Samantha's POV

As soon as I stepped foot in the house, Niall had already found the bedroom we would be staying in and shut the door. I politely smiled to both Tom and Maura and made my way over to where Niall had gone. I slowly turned the knob on the door and entered the room. In front of me, Niall began grabbing his clothes out of his bag and throwing them roughly in the empty dresser behind him.

It felt like he didn't even realize I was in the room when I approached him. I placed my hand on his shoulder blade and he flinched before turning around to face me. The look on his face caused me to furrow my brows at him.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked, a little annoyed with the way he was acting towards this whole situation. He didn't answer me but continued to empty his suitcase into the dresser. If this was the way he was going to act, I was going to have no part of it.

"Fine, you can sulk in here by yourself but I'm going to appreciate my time here and at least one of us will spend time with your mother." I snapped. The room was quiet and you could feel the tension.

It had occurred to me that all the worries and anxieties I had coming here, had vanished like they were never there in the first place. Now my mind was consumed with Niall and the whole situation revolving around Maura and Tom.

"Look Samantha, this is not the situation I thought I would be walking into here when we got here and I don't think you should be expecting me to be completely fine with it." Niall blurted out of nowhere. I turned around to face him to see his face was straight

"That's not your decision to make. I'm sorry but what goes on between your mother's social life is none of your business. It's her life, not yours and its your job to find ways to deal with it." I said, sounding harsher than I had hoped. I softened my face and placed my hand on his arm. I sighed before I spoke again.

"All I am saying is give Tom a chance. You might find you really enjoy him. It looks like your mum is happy and if she is then I don't see the point in spoiling it for her." I made my way towards the door and turned to look at him again.

"Now can we please go down stairs and see your mum, I know she misses you and there's not one ounce of me that believes you haven't missed her." The smallest of a smile, if you could even call it that, crept on his lips and he looked down. It seemed like he began to contemplate and weigh his options. I held out my arm and gestured for him to grab my hand so we could exit the room together.

"Do you know you can be really annoying sometimes?" He asked in a joking tone. I playfully punched his arm and he winced like it had actually hurt.

"Yeah well this is what happens when you act like a child." He was about to respond back but we had already reached the top of the stairs and we could see Maura and Tom sitting on the sofa. They watched as we reached the bottom the stairs and joined them, sitting on the sofa across from them.

"Be nice." I whispered into Niall's ear as we sat down. I worried that there would be an awkward silence between the four of us. We seemed to be avoiding each other's gazes until Maura had broken the silence.

"How was your flight?" She asked. I looked at Niall to see if he was going to answer but it was apparent that he was going to stay silent.

"The flight went over pretty smoothly. Although I mostly saw the inside of my eye lids because I was running on very little sleep." I smiled. I could tell they weren't really interested in our flight, they were just trying to make conversation which was fine with me because I was terrible at trying to make conversation.

"You have a beautiful house." I complimented. Her face seemed to brighten up as soon as the words left my mouth.

"Thank you! Tom helped me pick out most of the furniture." She replied. I ignored the sudden stiffness beside me from Niall and concentrated on the two people in front of me.

"Well Tom you have a very good sense of design." I responded, I really did like what they had done when the place. Everything was very neutral coloured and had a very strong calmness to it.

"Maura's just being nice. It really was all her ideas, I just did all the heavy lifting and rearranging-" Tom was momentarily cut off.

"So when did you think it would be a good time to mention your sudden new relationship?" Niall blurted out sharply. I whipped my head around and shot a glare his way.

"Niall!" I yelled at him. I tried to whisper but I reacted so suddenly.

"No it's okay Samantha, I knew he would bring it up eventually." Maura paused, her smile now diminished into almost nothing. "Tom and I met at a charity event earlier this year. If you must know Niall, Tom treats me very well and you have no need to worry."

"Earlier this year? How long has this been going on for?" I shot another glare at Niall for his inappropriate questions. Maura signed and shifted in her seat. No matter what efforts I made to get Niall to stop whatever he was doing, it clearly wasn't working.

"The event was held on January eighteenth." Tom replied. 

As if it couldn't have come at a better time, the phone rang and Maura got up to answer it. You could see the sigh of relief on her face as she left the room. Nothing else was said while she was gone but you could feel the awkward silence from a mile away.

