Marriage and Family

Chapter Eight

Monday, November 22, 2027

Victor ran off today. Well actually he didn't run. He can barely walk, so maybe I should say he wandered off. I thought he was resting in his room, but when I went to go check on him an hour later he wasn't there. So I searched the whole house for him only to find that he wasn't around.

Sean and Rachel were still at school and Martin was at work so I knew it was up to me to find Victor before he got himself into trouble. I took the car and started canvassing the neighborhood, finding him within five minutes.

Somehow he had wandered out of the house and managed to walk over half a mile. When I found him he was just standing on the sidewalk staring blankly at the intersection. After helping him into the car, which was a real battle because he didn't want to come home, I took him back to the house and helped him get comfortable on his bed.

I have no idea why he ran off, but I guess this means that I need to keep a closer eye on him. When I told Martin what had happened he got mad at me and made it all my fault, telling me that I should have been paying more attention to his father.

Honestly I don't see how it was my fault. Am I supposed to handcuff Victor to myself so that he never leaves my sight? Because that is NOT happening.

I'd get mad at Martin for blaming that on me, but I'm too emotionally drained right now. Maybe I'll just be mad at him tomorrow after I get some sleep.

Sam entered Carmine's after Danny and Michelle, following them to their table. Vivian and Jack were already seated and were talking as the looked over their menus.

"Well now the party can officially start because I am here." Danny proclaimed with extreme enthusiasm.

Vivian shook her head and smiled when she saw Sam, getting up and giving her a hug. "It's been too long since I've seen you. How are you?"

"Good." Sam replied, not wanting to go into the problems with Martin. "And how are you Viv?"

"Oh you know. Can't really complain." Vivian shrugged. Danny and Michelle had already scooted into the booth so she took the spot on the end.

Jack got up and Sam gave him a quick hug. "How are you Jack?"

"Good. Really good." Jack smiled, pulling back from the hug and scooting back into the booth.

Sam saw that the only space left for her was to sit next to Jack so she sat on the end. "How is Trish?"

Trish was a lawyer that Jack met through Michelle about ten years ago. They dated for a short time before getting married. She was the perfect choice for Jack. She was a private person like him, but encouraged him to be more open with those that he cared about. She was a good influence on him. For the first time since Sam met him, he was actually happy and she couldn't be happier for him.

"Trish is good." Jack nodded. "She would have been here but she went to Buffalo this morning to check on her mother because she just had surgery. She wanted to make sure that everything went well."

"Anything serious?" Sam asked.

"No, I don't think so." Jack shook his head.

"Good." Sam was glad about that.

"Marcus would have been here but he's coming down with a cold and didn't want to spread it to everyone." Vivian explained.

"That's too bad." Sam told Vivian. "I hope he gets feelings better soon."

"I think he will. It seems like it's just a cold." Vivian said. "So how are the kids?"

"They're fine." Sam smiled.

"And Martin?" Vivian asked. "How's he doing?"

"He's fine too." Sam replied, not wanting to go into any details.

Later that evening, as Sam was getting ready to go to bed, she sat on the edge of the bed. After hesitating for a moment, she grabbed the phone and dialed the number before she lost her nerve. It took several rings before the voice she wanted to hear greeted her.

"Hello?" Martin's groggy voice answered.

"Did I wake you up?" Sam asked, looking at the clock and seeing that it was rather late. She immediately felt guilty for waking him up.

"Yeah. I think I dozed off there for awhile." Martin told her.

"Sorry." She apologized.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it." Martin assured her. Honestly he didn't care if she woke him up. He was just glad to get to talk to her.

"I can call back tomorrow if you want to go back to sleep…"

"No, that's ok." Martin interrupted her. "I was having a dream about you, but I would rather talk to you."

"You were dreaming about me?" She laughed. It wasn't that she found it funny it simply caught her off-guard.

"Yeah." Martin answered. "I was dreaming of that summer that we spent the whole week here in the house by ourselves. Remember?"

"Of course I remember that." Sam told him.

He was glad that she remembered. Of course he didn't think that week was forgettable. "Claire was still at college taking summer classes, Sean went to some kind of summer camp for geniuses and Rachel spent the week with my parents."

