Penny stood there awkwardly looking from one to the other. "I'm Penny Campbell," she said, holding out her hand. "You must be Colten."

Colten looked at her inquisitively. "You're Sam's friend? The one he made cry?"

Penny cleared her throat, a bit uncomfortable at his directness. "Yes."

She turned to the woman after Colten let go of her hand. "I'm Penny."

"I'm Colt's mom, Kate." She took her hand and motioned to the chair for her to sit.

"Thank God, I thought that other woman was the one that Sam had promised to bring to meet me," the boy said.

Penny didn't know what to say to this. Surely Sam hadn't shared what had happened between them. "Why did Sam tell you about my crying?" She looked from Colten to Kate, but Kate was looking at her son, just as confused as Penny was.

"He was upset the other morning and he said that he had made you cry. I told him to buy you something, that that always made girls feel better. Did he buy you something and did it make you feel better?" As soon as Colten had that thought he had another. "Who was that woman, she introduced herself as Celeste Evers. Is she like Sam's sister or something?"

Penny cleared her throat looking at Kate for help. Kate must have sensed her unease because she advised her son to ask Sam and not Penny the last question.

"How do you know Sam?" Kate asked with a smile at the chagrined look on her son's face.

"I'm his housekeeper," Penny said softly, looking from one to the other. Colten seemed to be unfazed by the fact and Kate seemed to relax immediately.

"I thought maybe you were his wife," Kate said. "I don't think I would know how to act around Sam's wife. It feels as if we steal too much of his time. I would feel guilty."

"Sam's not married." Colten provided. "You're not his girlfriend?"

"No, just his housekeeper."

Colten looked at her oddly but then decided to return to his initial question. "How did Sam make you cry?"

"Colt!" his mother admonished again.

"It's alright." Penny didn't mind sharing the story, a least not the watered down version. So she told them it from the beginning, feeling free to elaborate on the mice and their evil plot, and how they would hide from Sam, but whenever he would turn his back they would pop back out of hiding. "So you see, he didn't believe me and that made me mad and sad so I cried.

Colten and Kate were laughing at her story so hard they were almost crying and that was when Sam reentered the room.

"Sounds like I'm missing a good time," Sam said, smiling as he entered the room with the nurse Penny had met last time she had been at the hospital. She looked at her name tag and was reminded that her name was Robin.

The nurse stopped for a moment pausing as she looked at her. She remembered her but it was clear that she couldn't place her. Penny didn't remind her. The whole episode had been humiliating and the fewer people who remembered it the better.

Sam joked around with them for a few minutes while he and Robin worked around Colten, and eventually with nothing else to keep her there Sam thanked Robin and she left the room with a smile for him.

Penny couldn't help but wonder if Robin was one of the dates that Sam was meeting when he went out at night. That was a whole part of his life she knew nothing about and if she was going to consider his proposal, her heart stopped at the thought, then that would be something that she would have to ask him about.

Sam's eyes met hers and she felt as if he was able to read her thoughts and she couldn't help the light blush that stole across her cheeks. His left eye narrowed as he talked to Colten and his mother, which meant he wasn't thinking about the conversation at all.

"Penny, I hate to do this to you, but Celeste is insistent that I take her to lunch," Sam said with an abrupt change of subject. At least Penny thought it was, but then she had been thinking about Sam and other girls so she hadn't been paying that much attention to what was being said.

"That's alright. There's a cafeteria or something right?" she said while doing her best to smile her serene smile, hoping her disappointment didn't show too much. He frowned at her comment but she wasn't sure why.

"Penny can join me. It will be one less meal that I have to eat alone," Kate suggested.

Penny had her doubts that this was true. She probably had every meal she could with Colten but she wanted to let Sam off easy so she agreed readily enough.

There was a knock on the door and Celeste stuck her head in the room. "Darling, I really am starving, can we go now?"

Penny sensed Sam's displeasure at being interrupted. "Should I find my own way home?" she asked, not sure if he was leaving the hospital to have lunch or not, and she could make it a little easier on him if he was.

"No." His answer was curt, as if she had said something to anger him. "We can meet back here at about half past three."

"If Colten and Kate don't mind putting up with me?" Penny smiled at Kate.

"No, why would we, besides you haven't finished your story," Colten said. They all looked at Sam, none of them having anything else to say. Penny hid a smile, she had a feeling that Kate and Colten were on her side and that they were very unhappy with the way that Sam had set her aside for Celeste. She thought that perhaps it was a fanciful thought on her part, but when Sam grinned and threw up his hands she realized that maybe it wasn't so fanciful.

"Alright, I can't take this heat anymore. I'll see you at back here Penny."

"Sure thing Dr. Evers," she said holding back her returning grin as Robin walked in at that moment, she seemed pleased that she had called him Dr. Evers. Penny looked over at Kate and they exchanged a complete look of understanding. Robin must not have heard Celeste's, darling, comment.

As soon as Sam, Celeste, and Robin had left, Kate giggled. "It must be hard to be Sam and have so many women chasing after him."

