BXBX NOVEL Chapter 41 - Last Night
The rest of the time that they spent at the shooting range, Samuel went from standing back and leaning against the wall while watching lean to shifting to sitting on the floor. He wasn\'t exactly sure how Clive managed to stay standing for the likely two or three hours that they spent at the shooting range, but he got the feeling that it probably came from years of practice.
Lena was so focused on what she was doing that she hardly took time in between shoots to talk with the or do anything that would make it apparent that she remembered that they were still there with her. She took her practice very seriously and any little mistake or distraction that happened would cost her getting a perfect or near perfect shot and that wasn\'t something she could afford.
Clive on the other hand was kind enough to indulge Samuel with some small talk even though the other hadn\'t directly asked him for it. He would keep his voice low as he explained why the princess would shift her position slightly or change by a mere inch or so the point she was holding the gun at or where her fingers were placed in order to test which gave her the higher rate of accuracy.
Samuel listened intently as the older man would explain something to him. He knew that it took a lot of practice and experience to be able to correctly use a gun and a get a good shot, but it was still far more effort and detail orientation than he had expected involved in getting the perfect shot.
When it was time to leave, Lena made sure that she put up away everything correctly and had Samuel take off his own vest so that he could slowly get used to how to take it off himself. Later she could work more with him understanding how to put it on.
The ride back to the estate felt even quieter than the one to the shooting range had. The princess was still spending her time focused on looking out the car window than she was with trying to talk with Samuel who was sitting right next to her. Somehow he had expected that she would be acting differently since it was going to be the last night he would be staying there before going back.
"Is something wrong?" Samuel finally asked when he couldn\'t handle the silence any longer and wanted to know what was going on.
"Nothing is wrong. I\'m being quiet because I have a lot on my mind today. But it isn\'t anything wrong with you if that\'s what you\'re worrying about." Lena replied without turning to face him as she kept looking out the window.
"Except for your poor aim, but we will fix that with a bit of time. Try not to get ahead of yourself with anything yet while we\'re apart. Remember you\'re still a little chickadee so don\'t do anything that get yourself hurt."
"How would I end up doing anything to hurt myself? I will be spending most of the time with my family. At most, I will be doing paintball with some of my friends and we might go and do a few other things together but nothing that puts me at risk of hurting myself." He felt mildly confused by her comment.
"You say that, but from my observations since you\'ve been here, you seem to have a knack for being clumsy and getting yourself hurt." Lena replied as she glanced back at the other who seemed slightly offended at what she had said.
"Two situations don\'t countify enough to base such a judgement off of. I only struggle with things occasionally when it\'s something that I am not familiar with. What happened when we were out riding doesn\'t count anyways because you were the one who was going too fast and I didn\'t know how to correctly handle Goldy going down that slope." he retorted. He had honestly never really been clumsy before coming to stay with her. Though that could\'ve been partly due to the fact that his parents hardly let him do anything that was too active out of fear he might hurt himself.
"Two situations in a week do to me because I am hardly ever clumsy, even when I am working with something I have never done before." Lena tsked when she finished speaking, changing the subject before he could say anything else.
"I have some things I need to take care of when we get back, so you\'ll have to entertain yourself for a while probably until dinner."
"I thought that you still had the day off for today as well?" He asked confused by her sudden announcement, turning to look at him for the first time since they left, she offered him a small annoyed smile.
"I was supposed to. But the universe had other plans apparently so there are somethings that I need to be doing instead. The time can be made up though as I can take the time to drop you off tomorrow back at your home when you leave." the princess told him. She was only mildly annoyed by the fact that other things had come up which interrupted the way that she had planned on everything to go.
"Are you planning on meeting my parents when you do that?" Samuel asked, he was slightly nervous about this since he hadn\'t exactly been completely upfront about the type of relationship that he and the little queen had.
"No, I will wait to meet them until your birthday. Considering I don\'t know that much about them, I would prefer to understand what I should to expect before I do that." Her answer provided him with the small amount of relief.
"If that\'s the case though, you don\'t have to drive all that way with me if you don\'t want to. Clive brought me here on my own with no problem, I am sure that the ride back will end the same way."
"Sammy-boy, I am saying it as something I want to do. I wouldn\'t have said it if it wasn\'t something that I wanted to do."
"If you say so." He replied, not feeling fully convinced that was the case with the other.
"Haven\'t we gone through this before?" She asked, slightly annoyed as she narrowed her eyes while looking at him. He shrugged her off before replying.
"You mean saying you don\'t\' do anything that you don\'t want to do so if you say you want to do something, it means you want to conversation? We have once."
"Which was mere days ago. Hence, my response to that still hasn\'t changed. So, I will be coming with you tomorrow regardless of what you\'re decision is."
"Doesn\'t that mean though if you\'re coming regardless of what I say that I don\'t really have a decision in the matter in the first place?" He quipped back.
"No, you can freely state what you\'re decision is, I\'m just not required to listening to it since no directive is being given. Decision is similar to an opinion, just because you have one doesn\'t mean it\'s going to be shared with others or they\'ll chose to agree with you." Lena replied.
The bantering continued like that for the last few minutes of the ride until they got back to the estate. It seemed harmless enough to Clive that he didn\'t bothering trying to interject himself into the matter as the situation didn\'t elevate itself as the seconds passed by.
Plus, once he had parked in front of the estate, the bantering between the two stopped and Lena was the first to step out before Samuel followed quickly behind her.
Until the car ride, Clive had been unaware that Samuel\'s visit was getting cut short. Because of the extra driving he would be doing, he made a mental note for himself to remember the car would probably need to go back for an inspection sooner than he had initially planned with all the extra driving he would be doing.
It was the last night before things would be going back to being quiet for a while until the official announcement for the engagement would be made.