Claiming What's His (8 page)

             
The turnout looked exactly like a carnival, only without the ferris wheel or other outdoor rides.  There were stations with basketball hoops, duck shooting, lily pads in a swimming pool pond, squirt gun challenges, moon walks, and a ball pit.  There were kids lining up to get their face painted, turning themselves into goblins and faeries of all sorts.  

             
Bob from accounting sat at the dunk booth and had been repeatedly dunked from ticketholders (if his soaking clothes had any tell to it).  

             
Mallory from marketing was sitting at the face painting station where Danny sat in her chair with Char and a gorgeous guy standing nearby.

             
In the middle of the room sat the big, clear, square box filled with money that people from all over, including our own Comfort citizens, donated.  

             
Eddie Mae Thomas and Hattie Sue Tomkins were sitting at a round table wearing velvet red and purple robes with a glass ball sitting in the middle of the table.  Their hands were waving around the glass ball as their customer looked deep into the crystal.  They were fortune tellers.  Sam thought that since those two were the town gossips and tend to know everything, fortune telling was the perfect job for them.

             
Mitch and George were behind the concession stands tending to the long lines of people waiting for their food and drinks.  They were both dressed in matching white dress shirts   Thank God Mitch wasn’t at the kissing booth that Sam had originally hoped he wouldn’t be.  Otherwise, she’d be trying to play in heavy traffic.

             
Right after Maggie ran off earlier, Sam received another client call from a man who wanted her to investigate his new wife for him.  He stated that she seemed to be staying at work a long later and coming home tired and ignoring him completely.

             
Sam initially thought that it was maybe because of work.  But she decided to take his case as well.  He stopped by and gave her a picture of his wife and set up an account with Char.  Sam never realized that there was a possibility of infidelity in such a small town while at the same time, she wasn’t surprised.  Living in a small town was like an acquired taste.  There wasn’t much to do so you have to get accustomed to it.

             
Sam grew up in a small town and loved it. 

             
No crowd, no clutter.

             
Sam made her way through the crowd when she spotted Roger Caplin.  She walked over and greeted him with a hug.

             
What she didn’t know was that Alex had been watching her every step of the way.

             
Every.

             
Step.

*******

              Alex watched as Sam made her way around the room, talking to everyone, playing a couple of games with the kids, and flirting with the other guys.

             
He watched, every step, every sway, every flirt, every touch.

             
And he didn’t like it.

             
It was the flirting that got to him first.

             
Then it was the touch.

             
It was the hug then the light flirtatious brushing of her fingers on another man’s arm that made his blood boil.

             
And she was doing it on purpose.

             
He thought that based on his actions from last night’s visit and this morning’s run, he made it clear the she was his and his alone.  Anger seared through him as he watched her throw her head back and laugh while talking to Roger, an annual visitor to their fundraiser from Austin.  From what Maggie told him last year about Roger, he had graduated top of his class two years ago and he was a hot up-and-coming lawyer at one of Austin’s most prestigious law firms. 

             
His fingers had lightly brushed against her arm, stroking in small circles.  Then Roger did something that flat out pissed Alex off.  Roger lifted his hand up to Sam’s face and gently stroked her cheek with the back of his hand.

             
That was it.

             
He wasn’t going to stand there and watch Roger touch his woman again, nor any other men for that matter.

             
He had just taken a step when the back of a hand pressed against the bicep of his arm, halting his steps.  He followed the hand, up the length of the arm and to the face to see Cole Parker, his former friend.

             
“Never thought I’d see you here again, Conrad.  Thought the Big Apple might’ve rubbed off the small town boy in you making you think you were too good to return.”

             
“Who the fuck are you to talk, Parker?  You left here long before I ever did.  Los Angeles couldn’t handle you anymore?  Is that why you’re here?  Did they kick your sorry ass out?”

             
“I moved back.  And I’m glad I did.  There are so many more hot chicks here than ever before.  For instance, that hottie talking to Caplin.  Look at that bodacious body, especially those legs.”

             
Fuck.

             
He was referring to Sam.  And he was staring at her body.  He hated that.  He hated having Cole Parker or any of these guys stare at any part of her.  He was going to have to talk to Sam about showing off her legs, her long, lean, sexy legs that he would love to have wrapped around his waist while he sank deep within her –

             
“Later, Conrad.  Kissing booth’s calling my name.” His words brought Alex out of his thoughts as Cole walked away, spraying breath freshener in his mouth.

             
Alex stared at his back until he was quite a distance away.  He glanced back up to Sam only to find her gone.

*******

              Sam was outside peaking out the corner, aiming her camera to a couple who was going at it in the dark next to the air conditioning unit.  She had recognized the both of them when she saw Landon Hill, Kristen’s husband leaning against the corner wall behind the concession stand.  He had been talking to a female in a short skirt.  She hadn’t been able to make out her face because of the angle they were standing in.  All she saw was her flaming red hair.

