Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 49

As soon as we pulled up to Brendon and Sarah's house, Sarah and Kala came out the front door and greeted us as we got out of the car. Sarah wrapped Samantha in a tight hug and gave her a kiss on the head. Kala followed suit.

"How's my favourite niece?" Sarah asked Samantha.

"I'm good. How are you?" she replied.

"Great, now that you're here," Sarah smiled. Two dogs came pouncing out the front door and ran around Samantha's legs.

"Oh," Brendon said, picking them both up. "You haven't met Samantha yet, have you two? Samantha, this is Penny Lane and this is Bogart."

Brendon introduced his dogs to Samantha. Samantha smiled and pet the two dogs.

Zack and Brendon pulled out our luggage, and herded us into the house.

"I am so stoked you guys came out here!" Brendon said. "Let me show you guys to your rooms!"

We followed Brendon and Sarah upstairs. Brendon opened a door at the top of the stairs.

"Sam, we thought you'd like this room," he said. Sam walked into a room that was painted a pale blue with blue covers on the bed. There was a set of drumsticks on a shelf over the bed and a drawing of a larger boy protecting a smaller girl.

"Brendon," I said quietly to him. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Sarah and I discussed it. We didn't want to put her on the floor of your room, and I bet if Jess were still here, the two would get along great. Sam reminds me a lot of her," he whispered.

"Are you sure, Uncle Brendon?" she asked.

"Yep!" he said brightly. "You need your own space. Your mom and dad will be right across the hall. And I'm sorry, but you'll have to share a bathroom with them."

He showed Samantha the bathroom attached to her room, and the door to the hallway, where the spare room we'd be sleeping in was right across the hall.

"But," Samantha said. "Wasn't this Jess's room?"

"How did you know that?" Sarah asked.

"Well, it just makes sense to me. I mean, the picture of the boy and girl? The drumsticks? Dad told me about those."

Tears were in Sarah's eyes.

"First, I love that you're still talking about our Jess," Sarah said to me. "And second, it would make us happy for you to use Jess's room. It's not a shrine. Jess isn't here. We keep mementos of our daughter in here, but it's still a spare room."

"Are you really sure? I could sleep on the floor in Mom and Dad's room. Really. It's no problem."

Sarah hugged Samantha.

"Sweetheart, honestly. We would love for you to use this room."

Brendon and Sarah showed us around the rest of their house, and the seven of us sat in the living room talking. Samantha was leaning up against Brendon, who was playing with her hair.

We were catching up on a few things when Zack looked over at Brendon and Samantha and smiled. I looked over and saw that Samantha had dozed off.

"Between the excitement of the trip and the time difference, she must be exhausted," I said, smiling.

"I remember when Jess would fall asleep on me," Brendon said, wistfully.

"We'll have to wake her up for dinner," I said. "She hated the food on the plane, so I promised her something great for dinner."

"Let's head to Santa Monica for dinner. Or Venice," Sarah suggested. "I bet she'd love to eat by the beach."

"I don't think she's ever been to the beach," I said, smiling at her.

We agreed that we'd go to Venice for dinner. Brendon and Sarah knew of an Italian restaurant by the beach that she expected Samantha would like.

We let her sleep a little longer. Brendon was comfortable and Samantha was clearly comfortable enough. We talked quietly in order to let Samantha nap.

"Where?" She said sitting up suddenly. She looked around confused for a second then smiled and relaxed.

"Morning sleepyhead," Brendon said. "Good nap?"

Samantha nodded.

"We were thinking of going to Venice Beach for dinner," I said.

"Okay," Samantha said.

Since it was close enough to dinner time, we got ready to go. I made sure Samantha had her insulin and test kit and we left. We had to take two cars because no one had a car that seats seven.  Zack and Kala took their own car. Sarah went with them, and Brendon drove the three of us.

He put on some music and sang along. Samantha sat with Jenna in the back seat and the two chatted animatedly.

It didn't take long for us to get to the restaurant Brendon had suggested and we all piled out of our cars and into the restaurant.

Brendon and Sarah insisted Samantha sit between them and throughout dinner peppered her with questions.

"How's school?" Sarah asked.

"Good," Samantha said. "I'm doing alright, and I've made more friends. Although sometimes I wonder if they want to be my friend because of Dad or because of what happened in November or if they really want to be my friend."

"I bet that's hard. Knowing who is really genuine and who isn't?" Sarah said.

"Yeah. But Jill had known a lot of the kids since they were in elementary school, so she's kinda been able to help suss out who might not be so genuine. But it's nice to have a group of friends. I never had that before."

"Really? How come?" Brendon asked.

"Stanley never let me," she said. She was able to talk about him without fear now.

"That's sad. But I'm so happy to hear you're making friends," Sarah said.

"What about sports?" Brendon asked. 

"I'm thinking of trying out for soccer when we get back. I don't know yet," she said.

"You should go for it," Brendon said. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"I could make a total fool of myself?  Or break a leg?" Samantha said, with a sly grin on her face.

"Or you could make the team and become the star player." Brendon countered.

"I'm not that good. I like soccer, but I'm not great at it. I'm okay at it though."

We all laughed.

Our vacation was starting out so well. It was so nice to see Samantha truly healing.