Stealing Second: Sam's Story: Book 4 in the Clarksonville Series (32 page)

“Now all we have to do is get in,” Marlee said.

“
Aay
, no problem for you,
mi vida
.” Susie nudged Marlee with her shoulder. “Did you know she applied to Cornell, too? She’s such a brain.”

Marlee blushed. “Susie said she was going to major in geology, and I could major in mechanical engineering or physics at Rockville. A lot of their graduates go on to work for prestigious engineering firms. And how amazing would it be to play on the same college team? All four of us?”

“Their softball team is great,” Lisa said. “According to Coach Greer, that is. They even go to Florida for spring training.”

There was something off in Lisa’s tone. Sam leaned in closer. “What‘s the matter, baby? You don’t seem that excited.”

“I am.”

“You don’t sound it.”

“You guys talking about college makes me remember that you’re all seniors, and you’ll be graduating and leaving me here.”

Sam gave Lisa a quick hug. She wanted to hold Lisa longer, but she still wasn’t comfortable showing affection in a crowd. “Okay, that does it. We’re all deferring for a year.”

At Susie and Marlee’s startled expressions, Sam said, “I’m just kidding, but, I wish there was a way you could graduate a year earlier.”

Lisa shrugged. “I can’t. I won’t have enough credits.”

“You looked into it, didn’t you?”

“I did.” Lisa threw her hands up. “Ahh, whatever. I can’t change reality. I’ll just have to get a job, so I can buy a car and make regular trips to the Rockville campus to visit all my friends.”

A brilliant idea formed in Sam’s mind. Of course, she’d have to act fast. There was probably a time limit on how long she would be able to blackmail her parents. Sam decided that item number two on her mental Christmas list was to give the Sebring to Lisa. Sam was going to ask for a new car for Christmas anyway. Maybe a Lexus SUV, as long as it had room in the back to move around in and didn’t look like a soccer mom minivan.

“Sam, you look like the cat that caught the canary,” Susie said. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

“Nothing that involves you, Miss Missy,” Sam teased.

“Ooh,” Marlee taunted, “cat fight.”

“Actually, guys,” Sam said, “I think it’s time we made our rounds and then headed out of here.”

“I’m with you on that,” Lisa said. “Let’s make this fast.”

They left the party thirty minutes later and headed toward the side street where their cars were parked. They reached Marlee’s van first.

“Sus?”

“Yeah?”

“Here.” Sam slipped Susie her old phone and asked her to hang onto it until she picked it up at the end of the night. Sam gave her friends the briefest of explanations about her father’s use of the GPS feature, and they were outraged at the invasion of privacy.

Susie tucked Sam’s old phone in her pocket and patted it twice for safe keeping. It was better for Sam’s father to think she had gone to Susie’s house than to the secluded farm road on Raymond Road near the site of the car accident. Sam hadn’t been back to the intersection since the crash, but with Lisa by her side, she might have enough strength to face it.

“Hey,” Marlee gushed, “isn’t your six-month anniversary coming up?”

Sam nodded and reached for Lisa’s hand. “Tomorrow.”

“
Aay
, I don’t know how you guys are gonna top your four-month anniversary,” Susie said. “Dinner at
Le Grande Bistro
in Southbridge? Fancy schmancy.”

“I think they’re gonna top it,” Marlee said knowingly.

“We are?” Sam looked at Lisa. This was the first she’d heard of plans for their six-month celebration.

“But I’m sworn to secrecy,” Marlee said.

Susie frowned at Marlee. “
Aay
, you’re in on it?”

“Yep.” Marlee held her lips tight together indicating she would say no more on the matter. “Actually,” she turned to Lisa for permission, “can I say?”

“Go ahead.”

“My job, Two, is to pick you up and chauffeur you to William and Evelyn’s tomorrow evening.”

“Yeah?” Sam smiled at Lisa.

“I’m cooking for us.” Lisa smiled back. “I’m sending William and Evelyn out to dinner and then to a movie. They have explicit instructions to stay away until I text them.”

“This is sounding like the answer to my prayers.” Sam looked up in the sky and thanked the Gods.

“You’re a lucky dog, Sam.” Susie punched Sam lightly in the arm.

Sam grinned. “I can’t wait. What’s for dinner?”

Lisa wagged a finger. “You’ll find out tomorrow.”

Sam stuck out her lower lip. “Okay, fine. Hey, Sus?”

