Stealing Second: Sam's Story: Book 4 in the Clarksonville Series

by Clanton, Barbara L.

  “Thanks.” Sam got up. “You know what?”

  “What?”

  “That’s the best sound I’ve ever heard.”

  Lisa looked at her questioningly.

  Sam pointed to the kids who were still on the floor recovering. “Kids laughing.”

  Lisa smiled so big it made Sam’s heart swell. She vowed to dedicate her life to making Lisa smile.

  Chapter Eight

  Samantha Rose Can't

  SAM AND LISA cleaned up from their day of babysitting and jumped into Sam’s car to head to East Valley for dinner with Lisa’s bio-dad William and his wife Evelyn.

  “You’re so good with them,” Lisa said taking Sam’s hand.

  “Who? The three musketeers?”

  “Mm hmm.”

  “I like your family.”

  “And I like you.” Lisa brought Sam’s hand to her lips and kissed the back of it. Sam had all she could do to concentrate on driving as Lisa kissed each knuckle in turn. Lisa turned Sam’s hand over and kissed the palm gently.

  Sam sighed as delightful tingles ran through her. “Uh, Lisa?”

  “Mm hmm?” Lisa kissed her way up Sam’s wrist.

  “We’re going to crash.”

  “Sorry.” Lisa stopped her trail of kisses and pulled Sam’s hand tight to her chest.

  “Uh, not better.”

  “Sorry.” Lisa grinned. She let both of their hands fall in between them on the center console—the same console that was the bane of their existence whenever they tried to get close.

  They made a quick stop at Price Chopper and bought fresh cut flowers for their hosts. Forty-five minutes later they pulled into the driveway of William and Evelyn’s one-story Cape Cod house in East Valley.

  “Your aunts are here already.” Sam gestured to the Honda Civic with Massachusetts plates in the driveway. One of the many bumper stickers on their car read, “COEXIST.” Different religious symbols made up the letters of the word. Another bumper sticker read, “BE CAREFUL WHO YOU HATE—it could be someone you love.” Sam pointed it out to Lisa. “I need to get that one for my parents.”

  “C’mon, don’t be so pessimistic. You don’t know that they’ll hate you.”

  “You’re right. Hate’s too strong a word. How about abhor, detest, loathe, revile?”

  Lisa frowned. “That’s harsh, don’t you think?” The concerned look that passed over Lisa’s face made Sam regret she’d brought it up.

  “I’m just kidding,” Sam said. But she wasn’t kidding. Lisa didn’t know Gerald and Mimi Payton. They would protect what was theirs at all costs. And that included Sam. To lighten the mood she added, “My parents aren’t that bad.” She plastered what she hoped looked like a genuine smile on her face and followed Lisa to the front door.

  “Knock, knock,” Lisa said as she opened the door to her bio-dad’s house.

  Evelyn, William’s wife of barely a month, greeted them. “Hello, girls. C’mon in. We’re glad you could make it.”

  “Sorry we’re late,” Lisa gestured at Sam. “Someone had to remove her mustache.”

  “Mustache?” William asked from behind his wife.

  Sam rolled her eyes as she stepped inside. “Some little delinquents drew a mustache on me while I was vulnerable.”

  “She made the mistake of falling asleep with the kids around,” Lisa added.

  “Ho ho,” William said with a laugh. “Apparently that was not a wise thing to do.”

  “No, it wasn’t.” Sam shot an accusing glance at Lisa, but Lisa looked up at the ceiling innocently as if she’d had nothing to do with it.

  Lisa handed the bouquet of lilies to Evelyn. “Thanks for having us over.”

  Evelyn lifted the flowers to her nose and breathed in the fresh fragrance. “Mmm, these are lovely, girls. Thank you.” She led them to the kitchen.

  Traces of William’s bachelor days were obvious. His Buffalo Bills glasses sat on the counter, but Evelyn’s more feminine influences were also evident. White lace curtains covered the windows and flowers sat in a vase on the table. Both Evelyn and William were in their mid-thirties, and it was the first marriage for both of them. Lisa had always known she had a different father than her siblings and had finally gotten to meet him for the first time two months earlier. Her mother and William had been high school sweethearts, but when her mother found herself pregnant at the end of their senior year, William wasn’t quite ready to be a father and ended the relationship. Sam was glad he wanted Lisa back in his life, especially because William’s younger sister Fran was gay. Aunt Fran and her wife Margaret had become instant role models for Sam and Lisa.

