Chapter 3

"We really don't need to have this talk…" Sam mumbled as she sat down at the kitchen table. She watched as her dad paced in front of the counter from under her eye lashes. He didn't seem to want to have the conversation, but knowing her dad, if he felt he needed to bring something to attention, he would.

"Oh but I think we should." Wyatt replied. He stopped pacing to face his daughter.

Sam sat up in her chair and lifted her face to look her at her dad. She might want to run like hell and never ever bring this talk up but she knew her dad wouldn't let her be with Jake if she did that. Damn growing up. She watched as her father seemed to look for the right words to say. She didn't think there was any way to make this less weird. Wyatt cleared his throat. But before he could say anything to make Sam cringe or feel sick Sam spoke.

"Umm… maybe Brynna should help..." Sam suggested. Usually the mother gave the daughter this sort of talk. Aunt Sue sort of did, but that was mainly about becoming a woman. Not the creating babies part. Of course she had already took both health class and sex education so she knew how it all worked. She didn't even have any real questions. But she knew her dad wouldn't let it drop unless he was satisfied about her understanding it all. Sam would much rather have her step-mom talk to her about this than her dad. She hoped it would save them both some of the unnecessary embarrassment.

"You know, I think that's a great idea." Wyatt visibly relaxed then got up to go get Brynna.

He walked into the living room where he saw his mother sitting in chair knitting.

"Where's Brynna?" he asked.

"Upstairs, putting Cody to sleep." Gram replied looking up to give her son a smile. Wyatt considered asking his mother to help instead since Brynna was probably exhausted, but then he thought it better if Sam talked about this with a woman closer to her age. Not to mention his mother was quite against sex before marriage. He remembered his own sex talk from her when he was 16. He had to hold back a shudder. His mom could be scary sometimes. Brynna. Definitely Brynna. He walked up the stairs, turning to go to Codys room. He could hear Brynna singing a lullaby softy to their son. He smiled softly. As he waked into the room Brynna turned and smiled, putting a finger to her lips.

"He just fell asleep. Finally. I was about to go down and ask Sam to do whatever it is she does to get him to fall asleep so quickly." Brynna whispered quietly while rocking the baby slowly.

Wyatt couldn't help thinking back to when Sam was a baby and Louise would walk around the room, sometimes dancing a bit while she sang Sam to sleep every night. He would see Sam doing the same thing sometimes when Brynna couldn't get Cody to sleep. She even hummed the same tunes her mother did. Wyatt pushed the longing he felt away. He missed his dead wife, but he was happy again. There was no need for him to ever walk down that road again.

"Speaking of Sam… I gave her and Jake permission to date." Wyatt told his wife quietly watching her reaction. Her face lit up. He knew it would. Brynna and Grace had been making bets about when this would happen. He didn't remember who would win tonight.

"Finally. I thought that boy would never work up the courage to face his feelings. Or that you would say yes to Sam dating. At least not this soon" Brynna gave him a teasing look and laughed quietly when she saw his indignant expression. "You aren't exactly warm and cuddly when it comes to Sam growing up."

"Yeah… I need your help with discussing some... things… with Sam." Wyatt gave Brynna a pointed look then glanced out the window. "She and I both agree it would be better if you walked her though these things."

Brynna laughed softly. She knew how Sam felt. She would have died of embarrassment had her father been the one to have given her the 'talk' when she was 14. Thankfully her mother got to her first. But Sam didn't have a mother… she only had Brynna and her grandmother. And Brynna was pretty sure Sam knew all about how all that went by now. She was also confident that Sam wouldn't rush into having sex. This shouldn't be too hard. Trust Wyatt to make it a big deal though. She smiled.

"No problem." She gently placed Cody in his crib. Then she grabbed Wyatts hand and let him lead her to wherever this talk was going to take place.

Sam looked up from where she'd been tracing circles on the table top as her dad and Brynna walked into the kitchen holding hands. She stared at Brynnas face, trying to read what her step-mom thought about this. She seemed to have a relaxed look about her. That sort of made Sam relax a bit. Surely this couldn't be too bad if her father wasn't the one talking about the birds and the bees.

