Hello everyone. Here's another story that's once again a two-parter in terms of length. I hope you enjoy it. Have fun 😉

"Why don't you tell her, Sam?" Charlie asked him as he sat down next to him on the quay wall and looked at his brother, who was hanging his arms over the lower crossbar of the railing.

"I don't know how. What if she doesn't care for me, just values ​​me as a good friend?"

"Good friend? Sam, you're her best friend. She makes no secret of that."

"How do you know?" he replied resignedly as he picked up a pebble next to him and threw it into the water.

"She's friends with Bronwyn too, as you know."

"Did she ever say something to her?"

"Bronnie didn't tell me anything else about you being her best friend. We talk about a lot of things, but women's conversations and especially women's secrets are none of my business, just as I don't tell Bronwyn everything about our conversations. Nevertheless, it's so obvious that you are meant for each other and it's a shame to watch you waste your valuable time in loneliness instead of being happy together."

"Just because others would like to see us as a couple, that's not the best basis for a relationship."

"Do you love her?"

"More than my life," he sighed resignedly.

"Then come on! You are the hero of Pontypandy. When it comes to doing your job, you always know what to do. Get off your ass and finally put out the fire in your heart instead of always being there for others."

A thoughtful grumble was all Charlie got in response as Sam looked out to sea, lost in thought.

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"Hello Bronwyn. What are the two of them doing there?" Penny asked Bronwyn as she entered the cafe and pointed behind her to Sam and Charlie, who were sitting on the dock.

"Conversations between brothers," she replied with a shrug. "What brings you here? I thought you wanted to renovate your house on your long weekend off?"

"I'm wallpapering my living room, Bronwyn, I'm not turning the whole house upside down. Today the weather was so nice, I just had to do something in the garden. But I don't just want to work either. So I took a walk here and now I have fancy your dish of the day."

"Coming right away," Bronwyn replied with a smile and turned to the stove while Penny sat down at the counter.

"What's wrong with Sam? He looks so down."

"If you would come clean to him, you would know and be able to comfort him," her friend teased, winking at her with a smile. Penny rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Bronwyn!" she replied warningly. "Sam doesn't show in any way whether he is interested in me at all."

"Because you don't show him your interest in him either. Man, Penny, one of you has to make the first move and the whole of Pontypandy looks at you, how much you really care about each other, how you lust after each other, only you two don't realize it."

"People always know better," she replied sarcastically. "I'll make a complete fool of myself if he doesn't want any more. Or what if it goes wrong?"

"During an emergency, do you ask yourself what could go wrong before you save someone? Have you ever wondered if you could hurt yourself while doing wallpaper or gardening?" Bronwyn asked as she placed a glass of water in front of her and caught Penny's skeptical look. "You see? Sometimes just doing it is the best solution, otherwise you won't get anywhere."

"If only it were that easy," Penny sighed and took a sip.

"Hey Penny, do you need help?" she heard a voice that was all too familiar to her and choked on her water in shock. Sam immediately patted her on the back. "Please excuse me, I didn't mean to scare you," Sam then added when she had calmed down and he sat down next to her to look at her worriedly.

"It's all good. I was just a bit preoccupied," she replied with a smile as Bronwyn put a plate in front of her and Sam too.

"I don't want anything Bronwyn, thank you," Sam objected, but Bronwyn didn't allow any argument.

"Enjoy it, Sam," Penny said with a smile before taking a forkful. Bronwyn was such a warm person, you couldn't refuse her anything.

"You too," he replied with a smile and took the plunge. Only then did he realize that he simply ate too irregularly when he was free. The one slice of bread this morning definitely wasn't enough. "So, what's bothering you?"

Penny looked up at him, perplexed, until she remembered that he meant what she said when he came in. Her head was spinning, but she couldn't come up with an excuse as Bronwyn jumped to her side.

"Penny worked in the garden today and isn't really getting anywhere. Aren't you free too, Sam? You could show her a few of your tricks and if it's too much stuff, you can spend the night there too, it's lots of space in the house, isn't it Penny?" she burst out and Penny wanted to bury her face in her hands - this attempt at a dome was more than obvious. She glanced at Sam out of the corner of her eye and saw him eyeing his sister-in-law skeptically. Had he also seen through Bronwyn's bad plan?

"I'll be happy to help you if you like, Penny," he now turned to her.

"You don't have to, Sam. You certainly have enough to do on your days off."

