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

Chapter 22 - Home alone

Monday morning in Winnipeg

Samantha woke to the lyrics of In My Father's House by Big Daddy Weave being blasted from her alarm clock. "Urgh, It's far too early to be up," she thought as she reached over to turn down the volume on her clock radio.

Laying back down on the bed, Samantha tried to tell herself all the reasons that she needed to get up for, even though she just wanted to stay in bed and suffer. She couldn't believe how hard it had been to fall asleep in her bed. She loved her bed! It was so warm and comfortable, like a cocoon. Yet last night, her bed felt too large, too empty. It was as if, after one night, her body had adjusted to sleeping with Jake and Josh plastered to her.

How was she ever going to survive this separation? Even if the boys weren't travelling so much, it wasn't as if she could just pop over anytime for a sleepover. They lived two hours away. "Why did I ever agree to a long distance relationship?" she wondered. "Oh yeah, it was because I really didn't have a choice. It feels like they were made for me."

Samantha stretched out each of her limbs while lying down. With each stretch she felt some stiffness and soreness that had her questioning until she remembered her workout with the boys yesterday morning. She rolled over and slowly eased herself up from her bed where she continued to stretch out her tired and cramped muscles.

She threw on her housecoat and headed out of her room towards the kitchen looking for some breakfast.

"Good morning, Honey," her mom called out as she walked into the kitchen. "Your dad and brother already ate, but there is still some breakfast on the stove for you."

Samantha looked around and saw her mother, Barb, sitting at the table doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper. She realized that Barb hadn't even looked up when Barb spoke to her. Chuckling under her breath at how absorbed her mother became in her crossword puzzles, Samantha headed over to the stove to dish up her breakfast.

She grabbed a drink and then headed to the table with both her hands full. She placed her food and drink down before walking over to her mom, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Her mom looked up and smiled. "You got in pretty late last night. How did the rest of the rodeo and concerts go?" her mom enquired.

"The rodeo went well. Josh and Jake both stayed on their bulls and scored highly. The concerts were fabulous as always," Samantha relied around mouthfuls of food.

"How did Tracy and Dan react to Josh and Jake?" Barb asked shrewdly. She knew that Dan was extremely protective of her daughter and had been a bit concerned that he would have done something to prevent Samantha from being able to help the boys keeping them safe from the women.

Samantha took a long drink giving herself time to think of the best way to answer her mother's question. She had thought that despite her little mix-up with not showing up for supper that things had gone well between her friends and her boys. The car ride home though showed her that things might not have been all that they seemed.

It had started off innocently enough with basic questions about the boys ages, where they lived, schooling, etc. Then came the more difficult questions about why had her mom told Tracy and Dan to trust her when it came to the boys. Tracy did help to try to steer Dan away from getting an answer, but he wouldn't give up. Finally when Samantha had told him about her offering to be their pretend girlfriend, he had nearly blown a gasket. Thankfully the road had been empty at the time since the car had swerved when Dan had turned around to glare at her. He offered up many reasons as to why it had been stupid of her to do that and didn't stop until both Tracy and her had reminded him that her mother and father knew all about it and were ok with it.