Chapter 16
It was official. Olivia had read the same email seven times and couldn’t tell you what the hell it was about. She had been on the phone all day with vendors for the 4th of July event, and after hanging up, she couldn’t for the life of her remember one single detail about it. Good thing she had taken notes, it would be mortifying if she had to call them back and ask them to repeat everything.
Mr. Ewing. Why do I need you to recount our earlier conversation? Oh, I was kissed brainless last night by the man I’ve been lusting after for the past fifteen years. No biggie.
It was 4 pm, she had been sitting at her desk for hours and it had been an unproductive day to say the least.
She couldn’t think of anything other than Sam’s arms wrapped tightly around her waist. God, one kiss and she was already being sucked in deep. This was exactly what she had wanted to avoid, but right now, she didn’t give a damn. She had never been kissed the way Sam had plundered her mouth last night. In a way that transcended so much deeper than the physical attraction, there was fifteen years of history poured into that liplock and the weight of that just about knocked Olivia on her ass.
She had dated in college, but she certainly wouldn’t consider any of them serious. Her longest relationship, if you could even call it that, was with Mark, who was a senior when she was a sophomore. He was a perfect gentleman, always treated her with kindness and respect, and was a responsible choice to lose her virginity to. It was a safe and comfortable experience, but if she was being honest, she still didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. In the six months she had dated Mark, she had never felt a fraction of heat with him compared to the one kiss she had shared with Sam.
Thinking of the kiss made Olivia shiver and her legs weak, making her grateful she was sitting down at her desk. A yearning so hot and desperate pulsed between her thighs as memories of Sam’s tongue exploring her own ran wild in her mind. Knowing that he could ignite a need so fast and deep within her only made her want to explore him more. Now that she knew what one kiss could do, she couldn’t stop imagining what his hands would feel like on her bare skin.
The buzz of her cell phone vibrating on her desk pulled her out of her thoughts. But when she saw Sam’s name pop up on her phone, she broke out into a goofy grin. Get it together, Keller. Swiping right to open the message, she leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath.
Sam
Hey Liv. Workin’ hard?
She had no idea why such a simple text could release a million butterflies in her belly. Maybe it was because they hadn’t communicated since the few letters they had exchanged following the fire. Being able to pick up the phone to text or call him so easily felt strange.
Olivia
Ugh. Not as productive as I should have been. I guess I’ve been a little distracted…
Sam
Oh yeah? By what? ;)
Olivia
This green eyed guest that has been staying at the lodge has me a bit tied up.
Sam
Tied up, huh? By your hands or your feet?
Realizing she was still holding her breath, she let it go shakily. She was not sexting with Sam Callahan, was she? Their relationship had always been unspoken and never physical, so why did this new exploration of sexual chemistry not feel strange in the least bit? Deciding to go with it, she pressed on.
Olivia
Both. I’m feeling pretty consumed right now
Sam
He sounds like a lucky bastard…If I can manage to untie you for a few hours, I would love to take you to dinner…?
Giggling like a schoolgirl, she typed back immediately.
Olivia
Pick me up at 7. See you soon, Callahan.
Tossing her phone onto the desk, she pushed back in her chair and turned to look out the window. Holy shit. She was going on a date with Sam. Just thinking about it caused her hair to stand on end, and she realized there wasn’t one part of her that was afraid. Even though she had known him for years, he felt foreign to her, and she was anxious and excited to learn about the man he had become.
She really didn’t know anything about his life over the last decade, she didn’t even know where he had been living. Granted, that was her own stubborn ass fault, she didn’t give him much of a chance to tell her, despite his multiple offers to do so. And while she knew he still had secrets, she was holding on to the hope that he would tell them to her, as he did all those years ago. It was time they took back some of the time they had lost, by God they deserved that.
Shutting down her computer, she decided to knock off early. She had a little under three hours to figure out what she was going to wear. She was going to make sure it was something that would make Sam kick himself that he had stayed away so long, and make him realize what he had been missing.
As Sam climbed the steps up to Olivia’s cottage, he repeated the pep talk he’d given to himself countless times over the course of the afternoon. He was not going to fuck this up. He was not going to fuck this up. He. Was. Not. Going. To. Fuck. This. Up.
This date was decades in the making, he’d spent so much time thinking about being given this chance, and what he would do with it. Despite the years of friendship, he had so much he wanted to learn about her. She had already done amazing things with her career at the resort, but that didn’t surprise him. She was a powerhouse. But he was determined for her to let him back into her heart so he could get to know her all over again. He knew he didn’t deserve it, but he was going to do his damndest to rectify his mistakes.
The first place he knew he needed to start had to be with Ray. He knew Olivia was going to be holed up in her office all day, so he used that time to track him down. More often than not, he spent the majority of his time at the Rec Center, and today was no exception. Sam found him playing a game of Horse with a couple of campers, and when he approached them, their attention was diverted elsewhere and they ambled off.
