Something's Gotta Give

Chapter 13

Penny stood there awkwardly looking from one to the other. "I'm Penny Campbell," she said, holding out her hand. "You must be Colten."

Colten looked at her inquisitively. "You're Sam's friend? The one he made cry?"

Penny cleared her throat, a bit uncomfortable at his directness. "Yes."

She turned to the woman after Colten let go of her hand. "I'm Penny."

"I'm Colt's mom, Kate." She took her hand and motioned to the chair for her to sit.

"Thank God, I thought that other woman was the one that Sam had promised to bring to meet me," the boy said.

Penny didn't know what to say to this. Surely Sam hadn't shared what had happened between them. "Why did Sam tell you about my crying?" She looked from Colten to Kate, but Kate was looking at her son, just as confused as Penny was.

"He was upset the other morning and he said that he had made you cry. I told him to buy you something, that that always made girls feel better. Did he buy you something and did it make you feel better?" As soon as Colten had that thought he had another. "Who was that woman, she introduced herself as Celeste Evers. Is she like Sam's sister or something?"

Penny cleared her throat looking at Kate for help. Kate must have sensed her unease because she advised her son to ask Sam and not Penny the last question.

"How do you know Sam?" Kate asked with a smile at the chagrined look on her son's face.

"I'm his housekeeper," Penny said softly, looking from one to the other. Colten seemed to be unfazed by the fact and Kate seemed to relax immediately.

"I thought maybe you were his wife," Kate said. "I don't think I would know how to act around Sam's wife. It feels as if we steal too much of his time. I would feel guilty."

"Sam's not married." Colten provided. "You're not his girlfriend?"

"No, just his housekeeper."

Colten looked at her oddly but then decided to return to his initial question. "How did Sam make you cry?"

"Colt!" his mother admonished again.

"It's alright." Penny didn't mind sharing the story, a least not the watered down version. So she told them it from the beginning, feeling free to elaborate on the mice and their evil plot, and how they would hide from Sam, but whenever he would turn his back they would pop back out of hiding. "So you see, he didn't believe me and that made me mad and sad so I cried.

Colten and Kate were laughing at her story so hard they were almost crying and that was when Sam reentered the room.

"Sounds like I'm missing a good time," Sam said, smiling as he entered the room with the nurse Penny had met last time she had been at the hospital. She looked at her name tag and was reminded that her name was Robin.

The nurse stopped for a moment pausing as she looked at her. She remembered her but it was clear that she couldn't place her. Penny didn't remind her. The whole episode had been humiliating and the fewer people who remembered it the better.

Sam joked around with them for a few minutes while he and Robin worked around Colten, and eventually with nothing else to keep her there Sam thanked Robin and she left the room with a smile for him.

Penny couldn't help but wonder if Robin was one of the dates that Sam was meeting when he went out at night. That was a whole part of his life she knew nothing about and if she was going to consider his proposal, her heart stopped at the thought, then that would be something that she would have to ask him about.