Love and Marriage
Chapter Thirty-Two
The next morning, Sam opened her eyes and saw that the bright sun was invading the room. Wanting to get back to sleep, she snuggled up closer to Martin and shielding her eyes from the light.
Her movements woke him up and he struggled to shake the groggy feeling that had come over him. "Sam?"
"Need sleep." Came her muffled response.
He looked over at the clock. "It's almost nine 'o' clock. I think we should get up. Claire's probably already been awake for awhile and we should make sure that she hasn't been playing with matches or something."
"Fine. You do it." She grumbled.
"I would but you seem to have me locked in a death grip." He laughed. He really wasn't sure that he could move right now because of the tight grip she had over him.
She didn't release him but opened her eyes and tilted her head up so that she was looking at him. "You want me to let go?"
"No." He kissed the top of her head. "I don't but I think we should get up and in order to do that, you have to stop using me as a body pillow."
"Sorry, but I like using you as a body pillow. You're a lot harder than all the other ones I've had." She smiled as she moved away from him. She started stretching out in hopes of waking herself up and getting rid of the grogginess she felt.
He chuckled and shook his head at her comment, appreciating the fact that they were actually able to banter back and forth again. "It looks like it's going to be a nice day."
She looked out the window and nodded. "Yeah. Maybe we should take Claire to the park."
"I have a better idea." He grinned. "How about we go on a family picnic?"
"A family picnic?" She smiled, thinking it over. It was a good idea. Claire would be able to play as long as she stayed where they could see her and they could spend some time alone together. Besides, she loved family picnics. They held a special place in her heart. "Sounds great."
"Wonderful." Martin replied as he got up from the bed. "Now let's go see if Claire's done any damage to the house while we've been asleep."
She laughed and followed him out of the bedroom.
A few hours later they were all sitting on a blanket in the shade of a large tree. "This fried chicken is excellent." Sam marveled.
"It is good." Martin agreed, taking another bite.
"I love it!" Claire chimed in, wanting to be a part of the conversation. She took another bite of her chicken and then throwing her chicken leg onto her plate. "I'm done! Can I go play now?"
Sam looked at her daughter and sighed. She had only eaten one and a half chicken legs. Normally she would make Claire eat more, but since they were at the park and she was aware that Claire wanted to go play, she decided to let it drop this time. "You can go play but on three conditions. First, stay where your father and I can see you at all times. Second, I don't want you to go on the merry-go-round or run too much since you just ate. And third, stay where your father and I can see you at all times."
"Didn't you already say that once?" Martin looked over at her and asked.
She looked back at Martin. "Yes, but it's a very important rule. It deserves to be repeated." She then looked back at Claire. "Understand?"
"Yes mommy." Claire nodded.
"Ok then. Have fun." Sam smiled. They watched as Claire sprinted off towards the slide, already forgetting that she wasn't supposed to run. She looked over at Martin. "See? She's already forgotten that she's not supposed to run right now. But she is."
He held his hands up in mock defeat. "Ok. I surrender. You're right. Repeating that rule was the right thing to do. Of course, I wasn't really criticizing you about it. I was merely curious."
She shrugged. "Doesn't really matter." He had finished eating and was now leaning up against the tree with his legs spread out. "Are you doing eating?" She asked.
"Yeah." He handed her his plate and watched her throw it into the plastic bag they had brought for trash.
"This was a great idea." She smiled.
"It was one of my better ones." He grinned back. She was sitting a few feet away from him but he had the urge to bring her closer. So he opened up the space between his legs to create a space for her and motioned for her to scoot over. It only took her a few seconds for her to move and soon her back was pressed up against his chest and his arms were wrapped around her stomach. "I think this one was a good idea too." He whispered into her ear.
The feel of his breath against her neck tickled her skin and the feel of his arms around her as she leaned up against him was warm and protective. She was enjoying the closeness that they were sharing and especially the fact that they were managing to have intimate moments without bringing sex into the equation.
They sat there, watching Claire playing with some of the other children that were around and enjoying the fact that they were together. She had placed her hands over his hands, which were still on her stomach, and starting rubbing her thumb over his hand. Every few minutes he would lightly kiss her neck, causing her to smile and turn her head so that they could share a kiss.
"Oh look," Sam pointed out, "see that boy who's on the swing next to Claire right now?"
He looked closely and nodded. "Yeah."
"That's Jake." She explained. "That's the boy that's could very possibly have a crush on our daughter."
"That's the Jake?" Martin asked. He wasn't sure what he expected, but he wasn't expecting the sight in front of him. Jake seemed fairly tall for his age, was well dressed, and looked like he was from a wealthy family. Growing up in Washington D.C. with his family had given him a good eye for noticing who belonged to a wealthy family and who just pretended. Jake was definitely from a wealthy family.
She looked over and gently poked him. "Don't stare. It's not polite."
"Sorry." He turned to stare at her. "Didn't know you were the polite police."
"Well I am." She grinned. "So you better watch out of I'll have to arrest you for being impolite."
"You'd arrest me for staring?" He asked, pretending to pout.
"Not if you were staring at me." She kept a smug look on her face as she leaned in to kiss him.
"I'll have to make a mental note of that." He whispered between kisses.
The sound of a cough interrupted their kissing and Martin pulled away to find a strange man standing a few feet away from their blanket.
"Samantha! I thought that was you. I saw Claire and figured that you were close by." The man smiled.
"Brad. It's nice to see you again." Sam smiled back.
"How have you been?" Brad asked, giving her a sly smile.
"Fine." Sam replied. "And you?"
"Great. The divorce and custody case were finally settled last month." He explained, ignoring the fact that Martin even existed.
Martin watched Sam's interaction with this Brad guy and couldn't help but feel left out and jealous. Who the hell was this guy and how did she know him? And why wasn't she introducing him to this stranger? But most importantly, why was this guy flirting with Sam right in front of her husband?
"That's wonderful. I know that you were worried about losing your son." Sam was genuinely happy for him. Feeling Martin strengthen his grip around her, she rubbed his arm. "Brad I don't think you've my husband, have you?"
"No. I can't say that I have." Brad smiled brightly.
Martin could tell that it was a fake smile. He could tell that Brad had feelings for Sam and wondered just how close they were.
"Well Brad, this is Martin and Martin, this is Brad. He's Jake's father." She could feel Martin tense up as soon as Brad came over and started talking to her. Her only hope was that he wasn't going to be jealous. Judging by the look on his face though, she could see that it was too late to hope for that.
So this was Jake's father? Everything made more sense. Brad had that same kind of fake quality that he had seen in Jake only minutes earlier. "It's nice to meet you."
"You too." Brad nodded. "Samantha's told me about you."
"Funny, she hasn't really mentioned anything about you." Martin chuckled softly.
Sam lightly punched him in the side, hoping he'd get the hint and stop being rude. "Brad and I met last fall at parent-teacher night, and then again at her school play."
"Yes unfortunately you were unable to attend those events or we would have met sooner." Brad jumped in.
Martin really didn't like this guy and wanted nothing more than to punch him until he got the message that Sam was his wife and that it was going to stay that way. But violence never solved these kinds of situations and he restrained the urge to pummel Brad. "I guess it really was unfortunate that we're only meeting now."
Sam couldn't believe the way Martin was acting right now and knew that they would have to talk about that at some point. "Well it was really nice to see you again Brad."
Thankfully, Brad got the hint and excused himself. "It was nice to see you again, and nice to meet you Martin."
"Oh you too." Martin sarcastically replied as Brad walked away. He looked over at Sam and saw that she was giving him a hard stare. The playfulness that they were sharing before Brad's interruption was definitely gone.