“Yeah?”

“We’ll come by in about two hours? Okay?”

Susie nodded. “Sounds good. We’ll be in my room.”

“I can’t believe your mother lets Marlee hang out in your room now.”

“
Aay
, she’s made a few surprise visits. Let me tell you.”

“She never caught us doing anything, though,” Marlee added with a wink. “The screen door to their mudroom squeaks real loud, no matter how quietly she tries to open it. And I can move pretty fast when I have to.”

Sam and Lisa laughed. “All right, you guys. We’ll see you in a while. Have fun.”

“We’re going to have as much fun as you two,” Susie teased.

“Oh, I seriously doubt that.” Sam put her arm around Lisa, and they headed to the Sebring.

I'll Take it From Here

“HOW DID THAT make you feel, Samantha Rose?” Dr. Boyle asked.

“Good,” Sam said. “I worked hard in the play, and it felt good when the audience clapped for me.”

“No anxiety on stage?”

Sam shook her head. “Not really. I’m used to getting attention.”

“That was positive attention,” Sam’s mother said from her seat on the couch. “Sometimes it’s not.”

Sam nodded. She knew her mother was trying to bring up the gay issue in a non-direct way, but Sam wasn’t biting. She wanted someone to bring up the subject more directly, so she skirted the issue and said, “Like how people gawk at me because I’m a Payton? Like I’m an alien or something.”

Dr. Boyle didn’t say anything. It was obvious he wanted Sam and her parents to keep the slow-moving ball rolling. Sam wasn’t sure what was going to happen because her father sat stone faced on his end of the couch, and her mother, so far, had only thrown out a sentence or two.

Dr. Boyle sat in one of the two leather chairs. His lemon yellow sweater worn over a white button down shirt, his thinning gray hair, khaki pants, and comfortable shoes gave him the look of a trustworthy grandfather. Not that Sam had ever met any of her grandparents. They were all dead—including those from Helene’s branch of the family.

Sam squirmed in her seat. The squeaking leather was the only sound in the otherwise silent room. She twirled the mood ring around her finger. She wasn’t surprised it was jet black. Dr. Boyle would say touching the ring was Sam’s attempt at comfort. He’d be right, because thinking about Lisa was the only thing that was comforting at the moment.

Dr. Boyle adjusted his glasses and waited patiently. Sam knew from past experience that he could outwait anybody, so the four of them sat in stony silence.

Amazingly, Dr. Boyle caved in first. He cleared his throat. “Samantha Rose, you received a lot of attention from a photograph in the Clarksonville Courier recently. How did that make you feel?”

Finally, Sam thought. Leave it to Dr. Boyle to be the only one brave enough to bring up the elephant in the room.

“That wasn’t cool.”

“Why wasn’t it cool?” Dr. Boyle asked.

“I wasn’t ready.”

“What weren’t you ready for, Samantha Rose?” her mother asked.

Sam swallowed hard against the emotions bubbling up. She fought hard to keep her tears in control, but it was a losing battle. She put a hand up to hide her eyes.

No one moved to comfort her. It wasn’t the Payton way. Keep your head up. Don’t let them see you cry. You are the pinnacle to which all others seek. She didn’t feel like a pinnacle at that moment.

Completely out of character, her mother laid what was meant to be a comforting hand on her arm.

Sam pulled away. “Don’t try to console me, Mother. You and Daddy obviously have a—what was it you called it on Sunday? Oh, yes, a situation on your hands. One that obviously needs controlling. Situation—that was the word you used, wasn’t it, Mother?”

“You’re skating on thin ice, Samantha Rose,” her father warned, his face flushing red.

Hey
, Sam thought,
he finally speaks!
They’d been there for twenty minutes at that point.

Anger flashed in his eyes when he added, “Do not disrespect your mother.”

“Really?” Sam wiped at her tears, so she could see her father clearly. “You want to go there again?”

Her father appealed to Dr. Boyle, demanding he get a handle on the situation.

“No, no,” Dr. Boyle said putting a hand up. “This is good. We need these feelings to come out.” He faced Sam. “Let’s stick with the lesbian topic for now.”

Sam’s mother inhaled sharply.

“Mimi,” Dr. Boyle said, “why did the word lesbian make you gasp?”

“It’s such a hateful word.” Her mother looked everywhere but at the people in the room.

“But the word applies to your daughter.”

