5. Samson

CHAPTER 5

Samson

I t’s been days and I haven’t been able to get near Chloe. Her mom, who I love…most of the time, has been taking her into the back office to work on some things and show her the ropes. I think that they’ve been talking about whether she’s staying or not. It’s not a question as far as I’m concerned. She’s staying.

But I can’t get alone with her without someone sneaking up and breaking up the moment. It’s driving me insane!

I growl under my breath as I watch one of the new guys set his sights on Chloe. He runs a hand over his hair and heads her way and I’m about sixty seconds from going nuclear. I tense up and shift off the wall that I’m leaning on, grunting.

“Don’t do it, Sam.”

I freeze and sigh when my dad’s hand catches my arm. “I don’t know what you mean, Dad.”

“You do. You can’t go over there and beat that poor guy to a bloody pulp just because he’s going to talk to Chloe. She’s not an idiot and she knows a player when she meets one. She’s not going to give him the time of day. So why don’t you do us both a favor and stay over here. Tell me what’s going on with you two.”

I turn to him, frustrated, shoving a hand into my hair. I throw my hands in the air and pace. “What could be going on? Every time I try and get hear her someone interrupts us.” I wave my hand over to the idiot who’s about to be shot down…I hope. “He’s had more alone time with her than I have since she’s been back. Even Belle is acting like she’s trying to keep us apart,” I growl.

Dad rolls his eyes. “You sound like a spoiled child. Like the whole world is out to get you. It’s not. Everyone is just excited to have her home. And as to Belle, she’s got her best friend back and they’re enjoying time together. You shouldn’t begrudge them that.”

I glance over at my Dad and eye him skeptically. “How do you do that? How come you’re always so calm all the time? Doesn’t anything upset you? Piss you off?”

He chortles. Actually, chortles! I mean, what the hell?

“Sure. Stuff ticks me off sometimes. But there’s nothing in this world that’s worth getting so worked up that I can’t control myself.”

My mom steps up next to him, smiling and wraps her arms around him. She puts her head on his chest and smiles. “That’s one of the reasons I fell in love with him. In a crazy world, he’s my sea of calm.”

I never really thought about it like that but he’s like this big behemoth of a guy yet so gentle and soft-spoken. He’s never raised his voice in my whole life. Not even when I ran the car off the road when I was sixteen and hit a pole.

Still totally calm he said he’d be there to pick me up and he was. Within minutes. And he never yelled. Just waited until I was done talking to the cops and then he clapped me on the back, pulled me tight into a hug that almost cracked my back and drove me back home where my mom cried and then swatted my arm for scaring her to death.

They are very different people but they work.

I know in my heart that Chloe and I can be just as good. Just as lasting. And it makes me a little queasy to say it…just as hot. Ugh!

But I think that we are the reverse. Chloe is my sea of calm. Just being around her makes me feel calm, settled, happy.

My Mom smiles at me, her green eyes sparkling. “Do you think that you can keep yourself under control long enough to win Chloe over? Because if you can’t, her family isn’t going to be happy.” She winks. “ All of her family.”

I blow out a deep breath. “Yeah. I can.” I grimace. “I just wish that I could…I don’t know. I wish she could understand that I’m hers as much as she’s mine. I just want to make her happy.”

My mother’s smile gentles, her still-vivid red hair just starting to show gray and shimmering in the bright lights. Every part of her is beautiful but nothing more so than her love and support. She’s always been the best mother in the world.

She pats my shoulder and then hugs me close, whispering, “You will. Somewhere deep down inside her, she already understands. But it’s all new and maybe a little scary to someone who’s been an independent woman for the last couple of years. You have to be patient and show her that you don’t want to control her, to change her life in a bad way. That you want to give her the space to fly, to spread her wings and be the glorious woman she’s meant to be.”

She steps back and my dad walks away with her, holding her hand and grinning like the proud man that he is.

Now that I’ve talked to my parents I feel calmer. With such good examples as our parents, how could we not grow into the best love story of all. It’s in our genes.

I watch Chloe as she steps away from the gym and heads back to the office, I assume after blowing off the guy who hit on her.

I have to grin to myself. I should be more sympathetic to the guy but I just don’t care. I hope she shot his ass down hard.

Just to make sure that he never tries to take a second shot at what’s mine. I’d hate to have to kill a fellow member of the gym. I think that might be bad for business, after all.