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“ How much is it if we don’ t sleep in the cargo hold?” Eddie asked. Tanya was becoming angry so she punched in the numbers for a suite and watched the total triple.“ Now that would be nice!” Eddie exclaimed, looking at the amenities.“ Get real Eddie. I don’ t care how much your bonus was. I’ m not taking our savings down to zero again,” Tanya said, accessing their account to show him how much was in savings. The bank statement showed a hold on the last deposit, pending verification.“ They must have added an extra zero or two,” she said, almost to herself. She looked at Eddie who was now smiling and shaking his head.“ This is correct?” she asked.“ Right on the money,” Eddie said and watched the tears form in her dark brown eyes. She punched him on the shoulder.“ Why didn’ t you tell me?”“ It was more fun this way,” he said, and held her. Tanya was trembling.“ I am so proud of you. We need to take the kids out and celebrate,” She said, wiping her eyes.“ Not bad for a truck driver.”“ You are not a truck driver. You are a successful businessman and you have some serious business to take care of upstairs,” she said, taking him by the hand. Eddie did not need to be pulled along. They raced up the stairs and put a dent in lost time.
They went out to celebrate Eddie’ s success. On the way home Tanya announced the entire family had been invited to Sam’ s house for the weekend.“ I have a date with Matt Saturday and Sunday his family is having a birthday party. His niece is having her first birthday. Matt expects me to be there because I told him I would attend, before you made other plans,” Nicole protested. Justin was in a panic. The idea of having to spend two whole days with a bunch of adults was similar to having wisdom teeth pulled.“ What am I going to do there?” he asked.“ She has a beautiful swimming pool and a billiard room. Nicole since you already made plans, you don’ t have to go,” Tanya said.“ Not fair. Can’ t I stay home by myself? At least I won’ t be bored out of my mind. How far away does she live?” he asked.“ About twenty-five minutes away.”“ So you could check on me anytime you wanted. If there was a problem I could call and you could be home quickly. Please don’ t make me go,” he pleaded.
The discussion between the parents in the front seat was met by a palpable silence from the back seat of Tanya’ s car. Sam wanted to meet Nicole and Justin. Tanya had not even discussed Sam’ s proposal with Eddie. Her plan was to tell Sam she just could not find the proper moment to ask him. She knew Eddie would have questions and Sam held some of the answers.“ Do you think we can trust them for a whole weekend?” Tanya asked, turning into their neighborhood. Eddie turned and looked at his son’ s pained face.“ This will be a trial run. If you mind yourselves and we don’ t come home to any disaster, we will begin to ask if you want to go instead of making you go,” Eddie warned.“ Thank you!” Justin said.“ Not fair. I didn’ t get to do that when I was fourteen,” Nicole stated.“ I’ m almost fifteen,” Justin argued.“ Maybe we should go back to the original plan and make this a family adventure,” Tanya said to Eddie. Fear crossed both the teenager’ s faces.“ I’ m sorry I didn’ t mean that. As a matter of fact I’ ll make sure Justin stays out of trouble,” Nicole said quickly.