Sammy walked into the house. Jane had the day off and was sitting with Gabriel in the living room helping him play with his blocks.
"Mom, I got invited over to a girl's house this weekend," she said.
Jane looked at her. "That sounds fun," Jane replied.
"But what am I going to do with Gabe?"
Jane shrugged her shoulders. "This weekend? Well, I might have the day off but do I know this girl?"
"Terri MacGreggor?" Sammy asked.
Jane shook her head. "Name doesn't ring a bell."
"How about her face?" Sammy picked up a magazine that they had got in the mail and opened it to a picture of Terri modeling a light blue cable knit sweatshirt, a blue jean jacket, blue jeans with flare legs, and a white scarf with blue snowflakes on it. She was smiling widely at the camera. She handed it to her mother.
"She goes to your school?" Jane asked.
"Yeah, that's Terri," Sammy said.
Jane smiled. "She looks really nice."
"She is, Mom. She helped with Gabe's birthday."
"I'm not good matching names with faces."
Sammy shrugged. She walked to the kitchen and got a bottle of water. "But what if you don't get the day off?" Sammy asked.
"Well, you have one more option," Jane said.
"Craig!" Gabriel said, as there was a knock on the door.
"How does he seem to always know when he's here?" Sammy asked, looking through the window before opening the door.
Gabriel giggled.
"Am I missing something?" Craig asked, walking in.
"No. What's up?" Sammy asked.
"Do you know what we have to do in Kwan's?"
"Um, just read for our book reports," she said.
He groaned. "Book reports," he replied.
"Craig," Gabriel said. He stood up and ran over to his hero and Craig picked him up. "Hi Craig."
"Hey, Bud, whatcha doing?"
"Blocks!"
"Yeah, I see."
Craig sat down on the floor and Jane stood up. "I'm going to go do some laundry," she said. "I know Sammy doesn't have any whites."
Sammy smirked at her mother. Jane smirked back and headed upstairs.
"Hey," Sammy said, sitting on the couch beside Craig. "Terri invited me over to her house this weekend. And Mom thinks she can get off work but if she doesn't would you let Gabe spend the night over at your house?"
Craig looked up. "Really?" he asked.
"Really?" Gabriel mimicked.
"Yeah," Sammy said.
"Sure, I'd love to take care of him. It might show Joey that I can take care of a kid," he said.
"Exactly," Sammy replied.
"Exactly what?" Jane asked.
"Craig said that he could take care of Gabriel this weekend."
"Yeah, Ms. Thomas, it's no big deal," Craig said.
"Craig, you're almost family call me Jane," she replied.
"Jane," he said, smiling.
Sammy smiled at him.
Gabriel handed Craig a block and Craig stacked it on top of another one and Gabriel put one on top of that one and accidentally tipped it over. "Oops," he giggled.
"Oops," Craig replied. He helped Gabriel rebuild his tower and Sammy smiled again. What did Craig have to prove? He was going to be a great dad. Not turn into his own.
"Gabe, how would you like to spend the night at my place this weekend?" Craig asked.
Gabriel nodded.
"Great," Sammy said. "I'm going to go call Terri."
"Ok," Craig replied.
He looked up at Sammy and smiled. She leaned down and kissed him on the lips and then stood up and grabbed the phone and ran up to her room and dug Terri's number out of her pocket and punched in the number.