  Aunt Fran leaped from her seat when she saw them. She crushed them both with hugs. She was tall, like her brother, and had the same jet black hair. It wasn’t hard to see that Lisa got her height and dark hair from that branch of the family.

  “It’s so nice to see my nieces.” Aunt Fran’s smile beamed. “And look at your tans. It must be all that softball.”

  Aunt Margaret moved in for her hugs. “This one’d be outside playing ball all day, too, if we didn’t have a mortgage to pay. She plays in a women’s rec league during the summer.”

  “That’s cool,” Lisa said. “It’s in the genes, I guess.”

  “Hey, everybody,” William gestured toward the kitchen table set for six, “go sit down. Dinner’s almost ready.”

  “Can I help?” Lisa asked. Sam stood next to her ready to pitch in too.

  “No, dears.” Evelyn waved them toward the table. “Go on and visit with your aunts.”

  “If you’re sure.”

  Evelyn nodded. “I’ve got the big guy here to help me.”

  They laughed and sat at the kitchen table as instructed. Sam turned toward Aunt Fran. “So, what position do you play?”

  “Shortstop.”

  “Cool. I’m second base.” I think.

  “Middle infielders rule!” Aunt Fran high-fived Sam across the table. “We’re coming to your tournament tomorrow.”

  “You are?”

  Both Aunt Fran and Aunt Margaret nodded.

  “All of you?”

  Evelyn and William added their own nods.

  “Geez, a real family reunion,” Lisa said. “My folks, sisters, and brother are coming, too.”

  “East Valley still plays at Sandstoner Fields, right?” The question was directed at Sam.

  Sam nodded.

  “Go Panthers!” Aunt Fran put up a hand for another high-five.

  Sam slapped her palm. “Did you play for East Valley?”

  “I sure did.” Aunt Fran nodded. “Let’s see, you’re about Lisa’s age, right?”

  “A year older.”

  “You were in preschool when I played.”

  Sam and Lisa laughed, and then Sam narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t play for Coach Gellar did you?”

  “No, Mr. Morrison, one of the social studies teachers.”

  “Phew.” Sam blew out a sigh. “I was about to trade war stories with you.”

  “She’s a tough one?”

  “Understatement. Right, Lisa?”

  Lisa nodded and rolled her eyes in response.

  “Ooh,” Aunt Fran gushed, “I can’t wait to meet her tomorrow.”

  “Honey,” Aunt Margaret put a warning hand on her wife’s arm, “don’t stir up a hornet’s nest, okay?” The gesture looked like one Aunt Margaret employed often.

  “Who me?” Aunt Fran asked innocently.

  “By the way,” Lisa said, “my brother and sisters don’t know that William is my biological father.”

  “They think he and Evelyn are Lisa’s friends.” Sam put air quotes around the word friends.

  “Which we are,” William said and put an enticing platter of sliced pot roast on the center of the table. Evelyn added bowls of mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and a tossed salad to the mix. William reached behind him and grabbed a basket of rolls from the counter top.

  “It smells amazing.” Aunt Fran inhaled deeply. �
��I love comfort food.”

  William smiled. “Evelyn’s an awesome cook. I got lucky.”

  “Yes, you did big brudder. And speaking of getting lucky—did a vampire get your neck, Sam, or was Lisa a little too enthusiastic?”

  Sam’s eyebrows shot straight up causing everybody to laugh. She put a hand to her neck.

  “It freaked me out, too, the first time I saw it,” Lisa said. “I thought she had another girl on the side.”

  Aunt Fran howled. “So? Sam? Are you giving yourself hickeys?”

  By then Sam realized what they were talking about, but Lisa answered for her. “It’s from her violin. The chin rest or something?” She looked at Sam for confirmation.

  Sam nodded. “It’s called a violin hickey.”

  Lisa sighed dramatically. “Someday I’ll get to hear her play.”

  Sam felt her face get hot. She would be a nervous wreck playing in front of Lisa. “Someday,” she agreed. She had no idea when that would be, though.

  William took beverage requests and then filled glasses. Once he and Evelyn sat down, he raised his wine glass. “A toast to my growing family.”