"It wasn't a summer camp for geniuses." She couldn't help but laugh. "It was a science camp."

"I guess it just seemed like a genius camp." Martin chuckled, elated at the fact that he had managed to make her laugh twice in five minutes. That hadn't happened in months. "The point is that was a good week."

A smile formed on Sam's face as she remembered that week. Martin was right. It was a good week. They spent the entire week together and had a lot of fun. "That seems like a long time ago."

"How long ago was it?" Martin asked. "Six years?"

"Seven." Sam corrected him. "It was seven years ago."

"Right. Seven years ago." Martin nodded. "I was dreaming about that one dinner we had out on the porch. Remember that?"

"Yeah. I do." Sam replied.

It was the third night of their week without the kids and since it was a nice night, they decided to eat their dinner on the porch. They had just finished their dinner and were sitting in chairs looking at the sunset.

"This week has been great so far." Martin smiled, looking over at her.

"Yeah, it has." Sam agreed, looking over at him. "I mean I miss the kids. But it's nice getting to spend some alone time with you. I miss that."

"I have missed that too." Martin admitted. "But just think of all the alone time we're going to have once Rachel goes to college. We'll be alone all the time."

Sam smiled. "And what are we going to do with all that alone time?"

He got up and held his hand out to her. "Well we could always dance. Will you dance with me?"

"But there's no music." She told him.

"Ok." He nodded. "If the lady wants music, the lady shall have music." He disappeared into the kitchen for a moment and came back out with a small cd player. After pressing a few buttons, a slow song soon rang out through the speakers. "Now will you dance with me?"

"I'd love to." She grinned, taking his hand and letting him lead her to an empty spot of the porch. She wrapped her arm around his neck and laid her head on his chest as they swayed to the music.

He kept his arm wrapped tightly around her waist and pulled her as close to him as was possible. "Now this is the way every night should end."

"With dancing?" She questioned.

"No, with you in my arms." He replied.

"We don't dance anymore." Martin pointed out.

"No we don't." Sam agreed.

"We used to dance all the time once the kids went to bed." Martin reminisced.

"We stopped doing that once your father moved in." Sam reminded him.

"Yeah, we did." Martin nodded. Earlier in the day he had read an entry that mentioned how she missed dancing with him. When he thought about it, he realized that it had been a long time since they danced together like that. He missed it too and vowed to make up for that. "But we shouldn't have. We should have kept dancing anyway."

"I think it is too late now for 'should haves'." Sam told him.

"Maybe." Martin shrugged. "But when you get home, will you dance with me again?"

She was caught off guard by that question and the fact that he still wanted to dance with her. She had always missed their dancing but thought that she was the only one so she never brought it up. Now though, hearing that he wanted to start that again, well it gave her some hope. "Actually I'd like that a lot."

"Great." His face broke out into a huge grin. "So when are you coming home?"

"I have some things I wanted to do around here tomorrow so I was thinking about flying back sometime the day after tomorrow." Sam explained.

"Ok." Although he wished that she was coming back tomorrow, it would at least give him some more time to finish the rest of her journals.

"Well I'm going to let you get back to sleep now." Sam told him.

"Wait!" Martin asked. "Was there a specific reason why you called?"

She didn't know what to say. She didn't really have a reason for calling. She just felt like she needed to hear his voice. The last thing she expected was for them to have such a nice conversation without any kind of fighting or arguing. It was nice. She had actually enjoyed talking to him.

"I just…I just wanted to see how you were doing." She replied.

"I'm ok I guess." He replied. He figured that this might be his only chance to say this to her so he went for it. "I miss you though."

"You do?" She asked, almost in non-belief as tears came to her eyes.

"Yeah, of course I do." He assured her. "I know we weren't on good terms when you left, but I miss you."

"Well I miss you too." She softly told him.

He was overjoyed to hear that from her. They were actually having a conversation about their relationship that wasn't ending in an argument. He couldn't believe their luck and couldn't help but want to see just how far he could take it. "I love you Sam."

She had to wipe a few tears from her eyes when she heard him say those words to her. It had been a while since he'd said that to her. "I love you too."

"I'll let you get some sleep." Martin told her. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Sam replied, hanging up.