Wait For Me To Come Home

Chapter 56

February came around, and Lauren was helping Sofi put the finishing touches on her plans for the proposal. They'd kept it to themselves so far, but Lauren had asked Clara if she could borrow the boat tonight, with the intention of coming up with a work emergency to get out of it. Sinu knew that Sofi was going to propose, but Sofi hadn't told her it was going to be tonight, on the off chance that one of the four of them would accidentally let it slip and tip Maggie off.

Clara was already in her office working on her research, with Sinu's help, and Lauren quietly opened the door.

"Mom?" she asked, interrupting them both.

"Yes?" Clara and Sinu both answered at the same time, turning to face Lauren. All three of them blinked in surprise and let out a quick laugh.

"Which mom?" Clara asked, looking amused.

"Mom one or mom two?" Sinu smiled.

"Mom one," Lauren laughed. "Um, I was wondering if I could take Sofi and Maggie out on the boat tonight. The weather looks pretty clear today."

"Yeah, sure. I'll make a call and get them to get everything ready for you down at the docks," Clara told her, and Lauren smiled widely at her.

"Great. Thank you. I'll leave you both to it," Lauren said, quietly excusing herself and backing out of the room.

Walking downstairs, Lauren made her way to the kitchen to eat breakfast with Sofi and Maggie and sat down at the table with her food. After a pointed look from Sofi, Lauren cleared her throat slightly, catching Maggie's attention.

"So, the weather's pretty good today and I asked my mom if we could go out on the boat tonight. Mix things up before we go back home," Lauren off-handedly suggested, shrugging casually as she ate her oatmeal.

"You have a-" Maggie started to say.

"Don't even say it, Sawyer," Lauren said, narrowing her eyes at her.

Sofi laughed while Maggie rolled her eyes. "Sounds good, I'm in."

"Yeah, that'll be fun," Maggie agreed.

"Okay, cool. Shall we say six o'clock?" Lauren asked, raising her eyebrows in question.

"Six is good," Sofi said, giving Lauren a conspiratory smile and Lauren smiled back. They finished their breakfast and all got changed, spending the rest of the morning in the living room watching TV. Lauren was busy doing her paperwork while she waited for Camila to call, and was half-paying attention to Sofi and Maggie's conversation while they watched yet another crime show. Yet again, Lauren found herself making bets against Sofi that she knew she would lose, but still couldn't bring herself to reign in her competitive side – no matter how bad it was for her pride.

It was just before twelve when Lauren's phone started ringing, and she answered with a smile as Camila's face came on screen. After letting Sofi and Maggie talk to her for ten minutes, Lauren decided to take the call upstairs. Abandoning her paperwork, she climbed the staircases and shut herself in her room, laying on her bed as she stared up at Camila.

"So, how was your day?" Lauren asked.

"Good! A little slow, but I guess that's what you want to hear right?" Camila laughed. "It was just the usual; training, then I went on patrol, there was some weapon cleaning – mostly for my soldiers – and then you guessed it, more training. I did a little bit of shouting too, of course, because they're all idiots who don't know how to do their job properly. We also got some new infantry equipment so I did a bit of light reading of the manual – and yes, it's as fun as it sounds. Then I had another delicious meal, which was the highlight of my day up until now."