  Sam, Lisa, and Fran raised glasses filled with sparkling water, while Margaret and Evelyn raised wine glasses.

  “I became a husband for the first time a month ago. I hope she won’t get tired of me too soon.” He raised his glass to Evelyn who smiled sweetly back at him. It was easy to see the honeymoon period hadn’t worn off yet. “I finally got to meet my beautiful daughter and her equally beautiful girlfriend.” He smiled at Lisa and Sam and raised his glass higher. They raised theirs in response. “And I hope to spoil my new niece rotten when she gets here in December.” He looked at his sister.

  “Oh, geez,” Lisa said to Aunt Fran. “That’s a baby bump, isn’t it?”

  Aunt Fran’s grin answered the question. Lisa leaped out of her chair to give her aunts a big double hug. “I’m so happy for both of you.”

  “Congratulations,” Sam said. “You’ll be wonderful parents.”

  “Thank you, Sam.” Aunt Fran’s face flushed from the attention. “So what do you think? Do you girls want kids?”

  “Someday,” Sam answered way too quickly.

  “Someday,” Lisa echoed. She reached under the table and gave Sam’s hand a squeeze.

  “Guess you should get married first, now that New York made it legal,” Aunt Fran added. “We had to move to Massachusetts.” There was no mistaking the disgruntled tone in her voice.

  “Leave the kids alone, Fran. They have plenty of time to think about that.” William winked at Lisa. “Let me be a dad for a while before I become a grand-paw.” He passed the basket of rolls to Sam. “Or a father-in-law for that matter.”

  Sam, grateful for William’s intervention, took a roll and passed the basket to Lisa. Sam imagined how her parents would react if she told them she and Lisa were getting married. Sam’s heart rate quickened at the thoughts swirling in her head. Oh, God, who would have the baby?

  “So wait one second, Aunt Fran,” Lisa said. “At William and Evelyn’s wedding last month, you knew you were pregnant, didn’t you?”

  Her aunts exchanged a glance. “We wanted to be sure everything was okay before we told anybody,” Aunt Margaret said.

  “And we didn’t want to steal the spotlight from my big brudder,” Aunt Fran added.

  “I knew about it, though,” William boasted.

  “I didn’t.” Evelyn laughed. “He’s good at keeping secrets.” She glanced at Lisa, but what could have been an extremely awkward moment somehow wasn’t. William had managed to keep the fact that he had fathered a child when he was a teenager a secret from Evelyn, but eventually fessed up a month or so before their wedding. Evelyn seemed to take the news well, because she asked Lisa to be one of her bridesmaids.

  During dinner they discussed everything from Sam’s glorious black eye to Aunt Fran and Aunt Margaret’s new venture into parenthood. Sam learned more than she ever wanted to know about artificial insemination, sperm donors, and fertility clinics. Once Aunt Fran knew she was pregnant, she and Aunt Margaret got busy turning one of their spare bedrooms into a nursery. Aunt Fran went on to describe her weird hormonal cravings in way too much detail. Sam wasn’t sure she wanted to hear about it, but she wouldn’t have changed where she was for the world. She was with family. Family who accepted her for who she was.

  Sam was pleased when everyone ate heartily and didn’t simply move the food around on their plates pretending to eat. She even followed Lisa’s lead and asked for seconds. Helping to clean up after dinner was kind of fun, too. She never got to do anything like that at home. Usually Helene, Mrs. Tardelli, or one of the hired maids cleaned up.

  Once the dishes were in the dishwasher and the pots were soaking in the sink, they headed into the living room. William brought in two kitchen chairs so everyone would have a place to sit.

  “Fran,” William said, “you should do what I did. Get your kid when she’s sixteen. No diapers, no terrible twos.” Aunt Fran howled with laughter and slapped her thigh a couple of times. Sam and the others couldn’t help joining in.

  “So what about you two?” Sam said to William and Evelyn once she recovered from laughing. “Is Lisa going to get another sister or brother any time soon?”

  “We’re trying.” Evelyn smiled at William.

  Aunt Fran covered her ears with both hands. “I do not want to hear about my brother’s sex life.”

  “Oh, and I didn’t have to sit through an entire meal listening to the joys of artificial insemination?” William teased back goodnaturedly.

