them. They’re a really big deal right now. I thought everyone had heard of them.”

  “Not me,” Samuel replied quietly. “I thought his favorite band was the Beatles.”

  “Well, the Beatles are his all-time favorite. Sure.” I shrugged. “But if you wanted to know what’s on his current playlist? It’s these guys. We tried to get tickets for one of their concerts last fall, but it sold out in minutes. They’re almost impossible to get.” I bit my lip to keep my next thoughts from tumbling out. It was tiny details like these that made me feel more certain than ever that I deserved to be Andy’s best man. Samuel didn’t even know the kind of music Andy liked to listen to. I restrained myself from rudely pointing out his ignorance. I didn’t want to fight with Samuel tonight.

  “I hope this is all right?” Samuel pulled into the parking lot outside what was, at one time, one of the town’s nicest restaurants. Well, if one could consider dark wood paneling and stuffed animal heads on the wall as being high-end.

  “The Twelve-Point?” I laughed. Samuel hurried around the car to open my door for me.

  “I didn’t know how far out you wanted to drive for food,” he answered. “And since I skipped lunch today, I was too hungry to wait much longer. There are a lot of newer, trendier places right now, but Dad says this place is classic. And it fits the day’s hunting theme. We could have just gone to the diner...”

  “This is great,” I assured him. As we were led to a small table that was lit with a flickering candle in a red jar, I giggled a little under my breath.

  “What’s so funny?” Samuel asked. He pushed my chair in under me like a gentleman, which only made my internal musings more humorous.

  “You know,” I whispered as though I were letting him in on a big secret. He sat and leaned over the table toward me to better hear my words. “If I were still sixteen, this would have pretty much been considered a dream date. Present company included.”

  “Really?” Samuel’s eyebrows shot up, and he leaned back in his seat with a surprised smile on his face.

  “This was the fanciest place in town.” I shrugged.

  “How would I have come into play?” Samuel asked.

  “You were always so cute and popular,” I replied seriously. “It’s funny to me now, to be sitting with the Samuel Dalton...at the Twelve-Point...for dinner. Be still my girlish heart.” I giggled again, and Samuel laughed warmly.

  “I’ll try hard not to blow the fantasy for you,” he chuckled. I hid my smile behind my napkin until I could better control my laughter.

  The waitress came by for a drink order, and Samuel shook his head and looked down at his menu.

  “Wine?” I suggested. Samuel nodded and asked for two glasses of the house red before chuckling into his menu again. “Why are you laughing now?” I asked.

  “Forgive me.” He smiled over the edge of his menu. “I’m just not used to thinking of you as being old enough to drink.”

  “You aren’t that much older than me, Samuel,” I said while rolling my eyes. “Four years isn’t really that big a difference.”

  “Almost five,” he snorted. “Though the difference between twenty-five and twenty-one is a lot smaller than the difference between eighteen and fourteen,” Samuel said quietly. I smiled down at my menu.

  “Sure. Because I’m not jailbait anymore,” I teased. Samuel laughed pleasantly.

  “That you are not,” he agreed. “I’d say, the years have been good to you, Emelia Sullivan.” His cheeks were flushed slightly, and I smiled at the unexpected compliment.

  “You too, Samuel.”

  Conversation between Samuel and me was surprisingly easy. We continued laughing through most of our meal. When the topic strayed to the morning trip to the paintball field, I dropped my eyes.

  “I really do hope you’re okay...”

  “I’ll be fine.” Samuel passed me the basket of bread. “Turns out, the front of the coveralls was padded well. I’m pretty sure I’ll still be able to father children someday...” His attempt at humor was appreciated.

  “If it helps to know, Andy shot me with one of those things. I have a nasty quarter-sized bruise, right in the middle of my butt cheek. It’s really gross. So, I didn’t exit the game entirely unscathed either.”

  “That does make me feel marginally better,” Samuel laughed. He continued to fill me in on the antics of the other men as they had taken each other out of the game. Samuel had already had two shots across his back and only needed one more before he would have been out as well. Luckily, as he explained, he had found Zack before Zack found him.

  “Poor Zack.” I shook my head.

  “Sure. Feel sorry for him now. But you couldn’t muster up enough pity to let him take you out on a date in high school,” Samuel teased.

  “You have no idea how hard it was to date in high school,” I huffed. “Even if I was interested in Zack...which I wasn’t...it was almost impossible to get around my dad. And the ones that my father didn’t scare away, Andy took care of!”

  “It’s a good thing I didn’t stay right next door,” Samuel laughed. “You would have had three men chasing all your beaus away.”

  “Very funny,” I muttered. “Did you know that the first real fight Andy and I ever had was over a boy I dated?”

  “Was Andy jealous?” Samuel asked with a look of intense interest.

  “No,” I snorted. “Dad finally allowed me to start dating. I really liked a boy, but Andy insisted he was all wrong for me. I argued with him and told him he had to let me make my own decisions. We got into a horrible fight, and we didn’t talk to each other for two weeks.”

