Chapter 43

"Good morning." Erin whispered as she faced William after hearing a few birds chirping outside the window.

William smiled and pulled her close, hugging her tight. "Ugh..let's sleep some more." he said. "You were sleeping like a baby...and snoring if I might add." he added, laughing a bit.

"I was tired...probably because someone didn't want to stop last night." said Erin, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Well...you never told me to stop...so I kept going!" he said, making Erin slap his chest.

"You're an idiot." she said.

William kissed her lips. "I am your idiot." he said. "What do you want for breakfast?"

Erin took a deep breath. "Let's just stay here for a while...I don't want to get up yet." she said.

They stayed on the bed, wrapped up in each other's arms and feeling the cold morning breeze blowing through the small opening of the window.

"I wonder how your parents would react if they found out we're staying here almost every weekend?" asked Erin.

"What do you mean?" asked William.

"Well...other than bringing all of our stuff in here, we're practically living in this house now...you know, like a married couple." said Erin, making William laugh.

"Do you see us getting married?" he asked, looking her in the eye.

Erin shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know...I guess...maybe?"

"I think it's too early for us to talk about that..." William said, hoping it doesn't get weird between him and his girlfriend.

"You're right...I mean you're only twenty...and I'm only twenty-three..." said Erin.

"You're right babe...I mean look at my parents...they broke up so many times than they care to count..." said William.

"And they end up getting married anyway." Erin said.

"Well what we need to decide is what to eat for breakfast." he said as he slowly got off the bed before putting his robe on.

"Babe come back here!" Erin said, pulling him back down on the bed and wrapping her arms around him.

"Erin come on..." he said, laughing and giggling with his girlfriend.

Erin then pushed her face on his neck, kissing and nibbling until William gave in. "Oh no you don't...you're mine now!" she said as William faced her, pinning her down on the bed.

"Come here." he said as they made love under the covers.

XXXXXXXXXXX

After getting busy in the bedroom, the young couple decided to get dressed and go down the kitchen to make some breakfast. William took to cooking some eggs and bacon while Erin went and prepared some apples and oranges as well as the coffee and toast. The young couple quietly went on with what they were doing, glancing at each other from time to time and smiling whenever their eyes meet. William would often pull Erin to kiss her neck before going back to cooking the eggs and bacon, making her squeal in delight from her boyfriend's affections. Erin for her part would let him be extra sweet at her, finding it cute at how frisky William was with her, especially when they are alone together.

They were almost done cooking when they heard the front door open. The couple went to check it out only to find Nancy coming in.

"Ms. Nancy...hi!" said William.

"Oh? I thought nobody was in here. Hi Erin!" said Nancy. "I was just gonna come by and check the house out so I'm gonna go now." she added while turning towards the door.

"Why don't you join us for breakfast?" William offered.

"Yeah join us for breakfast Ms. Nancy." Erin said.

"Oh no...thanks...I don't want to intrude." she said.

"It's alright Ms. Nancy...and we made more than enough breakfast for three people." said William.

"Okay...if you insist." said Nancy, joining them towards the kitchen.

"Didn't you get my text yesterday?" asked William as they sit around the table.

"No...my phone broke down the other day so I probably missed your text." said Nancy as she took the plate from Erin, placing a couple of bacon strips on her plate. "I'm actually on my way to buy a new one after this."

"I have an old one upstairs that I'm not using...you can have it if you want." said William.

"William no...it's too much." said Nancy.

"It's alright Ms. Nancy...I'm not using it anyway, better you have it than just the phone sitting there gathering dust." said William.

"Okay...if you insist...thanks a lot." said Nancy. "By the way...how's your family back in California?"

"They're okay I guess...my sister just started college in UCLA." said William.

"Wow...Leonard and Penny must be very proud of her huh?" Nancy said.

"Yeah...you can say that again." William said.

"Is Penny dropping her off every day?" Nancy asked.

"Uh huh...well, my sister already has her driver's license so she drives the car and my mom tags along...the same goes in the afternoon when my mom picks her up." he said.

"And your parents are okay with her driving the car?" asked Nancy.

"They were leery at first, especially since Sarah almost hit someone when my mom was teaching her how to drive." William said, surprising Nancy and making Erin laugh.

"Oh my god! That's so terrible!" Nancy exclaimed.