"It has to be a struggle," Penny agreed and they both started giggling, but Penny had to force it towards the end because she couldn't help but wonder what sort of chance she stood when he really did have that many women chasing after him. Maybe that was why he wanted to marry her, so that they would stop chasing him.

They spent the next half hour talking with Colten who wanted to know what her gift had been, and when she had told him he had gotten really excited about it and made Penny promise to bring photos the next time she came.

When they started to talk about heading towards the cafeteria Penny had a moment of guilt and offered to eat in the room with Kate and Colten, but Colten insisted it was time for his favorite show and that they would talk through the entire thing. He did make them promise to bring him back some dessert.

Kate led the way through the maze of hallways and staircases until they reached the cafeteria, which was not very busy. A handful of people were scattered around the tables, some were in groups others were alone. It was easy to spot Sam's tall commanding presence as she pulled out a chair for Celeste.

Penny did her best to ignore them, as Kate chatted about nothing particular while they filled their trays with food then moved to sit at a table well away from Sam. Luckily, Penny was able to sit with her back towards him, and she hoped that it would help her forget that he was there.

"Do you mind me asking where Colten's father is?" Penny stabbed a piece of overcooked broccoli and watched Kate as she thought hard about what she was going to say. "It's alright if you don't want to say. It's none of my business," Penny amended quickly.

Kate shrugged. "I don't mind, not really, I just try to find the easiest way to tell the story."

Penny remained silent, waiting, and she was just about to change the subject when Kate spoke again.

"I'm sorry, I don't have many friends, having a baby when you're a teenager makes most friends give up on you. Then after the baby there isn't time for friends."

"What about your parents or Colten's father?"

"No, my parents kicked me out when they found out I was pregnant, and Colten's father wasn't interested in a long term relationship. Sam's the closest thing that Colten has to a father figure." Penny watched as Kate looked over at Sam and smiled.

"Are you in love with him?" Penny asked the question before she even realized she had.

Kate shook her head. "No, I should be, but I'm not. He feels more like a brother to me than anything. I know he does more for us than he admits to doing, there are some charity funds that he knows about that have been helping pay for Colt's medical care, but I have a feeling that it's really Sam helping to pay the bills."

Kate looked at Penny closely, watching her play with her food. "You're in love with him though, aren't you?"

Penny gave a weak smile. "Is it that obvious?"

"No, not really but I picked up a vibe between the two of you. Are you really his housekeeper?"

"Yes, I've worked for him for two years now." Penny really wanted to share with her about Sam's proposal but she didn't think that it would be a good idea. She didn't want to put Sam in a tight spot or share his personal business.

"Does he know that you're in love with him?"

This time Penny shrugged. "I don't know, he's not always the easiest man to read."

"That's true, he's really good about keeping an even temperament no matter how bad the news is?" Kate was watching him again

Penny couldn't help but remember how mad he had been a few nights earlier when he had thought that she was trying to trick him, she suppressed a shiver. That was a side of Sam that she thought rarely made and appearance.

"Who's the woman?"

Again Penny wanted to tell her but she didn't want to share Sam's personal business, it wasn't her place. "You'll have to ask Sam."

"You're loyal, I'll give you that."

"I don't have many friends either and Sam's one of them."

Kate smiled and nodded letting her know that she got it and there were no hard feelings. They talked a little more about Colt's health and how serious he was, as well as the fact that Kate held down two part-time jobs and was still having a hard time making ends meet.

*******

Sam watched Penny's back as she sat at the table across the cafeteria from him. If he had ever wanted to do bodily harm to someone it was Celeste when he  opened the door and saw her sitting in Colt's room. The woman's scheming knew no limits. He hadn't tried to hide his displeasure from her as he had walked with her towards the cafeteria, but she had chatted the whole way as if she didn't have a care in the world.

Sam, on the other hand, wanted to slam his head into a brick wall. What on earth had possessed him to suggest marriage to Penny like he had? It had been unplanned and completely spur of the moment, at least the asking part was. He had been rolling the idea of marrying Penny around in his head for a while.

At first he had reasoned that it was because she fit so well into his well-ordered life and he liked the idea of having a wife again, maybe children, but without having the possibility of getting hurt like he had with Celeste.

He had believed he had loved Celeste when he had given her his heart all those years ago and she had stomped on it. He looked at her now as she carried on a one woman conversation. It amazed him how the woman was so clueless and devoid of feeling not to realize when she wasn't wanted; even if she did have as much of a right to be in his house as he did.

Kate looked over at him and smiled and he wondered what she and Penny were talking about. Knowing Penny it wasn't the unplanned thought of marriage he had dropped on her head like the fool that he was. It wasn't her style to tell secrets.

He had suspected he was in trouble where Penny and his heart were concerned when Cole had asked her why she hadn't married yet. The idea of Penny married to someone else had caught him off guard and left him thoughtful. He had been determined to figure out why but he knew that he would need to start slow. So he tested the waters by entering her domain, the kitchen, joining her on the porch, and then breakfast together seemed the next logical step. His reward was her slowly losing her constantly serene façade.

