A Couple is Three: The Beginning (book 1 & 2 Completed)

Chapter 15 - Big Brother?

They all piled into John's truck. He had one of those pick-up trucks that has four doors and two rows of seating. Samantha had only been in a pick-up truck once before and it had been really old. She had always wondered what the inside of one of these newer, larger pick-ups was like since living in the city had left her slightly jaded to the whole pick-up truck idea. She wondered what the fascination was with them considering the luxury of most cars. "Why would anyone ever want to give up that luxury for a pick-up," she wondered. She was pleasantly surprised with how nice and roomy it was. It was so different from her previous experience. Now, she was starting to understand some of the fascination some of her male friends had with these trucks.

She sat in the second row of seats between Josh and Jake. Each one of them had grabbed a hand the minute that they were all buckled in. None of them wanted to waste any minute that they were together and able to touch each other without compromising their plan to act like they were pretending a relationship in front of their parents.

They headed out to a local diner for breakfast. They spent the next few hours talking and laughing. Jason and John had no shortage of embarrassing stories about Jake and Josh. They freely shared them with Samantha, loving how worked up the boys would get. It wasn't very often that the two fathers got to embarrass the two boys this way so they decided to take full advantage of the situation.

To retaliate Josh and Jake decided to tell a few stories of their own about the antics that their fathers had gotten up to when they were performing professionally in the rodeo. After a few stories Samantha started to understand how the older brothers could be so different from Jake and Josh; the older boys were living up to their fathers' reputations. She was very glad that Josh and Jake had no interest in following down that path.

By the time that they finished breakfast, they realized that they would have to hurry back in order for Jake and Josh to make their practice session. Even though they were riding bulls later today, a thought that still scared Samantha, the boys were going to be practicing on their horse with their dads coaching.

They parked the truck and the five of them headed towards the stable. The fathers entered the stable as Samantha decided that she would be better off sitting in the stands watching them practice than actually being in the ring. She didn't want to disrupt their practice at all.

"Are you sure? You won't bug us," questioned Jake.

"I'm sure," she replied with a smile trying to reassure them. "Besides I don't know when my friends will be arriving so it will be better if I'm sitting out here."

"You still have my cell?" —she nodded— "Good. Than text Jake's phone if your friends come or if anything happens, please," pleaded Josh as he stepped up and kissed the tip of her nose before backing away.

"You better text," grumbled Jake as he leaned in and kissed her forehead after waiting for her to nod in agreement.

Samantha chuckled at the forlorn looks on the boys faces; they didn't want to leave her. "Go," she finally said as she gave them each a slight push towards the stable. "I'll be fine and sit where you can see me."

Nodding, the two boys finally left to go get ready for their practice. Samantha continued to chuckle to herself as she walked over to the stands.

She was right beside the stands, reaching into her bag to pull out her sunscreen, when she was knocked into from the side. Thankfully it was from the side so that she didn't hit the metal stands with her body, but that also meant that she had nothing stopping her from hitting the ground...except for the hands that reached out and grabbed her at the waist, holding her upright.

Breathing hard from the near miss, Samantha turned to see who or what had knocked into her. She found herself staring into another pair of sparkling brown eyes. They were very different from Josh's eyes, but they were still pleasant to look at.