"So, Wyatt, ready to leave me and Sam alone?" Brynna asked her husband with a smirk on her face.

"What?" Wyatt asked with a confused look on his face.

"I'm giving you a chance to leave this to us girls. You can trust me to make sure Sam understands everything. And I'll tell you how it all went after. But do either of you really want you to sit here and talk about your daughter having sex?" Brynna asked holding her laughter back. She saw her husbands face flush as he grunted an agreement and quickly left the kitchen. Brynna turned to Sam with a small, apologetic smile on her face. "Men."

Sam laughed. Brynna really knew how to change the atmosphere in a room sometimes. She'd managed to take away all the nervousness Sam had been feeling and replace it with comfort and amusement. She wished she could do that. Sam felt the muscles in her back loosen as she leaned back in her chair. She crossed her arms over her chest to stop from fidgeting.

"Okay, I know how babies are made, I know all the names of everything, how it works, how to prevent getting pregnant and all about the bad things that can come with it." Sam said in a rush hoping that Brynna wouldn't go into detail about any of it.

"Well I hoped you already did, I mean you're fifteen, you should've taken the classes by now and most teenagers learn a lot just from older teenagers making jokes." Brynna said as she sat down at the table across form Sam. Basically what I am going to say is this; your father will probably kill Jake if you come home one day and announce that you are pregnant. I am also going to advise that you wait a little longer until you're older. Knowing Jake he should respect that decision, if he hasn't already made it himself that is." Brynna smiled. "And also if you have any questions I'm always here to ask. I'm also not going to go telling your dad everything and if you do ask me a question, it will stay between us. Deal?"

Sams mouth gaped open. She stared at Brynna. Her step mother was awesome. That's all she could think. She got up out of her chair and ran around the table to hug Brynna. No awkward details, no quizzing, no lecturing. Sam was so glad she had Brynna as her step mother right now.

"Deal." Sam whispered with a grin on her face. She pulled away from Brynna to sit down next to her. "So what do we do now? Dad is probably thinking we'll be in here a while."

"Well, we could take about Jake." Brynna said with a teasing smile on her face. She laughed as Sam blushed.

"Uhmm, well he didn't even ask me out yet. Not technically." Sam propped her arms on the table. "Dad just dragged him into the house to talk and then when he came out he was all happy and... giddy. I never thought I'd see Jake look giddy." Sam laughed resting her chin on her hands. "Do you think he's just assuming I'll be his girlfriend like he did about me being his partner in that race? 'Cuz if so, boy is he gonna be surprised."

"I don't know. But for his sake, I hope he has a plan on asking you." Brynna laughed again at the expression on Sams face. It was a mixture of annoyance, happiness and something threatening. Brynna watched her stepdaughter stare off at the wall, losing herself in her thoughts. She just hoped these two stayed happy like this for a long time. She didn't want to think about what would happen if Sam and Jake and a fall out of some sort. Seeing the look on Sams face now, it would probably be a disaster. They sat there like that for a few more minutes before Brynna nudged Sam.

"I think it's been long enough where we can 'finish'." She told Sam as she got up from the table.

Sam checked her watch. 11:30. Whoa. She should be in bed. They all should be in bed. She looked at Brynna and realized how tired she looked. Sam yawned. She just realized how tired she really was. Glad she could go to bed her and Brynna walked into the living room to see Wyatt sitting on the couch watching T.V. Gram had gone up to bed already. Wyatt shut the t.v. off and stood up when he saw them walk in. Noticing how sleepy they looked he just shrugged.

"We went over everything. Sam's well informed. Now, we should all go to sleep." Brynna yawned on the last word, stretching it out. Wyatt chuckled.

Sam hugged Brynna then went to hug her dad before trudging up the stairs. All the energy she'd had 10 minutes ago seemed to be rapidly draining form her. When she got to her room she quickly changed from her jeans and sweater into some fuzzy pajama pants and a think tank top. She crawled into her bed and snuggled under the covers. She felt a little sad that she wouldn't be able to see the phantom for a while but then she remembered this evening. The last thing she thought about before she fell asleep was Jake.