The Ringing (Very Slow Updates!)

Chapter Thirty-One

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CALE'S POV

By the time Friday afternoon rolled around I couldn't wait to pick up Sam for our date; not because I was looking forward to seeing her – not that I wasn't, either – but because I really wanted to get to the bottom of this whole thing between her and the other girls. I could understand why Shay has a problem with her, they obvious have had issues with each other since the day they met; what really bothered me though is that the other girls seemed to be noticing something is off with Sam now too, if most of the other girls see an issue with her, I can't help but think that I'm missing something with the girl. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was that they were seeing in her that I wasn't; every minute that we have spent together she's seemed to be just as honest and genuine as the rest of them.

If Sam was hiding something I had to figure out what it was; the only problem was figuring out how to do that. I had went through a million different scenarios in my mind on how I could squeeze the truth out of her, but none seemed to be likely to work; if Sam was really as deceiving as Shay seemed to think she was, I doubted any of the ideas I had would pull the truth from her. I could really only think of one plan that would work, or at least I could only hope that it would; the one thing that I knew that tended to bring out the truth in people was alcohol, people seemed to tell you all types of things they normally wouldn't once they were inebriated. While I wasn't really fond of the idea of getting one of the girls from The Ringing hammered on a date, I couldn't think of any other way to get the truth out of Sam.

I was finding it hard to concentrate on what Sam was saying during our dinner date; I was too focused on watching her body language and looking for any sign that anything she said wasn't truthful. I made sure to keep the drinks flowing throughout the meal along with the conversation, but I had yet to see any signs that she was anything other than the woman I had gotten to know over the last few weeks; by the time we made it back to my house I was starting to wonder if getting her drunk was going to accomplish anything, all it had done so far was make her more talkative, and not about the things I was hoping she would talk about. Knowing that the hot tub would help kick in the liquor a little faster we headed there next; after a quick change I pulled out a bottle of vodka figuring I might as well go for broke.

"So tell me about your life back home," I prompted, once we were both seated in the warm water; she had a glass of wine in her hand and I had a beer, the vodka sitting on the side of the tub waiting for us, along with two shot glasses.

"I don't know, it's a normal life I guess," She trailed her fingers along the top of the water in small circles as she spoke. "My mother and I sometimes don't get along well, but I guess it's that way with most mothers and daughters; we love each other but still fight." She paused to take a drink before continuing. "My father and I get along great though, I guess you could say that I'm more of a daddy's girl," she looked up at me with a small smile on her face at the mention of her father; it seemed that they had a good relationship and I could almost feel the love she had for him as she talked.

"Any siblings?" I asked next, trying to keep her talking.

"No, I'm an only child; my father wanted more children, but my mother figured that one was enough I guess." The way she knitted her eyebrows together led me to believe that she wasn't very happy about the fact that she didn't have any brothers or sisters; I couldn't imagine growing up without my brothers, even if they annoyed the shit out of me sometimes, I still loved them and life just wouldn't be the same without them.

"Do you wish that they would have had other kids?" I decided to ask.

"Sometimes, I guess, but I can't say that it bothered me much being an only child; I imagine that having siblings would have taken some of the attention off of me, and if I had a brother I'm not sure that I would have been as close to my father as I am." I didn't know how to take that statement, it seemed a little selfish that she wouldn't want to share her parents attention, but maybe that's only because I never grew up as an only child.