Page 1 of Almost Priest

CHAPTER1

She was making a mistake, Samantha thought for the hundredth time that evening. She distracted herself with her phone as they headed over the interstate toward the darkening west. Braydon tapped out a beat on the steering wheel as the chiming sounds of Coldplay filled the car. Unlike Sam, he appeared to be suffering from zero misgivings about this trip.

The signal finally picked up on her wireless network and she quickly logged into her mobile email. Grades had to be posted by now.

“You get through?” Braydon asked at her sigh of relief.

“Yeah, let’s just hope it loads.”

“The closer we get to Center County the harder it’ll be to get a signal. I don’t know why you’re worried anyway. You know you got an A.”

Sam tapped her foot on the carpeted interior of his Passat with fidgety impatience. The chances of her getting less than an A were unlikely, but she wouldn’t be able to relax until she knew for sure.

“I probably wouldn’t be so concerned if it was a normal semester for me, but student teaching and senior seminar ate up all eighteen of my credits this semester. That one grade carries more weight than a typical three credit course.”

He shook his head in resignation. “Samantha, you showed up every day, your cooperating teacher loved you, the principal of the school requested you to forward your résumé directly to her when you graduate, and you’ve carried a four point oh GPA since you were a freshman. You shouldn’t be stressing over this.”

She pursed her lips as the swirled rotary image cycled on her phone. There seemed to be a cyber traffic jam at thirty percent loaded. “Come on.” Her phone suddenly let out three obnoxious beeps and informed her that the wireless connection failed. “Damn it!”

“When we get to the house you can use my parents' computer.”

“I don’t want to impose. Can we stop at a McDonalds or some other fast food place with wifi before we get there?”

Sam didn’t share Bray’s amusement when he chuckled. “Samantha, we don’t have fast food joints out here. Just let it go. Once grades are out there’s nothing you can do about them anyway. Put your phone away and embrace the fact that you have three weeks of vacation before you have to even think about college again.”

He was right. She sighed and slipped her cell back into her bag, but for some reason she still couldn’t relax. Rather than stress about her grades or the fact that she was only six credits away from graduating, she stressed about their journey.

It was the start of summer, yet to Sam it was the end of an era. Her flip-flops and shorts were only irrelevant accessories. Her mind was solely focused on the light at the end of the tunnel. As the air from the sleek black vent on the dash tickled her exposed knees, Sam imagined what the end of the summer would feel like. Such relief. By mid-August she’d be, if everything went according to plan, settling into her new classroom and zipping through textbooks and novels for her lesson plans.

She shouldn’t have agreed to go home with Braydon. She wasn’t sure why he even asked in the first place. The minute they pulled onto the highway, however, the belated acknowledgement that they were in a relationship set in. For some reason it never occurred to her to see their acquaintance that way. Sure they had a mild, mutual attraction and shared a few meals and kisses together, but as far as being a couple, well, Sam wasn’t quite there yet. She only hoped his family didn’t read too much into the significance of her visit.

The truth was she never would’ve agreed to join Braydon if her parents weren’t in Florida for the month. The idea of returning home to her mom and dad’s empty house seemed a depressing way to spend her summer break. It was the image of her watching played-out movies on basic cable, never once taking off her slippers, and destroying one pint of Ben and Jerry’s a night, that struck her as pathetic and had her quickly agreeing to spend her break with the McCulloughs. Now she was thinking she would’ve been better off returning home and waiting it out on her own.

Braydon laid his hand on her thigh and gave an affectionate squeeze. His hands were large and masculine, but pampered and surprisingly smooth. “It’ll be fine. You’ll see. You’ll love the mountains.”

Samantha offered a halfhearted nod and settled further into her seat. She’d never been this far away from the suburbs of Pennsylvania other than her time in the city and was unsure what to expect. She’d probably get a crash course in nature and the great outdoors over the next three weeks, but she wasn’t worried. She prided herself on her ability to adapt to almost any setting.

This would be an adventure of sorts, a chance to learn, and experience new things. She just hoped the McCulloughs didn’t mind her being there. Houseguests were tedious no matter how loved, after a certain length of time.

Braydon had a large family. Hopefully she could fall into the shadows and not cause too many waves in their normal routine. “Who’s going to be there? At the house I mean.”

“Well, you got my mom and dad, Sheilagh, who’s graduating in a few days, Kelly, who’ll probably live with my parents until he’s forty. If Colin isn’t there already he’ll be there eventually. Kate and the kids will be around, but she lives close so she’ll travel back and forth. You’ll get to meet Morai and Nonna. Luke lives in the guest house so he’ll be in and out for meals and other stuff and I think Finn just broke up with Erin so I think he’s back in the house too.” Samantha stared at him dumbly for a second. “What?”

“When you said you had a big family I didn’t realize it was that big. I’ll never remember all that. How many brothers and sisters do you have total and are you the only one that left the nest?”

“There are seven of us total. Katherine, that’s Kate, is the oldest. She has her own place with her husband, Ant, and they are expecting their fourth kid soon. Colin’s been away for years. He’s the oldest brother. He left for college right after he graduated.

“Finn works with my Uncle Paulie and my dad as a logger, but Luke, his twin, went away to Notre Dame for four years on a football scholarship. He never planned on returning home, but after he hurt his knee he kind of just showed up. I think eventually, once he gets over his hurt pride and bruised ego, he’ll take off again.

“Kelly, I guess, is our black sheep. He never showed any interest in leaving, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one day he suddenly declared he was going to drift across country for the pure novelty of it. And Sheilagh, well, hopefully she’s mellowed out, but from what my mom tells me I don’t think that’s the case. She’s graduating this year.”

“What do you mean mellowed out?”

He laughed.

“Ever hear the saying ‘if you want trouble find yourself a redhead’? That’s Sheilagh. It’s her life’s ambition to prove that redheads truly have more fun. Don’t let her intimidate you though. She acts hard, but she’s really a marshmallow on the inside.”

“Oh. Is she planning on going to college in the fall?”

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