  “What happened?” Samuel asked.

  “Andy was right,” I mumbled. “I went to prom with the guy. I gave him exactly what he was looking for...you know.” Samuel’s eyes took on a hard edge that let me know we were on the same page. “Then, a couple of weeks after prom, I caught him making out with one of the cheerleaders in the hallway by the boys’ locker rooms.”

  “God. I’m sorry, Emelia.”

  “Don’t be.” I shook my head. “We all learn from our mistakes, right?”

  Andy was the one who held me while I cried. And he missed his big piano recital after he broke his hand punching my ex-boyfriend.

  “Hopefully that experience didn’t ruin you for our gender entirely.”

  “Are you asking me if I’m a lesbian?” I asked with wide eyes. Samuel sputtered a bit on the sip of wine he was taking, put his glass down, and wiped his mouth before smil
ing over at me.

  “No,” he laughed. “I was merely going to ask you if you had any relationships after him.”

  “Oh!” I laughed lightly at my own mistake. “Just one that could be considered semi-serious.” I smiled. “I dated a guy named Pete for about a year, right after I moved to Florida.”

  “What happened with Pete?” Samuel rested his chin in his palm, his dinner finished.

  “We just weren’t right for each other.” I shrugged. “I really should have known right from the beginning. But I was new, and I didn’t have any friends there. Pete was handsome and nice, and I was completely flattered that he liked me. I mean, after the whole rotten experience here in Astoria, I kind of wondered if there was something wrong with me. Ya know?”

  Samuel reached across the table and put his hand on top of mine. “The idiot in high school is the one who had the problem,” Samuel said quietly. “Not you, Emelia.”

  “I figured that out with time.” I smiled. Samuel pulled his hand back to rest on his lap beneath the table edge.

  “So, you and Pete just...broke up?” Samuel asked.

  “About a year ago. It was an amicable agreement.” I nodded. “We still talk occasionally. No harsh feelings. We both knew it wasn’t going to go anywhere else. Maybe I just wasn’t ready. I don’t know. I’ve tried dating a couple of people since then, but...Enough about me. What about you?”

  Samuel opened his mouth, but we were interrupted by the waitress asking if either of us would like dessert.

  “I’m buying,” I reminded Samuel. He nodded.

  “Do you mind if we take it to go?” he asked. “We’ve been sitting here long enough, and I’m starting to feel a little...sore.”

  “Sure.” I nodded, understanding right away. I ordered a piece of white chocolate strawberry cheesecake, and Samuel ordered the triple-chocolate cake. The waitress returned with our desserts wrapped and placed in a bag with plastic utensils. I paid our tab, and I let Samuel lead me out to the car once more.

  “You know,” Samuel began once we were in the car. “I am surprised you and Andy never made it official.”

  “Made what official?” I asked curiously.

  “The two of you...” Samuel raised his shoulder. “I just always assumed you would end up together.”

  “Oh God.” I rolled my eyes in the darkened interior of his car. “I think we both told you about a million times that Andy and I never liked each other like that!” Samuel shot a disbelieving look over in my direction, which prompted me to ask “What?” in a high-pitched voice.

  “Don’t pretend,” Samuel reprimanded. “You forget that I walked in on you two kissing!”

  “Ugh. Don’t remind me,” I huffed. “That was purely experimental. I made him do it. And it really was kind of your fault.”

  “My fault?” Samuel laughed. “Oh yes. I need to hear this. How exactly was you making out with my little brother my fault?”

  Samuel pulled into the space in front of his house and shut off the engine before turning his body to give me his full attention.

  “Okay. Do you remember how Andy and I used to have sleepovers up in the tree house?”

  “Yes...”

  “Well, we were up there sleeping one night. And I heard a noise that woke me up.”

  “Go on.” Samuel had a half smile on his face that was a bit distracting. He was just waiting for me to finish my story. I was glad for the relative darkness that would hide any telltale blushing.

  “I peeked out the window of the clubhouse...and I saw you and Mary Beth Jones making out like crazy on your back porch.”

  Samuel’s mouth popped open with a surprised expression. I closed my eyes and recalled with perfect clarity how my attention had been held captive by the groping teenagers on the Daltons’ back porch. The porch light had illuminated them completely. Their ragged breathing carried through the quiet night air to my tender young ears. And Samuel’s cheeks had been such a lovely and flushed shade of red that I couldn’t bring myself to look away.

  “I remember that night,” Samuel breathed. “Mary Beth let me feel her up.”

  “I know!” I giggled.

  “Shit. And you spied on us?” Samuel laughed low. “How old were you?”

  “Fourteen.” I smiled. “It was right before you went away to New York.”

  “You shouldn’t have been watching.” Samuel tried to frown, but his eyes were bright.

  “I couldn’t help it,” I giggled. “It was the first...fairly sexual situation I had ever stumbled upon. I felt like such a deviant.”