When she had bumped into him in the hall and her hand had landed on his bare chest he had felt something in his gut that he hadn't felt in a very long time, and he had been amused when she had gotten so flustered and ran away. The first kiss he had given her was an experiment to see what her reaction would be, but he hadn't accounted for his reaction. It was as if someone had finally pulled back a curtain and let in the sunlight.

He knew he was a gonner when he had heard her father belittling her like he had. There was no way he could be his doctor after what he had said to Penny. She had looked devastated, and when she had pushed into him for support he realized that nothing would mean more to him than to be the one that she relied on for that support.

Despite her first fearful reaction to their encounter in the hallway and then her passive reaction to his first kiss, he thought that she cared something for him. She had seemed to open up to him over the last week, but then he had to go and ruin it with his idiotic jealousy.

There was still a part of him that didn't know how to trust and he feared that that part of him would always be there. It had raised its ugly head when he had heard her friends talking about how rich he was and good for Penny for trying to catch him. It had reminded him so much of Celeste that he had been swallowed up by his past memories. The only thing he could think to do was leave and try to clear his head, which he thought he had been able to do until the mice.

It was so much like something that Celeste would do to pull him back into her web. At the beginning, before he knew what she was really up to, she would go through phases where she didn't want anything to do with him and then she couldn't get enough of him. When he realized that the times she couldn't get enough of him was when she was in between men, he started to fight her and she would try any trick she could think of to catch him again.

Penny's little dance on the bed, while charming at first, had suddenly seemed like a ploy, and when he couldn't find any mice he had nothing to disprove the theory. The walk with her on his back and up the stairs had felt like the longest walk he had ever taken, and if he hadn't of had Celeste's memory haunting him there would have been no way he could have walked away from her that night.

He knew that getting her the kitten hadn't been playing fair but he had been desperate.

When she had called him Sam he had wanted to do nothing more than kiss her, a real kiss that would leave them both breathless, so he had and it had been perfect. He had never felt anything like it in his life, it was like coming home and falling from a very high cliff all at the same time, and he realized in that moment that he loved her.

Celeste's and Billy's arrival had messed things up and Celeste was still messing things up. He knew things were going to get worse before they got better and there was nothing he could do about it since Celeste had as much right to be in his house as he did.

Asking Penny to marry him had been in part, a response to the panic he felt at potentially losing her, and desperately needing to know if she felt anything for him in return.

His heart had soared when she mentioned that she wanted children in response to his proposal. The idea of having Penny be the mother of his children made his heart so full he thought it might burst. He could see the image so clearly in his mind, how happy they could be, if she loved him. But she hadn't said yes, and now that he had to spend the next hour with Celeste he was nervous that she would get cold feet and shy away from the idea of marrying him. To her, he must seem a little crazy, since up until a week ago he had been treating with nothing more than polite friendliness, and now all of the sudden he was kissing her and asking her to marry him. Maybe he was crazy but the thought of anything less felt like a punch to the gut.

*******

When Penny and Kate rose to leave Kate took their trays and told her she would meet her at the entrance, that she wanted to get Colt a treat, so Penny moved to the door of the cafeteria to wait for her.

"So did you enjoy your lunch?" Celeste asked, walking over to her. She had been standing with Sam who was talking with another physician. "It wasn't nearly as good as your lunches are." She smiled sweetly with what on the surface sounded like a complement but she knew was and insult.

"I enjoyed the company." Penny smiled sweetly back, doing her best to infer that Sam might not have enjoyed hers.

Penny's phone buzzed and she looked down at it to see that she had gotten a text from Jason asking her about their next study session. Penny texted back that she wasn't sure and that she would have to let him know.

Celeste had been reading over her shoulder as she typed. "Is Jason a boyfriend?" she sounded overly sweet as she asked the question and her tone made Penny's hackles rise.

"No, he's just a guy in my study group." She turned off her phone and stood watching Celeste who had turned to watch Sam. She followed her gaze and saw Sam watching the two of them as he talked.

Kate returned and greeted Celeste before Celeste slowly moved away from them and towards the wall that was covered in posters behind them. She seemed to have an avid fascination about one involving milk doing a body good.

"What did she want?" Kate asked, not bothering to lower her voice, and Celeste didn't react so it was hard to tell if she had heard the question or not.

"Who knows?" She turned to look at Kate who looked tired. "I hate to keep bothering you and Colten. I only have half an hour to wait until Sam is ready to go, why don't you show me where a waiting room is and I'll wait there. When he comes to get me you can tell him where I am."

"That's silly-,"

"Please Kate."

"Are you sure, we really don't mind," she eventually conceded. Something in Penny's look must have convinced her that Penny wasn't going to give in on not returning to the room with her.

"I am."

Kate nodded and led the way back to a waiting room on Colt's floor and they parted friends. Penny told Kate not to hesitate to call her if she needed anything and Kate assured her that she would.