"Are they back yet?" Sam asked as she walked through the patio door.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were leaving earlier with Hank and his parents," Jonathan responded, somewhat surprised to see her.
"I've never even met Hank's great uncle – you can't really think that I would leave town with his family not knowing what is going on with my own. Really, Jonathan, come on."
"I was just asking."
"I'm sorry…I know that," Sam said joining him on the couch. Ruffling his hair, she apologized again. "I mean it – I'm sorry. I'm just so frustrated – I mean, what are Dad and Angela thinking?! It took how many years for them to finally get together? I knew something was wrong before we left but I never expected this. Then Dad calls and…"
Sam's rant was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. Mona was the first to silently enter with Angela following behind balancing a few pieces of luggage. Standing up from the sofa, Jonathan and Sam came face to face with her for the first time since their trip to Iowa.
"Hi, guys," she said flatly.
"Hi," they said in unison.
She walked over and kissed them both before saying, "I know you have a lot of questions and I promise we will talk about this, but it's been a long day and I just want to unpack and go to bed." With that, she adjusted her bags and began climbing the stairs.
Samantha and Jonathan watched her for a moment before looking at each other.
"I don't think so," Sam exclaimed before trailing after Angela with Jonathan on her heels.
"I'm right behind you," he said.
"I hope you have better luck than I did," Mona shouted after them.
Angela had already begun sorting through her clothes when her children appeared in the doorway.
Placing her hands on the sides of her suitcase and hanging her head, she said to the two of them, "I should have known it wasn't going to be that simple."
"No, it isn't that simple…what is going on, Mom?" Jonathan demanded.
"Oh, honey...I know you are upset, but – "
"Yes, we're upset, Angela – why are you coming back without Dad? What happened? Really?"
"Sam, sweetheart, we deci-
"Mom, is it me? I'm fine with Grandma, you don't have to –
"Angela, you can't really be serious about breaking the engagement…"
"How can you do this to us, Mom…"
"What about the wedding..."
"Why can't you ju-
"Enough!" Angela shouted as their questions were tumbling one on top of the other. Startling them into silence, Angela took a deep breath before continuing, "Fine - we will talk about this. But first, I'm going to go into the bathroom and change clothes. When I return, I hope I will find two young adults waiting to have a reasonable conversation. I am simply too tired to argue."
Closing the door behind her, Angela temporarily avoided further interrogation. Momentarily quiet, Sam sat down at the dresser while Jonathan alternately paced and looked out the window. As the minutes ticked by, Samantha busied herself unpacking Angela's smaller travel case and watching Jonathan.
"When Angela comes back let me do the talking, ok?"
"Oh, right, Sam – because you were so eloquent before..."
"Could you just calm down?!"
"Me?! If you hadn't been –" Jonathan began before noticing his mother leaned against the bathroom doorway.
"I can see you were both mindful of my request," Angela observed sarcastically as she walked over to sit on her bed. Moving to the top, she propped herself up on her pillows before patting the spaces beside her.
"Come here, both of you."
Neither of them moved and instead looked at one another.
Exasperated, Angela looked at them and said again more forcefully, "Come here…NOW."
"I thought you wanted us to be adults," Jonathan said as he moved her large bag to the floor and reluctantly sat near her feet.
"You can behave as an adult and still be my child," Angela said.
"Yeah, well, I'm not really your…"
Angela turned her head quickly and glared at Sam - the "don't even try" message was clear.
"Fine," Sam said throwing herself on the bed next to Angela.
"Look…I know both of you are confused –"
"How else are we su-," Sam interrupted.
Holding up her hand to hush Sam, Angela continued.
"This was not an easy decision for me and Tony. I don't have to tell either of you how difficult the last few months have been on us – all of us. We did everything we could to make it work, but the bottom line is that Tony needs to be there and I need to be here."
"But don't you love each other," Jonathan asked lying down on the bed.
"Of course we do."
"But what about us? What about our family," Sam argued. "I'm gonna tell him he has to come home."
"You can't do that, honey…this is one of those times we have to put the needs of someone we love above our own. I love your father, but I have to let him have this chance. We ALL have to let him do what he is meant to do. "
"He can't do it here?" Jonathan continued.