"It is...but when my dad took over, Sarah managed to slam the car onto a tree." he said.

"What!?" Nancy yelled. "Did they get hurt or something?"

"Thankfully not...the front of the car only had a small bump since Sarah managed to step on the brakes on time...but other than almost giving my dad another heart attack, they're fine." said William as Erin continued laughing since she heard the story before.

"How did she managed to get a driver's license then?" asked Nancy.

"Well my dad trained her for two weeks straight...after that, she was able to pass the DMV test." said William.

"I can't believe she almost hit someone." Nancy said.

"Us too...that just proves that Sarah is her mother's daughter." Erin said, earning a high five from her boyfriend.

"Amen to that...I just wish I was there to see it." he added.

"Me too." said Erin.

After breakfast, William took his spare phone and gave it to Nancy, erasing everything and resetting it to factory default, making sure to set it up so that all of Nancy's contacts and other information is transferred onto her 'new' phone.

"Thanks for breakfast guys...and thank you for this." said Nancy, referring to her 'new' phone.

"It's not a big deal Ms. Nancy." said William.

"Thanks again." Nancy said before hugging the young couple. "Bye."

"Bye Ms. Nancy." said Erin, waving goodbye at her.

After Nancy left, the young couple went back inside, deciding to clean up in the kitchen.

"That was nice of you to do that." said Erin as they rinse the plates on the sink.

"What?" he asked.

"You know...giving her your old phone." she said.

"Well, better that than just throw it away." said William.

Erin walked up and kissed his cheek. "Hmm...you're so generous." she said.

William pulled her close. "Ready to have some dessert?" he asked, teasing her.

Erin pushed herself off William, playing a little hard to get. "No! You finish up here...I'm gonna take a shower." she said.

"You want me to join you?" William asked.

"Absolutely not!" said Erin.

"Aww come on babe...it's gonna be fun!" he said.

"I said no! And don't go coming in there...or I'm gonna kick you in the nut-sack!" she said before walking away towards the bathroom.

"Fine...then you can't join me in the shower either!" William snapped back before finishing up in the sink.

"Gotcha!" Erin yelled back, clearly making fun of him.

XXXXXXXXXXX

After almost half an hour, Erin came out of the bathroom feeling refreshed with a towel wrapped around her head and her body. William immediately went up to her with a big goofy smile on his face.

"Hmm...you smell so nice!" he said slowly bringing his face to her neck.

Erin quickly pushed him away. "Oh no you don't! I won't let you touch me with those dirty greasy hands!" she said, holding the towel tight so William won't have a chance to yank it off of from her.

"Fine...I'm gonna take a long shower and you're not allowed to touch me after I'm done." said William while walking away from her.

"Great! Have fun in there!" she said, clearly teasing him before going upstairs to get dressed in the bedroom.

After almost fifteen minutes, William came out of the bathroom and headed straight to the bedroom to get dressed. He then went downstairs to the living room where Erin is sitting on the couch, watching some TV. He sat beside her and put his arm over her shoulder. Erin leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder, smelling the cologne from his neck.

"Hmm...you smell so nice." she said while slowly putting her arm around him.

"Oh no you don't!" he said, making fun of her.

"So you're using my lines against me now huh?" Erin asked, looking him in the eye.

William laughed before kissing her cheek. "I'm just messing with you...come here." he said.

"Be a good boy and maybe...just maybe you'll get lucky later." she said.

"Got it." he said, hugging her tight as they continued watching TV, feeling each other's warmth.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile in California...

"I'm home!" Leonard announced as he went through the door, seeing his daughter in the living room with a few kids huddled around the coffee table.

"Hi dad!...we're just doing some school stuff." said Sarah.

"Hi guys! I'm Leonard, Sarah's dad." he said.

"Hi Dr. Hofstadter...I'm Justine...and this is Yelena...Tom...and the one with the glasses is Kyle." said Justine as the kids greeted Leonard.

"Are you all taking up computer science at the university?" asked Leonard as he put his briefcase on his desk.

"Me and Yelena are...Tom and Kyle are electrical engineering majors." said Justine.

"Yeah...we're here because we have a common subject with them." said Tom as Penny came into the living room, greeting Leonard with a kiss on his cheek.

"Hi honey!" Penny said.

