Chapter Twelve

Do the Twist

Sammi lay in her bed with her arms folded across her stomach. With her right index finger and thumb, she rubbed the bare ring finger on her left hand. Had her ring been there, she’d been doing the twist thing she does with it whenever she’s nervous. But she’d removed the ring yesterday before Bo had come over for the disastrous spaghetti dinner.

She had decided to take off the ring for her own personal reasons. If she planned to truly start a lasting relationship with Bo, then she needed to move on. She needed to give Bo her whole heart and mind, but how could she do that if every time she looked down at her wedding ring she was reminded of her late husband?

The ring symbolized the bond and the vows she’d once shared with him. Well, now she wanted to try to form a bond with Bo. However, Sammi didn’t want to forget about the man she’d married and shared an incredible life with either; the man she’d had three wonderful daughters with. Nevermind the fact that the daughters weren’t acting so wonderful right about now.

After praying on it, Sammi realized that removing the ring didn’t mean she was removing memories of her children’s father. It just meant that she was removing one thing in order to make room for something else. Not that that meant she wanted Bo to propose to her any time soon with a ring of his own. It just meant that if the day ever did come, she wanted to be ready.

Ironically, though, now she wished she hadn’t taken off the ring. Not because she had lost all hope of straightening things out with Bo, but because she needed to cure her nervousness. Right now, she needed more than anything to do the twist with her ring. Taking a deep breath, Sammi figured there was only one way to cure her nervousness. It wasn’t to put her ring back on. It was to just go ahead and get the task at hand out of the way.

After waiting all day for Bo to call her, Sammi decided to make the first move and call him. She looked over at the alarm clock on her nightstand. It was almost nine o’clock on a Monday night. It was getting late. If she was going to make a move, then she needed to do it fast, before it got any later.

After picking up the phone and dialing Bo’s phone number, Sammi put the phone to her ear. She heard dead silence; no ring, no nothing. “Hello,” she said into the phone receiver.

“Yes, may I speak to Sammi?” the male voice on the other end of the line asked.

“Bo?” Sammi said in a surprised tone. She hadn’t even heard a ring on the other end, and yet Bo was on the line.

“Yes, it’s me. I hope I’m not calling too late.”

“Well, no, as a matter of fact, I was calling you?”

“Good, then I didn’t catch you sleeping and interrupt a sweet dream or anything,” Bo flirted.

This made Sammi smile. It also made her relax. She had not known what to expect from Bo the next time she spoke to him after that dinner fiasco, but she hadn’t expected him to be his usual charming self. Even though it sounded as if Bo had already forgiven and forgotten, Sammi still felt the need to speak on the situation.

“Bo, I can’t apologize enough about yesterday’s dinner,” Sammi started.

“Sure you can, and you have,” Bo said. “You apologized enough yesterday. Sorry I couldn’t accept your apology, but my mouth was kind of, you know…”

“Yeah, I know,” Sammi sighed. “I still feel so awful. I never expected my girls would ever do anything like that.”

“They’re kids,” Bo reasoned. “Kids who love their mother and who might be feeling a little anxiety about the new man in their mother’s life.”

“That’s still no excuse for doing what they did.”

“I’m not condoning the girls’ actions not one little bit. All I‘m saying is that I understand.”

“I’m glad you understand. I, on the other hand, am still trying to process it all. I guess I just need to sit down and have a reasonable conversation with them when tempers aren’t flared. Because believe you me, I had a good talking to them all right,” Sammi assured him.

“And are they on any type of punishment?” Bo asked.

Sammi felt a little thrown off by Bo‘s question at first. She hoped Bo wasn’t about to try and tell her how to discipline her girls. “Well, no, uh…”

“Good, because I was hoping I could have one more shot at getting the girls to warm up to me,” Bo said. “My company picnic is at the Columbus Zoo on Saturday, and I was hoping that maybe, well, that you, me and the girls could go. That‘s why I was hoping you went easy on them and didn‘t put them on punishment or anything.”

Sammi exhaled. Bo was a dream come true. He was more understanding about the situation than she could have ever hoped for. Not only was he willing to give her a second chance, but he was willing to give Kennedy, Daryn and Joy a second chance as well. It was obvious that he realized, without Sammi having to say it, that her and her girls were a package deal. No matter how rotten they may have acted, they were still her girls.

“We’d love to go to the zoo on Saturday,” Sammi gladly accepted the invitation.

“Great. I’ll get the times down for everything and let you know all the specifics.”

“I’d like that,” Sammi blushed.

“Me too,” Bo replied. “So just talk it over with the girls and you and I will talk later. Goodnight, Sammi.”

“Goodnight, Bo.” Sammi hung up the phone and couldn’t get the grin off her face as she sunk down into her pillows. Her smile soon faded once she realized that the deal wasn’t completely sealed yet. She now had to make a deal with the packaged deal, A.K.A. her daughters, B.K. A. (better known as), the Soul Sisters.

Oh, my, Sammi thought before turning off the light. I’d perhaps rather make a deal with the devil.