“Care for a game, Callahan?” Ray asked as he bounced the ball in Sam’s direction.
“You just want to play because you know I’m shit at basketball,” Sam tossed the ball back to him.
“Hey, this old man needs an ego boost once in a while. Let’s start out with an easy one.” Walking to the free throw line, he effortlessly shot the ball into the hoop. Retrieving the ball, Sam lined up and took his shot with perfect form. The ball soared into the hoop with a satisfying swish.
Raising his eyebrow in surprise, Ray snatched the ball and lined up for a new shot. “Hmm. You’ve gotten better over the years. Why do I feel as if I’ve just been swindled?”
“A lot has changed over the years. I’ve had a lot of time to practice.” Sam then proceeded to tell Ray all about his youth center and how he had spent many hours shooting hoops with kids in the gymnasium they had built.
He recounted the first time he ever won a game of Horse against an eleven year old boy named Sean. And how at the end of the game, Sean had started to cry. Kicking himself for being an asshole for not letting the kid win, he walked over to console him. But when he approached him, Sean explained he wasn’t crying because he had lost, but because it was the first time an adult had ever spent any quality one-on-one time with him in his life. As Sam bent down to embrace the crying Sean, he realized he was on the right path. Following that moment, Sam and Sean had played Horse every Tuesday, which had helped him hone his current skills. Sean was now sixteen and a junior employee, excelling as a mentor to the center’s younger members.
Ray stood on the court slightly stunned into silence. “Sam. Wow. That is pretty amazing. You have really made your mark. That is some incredible and important work you are doing. I’m really, really proud of you.”
Not realizing how much hearing those words meant coming from a man he always respected, a man he looked up to as a father figure more so than the one he was born to, he felt a small bolt in his chest break free.
“Thank you, Ray. That means a lot coming from you. There is something else I’d like to talk to you about,” he trailed off as he took a jump shot at the three point line and grinned when it hit the net with a clear swish. When Ray missed the shot and earned his “s”, he swore under his breath.
“Oh yeah? What might that be?” He asked knowingly, as Sam started to pace away and rubbed the back of his neck to steady his hands. He knew what he was asking of Ray - and with his horrific past, no father in his right mind would want him anywhere near his daughter. But he was going to ask anyway.
“I know I don’t deserve her, I never did. But I need your daughter in my life. She lights up my world, even in the midst of the darkness I’ve seen and experienced. All I have ever wanted to do was protect her. I know I will never be good enough for her, but I’m going to be a selfish asshole and ask for her anyway. At least for the opportunity for her to make the decision for herself to give me a chance.” Despite his calm body language, his eyes were twisted in fear, fear that Ray would reject the enormous blessing he was asking of him. And the terrifying fact that if he rejected it, he would make the choice to go after her anyway.
Ray stood quietly, looking Sam over in contemplation.
He wouldn’t lie to the boy when it came to the pain he had caused his daughter. Visions of her curled in the fetal position, sobs racking her body every night for months when he didn’t return would be impossible to erase from his memory. He knew that feelings of abandonment and inadequacies bubbled to her surface, the same feelings she was still in the process of grappling with learning the truth of her mother’s leaving.
But despite all of the pain and heartache he helped his daughter heal from after Sam’s departure, it was the most brutal and honest display of how much she had loved him. And despite his reservations that she could be hurt again upon his return, if there were any chance that they could find their way back to each other, Ray was going to support it.
“Sam. You are the only one with that ludicrous opinion of yourself. I know what kind of man I think you are, and I have no doubt about what Olivia thinks of you. You have been the only one for her since you both were ten years old. I knew it from the first day she talked to me about you while we were hanging banners in this very Rec Room,” he rested the ball on his hip and responded confidently.
Sam had to turn away and gather himself before Ray could see how his words affected him. For his entire life he had looked in the mirror and seen someone who was broken. Someone with a past so dark, he wondered if he could ever be fixed. But then came Olivia and Ray. They had shown him that there was another way to life, one that could be filled with love, support, and safety. But even if after deserting them for ten years, they could still think the man could be restored, then he had to start believing it, too. In this moment, some of the pain he had carried inside him began to dim, and was replaced with something that felt like hope.
“Well, that was a little easier than I expected,” he blew out a breath in relief. “I thought you were going to put up more of a fight and make me work for it, Old Man.”
“Cut it out with the ‘Old Man’ shit, or I might have to change my mind.”
“Too late for that,” Sam grinned wide when Ray tossed up the ball and missed his shot, earning the last letter in their game of Horse.
“Damn it. Don’t tell anyone you beat me, I will deny it to the bitter end,” Ray mumbled. When Sam just stared at him, he raised his shoulders in anticipation. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go get her.”