"You care a lot about the way family treats each other." Samuel commented a slight smile on his face as he picked up his cake.
"Only close family. It's different compared to distant relatives or those that one doesn't know that well." The princess replied.
"You can't always trust close family either, but the way I grow up, immediate family and those who are close enough to be in that circle are the only ones that a person can really trust. Family you aren't close with and don't grow up around are different. Because you don't grow up around them, you don't know what to expect or what they think of you and vice versa." She further explained as she began to eat her own cake.
"That's why the only people I consider family are the ones that live here. I don't care for any of my other relatives."
"That makes sense in a way. I grow up in a family that kept tradition with having family gatherings during holidays and special events even if we didn't all get along because I was told growing up that was family was supposed to stick together no matter what." He the princess who gave him a rather distant look when he said this.
"I can say that I agree with that to a certain degree, but I would also say that there are reasons and times where that wouldn't apply. Having disagreements or not seeing the same way on inconsequential matters are one things, there's always going to be something that family isn't all going to agree on. It's another thing though when they don't treat you right or overstep boundaries for no reason except for their own benefit or because they can."
"I guess that you would say my aunt falls into that second category?" He asked, taking another bite of the cake. The coffee taste had become more pronounced now that it had had more time to sit and absorb all the different flavors.
"You catch on quick." Was the princess's reply as she finished the rest of the cake. It made her want to have coffee now.
"If you don't think that there's anything wrong with the proposal, I was planning on sending it to your uncle this week and giving him the weekend to think it over before contacting him next week to see if he would be interested in setting up a meeting." The closer it got to the engagement party, the more busy she would get. This was one of the many things that she wanted to get done ahead of time so that she wouldn't have much weighing on her during that time.
She already had a feeling that her father would be making her take a few days off around that time whether she wanted to or not claiming that she should enjoy that time since such an engagement only happened once in life. She didn't quite understand it much, but she had hear father recount his engagement countless times when she was younger.
For her because of the way that everything was happening unlike with her parents, it didn't quite feel like it was that huge of a deal. Certainly something to celebrate in their eyes because it was an unexpected event and some thought that Samuel was a good fit for her.
Plus, she was also thinking about that within a year of them getting engaged officially, they most likely would be planning the wedding and getting married. If she had a choice between the two, she would prefer to save the time off to have an extended honeymoon than break it up between two times.
"I can't say how my uncle would respond to this sudden proposal, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It looks like more than A fair deal to me." Samuel replied as he sat back in his chair and looked back in the direction the deck overhung. It was beautiful sight from where he was sitting, but he was certain that the scenery from over the edge of the deck was even more beautiful.
"The sunroom is still my favorite one to use, but it isn't bad out here when the weather is nice. During the winter it's cold most of the time though." Lena commented when she noticed how much Samuel seemed to be enjoying the sight of everything.
"Have you ever slept out here in the hammock sy night?" He suddenly asked, taking note of it for the first time.
"No. I only use to lay in on occasions when I want to read." By the tone of her voice, he could tell she was trying to understand why would someone want to do such a thing.
"It's an enjoyable thing to do when the weather is nice and it isn't too noisy. It can be relaxing to sleep outside like that." He had done it a number of times at home with his parents. Fall and Spring were his two favorite seasons to do it during because it was neither too warm or cold outside for him.
"You can sleep in the hammock as much as you want. I personally prefer my bed as it's softer, more stable, and comfortable." She said in response to his comment. She had never felt it was comfortable enough to sleep in no matter how much she had used it. The swinging back and forth messed with her senses too much.
"If you're not planning on using it often, I might take you up on that offer when I need someplace more peaceful to sleep." He told her as he stood up from the chair so he could finally go over to the edge of the deck and see how much he could see.
"You can only sleep on it at night if someone is aware of it. Otherwise I feel it would be safe enough." The princess warned him.
She didn't think anything would happen to him as it had been years since the last time anyone outside of the family had managed to get close to the estate.
"I would let you know before I told anyone else." The sight over the railing was rather beautiful. Because of the way that the land sloped, he could see rather far from where he was standing.
"Do you stay in touch with any of the other extended family you have?" He asked after a few minutes of silence. He had too much on his mind still as he looked out over the property ahh Lena was back to working after she had finished her slice of cake.
"No. Mostly because I wasn't close with them in the first place and haven't felt much of a reason to stay in touch." The little queen replied honestly. She didn't feel the need to waste communication on people she wasn't that close with.
"Most of them decided that there were other things that they wanted to do away from the main family or wanted out of everything in order to be able to pursue other work or business avenues without having to refer back to my father for final say on certain things. It doesn't bother me though, it's just the way everything turned out." She replied.
"Would you talk or change your relationship with them if any one of them tried to get in touch with you now?" He then asked, turning to look at her. It was starting to get a bit warm without the cover of the awning.
"That would depend on their reason for contacting me. If it was simply because there was something they wanted or needed from be or the rest of my family- that isn't a good enough reason to get me to talk." She didn't have patience for those type of people. Family or not, the relationship had to work two ways for her to invest in it.
Samuel had hoped that without directly having to tell the princess anything that if he asked such questions in regards to her family, it might give him an idea of how to approach the situation with J.
He assumed at least that the other had to be family because of the way he talked about his mother, but he didn't know what type of family.
Could the relationship between them be mutually beneficial if he tried talking with the other the way he wanted? He wasn't sure yet because he didn't know what the other's real motive for reaching out to him was.
Watching the other, the princess wondered if there was something on his mind that was leading him to ask such questions about her family.
To her it still seemed like he had something on his mind that he wasn't talking about and she wasn't so sure that it just had to do with the engagement.
He was going to be close family soon once they were engaged and married even though they weren't related and she expected that if anything was bothering him, they would talk about such things. She just had to figure out how to get him to tell.
