Far From Home

“I bet,” Sam said, not sounding too thrilled.

“You don’t bring many girlfriends home?” I asked, slightly amused when her cheeks blossomed with color.

“Not serious ones, no.”

“So only me, then.”

“Pretty much. To stay over, anyway.” She didn’t look at me then, quietly placing her hands in her lap as she played with a piece of lint that had fallen onto the edge of her blouse.

Simple conversation followed. The list of topics we covered was short and ranged from the weather to our studies, which was worlds better than what I’d thought was going to happen. No one asked about past relationships, and Sam’s dad didn’t judge me when he learned how much I’d slept around to avoid being with Sam. It was just easy conversation, which didn’t change once we got back to the house.

Inside, the light of a fire flickered across the walls and ceiling as a tray of tea and cookies sat out for us.

“Here, let me take that,” Sam’s mom said as she helped me with my things. “You must be famished. There are tea and biscuits on the table. I’ll have some real food ready in a moment. I’m just waiting on the roast.” She offered me a quick hug, then said, “Welcome to the family, hun. Oh, I have so much I want to know, but later. For now, you girls relax.

Dad and I will handle everything.”

Before I could thank her, she retreated into the kitchen, calling after Sam’s dad when he didn’t follow her.

“So?” Sam asked as we both sat down on the sofa. “It isn’t too bad, right?”

“No, though I am expecting to get questioned later.”

She laughed at that, handing me a mug of tea as she sat back with her own. “That’s never gonna happen. For as long as we’ve been together, they know you’re important to me. I’d

never done anything like this before, and while they did voice their concerns when I visited during spring break, they were only looking out for me.”

“And now?” I watched her as she dipped a cookie in her tea. I never did understand it, but it was one of her small quirks I’d grown to love.

“You’re part of the family,” her mother chimed in behind us, carrying a tray of food over to the dining room table.

I smiled my thanks, then closed my eyes, savoring the warm tea as I took my first sip. “Tea’s lovely.”

“Much better than what you have over there,” Sam’s dad said when he joined us moments later. “That there is real tea.

Stronger. It’ll pep you right up.”

God, I hope so.

“In the meantime, let’s eat.”

It was then my stomach decided to growl loud enough for everyone to hear. Sam’s mom passed me a shy smile while her dad kept to himself. As we sat down to eat, I didn’t feel as though I was a visitor or that I didn’t belong. There were no awkward silences. Instead, they spoke as though I’d always been around. Instead of asking what my major was, they asked me how it was going. Small things that made a huge difference, and soon, the butterflies I’d had on the flight over here simply faded away.

And you get to stay with them for two whole weeks.

I smiled then because even as I dug into a delicious meal, it was made worlds better by the woman sitting next to me.

No matter the distance between us, I could never walk away from this. From us.

And so, in the midst of a conversation, and before I could think it through, I turned to Sam, took her hands in mine, and blurted out what I’d been thinking the entire way here.

“Marry me.”

Silence followed.

Sam’s mom dropped her fork on her plate, her dad stared in my direction, and all the color drained from Sam’s face.

“What?” she managed to say, her hands shaking between us.