Sam brings his attention towards me, his eyes squinted in confusion.
"Who's this, Samuel?" The blonde bitch asks my man.
What the fuck!? Samuel!!
"Sam?" I glare at him, pissed.
"Halie, this is my fiancé, Mallory. Mallory, this is a friend of the family, Halie." He's still looking at me, baffled by my behavior.
"Halie looks to be an extremely good friend of the family." I look down at Halie's hand clinging to Sam's arm.
He notices and quickly pulls away from her grasp.
"Excuse me." I reached past Halie, who didn't even try to move out of my way, and placed my hand into Sam's pocket to pull out my panties. "I'll just take these back."
Sam's eyes widen in shock.
"I think I'm going to head to the bar and see what the bartender can whip up for me." I turn towards the bar.
As I hastily walk away, I can hear Halie say to Sam. "Wow, Samuel. You know how to pick them."
I'm so fucking furious right now that I don't even hear Sam run up behind me. He grabs my arm.
"Leave. Me. The. Fuck. Alone!" I say to him in a slow, seething voice through gritted teeth.
"I can't do that," he says calmly.
"I swear to God, Sam. I will make a fucking scene," I snarl.
He replies, "No, you won't. Today is Sammy's day, and you don't want to take away from her day."
While we're having this discussion, Sam is slowly moving me towards the exit.
"Wow! Really! Throwing my own words at me."
"We need to talk, and we need to talk now."
"Why don't you go back to Lil Miss Halie? I bet that she would love to talk to you." I say with sarcasm dripping off of my words.
We get to the exit, and Sam pushes me out through it. "What the hell was that, Mallory?"
"What the hell? What the hell? You about blow a gasket when the bartender brushes against my hand, but it's all fine and dandy when that bitch was all over you, Sam. You tell me! What the hell was that?"
Sam lets out an exasperated sigh, "I don't know what you think that you saw, but Halie ... she's just a friend."
"Do you want to give her that fucking memo, Sam? You're completely clueless. That woman wants you, and she wants you as more than just a friend."
Sam runs his hand through his hair in frustration. "Regardless, Mal, I don't want her. I only have eyes for you, Babe—no one else. Maybe I'm clueless because I don't care about Halie or any other woman. You're everything that I want, everything that I need, and no one will ever change my mind about that. No one!"
My hardened heart softens, and tears well up in my eyes. "I'm sorry. I've never been angrier from seeing that woman's hands all over you. Talk about wanting to punch someone."
"Hey." He takes my face into his hand and wipes away the escaped tears. "I know and understand how you feel. I don't want anyone touching you like that. I'm sorry, too. I love you more than anything. I shouldn't have let Halie touch me that way, and I hate that I made you so upset. Please, forgive me?"
I smile through my tears. "I'll forgive you if you'll forgive my behavior."
He kisses me gently on the lips. "Absolutely. Are we good?"
"We're good."
He takes my hand and leads me back into the reception.
He leans over and whispers into my ear. "I'm going to want those panties back."
My face heats up from his words.
We see Sammy's approach. "There you two are! They're getting ready to serve dinner. Come sit."
We enjoy dinner and dancing all night long. I caught the bouquet, and Sam plowed over two poor guys to get the garter. I laugh, knowing that his incentive was that there was no way in hell that he was going to let another man slip that garter up my thigh.
"May I have this dance, my love?" Sam holds out his hand to me.
I take his hand. "Absolutely."
We go to the dance floor to dance slowly to Ed Sheeran's Perfect. We had just started dancing when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
I glance behind me, fucking Halie. "Mind if I cut in?"
Before I can even form a word in my mouth, I hear Sam answering Halie. "Even if she didn't mind, Halie, I do. All of my dances are for my gorgeous future wife."
With that, he turns and dances us away from her. I bury my face into his neck. "That was so hot."
Sammy and Tim go around to the guests who are still here to say goodbye. Sam and I are on the dance floor, swaying slowly. The DJ packed up his equipment about thirty minutes ago. Lil Miss Halie attempted to hug Sam goodbye before she left. He just stuck his hand out to shake, not letting her get close. She gave me a weak, "Nice to meet you" bullshit. I couldn't get the words out to say them to her, so I just smiled.
"Are you two just going to stay here all night?" Sammy asks.
"Maybe?" Sam answers.
"I think that they want to get the place cleaned up and lock the doors." Tim is trying nicely to get us out of there.
I look around to see the workers cleaning up. It's just Sammy, Tim, Sam, and me left. I look up at Sam, who's still swaying with me. "I guess it's time to call it a night."
He places his forehead on mine. "Hmmm... too bad."
"We'll just have to finish our little party at home." I smile innocently.
"What the hell are we waiting for? Bye, Sis, Tim, congratulations."
With that, Sam drags me out to the car without wasting another second.
I'm heading home from work and text Sam while sitting at the light.
Hey, Babe. I'm ten minutes away. Are you awake?
He quickly replies.
Of course, I'm up. I never like to sleep until you're safely in my arms. See you in ten.
As promised, ten minutes later, I pull into the driveway. I park in the garage, enter the house, and see Sam standing inside the door with a glass of wine, waiting for me.
"You have no idea how much I need that right now."
He hands me my glass.
The corner of his mouth lifts knowingly. "I may have had a little bit of a clue. You only ask me if I'm still awake when you have had a bad night."
I sigh, "Damn. I'm pretty predictable."
"Want to talk about it?" Sam sits on the couch, sipping his wine.
He pats the cushion beside him. I stroll, sit, and take a long sip of my wine.
He places his arm around my shoulders. "That bad, huh?"
"The worst!" I finish my glass and hand it to Sam.
He gets up, refills my glass, and brings over the rest of the bottle. He hands me my wine, sits back down, and places his arm around me, pulling me close.
"What happened, Babe?"
"We lost a sweet little girl today. She was two months premature. We tried everything to save her, but she didn't make it." A stray tear rolls slowly down my face.
Sam wipes away my tears with the pad of his thumb. "Awe, Babe. That's terrible. I'm so sorry; I know how much you care about your little patients."
I nod my head. "Her mother named her Angel Anne."
He squeezes me. "That is a beautiful name."
"She said that she had planned to name her Anne, but after losing her, she became an angel." I sniff as the tears stream down my face.
Sam kisses the top of my head and swirls his thumb against the skin of my neck and shoulder. I lean into him. We sit quietly, sipping our wine.
"God, I hate nights like tonight."
"I know, Babe."
The thing about Sam is that he does know. I've seen him come home after he's delivered stillborn babies, and it tears him up.
I smile sadly. "I know you do. I love you, Sam!"
"I love you, too, Mal."
Sam listened to me intently as I shared with him the details of the last moments of little Angel Anne's life. Talking to Sam is what I needed to process what had happened with her sweet life that was cut too short. We had done everything possible to save her life. Sam and I end up finishing the entire bottle of wine.
Sam yawns. "I have to get you to bed, young lady."
"Yes, please," say before yawning myself.
We walk hand in hand into our bedroom. Sam slowly removes my scrubs and undergarments from my body. He then pulls down his gym shorts and boxers so that we are both naked. We crawl under the covers. I love how he knows when I need skin-to-skin contact without it having to be sexual. I need him to cuddle me close, and he doesn't disappoint. We fall asleep, me in Sam's loving arms.