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

Chapter 38 - Sleep Problems

Wednesday afternoon, Winnipeg

"Break time Samantha."

Samantha sighed in relief. She had only been working for fours hours so far, but her legs were already killing her. Her calf muscles were clenched and no matter how many times she had shifted positions or tried to stretch them, they still hurt.

"Thanks," she told her boss as she turned off her aisle light and moved out from behind the cash register.

"You're looking tired for someone who had last week off." Her boss looked at her with concern, but his eyes twinkled as he tried to keep from questioning her about her time away. His wife had worked with Samantha daily since she had returned, but he hadn't spent any length of time with her.

Although his wife has warned him repeatedly about asking, he was dying to know about the trip. He knew that Samantha had gone to Calgary to watch the Stampede. His wife had told him that Samantha was going there with the families of two of the competitors. She had refused to tell him if the competitors were male which right away made him believe that they were. Samantha was like a daughter to him and he always wanted to know if there was a guy in her life so that he could make sure that the guy was good enough for Samantha.

Samantha smiled as she stifled a yawn. "The time off was great. I'm just not sleeping well right now." It was the truth. After having slept in a bed with both her boys for over a week, she had found the last five nights very difficult.

He waited to see if she would volunteer more information. When she didn't, he took pity on her and sent her to the break room for her lunch. He didn't like seeing her so tired. He told himself that as much as they loved having her work so many hours maybe she needed to have some more time off.

Samantha sat down and pulled out her lunch. She had been working everyday since she had arrived back home early last Friday morning.

The boys had received their trophies that Tuesday night during a special novice award ceremony during the Chuck Wagon Races. Samantha had been so happy and proud for them both.

The next day John and Jason had some business meetings while the family packed the trailers back up. They had stayed long enough to watch Chad compete for his second day before they left to start their drive home. Sherry still hadn't been feeling well so they took the extra day to drive home.

They had arrived back at the farm early Thursday evening where they unpacked some of the trailer including the dirty clothes and the gear that Josh and Jake needed to compete. The boys and their fathers packed their stuff and did laundry before everyone went to bed early.

On Friday, they had all gotten up early so that the boys and their dads could drive Samantha into town before they caught their flight to the US. The boys were competing all this week at the National High School Rodeo Championships. It was being held near the farm of one of John's relatives so they had decided not to travel with practice horses.

Samantha was texting them daily, but they didn't always get to talk daily. Between Samantha's work schedule to make up for her vacation time and the boys schedule, they were quite often busy when the other party was free to talk.

Not being in constant contact with them was giving Samantha a lot of time to think about their relationship. That last week had felt perfect, but now that they weren't around she could see all the problems and potential problems that they would face moving forward if she decided to do that. Her inability to sleep was just the beginning. It wasn't as if they would be able to have sleepovers all the time. Once school started, things would get even worse since they lived almost two hours apart.