The party began to wind down soon after their conversation, and they watched as Jake's family started getting ready to leave. Jake gave her hand one more squeeze before he let go and started to walk towards his brothers.
"I'll see you later, okay Brat?" he called over his shoulder, and Sam couldn't help but roll her eyes. Apparently not even his admission that he might have feelings for her was going to stop him from calling her that, but for some reason the childish nickname didn't bother her so much anymore.
She started to walk slowly towards the house, feeling like she was in a daze, but before Sam had the chance to really take a breath and process the whirlwind events of the night, Jen appeared out of nowhere with a crazy gleam in her eye and practically pounced on Sam for details. Once Sam had summed up the conversation between her and Jake, Jen gave her a wry smile and said,
"I was afraid this day would come, and although I'm happy for you, don't expect Ryan and I to be going on any double dates with you guys; I don't think I'll ever be ready to see you two drooling over each other for more than 30 seconds."
"A double date?!" Sam squeaked. "Jen, he said he's trying to figure out if he has feelings for me or not, not that he's ready to take me to prom."
"Oh Sam," Jen sighed, shaking her head at her best friend with a smile on her face. "You two have been practically inseparable since you were born, he's always been crazy overprotective of you, and now that you're growing up, he's finally starting to realize that maybe he cares for you in a very different way than he does his other friends. I mean, remember how much of a jerk he was being when he thought there was something going on between you and Kit for whatever crazy reason? Trust me, he has feelings for you. Although," she said with a smirk, "I'm not sure you'll ever have to worry about him asking you to prom, it doesn't seem like his kinda thing."
Sam took a deep breath, suddenly feeling a little dizzy as Jens words sank in. "You're okay with him having feelings for you, right? Cause you're starting to look a little queasy" Jen said, leaning in closer.
"Yeah, I am, I think" Sam said. "I mean, I am, it's just that everything feels like it's happening so fast and I haven't had any time to really think about it yet. I never thought in a million years that I would be holding hands with Jake, let alone anything more. And I didn't even know that I had feelings for him until 3 hours ago. It's all a little overwhelming. But enough about me," she said, raising her eyebrows at her friend, "does this mean that there's a possibility of you and Ryan going on a date?"
Jen looked down trying to hide a smile, and with a shrug said, "He asked if I wanted to go for a ride with him before school starts again, and I told him we could do that. So I don't know, we'll see how it goes."
"I'm really happy for you too" Sam said, smiling wide. "Oddly I think you guys would make a good couple, even if he is a Slocum."
"Thanks Sam" Jen said, and then proceeded to give her a big hug. "Look at us, a couple of hours ago we were just going about our lives, as single as ever, and now we can barely keep the guys off of us. What a night" she said kind of dreamily.
"Okay there" Sam interjected with a laugh, "lets not get too carried away. Guys are great and all, but horses will forever be our first loves, and we can't forget about each other."
"I know, I was kidding, well kind of" Jen said smiling, before her mom yelled at her from across the bonfire that her "five more minutes" had expired five minutes ago and they were leaving with or without her. "Okay, I gotta go, but I'll call you soon!" she said as she jogged towards her family's truck.
Sam waved goodbye and continued her walk towards the house. Dallas and Pepper were the only two left outside, and Sam said a quiet goodnight to them as they finished putting out the bonfire. Once she got in the house she was surprised to find that everyone else had already gone to bed, but she was kind of relieved that she wouldn't have to explain anything to Gram or Brynna, or god forbid her dad. She softly made her way up the stairs and into her room, and fell into bed with a smile on her face.
The next morning came much too fast; after finally falling into bed late that night, Sam found that she was still too hyped up to fall asleep, and she spent another hour or two staring up at her ceiling trying to sort through all of her churning thoughts and feelings. She thought about how it had felt to have Jakes hand wrapped around hers, and every time she did the butterflies returned to her stomach. She was almost in awe of how quickly these feelings had suddenly developed from what felt like nowhere, but Sam wondered if maybe they had been there for a while, buried so deep that she wasn't even aware of them until yesterday.
Although she could have done with a couple more hours of sleep, she heard Gram in the kitchen talking to Brynna and her dad, and Sam figured she should get up now before one of them came to find her and drag her out of bed. She quickly grabbed a sweater and jeans and made her way downstairs, hoping that her family wasn't about to pepper her with a thousand questions.
Sam reached the bottom of the stairs and gave Gram a quick peck on the cheek before plopping down into her chair next to Brynna. Her dad looked up as she sat down and promptly said, "The troughs froze over last night, you better hurry with your breakfast so you can get out there." He pushed up from the table and gave Brynna a quick kiss before grabbing his boots and Stetson and walked out the door. Sam raised her eyebrows and looked inquisitively at her Gram and Brynna.
"Did something happen? Why's he being so gruff this morning?"
Brynna smiled at her and said, "I think he may have noticed you being a little closer than usual to a certain someone last night, and he's not quite sure what to make of it, so naturally he's making it awkward instead of just asking you about it. Speaking of which though…" she trailed off with raised eyebrows, "Anything you want to share with us?"
Sam felt her blush coming back full force as Gram sat down expectantly, and even Cody seemed to be staring at her from Brynna's arms. "Not really, I mean I don't know, maybe…?" Sam started to wolf down her pancakes, wishing she was anywhere but there. Hacking through inches of ice in the frozen morning air suddenly seemed like a paradise compared to this interrogation.
Gram chuckled softly and said, "It's okay dear, you don't have to tell us anything right now, but we just want you to know we're always here for you to talk, and we just don't want any secrets or sneaking around. We'll try to calm Wyatt down too, just give him a minute."
Sam nodded as she hastily brought her plate to the sink and said, "Okay, thank you." She shrugged her coat on and stuffed her feet into her boots as fast as she could and made a beeline for the door.