  “Time out.” Evelyn made a T with her hands. “We need a subject change immediately.” She picked up a stack of CDs from a side table. “The DJ made copies of the songs he played at our wedding.” She handed a CD to each of them.

  “Ooh,” Aunt Fran ran her finger along the top of the jewel case, “he played some good tunes. C’mon, put it on. Let’s dance.” She stood up and moved the coffee table to one side.

  “Excellent idea.” Sam leaped up and helped Aunt Margaret move the kitchen chairs back into the kitchen to make room.

  Once enough furniture had been moved out of the way, Evelyn put the CD in the player. The first song was a fast Beatles tune. Sam and Lisa danced with wild and silly movements. Sam remembered the first time she’d ever danced with Lisa. It was at an East Valley softball party at their pitcher Christy’s house. Susie had invited a few of the Clarksonville players, and Sam remembered how her heart soared when Lisa walked into the recreation room where the team was playing ping pong. Sam’s hands sweated so much that night she could barely hold the ping pong paddle. After the tournament, someone put on club music, and they moved the furniture out of the way, like they had just done in William and Evelyn’s living room.

  After the first song, Aunt Fran sat down. Apparently, she and the baby were ready to sit out for a while. After checking to make sure she was all right, Aunt Margaret rejoined the dancing on the impromptu dance floor. Sam and Lisa laughed when Aunt Margaret cut in on William and twirled Evelyn around. William, not to be outdone, cut in on Sam and twirled his daughter around. Sam, left out in the cold, good naturedly sat down next to Aunt Fran to keep her company.

  A few minutes later, though, Sam jumped up when Sarah McLachlan’s Ice Cream came on. She cut in on William and said to Lisa, “Let’s waltz.”

  “Waltz? To Sarah McLachlan?”

  Sam waggled her eyebrows. “It’s three-four time. Perfect for waltzing.”

  “I don’t know how.”

  “I’ll show you.”

  “How do you know how to waltz?”

  “Don’t laugh, okay?” Sam felt her cheeks get warm.

  “Okay.”

  “I had to learn for my debutante ball.”

  Lisa’s mouth dropped open. “We are totally going to talk about that later.” Her nose crinkled up as she smiled. “Okay, show me what to do.”

  Sam took Lisa’s right hand in her left an
d then showed her how to do the waltzing box step. Lisa made a couple of mistakes early on, like trying to lead, but in no time they were waltzing around the living room effortlessly. At her debutant ball Sam waltzed with a couple of guys, but they moved awkwardly, not naturally the way Lisa did.

  When the song ended, they sat down to let the newlyweds dance alone to their wedding song.

  Aunt Fran turned off some lights. She leaned closer to Sam and whispered, “I’m creating atmosphere.”

  The couple’s song ended and William bent Evelyn backward and kissed her in true movie romance fashion. They were so in love. Like she was with Lisa. Aunt Fran started a round of clapping for the newlyweds.

  Another slow song came on, and Lisa leaped to her feet, hand outstretched. Sam obliged, and they melded together on the dance floor. Sam sighed at the perfect fit. She felt safe in Lisa’s arms. They had never slow danced like this before, and it was exquisite. Lisa nuzzled Sam’s neck, and normally Sam would have been embarrassed at such a public display of affection, but they weren’t exactly in public. She snuck a peek and saw that no one was paying them any attention. She closed her eyes and moaned quietly in Lisa’s ear. Her body hummed as they moved. Out of the corner of her ear, she heard Evelyn whisper, “C’mon, let’s give these two privacy. Everybody back in the kitchen.”

  Sam loved Evelyn at that moment.

  Aunt Fran gushed, “I told you they looked grown up, didn’t I?”

  Lisa must have realized they were alone because she pulled Sam closer and kissed her way along Sam’s neck and jaw. Sam moaned when soft lips reached her own. She lost herself in the kiss, letting her body hum like the vibrato of her violin.

  “You’re so beautiful,” Lisa murmured in between kisses. “Same.” Lisa kissed her again and said, “I wish we could go to school dances together. I wish we could go to our proms together.” “Sam wants to. She really really wants to,” Sam said referring to herself in the third person. “But Samantha Rose can’t.” “I know.”

  They danced for a while until Lisa whispered softly in Sam’s ear, “I want to be alone with you.”

  “Me, too.”