Love and Marriage

Chapter Fifty-Four

Sam walked into the living room that night after she finished washing the dinner dishes to find that Martin was playing cards with Claire. They were sitting around the coffee table and having a good time as they laughed and joked around. She hated to break up the good time that they were having but Claire needed to know what was going on and there was no time like the present to tell her. So she walked over to the coffee table and sat on the other side of Claire. "What are you playing?"

"Go fish." Martin told her.

"Who's winning?" Sam asked out of curiosity.

"I am!" Claire replied proudly. "I beat him three times."

Sam looked over at Martin and smiled, knowing that he was letting their daughter win. He always let her win, and although she did the same thing, he was blatantly obvious about it. He wouldn't try to win and if by some chance he was winning, he would change the rules around to make her the winner. It was cute, but at the same time she wondered if that would send her the wrong kind of message because there would be times when Martin wouldn't be there to make sure that she won at everything in life.

"You wanna play with us?" Claire offered, wanting her mom to join in with their fun.

"Oh I don't know…" Sam replied, shaking her head.

"Please?" Claire gave her a sad, puppy-dog look.

"Maybe another time." Sam replied, hating that she had to disappoint her daughter. But this was something that they needed to do. "Actually, your father and I have something that we need to talk to you about."

The smile that had been on Claire's face faded into a look of uncertainty because she didn't know what her parents wanted to talk to her about. She couldn't remember doing anything wrong so at least she knew that she wasn't in trouble. So what else could they want to talk to her about? "What?"

"Well…" Sam started to talk but wasn't quite sure how to phrase this. She looked to Martin for help but he looked as unsure as she was.

An idea popped into Claire's head and she smiled brightly. "Are you going to have a baby? Is that what you want to talk about? Am I getting a new brother or sister?"

Both Martin and Sam looked at each other, trying to find the best way to explain to their daughter that no they weren't going to be giving her a sibling. "No sweetie," Martin shook his head, "you're not getting a baby brother or sister right now."

The smile fell from her face again. "Why not?" She whined. "I'll be good. I promise!"

Sam couldn't help but feel bad for her daughter. "That's not how these things work. This just isn't the right time for you to get a sibling."

Claire sighed and put her arms across her chest. "When will it be the right time?"

"I don't know." Sam shrugged. "I'm sorry."

Martin realized that they needed to continue on and tell Claire what they had intended to tell her instead of getting bogged down in talking about children. "But that isn't what we wanted to talk to you about."

"Then what?" Claire asked, getting frustrated.

"I've been offered a job in Houston, Texas." Sam told her.

"Where's that?" Claire asked.

"Well, it's kind of far away. It's not even in this state." Sam explained.

"So what?" Claire still didn't understand why they were talking about this.

"I've taken the job." Sam told her. "We're going to be moving to Texas in a few days and we'll be getting a brand new house. You'll get the chance to make a bunch of new friends and in September you'll get to go to a new school. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Claire looked at her like she was crazy. "No."

Sam looked over at Martin with a silent plea for him to help her out.

"I think it sounds like fun." Martin stepped in. "You'll be in a new place with new people. You can think of it as a big adventure. It'll be great."

"No it won't!" Claire exclaimed. "I don't wanna leave my friends!"

"You can make new ones though and you can still keep in touch with Sarah and the rest of your friends here." Martin pointed out.

"I don't want to leave!" Claire repeated.

She knew that telling Claire would be hard, but she hadn't realized just how hard it would be. Claire was already upset and they hadn't even told her about all of the changes they would be making. "Sweetie, I'm sorry, but we are moving to Houston."

"But I…" She thought about it and realized that it was useless to argue about it. They seemed serious about this and she didn't think she could get them to change their minds. "When?" She asked resigned to the fact that they were going to move.

"Friday." Sam told her.

"Friday?" Claire exclaimed loudly. "No way! I don't want to go!"

"Claire…" Martin called out.

"No!" She exclaimed.

"There's something else that we have to tell you." Martin sighed.

"What?" Claire asked, wondering what else they were going to spring on her now.

"Well, your father isn't coming with us right now." Sam told her. "He's going to stay here."

Claire looked back at her father and then her mother. "Are you getting a divorce?" She whispered, not wanting to hear them say yes to that question.

"Why would you think that?" Martin asked, shocked that Claire would immediately think that they were getting divorced.

"Sarah's dad moved out before they got divorced and so did Jake's mom." Claire reasoned. "They all got divorced. That's how it started. One of them moved out."

"We're not getting divorced." Sam assured her.

"Then why aren't you coming too?" Claire asked, looking at her father.

"He has some things he needs to do here. His job is here right now." Sam answered for Martin.

"Then why can't I stay here too with daddy?" Claire asked. She didn't understand why her family was splitting apart and didn't like it. She wanted everyone to be together.

"Because you're coming with me to Houston." Sam explained.

"I don't want to and you can't make me!" Claire yelled at her mother. "I want to stay with daddy!"

Sam was shocked that Claire was yelling at her. She had never yelled at her before. Even when she was younger and threw temper-tantrums she didn't yell at her. While she could understand that Claire was only yelling at her because she was upset about having to move, it still hurt. "Yes I can make you move."

"But I don't want to!" Claire exclaimed.

Sam sighed. "I'm sorry, but we're still going to move…"

"I hate you!" Claire yelled. "You don't care what I want!"

"Claire, don't yell at your mother." Martin chastised her.

"I'm not moving and you can't make me!" Claire yelled at both of them before running out and heading up to her bedroom.

Sam bit her lip and closed her eyes as he head bowed. That was a disaster. Maybe they didn't handle it very well. She'd never seen Claire that angry or upset. Hearing her daughter say that she hated her was like having a knife stab her in the heart. It hurt.

Martin watched Sam and felt bad for both Sam and Claire. This couldn't be easy on Claire to find out all of this new information but that still wasn't a good enough excuse to tell her mother that she hated her. While he knew that Claire was just expressing her anger about the situation, he wondered if Sam knew that Claire didn't really mean it. "You do know that she didn't mean it, right? She loves you. She's just angry and confused right now."

"Yeah, sure." Sam nodded nonchalantly, trying to make his believe that it wasn't bothering her. A part of her knew that Claire was just trying to find a way to express her anger about the situation and it just happened to come out in that way. But that didn't mean that she liked it or agreed with it.

That wasn't very convincing and he could see the hurt displayed on her face. "Maybe one of us should go up and talk to her."

"She'd like it better if it was you since she doesn't hate you right now." Sam stated, getting up from the floor.

"Sam…" He also got up and walked over to where she was.

"You know, maybe she should just stay here with you." Sam spoke. "She'd probably be happier."

"Do you really want that though?" He asked, not believing that she did.

"No, but she'd…"

"Be miserable." Martin finished her sentence for her. "She practically worships the ground you walk on. She wouldn't be happier staying here with me. Sure she'd have her friends and me, but she wouldn't have you. Why don't I go talk to her and I'll straighten the whole thing out?"

"Go ahead." She shrugged. "I doubt you can make things any worse."

He chuckled. "Thanks for the big vote of confidence."

"I didn't mean it as a put-down…"

"I know." He kissed her forehead and grabbed a hold of her hand, giving it a tight squeeze. "By the time I'm done talking to her she won't be able to wait until Friday. She'll want to move right now."

"That would be quite an accomplishment given the fact that right now she doesn't want to ever move." She smiled.

He grinned back. "What can I say? I've always been an overachiever."