Ruby Red, The Sequel - The Romance Story Continues (Complete)

Chapter 5

Ex-girlfriend wasn't quite the right word.

Sam didn't really know how to describe Victoria Gabbidon. How do you label the woman you hung out with in your formative teen years?

And by hanging out Sam meant experimented and partied with, fueling each other into a drunken stupor. Which meant, more often than not, ending up waking up in Vicky's bed in the morning, accompanied by, among other things, a wicked hangover. Vicky was on hand at a time in Sam's life when all he was looking for was a distraction or a partner in crime to cause trouble. Sam tried many tactics in his youth to get his parents to pay attention to him, but Vicky was always the most effective. And the most disastrous.

Sam didn't want to tell Ali about Vicky because he knew where the conversation might lead. And he never wanted to talk about that fateful night. Just seeing Vicky today had brought up all kinds of memories Sam desperately stamped down.

Ali wasn't a part of that world. She wasn't mixed up in those feelings of guilt. Ali was his future and Vicky was his past. Ali was pure and untainted by his horrendous mistakes. Sam wanted to keep it that way. He wanted his past to stay far away from Ali.

Ali knew the basics. It had been uncomfortable, but he had been honest when they had the old lovers' conversation. Vicky was in his rather shortlist. At least he had names for all his encounters. Ali, it turned out had a much longer list and sometimes it comprised of a ski instructor, a pilot and a hot guy who tended bar and that was all the detail she could remember about them.

After what Ali had been through, with a possessive ex-husband who denied her comfort, Sam couldn't blame her for sowing a few wild oats after her divorce. He actually took solace in the fact that Ali rarely slept with a conquest more than once. If she hadn't, if she had not walled herself off from emotions, Ali would have been snapped up by someone before Sam had a chance to meet her. And fall in love with her. And Ali him.

It had been a tough time, tearing down Ali's walls. At first, Sam had only been an ally in Ali's fight against her despicable ex-husband, Jack Blackhorne. And Sam had only been too happy to help. From the first moment Sam laid eyes on Ali, she had taken his breath away. Spending time with her had Sam falling fast and hard. Now he couldn't imagine his life without Ali.

Rubbing Ali's back, images of those horrid dreams last night filtered through his mind. It was silly of Sam's subconscious to play tricks on him, teasing that Ali would leave him. She showed him all the time, in lots of ways that she loved him. Hadn't Ali just proven it a few minutes ago, up against the hotel room wall? Sam shook his head, shaking away residual misgivings.

"That bad?" Ali was looking at him, traces of concern etching her beautiful face. It broke Sam that he caused that.

"No not bad." Sam tried to sound positive as he put the burger down. "Just weird." Picking up a french fry and playing in the ketchup with it, Sam told her about his blast from the past showing up at the office.

"I haven't seen her in years." Sam swallowed. He longed to say, not since that night, or more correctly the morning after, but he couldn't bring himself to vocalize it. Instead, Sam tried to steer the conversation in another direction.

"I was surprised. This was a very different Vicky from the one I knew when we...dated." Sam didn't know what other word to use.

When he thought of Vicky, dinner and a movie didn't make the cut. Their time spent together was more trial and error physical exploration in darkened bedrooms. Empty moments that Sam, only now that he knew real love, realized were hollow and devoid of emotion. He hadn't meant to, but with perspective, Sam wondered if he had used Vicky. It left a bad taste in his mouth and Sam dropped the French fry, losing his appetite.

Ali picked up the discarded potato string and slowly brought it to her lips. Sam watched its travels and felt a little envious of the fried vegetable. Laughing at his expression, Ali ducked down and lightly rushed her mouth against his. Her lips were sweet from the ketchup and Sam greedily removed the red residue. Her touch comforted him. Maybe he was overreacting. He had been young. He was allowed to make mistakes.

Except this mistake had cost a life. His brother's.

Ali knew about Sam's brother. The prodigal son, the firstborn, on track to continue the family business of politics. Thomas, who Sam had looked up to, had been killed by a drunk driver, derailing everyone's lives. Ali had held Sam as he explained the aftermath of that incident, the need he felt to fill his big brother's shoes, how Sam had tried but wasn't up to it. How it had driven him to essentially run away from his family and live under another name on the opposite side of the country.

But there was something Sam hadn't told Ali. He had omitted the fact that he was the reason his brother Thomas was dead.