Love and Marriage
Chapter Ninety
The next morning, Sam woke up and was slightly disappointed to find that Martin wasn't in bed with her. It was Saturday and she was hoping that they could stay in bed for a little while. But knowing Claire, she was probably already awake and Martin most likely got up to make her breakfast. She got up and quickly got dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before heading out to find her family.
"More French toast?" Martin asked Claire.
"Yes please!" Claire smiled, watching as he put two more slices on her plate and then cut off the crusts for her. "Thank you daddy."
"You're very welcome sweetie." He kissed the top of her head. That's when he saw Sam standing in the doorway of the kitchen. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her. "Good morning."
"Yes it is." She grinned. "I figured you were out here making breakfast."
"Because I'm that predictable?" He laughed.
She laughed with him. "Exactly." Sitting down next to Claire, she looked at the French toast. "Is it good?"
"Yes!" Claire told her mommy. "It's really good."
"Would you like some?" Martin offered.
"I'd love some." Sam told him as she went over to stand next to him. "So, should we go ahead and tell her about the…you know?"
"Right now?" He asked, also keeping his voice low. "You want to tell her right now?" This surprised him. Actually, he was surprised by all of her behavior from the past twenty-four hours.
He hadn't expected her to be so happy that he was here, yet she came to the airport to surprise him while he was trying to surprise her. Then they had an amazing night together and now she was actually the one trying to initiate telling Claire about the baby—something that two weeks ago she wasn't sure she wanted to do.
What happened to her during these two weeks that changed her so much? She seemed to be more carefree and less anxious. Was it a real change or was she just faking it? He could still hear anxiety filling her voice at times so he knew that she wasn't completely over her worries. But was she at least starting to get past her issues? She seemed like it.
"Why not?" She questioned. "It would make her happy."
Martin glanced over at Claire, who was still eating her French toast. "She already seems happy enough knowing that I'm here."
"Yeah, but why not go ahead and just tell her?" Sam asked.
"Because I'm surprised by your enthusiasm about this." Martin told her. "It wasn't too long ago that you didn't want to tell her. Now all of a sudden you can't seem to wait any longer. What's going on?"
"Nothing." She answered. "Can't I just be happy for once? Can't I just want to spread happiness around to the people I love?"
"Of course you can." He kissed her nose. "But you just seem…different now."
"Different as is good different or bad different?" She asked, hoping he meant different in a good way.
"Definitely good different." He decided. "But still different. What's that about?"
"I don't think I know what you're talking about." Sam denied.
"Sam…"
She really did know what he was talking about though. She was the one who didn't want to tell Claire about the baby yet and now here she was trying to convince him to tell Claire right now. She could see how it would be confusing to him.
But during the past two weeks she had been going to Jackie more often in the hopes of finally moving on and riding herself of the anxieties that plagued her. She was making progress and trying to be more carefree and happy. After all, she has a lot of things to be happy about. She has a wonderful husband, a beautiful little girl, a baby on the way, supportive friends and a great job with nice co-workers.
Of course, she still felt extremely anxious about this pregnancy, but she was trying to overcome that. She wanted to overcome that. But it was going to take some more time.
"You're…" He sighed. Maybe now wasn't the right time to talk about this. Maybe they should wait until Claire wasn't in the room with them. "Never mind. I guess we can talk about it later."
"Yes, we will." She assured him. "But right now, why don't we just go ahead and tell her?"
"So you really want to tell her now?" He wanted to make sure that this was something that she really did want to do and it wasn't something she was doing because she thought it would make him happy.
"Only if you do too." Sam shrugged.
"Then I guess we will." He shrugged. "Do you want to do the honors or should I?"
"It doesn't matter to me." Sam smiled as they went over to Claire.
"Claire, your mother and I have something to talk to you about." Martin started.
"You are leaving again, are you?" That was the first thing that came into her mind when he said that they needed to talk about something. She didn't want her daddy to leave again. It was hard for her to not have him around for the past few weeks and she didn't want to go through that again.
"No sweetie." Martin answered.
"He's not leaving again." Sam chimed in. "I promise you that."
"Then what?" Claire asked, confused. "I haven't done anything bad, have I?"
"No." Martin replied. "You're not in trouble."
"Good." Claire sighed. "I was worried."
"There's no need to be worried. This is good news." Martin explained.
"Remember when you asked us for either a sibling or a puppy?" Sam asked, knowing that Claire would remember that.
"Yeah!" Claire smiled, getting excited. "Are we getting a puppy?"
Martin and Sam exchanged looks before turning back to Claire. "No. I'm afraid you're not getting a puppy." Martin told her.
"Oh." Claire's smile left her face. If she wasn't getting a puppy, then why did they bring up that from the past? Unless… "Am I getting a sibling?" She was almost afraid to ask because she didn't want them to say no to that.
"Yes, you are." Sam grinned. "It won't get here until January, but you are getting a sibling."
"Yes!" She reached over and hugged her mommy and daddy. "This is great!"
"We thought you'd be pleased." Martin grinned.
"It's so much cooler than a puppy!" Claire exclaimed happily.
"Well good, because I don't think that you're going to get that puppy anytime soon." Sam told her.