"Not really. As you know, neither my house nor my garden is particularly big. I always finish everything quickly," he replied with a shrug and was already emptying his plate when Bronwyn jumped over and put a second helping on his plate. He looked at her admonishingly and resigned himself to his fate when Bronwyn wordlessly put her arms on her hips.

"That's nice of you Sam, thank you. But I'm not doing anything today anyway. It'll be dark by the time I get home."

"Are you here on foot?" he asked surprised and she shrugged her shoulders with a smile. "It's getting dark really soon and Tom told me this morning that the wild boars are very active right now and, above all, aggressive."

"They usually stay away from the paths. I always see some on the edges of the forest around the house," she simply replied.

"Well, there's a difference between watching them through the window and suddenly standing in front of them. I'll drive you straight away," he replied, shoving the last fork into his mouth again and quickly placing Bronwyn's plate next to the sink in front of her, before he gave her a grin and placed a banknote next to it. "It's on me today and no objection," he replied with a wink to Penny.

"None of you can deny that you're a family, thanks Sam," she replied with a smile and also finished her meal. "What do you want to drive? You don't have a car."

"Yes I have, but it's in the garage. I prefer my feet or the bike, but when I'm in a hurry, I usually take the motorcycle."

"You have a motorcycle?" she replied in surprise as they stood up and said goodbye to Bronwyn, who wished them a lot of fun in a tone that almost made Penny blush.

"Why not? I like to ride it. It's quicker if I want to go to the mountain rescue center with Tom, sometimes I just drive cross-country and look for a quiet place in the forest, far away from the hustle and bustle of Pontypandy and the fire station. "

"That's why I bought the cottage out there. But I didn't think you'd need some space sometimes. You're such a workaholic," she replied and gently poked him in the side with her elbow. Sam laughed, he loved it when he and Penny joked and teased each other. Only with her could he let himself go like that; he didn't always have to be a serious firefighter.

"Everyone needs a little fresh air sometimes and I'm only on duty so much because I love my job, but also because I don't have anything else in my life that gives it meaning," he replied, with a hint of melancholy in  his voice. Penny didn't reply, partly because they had already reached his house and he was just opening the door to his garage.

He pushed out a cross machine and Penny wasn't surprised. It wasn't as fast as a simple road machine, but neither was it as cumbersome or slow as a chopper. It could be used flexibly and mastered every situation - it suited Sam.

He grabbed two helmets and a jacket from the garage and handed her one of each.

"Don't you need a jacket?"

"It's still bearable and I drive slowly anyway. I'll put it on on the way back. You'll probably have to adjust the straps on the helmet. I got it for the twins. One of them already rides with me." She did as he was told and got up behind Sam, who had already started the engine. "Then hold on tight," he called to the back to drown out the engine and Penny looked around searching. She was riding a motorcycle herself, which Sam didn't know, and hadn't thought about the need to hold on. On the other hand, he might be right - she wasn't familiar with cross machines and it would certainly be better until she had a feel for them.

"There's nothing to hold on to here, Sam."

"Am I nothing?" he replied, reaching back and pulling her arms around his waist. She blushed instantly, but smiled when Sam looked over his shoulder and she saw the smile in his eyes before he drove off. A tug pulled her backwards and she tightened her grip on Sam for a moment, instinctively sliding closer to him before relaxing again. Sam didn't show if her closeness bothered him, so she stayed like that, enjoying his warmth and closeness while Sam drove the three miles to her house a little slower than necessary with a beatific smile.

When they arrived, it was already dusk and they could see the last rays of sun disappearing behind the hilltop opposite the house.

"Wow, that's beautiful," Sam murmured as he pulled off his helmet. "That's enviable, Penny,"

"Then you should see the sunrises," she replied with a smile. "That was always my dream. No neighbors, endless views and, above all, peaceful peace."

"Isn't it sometimes scary to be so alone as a woman?" Sam wondered out loud and put his helmet and jacket on the seat of his motorcycle.

"Not really. You quickly get used to the sounds of the animals and the forest. You know what belongs where and what doesn't or if something is wrong. And if necessary, I had emergency call buttons and an alarm system installed in several places in the house, which are directly linked to the fire station."

"I did not know that."

"Nothing has ever happened before, except for your accident here."

"Oh yes," Sam replied, swallowing as he remembered being swallowed by the hole in the ground - it was an unpleasant memory.

"Are you reconsidering your offer to help me?" Penny replied with a grin.

"Never. You said you had the floor checked and everything was safe. What else is supposed to happen?" It was a rhetorical question, so Penny didn't answer. "So, what could you need help with?" he then asked, clapping his hands enthusiastically and Penny smiled at that, motioning for him to follow her.