"You remember how hard it was on Tony when he was searching for a job. I can't ask him to do that again – especially when he already has his dream job."
"But I thought you were his dream, Mom. I thought that our family was everything."
Angela carefully considered her response before stating simply, "Tony has made countless sacrifices for our family over the years and now we have to do the same for him."
As she said these words to her son, she felt her heart break as she watched tears well up and begin to fall from his eyes. She ran her hand over his hair and let herself take a breath before turning to face the other set of eyes that were now quietly crying.
"Why can't you just stay there with him, Angela?" Sam asked. "I don't understand."
"I have to work – I have people depending on me - my employees, you guys, Mother…my leave of absence was never meant to be permanent, you know that."
"But how can you be so calm?" Sam said. "Didn't you want this to work?"
"Both of you hear me when I say this – I've never wanted anything as much." Angela felt the lump in her throat growing and paused before finishing. "Our family has been my greatest source of joy since the moment it began. I desperately wanted this to work – to last forever."
Silence momentarily filled the room.
"Angela…I still want to be part of your forever," Sam said quietly.
"Oh, sweetheart..." Pulling the young woman next to her, this became Angela's undoing. As she held on to both of her children, she cried not only for the loss she and Tony were feeling, but also for the obvious pain this was causing their family. They were wrong not to share the burden of this conversation, she understood that now.
"Tony and I love you both so much. Nothing is more important to us than the two of you – and nothing will ever change that, you have to believe me."
"What am I, chopped liver?" Mona argued from the hallway.
Wiping their eyes and looking toward the door, they saw the tear streaked face of their usually stoic eavesdropper. Clearing her throat, she said, "I'm ordering pizza - lots of it. And, when it arrives, I'm bringing it up here along with chips and cookies and any other junk I can get my hands on between now and then. When I get back, there better be room for me in this bed."
With her final instruction, Mona left the three of them shaking their heads and smiling through their tears.
Clutching their hands tightly, Angela looked carefully at Samantha and Jonathan before saying, "I love you both. I know you are sad and angry – hell, so am I – but we will get through this, because families sti…"
"Stick together," Sam and Jonathan finished for her.
"Yes," Angela said, drawing her children to her and leaning back against the headboard. "Yes, they most certainly do."
"So, we sat in bed, ate ourselves sick, and watched movies until we fell asleep," Angela told Tony. Since his return from Iowa, they had shared various happenings from their weeks apart, but this was the first time he'd heard this particular story.
"I tried to send them to their own beds, but nobody was willing to leave. I was particularly thankful that we'd opted for a king size during the remodel," Angela laughed as she remembered.
"We did that all wrong," Tony said somberly as he pulled Angela closer to him on the sofa.
"The remodel?" Angela quipped trying to lighten the conversation.
"You know what I mean," Tony said.
"I know, I know," Angela said, taking his hand. "We did a lot of things wrong. But, you had to deal with the same questions when the kids came out for your championship weekend. You didn't exactly escape anything."
"That was a month later," Tony remembered. "You were the one who kept our family together right from the start."
"Only in part," Angela gently reminded him. "We weren't really together until a few weeks ago. We missed you so much, Tony."
After kissing her sweetly, Tony jumped up from the sofa and ran to the kitchen. Returning a few moments later with a bowl in his hand, Angela knew he was up to something.
"Call the kids – tell them I'm making pizza," Tony said.
"What?! You and I already had dinner – it's almost nine o'clock!"
"It's pizza! Trust me, they won't care. And, who are you kidding? You can always eat!"
Narrowing her eyes at him in response, Angela continued. "Maybe I don't like pizza anymore!"
"Ha!" Tony laughed. "Since when?"
"Ok, fine…but what about Mother?"
"I said the kids, didn't I?" Tony replied as he walked away.
As she reached for the phone, Angela's thoughts turned back to that night so many months ago. She remembered thinking how much Tony would have loved the camaraderie of their children, the kick he would have gotten from Mona's impromptu pizza party, and how he would have admired Angela's determination in keeping their family. His influence had been all around them – the only thing missing had been him.
"Have one of them bring movies! Let's hit it, let's get it – tell them to move it!" she heard Tony shout from behind the swinging door.
Smiling to herself as she began dialing, she loved knowing that no one would be missing tonight.