  “We were just kissing, Emelia,” Samuel replied.

  “Oh, I know.” I nodded. “But after that, I became convinced that Andy and I should practice. You know. Just in case anyone ever wanted to kiss me like that. I wanted to be prepared.”

  “And I happened to catch you two ‘practicing’?” Samuel asked.

  “Yes. It only happened that once. We compared notes and kept it very scientific.”

  “You two didn’t ever practice anything else, did you?”

  “No!” I shoved Samuel’s shoulder and opened the car door to step outside.

  “Follow me,” he whispered.

  “I thought you were sore.” I kept my voice low as well. It was late, and I didn’t want to call attention to the two of us outside.

  “I’m feeling better now.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “You mentioned the tree house.” Samuel shrugged. “I just wanted to stretch my legs a little. But now that seems as good a place as any to enjoy our dessert.” He stopped at the base of the tree with our bag of sweets in his hand. “After you.” He nodded up toward the steps while I removed my shoes.

  “Forget it.” I shook my head. “I’m wearing a skirt. If I climb up first, I’ll be giving you an up-close look at my paintball battle wound.”

  “Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine,” Samuel whispered. I turned with my mouth open in surprise, only to see that he had a wide and playful smile across his face.

  His eyes twinkled at his obvious joke.

  “You’re horrible,” I laughed quietly. Samuel moved around me to take the steps first. “You know,” I continued while I climbed the tree behind him. “You are so much like your brother sometimes.”

  “You think so?” Samuel asked. “I’ve often worried that we’re too un-alike. But I think a lot of people who’ve been adopted probably have those same kinds of feelings.” I crawled up into the doorway and reached for the extension cord to flip the switch and turn on the tiny twinkle lights around us. “Pretty,” Samuel mentioned, looking at the lights.

  “Why is that?” I asked, moving to sit beside him on the wooden floor. I took our desserts out of the bag and handed Samuel one of the forks. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

  “Hmm?” Samuel looked at me and stuck his plastic utensil into the rich-looking chocolate cake in front of him, taking a bite.

  “Why would you worry about any of it?” I asked. “I mean, Joy and Larry love you. I’ve never noticed them treating you differently...”

  “Oh, they would never. No.”

  “Is it weird that I’m asking you this?” I worried out loud.

  “Not at all,” he shook his head. “It’s not like you and I have ever sat down and discussed my adoption.”

  “I never thought to ask.” I bit my lip. Samuel looked at me thoughtfully for a moment and then took another bite of his cake. It inspired me to take a small bite of the cheesecake I had balanced on my lap.

  “I was told my birth mother was only sixteen when she had me,” Samuel began to explain. “She wasn’t ready for a child. She was a child herself. My parents thought they couldn’t have children, so they started the process to adopt me before I was even born. I’ve always been their son. I was fortunate. I wasn’t passed through the system. I didn’t have some messed-up childhood. No emotional scars to speak of. I was always loved.” Samuel put a piece of the chocolate cake on his fork and held it forwar
d for me. I leaned in and pulled it into my mouth, savoring the bitter dark chocolate against my tongue.

  “I can’t believe I never knew that.” I shook my head. “Did you ever look for your mother?”

  “She’s in the house sleeping.” Samuel tilted his head toward the Daltons’ home, beyond the tree house window. “I never felt the need to look for my biological mother, no.” He lowered his eyebrows. “I never felt that anything was missing from my life.”

  “You are lucky,” I mumbled. “I mean, I’ve got my dad. But I was always jealous of kids who had moms too. I think that’s why I threw myself into drawing and painting. Once I learned that my mother had been an artist, I was happy to be doing something that made me feel like we were still connected. Still, I wish I could remember her.”

  “You seem to have turned out very well-adjusted.”

  “Yeah.” I nodded. “Great support system and all that.”

  “Well, aside from my horrible competitive drive, I think I’m reasonably well balanced too,” Samuel chuckled.

  “You blame your childhood for your competitiveness?” I asked.

  “Without a doubt.” Samuel nodded. “You see, I always pushed myself very hard. I was in clubs...social groups...sports. Hell, even in college and law school. I always wanted to succeed and be the best at everything. I guess it was my way of trying to make my parents proud. I wanted to make sure they never regretted bringing me into their home.”

  “I think maybe I didn’t notice because you never seemed to be that way around Andy,” I said quietly. “You didn’t compete with him for anything.”

  “Of course not,” Samuel huffed. “Andy is not only my little brother, but he’s one of the greatest people I’ve ever known. I never would have tried to take attention from him. Wouldn’t have stolen anything that he wanted...”

  “You’re an awesome brother,” I concluded. “He still thinks the world of you.”

  “It’s mutual,” Samuel said. I put a piece of my cheesecake onto my fork and offered it to Samuel, much as he had offered his cake to me before. He considered my eyes while he took the creamy treat from the end of the utensil. Licking his lips, he closed his eyes and savored the taste for a moment. Then he looked over at me with a mischievous grin.