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

Chapter 21 - Saying Farwell

The three of them quickly made their excuses and left the trailer.

Samantha was panicking. She knew that Dan and Tracy would be concerned about where she was and she was a little confused as to why they hadn't been trying to contact her.

She pulled out her phone and realized that it had been turned off. No wonder the buzzing from the phone hadn't alerted her; there was none. She turned it on and the phone nearly vibrated off her hands from all the alerts for incoming texts and missed calls.

"Crap," she whispered. "They are going to kill me," she continued as she looked to Josh and Jake who had stopped within feet from the trailer door with her.

"It will be okay," they both tried to reassure her.

As they both opened their mouths to continue, Samantha raised her palm towards them to get them to stop. She had already hit Tracy's number on speed dial. She hit speakerphone and lowered the phone between the three of them as the boys crowded in.

"Samantha."

They clearly heard the relief in Tracy's voice as she answered the phone. "Where have you been? Why didn't you pick up? Why didn't you call?..." Tracy spit out in a rush.

"Stop and take a breath," suggested Samantha as she sighed in relief. If Tracy was spitting out questions then she wasn't upset. If she had been upset with Samantha then she would have been icy and asked only one question at a time.

"I'm sorry. The boys' fathers ended up needing to talk to the boys about some things," Samantha continued carefully choosing her words so that she didn't lie.

"Then why didn't you come join us?" they clearly heard Dan demand.

The boys looked to Samantha to see if she was going to answer Dan or if she wanted them to. She held up her hand and smiled.

"The boys didn't want me to walk through the grounds by myself." —seeing Jake and Josh nod their encouragement and agreement, she continued— "They wanted to keep me safe." Both boys gave her huge smiles showing off their dimples and mesmerizing her.

"...phone us?" Dan questioned again.

Shaking her head to try to clear her daze, Samantha realized that she has missed most of what Dan had said. "Sorry, Dan. I didn't quite catch that?"

"I...said...why...didn't...you...call...us?" Dan repeated with frustration lacing his voice.

"I'm sorry. I forgot all about my phone. I didn't even remember that I had turned it off this morning before it died," apologized Samantha as she bowed her head in shame. She couldn't believe that she had forgotten to let them know that she was safe. She could understand why Dan was so freaked out considering he thought that she was still the little girl that he first met. She didn't think that he would ever think of her as a young independent adult instead of a kid sister that he had to look after.

"That's fine," soothed Dan, "We will come meet you!"

Samantha lifted her head to see both Josh and Jake shaking their heads in response to Dan's last statement. Samantha didn't really want Dan and everyone else to come meet them either. This would be one of the last few moments that she had alone with her two boys and she didn't want anyone to intrude on it. Besides she knew that they hadn't resolved everything from their earlier arguments. She knew, that although everything appeared to be smoothed over between Josh and his dad, Josh still was not too happy with her and Jake.

Thankfully Samantha heard the MC start to speak over the phone before she answered Dan. It gave her the perfect excuse to refuse him. "It's ok Dan. We are still going to be a few minutes so why don't you stay there and save us some spots. Just let us know where you are?"