Arizona Sunsets - Sam Hubbard

XXI

"Let's go shopping" grinning Liz joined Sam who was already waiting at his car as he had been quicker than her with changing and showering. They had talked on the phone last night and decided that Sam would pick Liz up for the gym so they could work out together before going shopping and then driving to Sam's to get everything set up for the evening.

Liz's friends had been immediately thrilled that Sam had invited them all over, burgers were always good and there were worse activities than spending the evening at a private pool, especially considering the hot temperatures that were scalding here even at night.

"Let's go shopping" Sam repeated with a grin before slamming the trunk shut where Liz had just tossed her bag in. Smirking, he watched her walk around the car and yank open the passenger door. Meanwhile, her still-wet hair whipped against her shoulders and her white, now-damp shirt clearly showed the straps of her bra.

Sam had to pull himself together not to stare at her shoulders for too long, but Liz, who had jumped into the car in the meantime and slammed the door loudly behind her, brought him out of his trance. Now he also ran to the driver's door and got into the car, which was totally heated up by the sun and rather resembled a sauna.

Luckily, the drive to the small supermarket Liz directed him to wasn't too long, otherwise the cold shower Sam had taken after the work out would have been all for nothing. He was already looking forward to being able to jump into the pool with the others later. At the thought of seeing Liz in a bikini, the image of Liz's exposed bra strap lit up before his eyes again.

"Before we go in..." again Liz snapped him out of his thoughts about her, "...tourists don't know about this place. It's our little town secret, but that also means I almost certainly know every person in this store" Liz explained.

"So I should be prepared that we might take forever because you get held up a lot for chatting?" Sam asked with amusement as he unbuckled his seatbelt, a bit disappointed to find that the heat in the car had dried Liz's hair and shirt to the point where there was no bra strap to be seen. Maybe that was for the best....

Liz shook her head before bristling. "Not what I was getting at, but now that I think about it, possible..." she muttered before sitting back up. "I just wanted to warn you that they might be chatting you up. You're still the out-of-towner by my side, so whatever happens in there, please don't tell anyone your name unless you want the whole town to know about your whole life tomorrow" she sighed while Sam just grinned.

"Like James memorizing my Wikipedia page?" he asked amused. Liz shook her head. "Much worse. They'll want to find out everything about you, and if they can't find anything about something, they'll probably make it up themselves. So do yourself a favor and just don't say anything, okay?" Liz looked at him, to which Sam nodded.

To Liz's relief, the small store was empty except for the cashier. The woman with the neon pink fingernails wasn't interested in the two customers at all and continued to boredly flip through her magazine.

Since Liz had known the store inside and out for as long as she could remember, her parents and she had gone shopping here because the products were just a different quality, and Sam and she had already written a shopping list while on the phone yesterday, they were out of the store in no time, putting the purchases in Sam's trunk before getting back into the car.

Liz's excitement grew the closer they got to Sam's house. Ever since she knew what he did for a living, she had wondered what his house looked like. She just couldn't picture Sam in a swanky, modern house; he just wasn't the type.

She was right. Although the bright, white house looked more like a single-family home from the outside and was definitely too big for just one person, it didn't look at all like an NFL player who wasn't exactly low on money would spend his vacations here.