             
She had been following them for about half an hour when she spotted Roger Caplin.  Roger was a friend whom she met through Maggie and hadn’t seen him since she met him at a fraternity partner in Austin her freshman year.  They had chatted, catching up on old times and telling the other what they had been doing for the past year.  He was a lawyer in Austin and that he was close to becoming the youngest partner at the company.

             
In other words, he was doing very well for himself.

             
He also told her that he wasn’t seeing anyone and that he always had a thing for her. 

             
Sam was flattered but the feeling wasn’t mutual.  Instead of telling him the truth, she sort of fibbed to him that she was already seeing someone, but she still wanted to continue to be friends with him.

             
With that, he replied before he leaned in to kiss her cheek, “You never lost me as a friend, Sam.”

             
When they bid a ‘catch you later’, she glanced back behind the concession stand on her infidelity couple who disappeared.  Her head whipped back and forth across the center until she spotted the locks of flowing red hair being whisked out the door.

             
Sam followed them until they stopped around the corner and their hands groped one another, their body parts rubbing against other body parts.  She finally caught a glimpse of who the female was, her other client Peter Grainger’s wife, the one who he thought was cheating on him.

             
She snapped their pictures (with the flash turned off and her camera setting to dark), getting in as many shots as she could get and hoped that the prints would be visible with the dark area.  The only lighting that might be of help to Sam was the street lamp across the street that was blocked by a tree.

             
Sam snapped a few more shots as, from what she could tell, he lifted up her skirt to her waist and him working his pants.  She was pretty sure they were about to do the deed there on the air conditioning unit. 

             
Once she was satisfied with what she took, she quietly walked away, thinking that this job was much easier than she thought.  It was like shooting two birds with one.

             
So far, the night was off to a good start.  She managed to solve two cases at the same time.  But she was still bracing for the night’s ending.

             
The minute Sam walked in, she saw Danny standing in front of a magnetic fish pond with the same gorgeous man that was standing with Char while Danny was getting his face painted.  Gorgeous Guy was knelt behind Danny with his hands wrapping around Danny’s pole-clutching hands, helping him catch as many magnetic fishes as possible.

             
At a distance, Sam spotted Alex standing at the concession stand talking to George and Nick.  Their facial expressions stated that they weren’t engaged in a serious conversation.  It was soft and relaxed and they were laughing at something that apparently Nick had said.

             
Alex was dressed in a gray suit, a pale pink shirt and black shoes.  The suit accentuated he masculine features nicely and hugged his broad muscles like it was tailor-made for him (which it could have been).

             
Sam hated to admit it but she missed seeing Alex smile and laugh.  Each and every time she had heard it in the past she was happy.  She felt the warmth of his laughter spread through her body.  She missed the time they spent together.

             
What she hated to admit more was that she missed
him
.

*******

              Alex spotted Sam as she walked pass the dunk tank and laughed her ass off when Bob was dunked.  The sound of her laughter traveled across the room with every male species looking at her.

             
Fuck, he missed her.  Not having her in his life hurt more than he could’ve imagined and he was the one to fuck it up six years ago.  He knew he’d have to make it up to her.  He wasn’t sure how, but he’d do everything he could to try.

             
With every pair of male eyes staring at her, now was his chance to make his move on her.  Not that he’d need to or anything.  He was a babe magnet and he knew that if the ladies couldn’t resist, Sam wouldn’t either.

             
He needed to stake his claim, making sure that no other guy moved in on her and understanding that she was his and only his.

             
Alex walked up to her, casually threw his arms over her shoulders and continued walking as if it wasn’t a big deal because he had been doing it for a long time.

             
Sam went stiff and stopped.

             
He had no choice but to stop with her.

             
She turned her head towards him and he felt her glare.

             
“What are you doing?” she asked with mild irritation in her voice.

             
He tipped his head down.  “What does it look like I’m doing?”

             
Wasn’t it obvious that he had his arms around her?  Didn’t that say it all?

             
“Okay, you have your arms around me. Why?”

             
“Now, isn’t
that
obvious?”

             
Her eyes narrowed.  “No, it isn’t. Why don’t you explain it to me why that is exactly?”

             
“I’m claiming what’s mine for everyone to see.”

             
Her eyes bugged out and she shrieked,
“What?”

             
Everyone turned their heads to stare at them, but all Alex cared about at the moment was the fact that his eardrums bursting.

             
He left his arm over her shoulders and twisted his other arm over to clear his ear closest to her.  “Jeez, Sam. Calm down.”

             
“
Calm down?
  Calm down?  Are you out of your mind? Why the hell would you show others that you’ve “claimed what’s yours” anyways?  I’m not yours and I never will be!” she shouted.

             
Before Sam could rip Alex’s head off, Maggie raced up and locked her arms around Sam’s waist, jerking her side to her with Natalie Sparks, a friend she met in college, behind her.  “Where have you been?  We’ve been looking everywhere for you!  Krissy’s on right now, but you’re up next.  We have to get you changed.”