"Niall that was your brother, he wanted to know what day you were flying in." She paused as she sat back down. "I didn't tell him when you were coming because I thought you would want to surprise him." She replied, the slightest of emotion in her voice. You could tell whatever excitement she had earlier was now replaced with the changed tone that took place a mere five minutes ago.

It was evident something had to change because we couldn't go on like this for the next week.

"Maybe you could invite Greg and Denise to dinner and we can surprise them then?" I suggested. Maura gave me a smile that she was thankful for what I was doing to help out the situation.

"I think that's a great idea." Tom added on. I turned to Niall, knowing it was a bold choice to ask him his thoughts.

"What do you think?" I asked him. I couldn't tell where he was looking but it wasn't at any of us.

"It's alright with me." He paused, probably to collect his thoughts. "I'm going to go finish unpacking."

And with that Niall got up and left the area in which we were all in, leaving me alone with his mum and Tom. I smiled apologetically at the both of them.

"I really am sorry for the way he's been acting since we got here; its very rare I see him acting like this." As much as I wanted to get up off that couch and leave so I wouldn't have to be stuck awkwardly by myself, I didn't. I stayed and started to talk to Maura, who opened up about how she recently started doing charity and how she seemed to fall in love with it. We even got into a conversation about how her and Tom officially met.

"-and that's when she finally agreed to go on a date with me." Tom finished. I had to admit, seeing them together brought a genuine smile to my face. They looked happy around each other and as if they had known each other their whole lives.

A part of me wished that one day, that would be Niall and I. I imagined us growing old together and being together through all the good times in our lives. Another part of me worried about if along the way we would drift apart or worse yet, find different people.

"Well it was lovely to talk to the both of you but I should go and unpack as well." I left them to sit and talk with each other and made my way over to the room Niall and I would be staying in.

I approached the handle and sighed before opening the door. Niall was laid across the bed, looking at the ceiling with head phones in his ears. I fought back the urge to roll my eyes. I sat on the edge of the bed and before I could stop myself, I picked up his phone and paused whatever song he was listening to.

"Jesus, can't you just leave me alone for two seconds. I don't need you smothering me like I'm some child that needs to be looked after." He snapped, pulling his headphones out of his ears. I was taken back by his response but the tone in his voice, shocked me the most. I stood up off the bed and stared back at him

I was at a loss for words with so much anger building up. The amount of times I have tried to fix whatever he's done this trip and he has the nerve to get mad at me?

"You do realize the whole god damn world doesn't revolve around you, right?" I was prepared to stop there but I had so much I wanted to let out. "What makes you think you are such a joy to be around? You've done nothing but cause problems ever since we got here and now your acting like a jerk. If this trip is ruined, it's all in you."

I quickly turned on my heels and began to storm out of the room but stopped before I could leave. I wouldn't snoop down to his level and act childish, I had to be the bigger person here and act civilized. I grabbed a small jumper before exiting the room to blow off some steam. I smiled at Maura and Tom before making my way out of the house. A part of me wished Niall would come running after me and apologize for the way he's been acting but at this point I think it would be easier to get blood from a stone.

I began my walk down the drive way and through the gate, stopping along the way to look at the flowers that were planted along the road. Right now a walk was something I needed and was probably the best thing to do for both Niall and I. I continued to walk down the road until I found a small area that was enclosed with trees. The area was simply beautiful. I looked down at my phone to see it was just past four o'clock in the afternoon which meant I shouldn't be out here for too long if I wanted to have enough time to get ready for our dinner.

Before I could comprehend what time it was, it was already well past five o'clock. With the ignored texts from Niall, I made my way back towards the house. I wished I could stay here all day and not have to think about anything else but at the same time I was also excited to go out for dinner. I entered the house silently and made my way to our bedroom. To my surprise, Niall wasn't in there. I picked out something to wear and changed before heading to the guest bathroom.

As soon as I entered the bathroom, standing in front of me was Niall, fixing the tie around his neck. The brief eye contact we shared was kept to a minimum as we both finished getting ready I didn't feel the need to say anything with the worry that it would erupt into something like before. I looked over to see Niall was preparing to leave the bathroom but he stopped in the doorway.

