A Rose in Shadow

Chapter 93

A couple of weeks later they were finally able to coordinate their schedules and plan a visit to Shadow Valley for the weekend to stay with Sam's parents. Adam worked until 5pm on the Friday night and the plan was to swing home and pick up Samantha and their bags at the apartment and drive straight there. Hopefully arriving around ten o'clock once they added in a stop for a quick meal and a gas fill up.

Samantha had wanted to take her car; saying that they would get better gas mileage but Adam told her that he would be more comfortable driving the distance in his truck.

Samantha's car had actually been acting up lately and he had asked his mechanic friend who did the work on the patrol cars, to look it over while they were gone for the weekend. He would tell Samantha about it once they were on the road.

She didn't like when he took control of stuff like that but he couldn't help it, she was so stubborn and independent but if it was a problem that he could easily fix for her then he would. He knew that she would insist on paying his friend for his time and Adam had already worked out that deal, leaving a case of beer in the trunk of the car and the keys in the wheel well. If it needed parts then Adam would let Samantha pay for them, or they would split the cost. His preference would be that he pay but he knew that wasn't an option with her.

They hadn't yet had a serious discussion about finances but since they were going to be married, she still didn't know this yet, they should really have a joint bank account.

Adam knew that she had student loans and that she would be adamant on paying for these herself but he had already done some research and had a meeting with his banking advisor and thought that he had come up with the best solution for this. He just had to get Sam on board.

Once they had been driving for about forty minutes Adam glanced over to Samantha who sat beside him was studying from a textbook and making notes for her upcoming exams. "Got a minute for something?" he asked casually.

The two of them had gotten into a comfortable routine in the evenings. Samantha usually either prepping meals in the kitchen, puttering around the apartment, or studying and Adam reading or catching up on the sporting news on television. The nights though that neither of them had to get up early, they typically spent together curled up on the couch.

Surprised, Samantha closed her books and turned to Adam. "Of course. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, babe" he smiled and reached out his hand for hers. She took it instantly.

"Just thought that we should talk about a few things that we haven't a chance to yet, since we started living together".

"Okay" she said cautiously. "You're not unhappy are you?"

He squeezed her fingers impatiently "Samantha, of course not. I love you and I'm happy living with you. I wanted to talk about your car first" Surprise came over her face "My car?"

"Um, yeah" he shifted and she narrowed her eyes at him "What did you do, Adam?"

He gave her a sheepish grin "My friend, who's a mechanic, is going to take a look at it this weekend while we're gone" she started to protest and he plowed on "He owes me a favour. He'll look it over and let me – us – know what it needs, if anything, and do the work for us. We'll just have to pay him for the parts." He paused and looked cautiously at her to gauge her reaction "It would make me feel better if we had it looked at before you drive it again, okay?"

Sighing she sat back "You know that I hate when you go around me like that, right?"

"I know, but you would have insisted that we pay him for his time or that he not do it on the weekend and it would have offended him. He owes me a favour, he heard me talking about your car acting up and he wanted to do something. That's all this is".