"Can you guys please not do that in front of my friends?" Sarah said, frowning at her parents.

"What is your problem?" Penny asked, clearly messing around with her daughter.

"My problem is you always do that!...doing embarrassing stuff in front of everyone!" Sarah said, making her classmates snigger a little.

"I think it's sweet." said Yelena, making the others nod in agreement.

"See that? Your friends think it's sweet!" said Leonard.

"Can't you just give us some peace and quiet!? This is serious stuff!" Sarah yelled, making her parents laugh.

"Okay fine...have you guys eaten yet?" Leonard asked the kids.

The kids looked at each other, a little unsure until Kyle decided to speak. "Well..we are kinda hungry." he said, earning a nod from the others.

Leonard smiled. "You guys like pizza?" he asked.

"Dad!?" Sarah said.

"What? Don't tell me you're not hungry?" he asked the young lady.

"No!" she said.

"Leonard that's not our daughter." Penny said, making them all laugh.

"You're right honey...our real daughter would drop everything at the prospect of food...or ice cream." said Leonard with the kids laughing along. Sarah just sat there, giving her parents a death stare. "Okay...I think we've had our fun for the day...what kind of pizza do you kids want?" he asked the kids.

"Have you tried Pete's Kitchen from the other side of the village?" asked Tom.

"No...how about this, I'll let you guys decide and order." said Leonard. "I'm just gonna go upstairs and get changed."

"Do you want me to help you out?" Penny teasingly said, making Sarah throw her hands up in the air.

"Hmm...I won't say no to that!" said Leonard as Sarah finally stood up and stomped her foot.

"Just stop it I say!" she yelled, surprising her classmates.

"Okay jeez...hold your horses Sarah Hofstadter." said Leonard before walking upstairs with a smug smile on his face while Penny went to the kitchen, leaving the kids in the living room.

"Your parents are so sweet huh?" said Yelena.

"Not to mention creepy and inappropriate." said Sarah, sitting back down with them.

"Do you prefer them ignoring each other like my parents do?" Yelena asked.

"Let's just go back to work okay?" said Sarah.

"Do you guys want a pepperoni or a veggie pizza?" asked Tom while scrolling on his phone.

"Hey can you tell them not to put too much peppers on it? Spicy food doesn't agree with me." said Kyle.

"Yeah sure...you know what, I'll just tell them to give us a quarter pizza." Tom said.

"What's that?" asked Justine.

"They put different flavors on each quadrant of the pizza...so we'll have different flavors." Tom said.

"That's probably better." Kyle said, giving Sarah a weak smile.

Sarah sighed and smiled back at him. "Fine...now can we please go back to work?" she said as the kids focused back on their laptops while Tom got on the phone to call in their order.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Thanks for the pizza Dr. Hofstadter!" Justine said as they took a slice from the box with Marty jumping and wagging his tail at the girls, obviously excited in getting treats from them. "You want some pizza?" Justine asked the dog as she took a small piece before feeding it to him.

Marty barked and jumped before taking the treat from Sarah's classmate, finally resting his head on her lap, being the good boy that he is. "Aww...you are such a sweet boy!" said Justine, rubbing the dog's head.

"Hey it's not a problem...my wife and I are always happy whenever my daughter's friends come over." said Leonard.

"Well we're lucky that we have the smartest girl in our group." said Tom.

"Not to mention they youngest!" Sarah chimed in.

"Yeah...she got that from me." said Leonard.

"Okay dad, no need to brag for being my father." Sarah said.

"What are you guys working on anyway?" he said as Justine turned her laptop for Leonard to see.

"Just some simple codes for control systems...and some feedback loops." Justine said.

"Ah...that's interesting..." said Leonard, scrolling through the code that they've made so far.

"Sarah I didn't know that you ride horses." said Yelena, looking at some pictures on the shelf.

"I used to...that's Bunny Rabbit...from my grandpa's farm in Nebraska." said Sarah.

"Wow...you really look like your mom when she was younger huh?...I mean look at this." Yelena said, looking at an old picture of Penny and Leonard with their friends. "And who's this dog?" she asked.

"That's Buster." said Sarah as she stood up to join Yelena and Penny by the bookshelves. "He got sick and old..." she said, looking at the picture in Yelena's hand.

