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“ It has been a while I guess, but it has not gone unnoticed,” she said. Sam turned to Nicole.“ You had a gentleman with you,” she said.“ His name is Matt,” Nicole nodded.“ You two make a beautiful couple. He is very handsome, and I am sure he has told you how absolutely gorgeous you are,” Sam said. It was Nicole’ s turn to blush, Sam glanced at her watch and announced dinner would be served as soon as they returned to the main house.
The garage doors were closing as Sam told Eddie to drive. They took the same seating arrangement they had on the way down. The breeze had picked up and Justin noticed Sam’ s blouse billowed, showing off her lacy brazier. He tried not to peek but Sam acted like she could not care less and she reminded him of the pictures he discovered on his computer.“ No!” he screamed inside his head. She kept the thought that he was going to be very popular to herself. She accepted the compliment from the teenage boy without mention.
The formal dining room table sat twelve. Sam explained the original table sat twenty but she and John seldom entertained more than a few couples. She asked Eddie to sit at the head of the long table. The children sat facing Sam and Tanya. Maurice served salads and poured wine at all five place settings. Sam saw the look on Justin’ s face.“ Maurice came from Italy as a young man. Wine was served to everyone at dinner,” Sam explained. The kids noticed only their water glasses were refilled. The chilled white wine complimented the seafood crepes served on a bed of wild rice. The innocent looking portion was not as it appeared. Justin wondered if he could ask for seconds when the small plate was placed before him. The rich food seemed to expand magically. He hoped he had room for desert as he cleaned the plate. Coffee was served with desert. The cheese cake was the chef’ s personal recipe, and“ Too die for!” according to Nicole.“ Tell James dinner was wonderful,” Sam said to Maurice.“ Yes madam,” he said, looking at the gathering.“ Yes. Wonderful!” Came the unanimous response.“ James will be pleased,” Maurice said, and cleared the table.
Sam liked the way the children waited to be excused. It was a manner that seemed to have been lost in the twenty-first century. Sam showed them the billiard room. There was also a poker table and bar lit by brass and green glass fixtures that hung from the wood beamed ceiling. The big screen television was twice the size of theirs. Justin came to the realization of the err of his past weekend’ s decision when he saw the swimming pool. The Jacuzzi was red, the pool was blue and the waterfall changed color continuously. The look on her children’ s faces allowed Tanya to answer the question before it was asked.“ In the trunk of the car. Bring in the beach bag please,” Tanya smiled and handed over the car key.
Standing at the trunk of the car Nicole looked through the bag and handed Justin his swim trunks.“ You were such an idiot for not coming here for the weekend,” Nicole teased. No shit, his brain chided! But retorted,“ Mom asked what time Matt left Saturday night.” Nicole panicked,“ What did you tell her?”“ Just in time for the birthday party- Sunday,” he countered, trying to keep a straight face. He managed for the moment and received the reaction he desired. Nicole wanted to strangle him until he cracked.“ Bastard. What did you really say?”“ I told her Ryan and I were playing video games and didn’ t notice.”“ I hope you thanked Matt for letting you borrow the video game Mom refused to let you have,” Nicole said. Justin nodded and closed the trunk of the car.“ What do you think about Sam?” he asked.“ I don’ t know. She wasn’ t sitting on my lap with her shirt flapping in the breeze,” she said, to her brother’ s total embarrassment. I wonder how she looks in a swimsuit. Maybe like the girls in the video game,” Nicole said, planting that visual image in his brain.“ You didn’ t see her when she leaned in the car window and talked to dad.”