Nicole Edwards - Entrusted

“It’s true,” he told her now. “She’s here with me. She’ll always be here with me.”

“We’re glad you are here with him, Beth. He needs you… And we need him.”

Elijah closed his eyes, trying to stop the tears, but he couldn’t seem to shut off the waterworks. He couldn’t look at Sam or Logan, his watery gaze focused on the headstone. Sam’s words echoed in his head, and we need him. He needed them too but he was too scared to tell them. Especially here.

An even stronger breeze cut through them and Elijah tightened his grip on Sam’s fingers.

If that wasn’t Beth, it was certainly an eerie coincidence. And if it was, Elijah only prayed that was her blessing because… He was pretty sure he was not going to be able to let Sam go. Not today. Not ever.

Logan remained quiet, although he kept his hand on Elijah’s shoulder, letting him know that he was there.

He had known that this was going to be an emotional reunion, and it was. Especially now that Sam was talking to Beth. He would’ve thought it strange that the two of them were talking to a dead woman, but Logan had done the same. Many times.

He spent years talking to his parents after they died. And when his grandfather had passed away, he’d done the same with him. It wasn’t until Sam came along and mended his heart with her love that he had stopped.

He doubted Elijah would ever stop. And he understood that too. That connection, once established, would not be severed. Didn’t matter if it were distance or death, the heart would never let go. For those who were blessed to know or to have known the type of love that Elijah and Beth shared, the same type of love that Logan and Sam shared, they knew it was forever.

Regardless of circumstance.

Logan’s attention was diverted when Sam moved. She walked behind Elijah, and then inserted herself between them, her arms around them both. Logan dropped his hand from Elijah’s shoulder and held Sam.

The three of them stood in silence for a few minutes and then Elijah turned to them, a gentle smile on his face.

“What do you say we get out of here?”

Logan nodded, releasing Sam as she turned toward the car.

“Can we go to dinner?” she asked, looking between the two of them.

“I’d like that,” Elijah said, his eyes meeting Logan’s.

If he weren’t mistaken, there was a measure of peace in Elijah’s eyes. And despite the tears that he’d silently shed, Logan got the impression that Elijah was breathing a little easier.

One week later…

Sam was sitting on a lounge chair by the pool. The temperature hovered in the upper eighties, but the gentle breeze made it bearable. She’d opened one of the umbrellas to shield herself from the brutal rays of the sun as she sat quietly. Reflecting.

That’s what she’d been doing since the moment Elijah left that morning.

He had, for the first time since they’d visited Beth’s grave, spent the night with them. They had ended up falling asleep in the guest room, Logan on one side, Elijah on the other, while she’d slept in between them.

Last night had been… God, she didn’t know what it had been but she almost felt as though Elijah was trying to pull away when for the last few weeks they’d all been growing closer. Yet last night had been emotional. Yes, that’s the word.

She hadn’t wanted him to go, but she had known at the time that he needed some space. So, she’d let him walk away. And after he left, Logan had pulled her into his arms and held her. It took her a good half hour to find the strength to pull away from her husband, but she finally managed.

At that point, Logan had gone about his day, a lazy Sunday like most Sundays, and Sam had gone to do her thing. There was no lingering tension, nothing that should’ve drawn attention to last night being any different from any other night they’d spent together.

But her thoughts drifted to Elijah. She wished he were there. She wanted him there. Even if he were just sitting in the house, reading or watching television, whatever he did on a Sunday afternoon when there was nothing on the calendar. That’s the only thing that seemed to be missing. At least for her.

“Hey,” Logan’s voice broke through her thoughts and Sam shielded her eyes as she glanced up at him. He was holding a glass of iced tea, which she took from his hand.

“Thank you.”

“What’s on your mind, baby?” he asked as he squatted down beside her, his hand settling warmly on hers.

“Elijah,” she admitted.

Logan didn’t say anything and Sam didn’t know what to say. They stared back at one another as though they were both trying to figure out what the next steps were but wanting the other one to make the decision.

