Chapter 22
"That was fun," Sam commented when she and Bryan had climbed down. She stood as Adam unhooked her from the ropes and then unbuckled the harness. She noticed the smirks from the four guys.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you four were being indiscriminate about something," Sam murmured.
"Who us?" Nate laughed. Sam hit him.
"I thought so," Sam put her hands on her hips. "If you weren't almost all done with that, I'd do it myself, Adam."
"Lucky for me you didn't figure it out in time," Adam grinned at her.
"You guys are pervs," Sam rolled her eyes.
"Gosh, she's known us for how long and she's just figuring it out?" Quinn teased, earning himself a swat.
"Can't fool Sammy," Bryan laughed.
"It's a good thing I love you guys," Sam huffed, stepping out of the harness.
"Don't fall, Sammy," Quinn steadied her by putting his hand on her butt.
Sam almost did fall, she started laughing so hard as she swatted his hand away.
"Poor Jakey," Bryan sighed, causing his brothers to start laughing.
"He's gonna punch out all of you," Sam warned them.
"That's what he gets for going away to college," Quinn shrugged with a grin.
Sam frowned and Quinn put his arm around her.
"I know you miss him," Quinn hugged her. "You have four substitutes to keep you company."
Sam nodded. "Not the same thing, but I do appreciate you guys."
"I'm starved," Bryan said and everyone else nodded.
"There's a great place in town," Adam suggested. "They even have drool bibs for Quinn."
Sam giggled and Adam shot her a grin. Quinn shoved his older brother who just laughed at him.
They piled into Bryan's Yukon, Sam sitting in the back between Quinn and Adam. Her phone rang again. She dug it out of her coat pocket and saw it was Jake.
"Gosh, is he checking up on you or what?" Quinn grumbled.
"No, he's prolly checking up on you," Sam elbowed him before answering the phone. "Quinn's a pain in the butt."
The four in the Yukon started to laugh. Jake was stunned into silence for a second, until he heard them all laughing.
"What did he do this time?" Jake wondered.
"Same stuff, different day," Sam answered, grinning up into Quinn's face.
"Gosh, I wish I was there with you," Jake groaned.
"I wish you were too," Sam murmured. "Hey!" she huffed when the four guys sighed loudly.
"You're having way too much fun without me," Jake sighed.
"No I'm not," Sam assured him. "I'm having a terrible time." She held up her fingers and crossed them so the guys could see. All four of them snorted. Sam bit back a giggle.
"I think you're fibbing to me, Brat," Jake's chuckle filled her ear.
"Nah, would I fib to you?" Sam cooed to him.
"Yeah you would," Jake gave a longsuffering sigh. "Where are you now?"
"We're on our way to get something to eat," Sam told him. She felt Adam nudge her and she looked up at him. He was wiggling his hand at her, asking for the phone.
"Hang on, Adam wants to say something," Sam said to Jake before passing her phone to Adam.
"I'm making sure she's behaving herself, little man," Adam told Jake, then laughed when Sam hit him.
"I bet," Jake responded, with a laugh. "What did you guys do today?"
"We did some climbing," Adam said. "She's really good at it."
Jake laughed harder. "Yeah, she had some practice in the past."
"Really?" Adam looked down at Samantha.
"Let's just say it almost killed me watching her do it," Jake went on.
"Yeah?" Adam was still looking at Sam.
"She did it without a rope," Jake told him.
"Holy crap!" Adam yelped.
"Yeah," Jake chuckled. "I never want to go through that again."
"I don't blame you little brother," Adam murmured. "I'll keep an eye on her."
"You do that," Jake said.
"Now though I'm getting a dirty look," Adam laughed.
"I bet you are," Jake laughed too.
"I better let her talk to you otherwise there's no telling what she'll do to me," Adam grinned at Sam as she hit him.
"I was never in danger," Sam assured Jake.
"Okay," Jake responded.
"Well until Quinn started goofing off and tangled our lines," Sam glanced over at Quinn who was shaking his head at her. Bryan, Nate and Adam snorted in amusement.
"What was he doing?" Jake asked.
"He tugged Bryan's rope and he ended up behind me," Sam said, then started smacking Quinn when his hand came over her mouth and he grabbed her phone.
"What do you mean Bryan ended up behind you?" Jake was asking.
"Nothin' Jakey," Quinn assured him, ignoring the squeals from Sam and the laughter from the three brothers in the SUV with him.
"What's going on?" Jake was definitely suspicious now.
"Nothin' Jakey," Quinn said again. "Just having some fun. I think you're breaking up. Jake, Jake are you there?"
Then he hung up the phone.
"Damn, too bad Sammy," Quinn handed her the phone.
"I've never dropped calls before," Sam looked at her phone in her hand. "Maybe I need to charge the battery."
"Yeah, that must be it," Quinn agreed, grinning at his brothers above her head.