She leaned forward and briefly touched her lips to his, lingering long enough to taste him and let the sensation of caring for him overwhelm her. Only then did she sit back on her heels. "We'll follow this trail as far as we can, okay?"
A smile tugged at his mouth. "We?"
"Have I abandoned you yet?" She immediately realized the depth of her question and didn't want him to press her any further. So she held out her hand and pulled him to his feet. "At the very least, we're one step ahead of your uncle, so we can get on this first thing in the morning."
He nodded. "I'd just like some answers." His gaze never left hers— as if he were telling her he knew something deep existed between them and he wanted her to acknowledge it too.
She feared she couldn't put off facing that issue much longer.
Chapter Twelve
DIRTY AND TIRED, Zoe wanted nothing more than to pick up Sam and head back to Ryan's. She intended to get a good night's sleep before she had to tackle the next part of their search. She certainly didn't need to arrive at the Baldwins' house to find Sam had gotten herself into trouble while they'd been gone. But she had.
"Accidents happen," Vivian said to Ryan and Zoe. "But when the plumber comes for a service call and finds a scrunchie clogging the toilet, then we're talking about a deliberate stuffing." Vivian shook her head, her exasperation obvious. "By the way, what is a scrunchie, anyway?"
Zoe bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. "It's a ponytail holder. Only bigger."
"Well the water overflowed and created quite a mess." Vivian's posture and tone showed the weariness she must be feeling after a few hours with her granddaughter.
"Where's Sam now?" Ryan asked.
"Upstairs in your old room thinking about what she did and why she did it," Vivian said.
Zoe shot Ryan a glance.
"You punished her?" he asked, surprised.
"What else should I have done? She showed no thought to basic etiquette when visiting someone else's home." His mother stiffened her shoulders defensively.
"Did you explain that to her?" Zoe asked.
"Of course."
Ryan stepped forward. "And did you yell, scream and threaten to throw her out and never let her come back as you did to Faith?"
Zoe sucked in a harsh breath, taken aback by his sharp tone and biting sarcasm. "Ryan…"
"No, that's all right." Vivian ran her hand down her bob, straightening her already perfect hair. "Believe it or not, I thought long and hard before asking you if I could take Samantha for the afternoon. I revisited many of my past mistakes."
"Say that again?" Ryan looked into his mother's eyes.
"I'm admitting I made mistakes, Ryan. It's not the time to get into this now, but I am trying harder with Faith's daughter. She's going to have to realize there are consequences to her actions, though." Vivian gestured to the circular stairs. "Shall we go talk to her?"
"In a minute," Zoe said, stepping forward, knowing she was intruding on Ryan's family, and not caring. Not when she needed answers to questions that would directly affect Sam.
"Yes?" Vivian turned her head to face her.
"Why?" Zoe asked.
The other woman wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Why what?"
"Why punish her? Why teach her that there are consequences? What point are you trying to make?" Zoe pushed the other woman to explain herself, knowing full well she had no right to do so.
Vivian paused in thought. If she was annoyed or put out by Zoe's question, she didn't show it. "Well I suppose I want to teach her the proper way to behave for one thing."
Zoe tried not to cringe or pass judgment; instead she waited.
"And I realize now that Faith never knew we loved her."
"If that bothers you, then why didn't you search harder when she ran away?" Ryan asked.
Real tears suddenly filled the older woman's brown eyes, which Zoe now realized resembled Ryan's. "We had a pattern in our home. All our fights would focus on how Faith's wild rebellion reflected on the family. We'd yell and scream as you pointed out. She'd storm off to her room and the same type of thing would happen again the next day. It became a cycle we couldn't seem to break." She dabbed at the inside corner of her eye, attempting to stem her tears.
"Did you punish Faith?" Zoe asked softly.
"We tried, but no matter what we did, she never listened. Mostly because the screaming was such a large part of our lives, nothing had any impact. So when she ran away, after we checked all the obvious places, we thought, let her get it out of her system and then she'll come home."
Ryan stiffened his shoulders. "But she never did."
Vivian shook her head. "At the time we thought she made her choice, but I see now how wrong we were. We were the parents and she was the child. We should have kept trying."
Zoe swallowed hard, suddenly feeling the woman's pain.
"And all this brings us back to Samantha," Vivian continued. "When Ryan brought up the idea of bringing Faith's child here, I was completely against it since I feared the past would repeat itself. I knew when I looked at Samantha, I'd see my failures as a mother. And I did. I still do."
"Mom— " Ryan stepped forward, but his mother waved him away.
Though Zoe hurt for him, she sensed this moment was a turning point for them both. As the instigator of the conversation, but outsider to their family, Zoe could do no more than watch it play out, and in doing so she realized she was watching her family's role in Sam's life coming to an end. The thought brought a piercing ache to her own heart.
Vivian stared, focusing her thoughts. "I need to say this and I need to do it without your sympathy and without my falling apart."
Ryan nodded in obvious understanding.
"Dinner the other night was a complete replay of our lives with you children except that Samantha had you and Zoe to protect her. And the child has more spunk than anyone I've ever met," she said, with what sounded like affection in her tone.
"Spunk is a good word to describe Sam's behavior," Ryan agreed, his eyes filled with warmth when he gazed at his mother.
Even Zoe had to admit she was touched by the woman's willingness to try and change. Relief filled her, as well, since Sam would benefit from her softening and changing.
"I didn't sleep that night. And I realized then that I could continue to play the socialite who cared more for rules than her family and thereby lose Faith's daughter, too, or I could take the initiative and try to change my attitude. For the sake of my family, I decided that an old dog should learn new tricks." Vivian forced a laugh, but her body trembled with the emotion of the afternoon.