“Oh, sorry, I wasn’t trying to be rude. Sammy.” Awkward much?
“Storm keep you up last night?”
“The storm and being here, I just…this was my grandpa’s place, and now it’s mine, and you don’t need to hear all that.”
“Maybe I don’t need to hear it all, but I don’t mind listening.” And he sounded like he meant it.
I told him way more than he wanted to hear about my cousins. Cousins, and my mother’s side of the family, and how they wanted me to get rid of this place, and how I didn’t want to, and he was so sweet, listening like it mattered.
“I’ll walk you back,” he said, and I nodded, and that made three things, make that four things that told me maybe he was a daddy. He didn’t scold me. He taught me how to store the boat. He listened intently without walking over me as I shared about the cabin, and then he walked me back even though you could see it from where we stood.
“This is gonna sound—” Maybe this wasn’t the place to bring up something like daddies with a stranger, but his eyes softened.
“You can keep going. There’s nothing you can say that’s going to upset me, unless you tell me a serial killer—that might work.”
His gentle smile gave me the courage to continue. “You mentioned when I was talking about the cabin that you’re here with a bunch of friends fishing.” It wasn’t until I got the daddy vibes that I started to piece together that he might be here with my friend.
“That’s the plan.”
“Is someone named Rowan there?”
“Yeah, you know him?”
“He’s my friend, so does that mean you’re a daddy?” I couldn’t see him as a little, but who was I to judge?
“You’re that Sammy.”
I nodded, not wanting to ask what that meant in this context and moving away from the direction I wanted this conversation to be headed.
“That’s what you were nervous about asking me.”
“No, that was just me making sure before I asked…are you a daddy?”
“I am, and before you ask, no, I don’t have a little right now.”
I loved how he was making this easier for me because, at that point, just existing at this lake was difficult.
“Then maybe could you pretend to be my daddy and help me get through this at the cabin. I can pay you. I’m not asking for free labor.” I spoke a mile a minute, not wanting to chicken out.
“I absolutely can and will do this, but only if you promise not to pay me,” he answered immediately. “That wouldn’t feel right. Those are my conditions.”
“We’ll talk about money later,” I grumbled and started off again.
Chapter Six
Will
A walk around the lake changed rapidly into something entirely different.
The adorable bedhead turned out to top the head of a little who was completely distressed and in need of a daddy to help him get through a difficult time. That storm I’d slept through had been hard on him, clearly.
“Give me a minute to make a quick call to Summit so they don’t wait for me.” I almost asked if he’d like to go fishing with all the others, but another glance at his pale cheeks and fidgeting fingers told me he was in no space to go out bobbing around on the water. I dialed my friend and let him know where I was.
“With Sammy? What is he doing up here?”
I heard a voice behind him talking, and he said, “Oh. Never mind. Rowan explained about Sammy’s cabin. He just didn’t realize he was up herethisweekend, or we would have checked on him. The storm! And he was all alone I take it?”
“Yeah, I don’t think he liked it much. But he’s asked me to hang out with him and help him today. Don’t catch too many without me.”