"I'm sorry to hear that." said Yelena before putting the picture back on the shelf.

"It's alright...I have Marty now..." said Sarah as they looked at the dog being cuddled by Justine, Tom and Kyle, taking turns in giving him bite-sized portions of their pizza. "Marty! You just won't stop huh?" she yelled at the dog.

Marty quickly rolled over and stood up, startled by his big sister yelling at him before barking at her and wagging his tail.

Justine pulled the dog bag to her lap. "Don't yell at him...he's not doing anything bad..." she said as Marty got comfortable on her lap.

"Yeah...good luck trying to get him off you." Sarah said as Justine continued cuddling the dog.

"Hey before I forget, did you asked permission from your mom yet?" asked Justine.

"Why? Are you guys going somewhere?" asked Penny.

"Well...we're planning on going to the beach this weekend...and I'm thinking of borrowing the car." said Sarah, hoping her mother agrees.

Penny looked at Leonard, not wanting to embarrass their daughter in front of her friends by treating her like a child. Leonard took a deep breath before standing up. "And how long do you plan on staying at the beach?" he asked his daughter.

"We're thinking of spending the whole morning there." said Justine.

"And who else is gonna come?" asked Penny.

"It's just gonna be the three of us Mrs. Hofstadter...maybe we'll bring another one of our girl friends with us." said Yelena, hoping Penny let's her daughter come with them.

Penny looked at Leonard who gave her a slight nod. "Okay...but you girls better promise me that you'll be careful on the road." she said, trying to hide her anxiety in letting Sarah drive alone.

Sarah immediately became excited, jumping for joy. "Really!? Ugh...thank you mom!" she said while hugging her mother.

"Don't worry Mrs. Hofstadter, Sarah is like our little sister." said Justine.

"She's right Mrs. Hofstadter, we promise we'll look out for her." Yelena added.

Penny smiled at the girls, tapping Yelena on her shoulder. "Thank you girls, we really appreciate it." she said.

Sarah turned to Justine and Yelena. "Come on...help me pick out which bathing suit to wear this weekend." she said, pulling the girls upstairs to her bedroom.

Tom and Kyle were dumbfounded and looked at Sarah's parents. "I think you guys should continue working...I'm sure those girls would be there for quite a while." he said, making Penny and the boys laugh.

"No problem Dr. Hofstadter...if they cut down on talking about girly things, we would've been finished three days ago." said Kyle, making Leonard and Penny laugh.

"We'll leave you guys to it then." Leonard said. "Marty, come on!" he said as he took Penny's hand, leading her to the backyard as the dog followed them while the two boys went back to doing their work on the coffee table, double-checking the code on their laptop.

Kyle then paused from his work. "Kyle, what is it?" asked Tom.

"Do you think we should've asked if we could join them to the beach?" said Kyle.

"Right in front of her parents? I think we should go back to work." Tom said, getting back to typing on his laptop.

"I'm just saying...I mean it could be fun if we went with them, right?" said Kyle.

"I don't know...Justine and Yelena both have boyfriends right? I'm sure they won't like it if they found out two nerdy guys lurking around their girlfriends." said Tom, typing a few codes on the laptop.

"I guess..." Kyle said absently.

Tom stopped typing and looked at Kyle. "Wait...don't tell me...you have a thing for Sarah?" he asked his friend.

"No." said Kyle, trying to divert his attention to another book.

"Oh man...you like her...are you crazy? She's only sixteen." said Tom.

"Do you think I don't know that?" Kyle said. "Let's just get back to work." he added.

Tom took a deep breath. "Kyle, you're my friend and I'm telling you, girls like that will just break your heart...trust me, I know what I'm talking about." said Tom.

"I know what you're talking about Tom." said Kyle.

"You're gonna get yourself in trouble man...and in case you didn't notice, we're in her house right now and her parents are right over there!" Tom said.

"Okay I get it...let's just focus and get this done before they come back here." Kyle said.

"Fine." said Tom before going back to the laptop.

After a few minutes, the girls came back to the living room, laughing and giggling with each other.

"You guys doing alright?" asked Sarah.

Kyle looked up and gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, we're doing okay here." he said as Sarah sat beside him.

"Okay, let's get back to work before my dad comes back here." said Sarah, making them laugh a little as Justine and Yelena sat down, getting back to work on their project.