"I think whatever is going on here, weather its us or between my mum and I, I think we should push all of that aside so we can all get through this dinner smoothly." He said, straight and to the point.

I nodded my head, "I think so too." And with that he was gone.

The drive to the restaurant was longer than I had anticipated but that might just be because Maura's house was so far in the suburbs. The plan to surprise Greg and Denise was still a go which got me a little excited. I always loved surprising people, especially to see the looks on their faces.

When we arrived at the restaurant, I could see Greg and a very pregnant Denise sitting beside them. I had almost forgotten they had announced to us their pregnancy the last time we flew down here for Christmas.

Conveniently they were seated away from us when we approached them so they wouldn't see us coming. Tom and Maura went in front of us and sat down. I followed close behind Niall and he walked up towards Greg.

Niall put his hand on Greg's shoulder and peered towards him. "Mind if we join you?" He asked and the look on Greg's face was something you didn't see very often-pure utter joy. Both Greg and Denise stood up to greet us.

I walked over to hug Denise so she wouldn't have to waddle very far to meet me. "It's so nice to see you again!" She exclaimed, embracing me warmly.

"Like wise, it's been too long!" I gushed, looking down at your stomach. "And look at how big your getting, your absolutely glowing! It can't be long until your due." She placed her hand on her stomach and rubbed circles around it.

"I only have a few more weeks, then we can finally meet our little one." She replied. It felt as if her smile could brighten up this whole room.

I went on to greet Greg so Niall could hug Denise. Similar conversation went on between us. We mentioned how it's been far too long since we've come down to visit but he understand with Niall's conflicting work schedule.

Finally we all sat down around the table and the waiter came to take our drink orders. I went for the water incase Niall wanted to drink even though we didn't really set in stone who would be the designated driver. I was happy to oblige because it was his family after all.

Just like Niall had suspected, dinner went smoothly. We all caught up on everyone's lives while Niall and Greg had the occasionally ridiculous banter. I looked at Denise who was sitting across from me and could see she could barely keep her eyes open.

I gestured to Niall that maybe we should call it a night because Denise looked so exhausted and we had the rest of the week to see them. He agreed with me and we all called for the bill from the waiter. After a bit of arguing, Niall ended up paying for the bill and we got up to leave

"Well it was very lovely seeing you two again, we will have to go this again very soon. How long will you be in Ireland for?" Denise asked. Greg helped her put on her coat and I grabbed mine from the hook.

"We are here until Sunday so we have the whole week." I replied.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to steal Niall for a night this week to take him around town." Greg asked me, winking. Internally I didn't know how I felt about it but then again it wasn't really my choice. Instead I smiled back at him.

"As long as his name won't be in all the major headlines the next morning, it's alright with me." I replied, looking at he both of them.

We all said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways. I jumped in the front seat and began to drive the rest of the way home.

"Tonight was nice." I commented, wanting to start conversation.

"It was good to see my brother and Denise again." He replied. I shifted my weight so that I was leaning more on my right, putting my left hand on top of the steering wheel.

"I wanted to apologize for how I reacted towards you earlier today. I had no right to and I know your only intention is to help." Niall spoke. I wished all I had to do was accept his apology but I knew we were both at some sort of fault.

"It's not just you that should be apologizing. I said some things today that I shouldn't have. I'm sorry for that but we need to figure out a way to fix all these little problems we've been having since we got here." I didn't look at him but I could hear him sigh beside me. I hoped he would agree to at least try to act differently.

"Tonight opened my eyes towards Tom and I could see my mom genuinely likes to be around him and all I want is to see her happy."

"See and that's all that really matters. I think we should have an open mind towards Tom and not think otherwise unless he gives us a reason to think bad of him." I reasoned. Without saying any words, Niall agreed.

Within the next half an hour, we arrived back at the house and I was officially ready for bed. I had to admit with all the traveling we did today, I was exhausted and I wanted nothing to do but sleep.

With all the extra emotions and comments that were said today pushed aside, I crawled into bed silently. I rested my head on my pillow but not even two seconds later I could feel Niall's arms around me, pulling me towards him. I didn't resist as I let my body rest against his.

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(A/N Thank you for reading!! Not the most eventful chapter but Samantha's got some sass in her in this one! Ahaha please vote and comment so I can get some feedback from you lovely people! Thank you again for reading!)