"It's really not much Sam," she replied as she unlocked the door and they went inside. Sam looked curiously from the hallway into the kitchen. He hadn't been to Penny's house since his accident and back then, almost 3 years ago, she had just moved in and everything had been renovated little by little. It was clean and tidy no matter where you looked, modern but structured yet in keeping with the old cottage. Sam liked it."As I said, I'm currently in the process of tidying up the garden a bit, pulling weeds, trimming bushes, sweeping leaves - the usual stuff and wallpapering my living room. That's always fallen by the wayside so far, but it was hard to part with the old wallpaper. It was so nostalgic," she replied with a laugh as she led him into the living room and pointed to the last wall that still had the kitschy rose wallpaper on it.

"Are you serious?" Sam replied cautiously, the wallpaper sending a shiver down his spine. Should Penny really have such strange taste?

"Certainly not," she replied with a laugh and relief spread through Sam. "It is horrible. But of all the wallpaper in the house it was the least of the evils and after initially needing me an hour to scrape 30 square cm free, I put a cupboard in front of it and decided to take care of everything else first. That's why I did the garden today. I scraped the wallpaper almost non-stop from 6 a.m. until almost midnight and I just had to see something different."

"I can totally relate to that," he replied, grimacing at the thought. "I'll clear the last wall for you tomorrow and you can do something else in that time."

"Are you afraid I'll get in your way if we do this together?"

"I just wanted to spare you, you've been exposed to this misery long enough."

"Oh dear," she replied with a laugh and playfully hit him on the shoulder. "It wasn't that bad. Come on, I'll show you something bad."

Sam followed her to the closet and Penny motioned for him to go inside.

"Ready?"

"You're scaring me, Penny," he replied skeptically and she laughed before turning on the light. He immediately shook and left the room in a hurry. "That's terrible, Penny. Like the teacher from Harry Potter, only the cat pictures on the walls don't move in here," he replied in shock and demonstratively shook himself again, which made Penny laugh again.

"Sarah and James always re-enact Harry Potter in here when they visit me. They call it my Umbridge torture chamber."

"Do the two of them come to you often?" he replied surprised and Penny shrugged her shoulders.

"Every now and then. They have fun here - the big house, the huge garden and the rabbits make them happy."

"You have rabbits?"

"The forest has rabbits, but we always throw vegetables over the wall for them. Some are so tame that they let themselves be petted when the twins aren't fighting again."

"Yes, even wild boars would probably run away if they do that," Sam sighed in annoyance and Penny smiled to herself, thinking of the many moments when Sam was helpless at the mercy of these arguments - those were the only situations in which Sam didn't know what to do next. His gaze wandered around the room and found a framed picture on a chest of drawers that caught his attention. "But I can understand why you love this. It's incredibly beautiful here."

"Thanks Sam, come on, I'll show you the garden before it gets completely dark," she quickly objected when she noticed that he had his eye on one of her favorite pictures. How could she have forgotten that? Luckily, Sam gave in and followed her, little did she know that he had long since seen what was on it and accepted it with a smile that lured him away.

"Well, you don't have much to do here anymore," he said as they went through the back door and he looked around.

"I say, just the usual."

"We'll get it all done tomorrow and then you can lounge on the couch on Sunday and look at your flower-free wallpaper...that is, if the new one is flower-free?!"

"Yes it is, don't worry," she replied and followed him back to the front door. "I think you'll like the puppies on it better." She laughed out loud when he turned to her in the open front door in shock. "I'm sorry, but your face was cinematic," she replied with a laugh, barely regaining her composure as Sam leaned into the doorframe, folded his arms and watched her, smiling. She had no idea how much he was enjoying this because he loved hearing her laugh and when he made her laugh, even more so.

"I think you'll be able to sleep well after the fun you had with me today," he replied now, but his smile belied his stern tone.

"I will, thanks Sam. I hope you do too, since you didn't seem much less amused."

"I always sleep well when I'm allowed to enjoy your presence. So, good night," he replied with a smile, leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She was so surprised that she looked at him with wide eyes and blushed immediately before he turned around with a smile and put on his jacket and helmet. Even as he climbed onto his motorcycle, hung the spare helmet on the handlebars and started the engine, he wondered if he had rushed too far forward, but when he turned around he saw that Penny was still standing at the door, watching him. She waved to him and he waved back before driving away, looking forward to tomorrow. He just hoped that he would have the opportunity to get a little closer to her.

To be continued...