Finally, Sam said, “Where do we go from here?”

Logan shifted, sitting on the edge of her lounge chair. He took the glass of tea from her hands and set it on the table beside the chair. “That depends. We need to talk to Elijah.”

“This is moving so quickly,” she told him. “It’s only been like, what, a month? But I…” Sam clamped her mouth shut, tears suddenly springing to her eyes as she realized what she was about to say.

“You love him,” Logan said. It wasn’t phrased as a question because her husband knew. He knew just how much she had come to care about Elijah.

“Yeah,” she whispered, a sob breaking free. “Does that make me a bad person?”

Logan reached for her, wrapping his big arms around her, holding her against him and Sam went freely. She grabbed on to him, holding tightly.

“I love you, Logan. I love you more than anything in the world. My life would never be complete without you.”

She was rambling, her tears wetting his t-shirt but he didn’t pull away from her.

“I know that, baby. I’ve never doubted your love for me.”

Sam released him, pushing away so she could look at him. “Doesn’t that bother you? That I said I love another man.”

Logan’s eyes softened. “I heard what you told Elijah, Sam. Remember when you told him that I complete you the way Beth completes him. Well, the same for me. You complete me. And God, that sounds so cliché, but it’s true. I also know how much you love me. You don’t even have to say it for me to feel it. I feel it,” he said, two long fingers thumping the area over his heart, “right here.”

“It just…” Sam looked away. “It’s all happened so fast. We just met him a month ago and suddenly I love him?”

“There’s no time table, Sam. You can’t fit love into a schedule, remember? You’ve got to let that go. Think of it this way… Maybe it’s been a long time. We’ve been waiting for Elijah. And now he’s here and we can move forward.”

“How do we move forward?”

“You need to tell him how you feel,” Logan answered. “Then we need to decide what we want to do from here. Do we make this more… Permanent?”

“Like him moving in with us?” Sam asked because yes, she’d been thinking about that when Logan had come outside. She wanted Elijah there with them. She wanted him close so she could take care of him. She hated to think about him sitting at home alone with his thoughts. She wanted to be able to talk to him.

“Yes. I think that’s the next step. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but I think it’s something we need to discuss with him.”

“Do you think he’ll want that?”

“That’s not a question I can answer. And you’ll never know until you ask him, Sam.”

Sitting up straight, Sam allowed Logan to see everything she was feeling. Yes, she was confused, but more than that, she was happy.

“Will you take me to see him?”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

Sam didn’t even need to say anything more before Logan chuckled. “Have I told you how hot you are when you’re in a hurry?”

Getting to her feet, Sam grabbed the glass of iced tea from the table and faced off with Logan again. “Yes, but feel free to tell me again.”

Sunday afternoon wasn’t quite as eventful as Sunday morning had been. At least not for Elijah.

After Sam had woken him with her wicked mouth and after she’d done the same to Logan, the three of them had opted for a shower. Elijah would admit he was rather impressed with Logan and Sam’s shower. It was big enough for an orgy. And since there were only three of them, it had left a significant amount of room for them to enjoy themselves. Namely, Elijah and Logan who’d both had the pleasure of thoroughly washing Sam until she was coming again. Twice.

The woman was so damned responsive and if he weren’t mistaken, she wanted sex as much as they did. Maybe more. And no, Elijah wasn’t complaining.

Not even a little.

However, after their shower, Elijah had informed them he needed to go home. It had been a lie, but neither of them had pushed him so he’d called a cab.

But now that he was home, he wished he were back at Sam’s. Elijah hadn’t been a big fan of his lonely house before Sam had brought the sunshine back into his life, but now he found that he dreaded being there.

He just wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do about that.

After rummaging through the refrigerator to find there wasn’t a damn thing in the house to make for dinner, Elijah settled on a glass of his favorite scotch. Glass in hand, he returned to the living room and went to stand in front of the fireplace.

He rested his hand on the mantle, his fingers touching the edge of one of the shiny frames that held his most precious possessions. Sipping his drink, he just stared back at the image in front of him.