The Golden Couple (The Samantha Project Series, # 2) by Stephanie Karpinske Page A

didn’t actually say those exact words, but I know he wants to.”
    I lay back down. “He doesn’t wanna marry me, Brittany.”  
    “I asked him if he loves you and he said that he does and always has.”
    “Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean he wants to get married. And why are you asking him stuff like that?”
    “Because I’m your sister. I’m trying to figure out what the guy’s intentions are.” Brittany laughed, which made me laugh.
    “So what exactly are his intentions?”
    “I didn’t ask him that specifically. But you’re all he talks about. And it’s obvious that he doesn’t want anyone else but you. It’s kind of weird, really. I mean, he’s kind of young to be deciding that, right? You’d think he’d wanna date other people.”
    “Sometimes the right person comes along at the wrong time.”  
    “Hey, is that a country song?”  
    I laughed. “I don’t know. Probably.”
    “So if he asked you, would you say yes?”  
    “If who asked what?”
    “Sam, just answer the question.”
    “Would I marry Colin? Like, right now? No. I’m too young.”
    “Hmmm, okay. Good to know.”
    “What does that mean? Are you not telling me something?”
    “I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”
    “Brittany? What did you mean by that? Did Colin say—”
    “Goodnight, Sam.” Brittany rolled on her side and covered her head with the blanket.
    He’s not thinking of proposing, I thought. Brittany’s just trying to stir up trouble. Make me think things that aren’t true. But then again, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Knowing that I could be dead in two years could prompt Colin to act. The idea of it made me anxious. I wasn’t ready to be a bride.
    The next morning, Erik was back on the porch working on his code. Jack was sitting at the dining room table typing on the laptop and talking to himself. Brittany slept in, not seeing a need to get up. Colin was in the kitchen making breakfast.  
    “Hey, Sam. I’m making eggs. You want some?”
    “Yeah, sounds good. Did everyone else eat?”
    “No. Jack and Erik are too busy to eat. They’ve been working since dawn. Erik probably slept for three hours. He’s obsessed with cracking that code. Where’s Brittany?”
    “She’s sleeping in. Hey, what did you talk about with Brittany yesterday?”
    Colin stopped scrambling the eggs. “Not much. Why? Did she say something?”
    “Um, a few things, but she tends to exaggerate. Never mind.”  
    Colin divided the eggs onto two plates and we went to sit at the table with Jack. Suddenly the porch door swung open and Erik raced inside.
    “I’ve got it! I know what the code says!”

CHAPTER NINE
Origin
    “So what does it say?” Jack moved his computer aside.
    Erik put a sheet of paper on the table so everyone could see. It read, “Superior Genetics Project: Origin of Foreign Nucleobases.”
    Jack grabbed the piece of paper. “Origin of foreign nucleobases? Erik, are you sure you decoded this correctly?”
    “Yes, I went back and checked it and rechecked it. It was a really complex code. After I figured out which numbers stood for which letters, I had to figure out the right sequence. And then the sequence had to be reordered.”
    Jack kept staring at the paper as if doing so would change what it said. “It can’t be. This is too easy. How could it be that the very thing we’re looking for is right here on this disk? Of all the places this could have ended up, it ends up here? At Paul’s house?”
    He got quiet and a worried look came across his face. “What’s wrong, Dad,” Erik asked. “What are you thinking?”
    “GlobalLife would never want the information on this file to get out. And if it did get out, they’d want to know where it was and who had it. So I’m wondering if this file has some type of hidden locator device built into it that goes off when you open it.”  
    “But the file came from that Dan guy. I thought you and Paul knew him,” I said.  
    “Yes, and he was