Sam’s mother looked at her hands, mindlessly picking at her recent manicure. With a resigned sigh, she looked up at Sam. “I wish you had come to us sooner about this.”

“What your mother is trying to say—“

“Daddy! Let Mother speak for herself.”

“Why am I the bad guy around here all of a sudden?” He sank back in the couch like a scolded little boy and sulked.

“Daddy, you’re not the bad guy.” Sam softened her voice. “I just feel like you never let people speak for themselves.”
Like me.
“And all I want to do is make you both understand who I am. Somehow you and Mother missed all the clues.”

Her father sat up taller. “What clues?” His voice had also softened.

“Like the fact that I never had any boys calling or coming over. How I had crushes on girls my whole life.”

“We thought you’d outgrow that,” Sam’s mother said.

“You knew?”

Sam’s mother nodded. “Of course we did. And truly, we thought it was natural for a child to have crushes on her friends.”

“It is natural, but I’m not a child anymore. And I haven’t, as you say, outgrown it. I’m not going to. How in the world did you not know? We live in the same house.” Sam was sure Dr. Boyle was cheering them on quietly in his head.

“Well,” her mother said, “I think we got used to Helene taking care of you, and, as the years wore on, we grew more and more distant from you.” She exchanged a glance with her husband. “That’s something I regret now. We obviously don’t know you as well as we should, and I think Helene realizes it, too.”

“Why didn’t you send Helene away sooner? And don’t say it was because you had that contract, Daddy.” She said the word ‘contract’ with disgust. “We all know you can do anything you want.”

Her father didn’t respond. He simply gestured for Sam’s mother to speak.

“You had bonded so well with Helene,” Sam’s mother continued. “We didn’t have the heart to send her away.”

“So why are you sending her away now?” Too bad, Dr. Boyle, Sam thought.
My mommy issues are coming up sooner than expected. Apparently all the Payton Family issues are intertwined.

“Helene is the one who wants to go,” her father said quietly.

“What?” Sam sat back stunned. “Why?” It didn’t make sense.

“First of all, Samantha Rose,” her mother said, “please know that she loves you very much. Don’t ever forget that. It was a tough decision for her. She wants the three of us to spend more time with each other.”

Sam mulled it over. “Helene would say something like that. She was always so selfless.”
And if she had told me it was her idea to leave, I would have begged her to stay. That’s why she let me believe Mother and Daddy were kicking her out.

“She is a very kind person,” her mother said. “She was more concerned about the stitches above your eye than she was about her own concussion.”

“I know.” Sam reached up and touched the scar above her eye. “Mother, did you ever get jealous of Helene?”

Her mother took a deep breath and sighed. “Yes. She was so good with you. So much better than I could ever hope to be. I wish I could have—“

“Mother, it’s okay. Remember on Sunday when I said I was lucky to have two moms?”

Her mother nodded.

“I meant it. The three of you raised me together. And I’m not going to lose Helene from my life because she’s moving out. I hope you both understand that.”

Her mother smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Daddy?”

He nodded. “Like your mother said.”

“Are we ever going to let people know who Helene really is?”
Sorry Dr. Boyle
, Sam thought,
you can go home now. I’ll take it from here.
“Did you tell your friends?” her father asked. Sam shook her head. “What about your special friend?” Sam’s mother asked. “Did you tell her who Helene is?”

“She has a name, Mother.” Sam didn’t want to stir the pot now that she and her parents were communicating, but she needed to let them know she was done hiding, and they needed to respect that.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Lisa. Does she know?”

“No. I think it’s the one and only thing I’ve kept from her. I mean, how in the world would I explain it?”

“Yes, I can see how that would be difficult.” Her father looked lost in thought for a moment and then added, “I’d like to continue to keep this our secret. For as long as we can.”

Sam nodded.

“Scandals like this can hurt the family business. And we’ve managed to keep this whopper quiet for—”

“Eighteen years,” Sam finished. “Has Dr. Boyle known this whole time?”

Her father nodded.

Time was getting dangerously close to running out on their session, and there was no way she was going to let Dr. Boyle call time before she’d had her say. “I need you both to understand that I’m queer. I’m a lesbian. I know those words seem harsh, but it’s not a phase. It’s my reality.” Sam turned toward her mother. “Mother, a while back you accused my friends of brainwashing me, but that’s so far from the truth. I’m the one that pursued Lisa, you know. I love her—”