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But right now he had other things to deal with and tonight’s problems would come soon enough.
Sam quickly dialed his boss and headed toward the kitchen to start dinner. This was definitely like old times. When Tara would have clients running late or last-minute emergencies at the office, he’d cooked dinner. He’d actually loved that part of their marriage. Taking care of her had been his greatest joy...until it wasn’t.
“Hey, Sam,” Bill answered on the second ring, pulling Sam from his thoughts.
He stood at the kitchen sink and glanced out onto the beach where Daisy was still running like a mad bull and his wife and daughter were attempting to build yet another sandcastle.
“Hey, man. I’m just returning your call. First, let me say how much I appreciate you letting us use your house.”
“It’s no problem at all. Have you guys settled in well?”
Sam searched through the cabinets until he came up with the pans he’d need. “We did. Marley and Tara are building sandcastles and having a blast.”
“Has Marley recovered any memories?”
Sam tried his best to push aside the disappointment. He and Tara had discussed how little Marley had remembered, considering the accident had been over a week ago.
Still, as her father, as a man in general, he always had the need to fix everything right now—especially where his family was concerned. So this sitting around and waiting was pure hell. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected as far as a time frame for Marley’s memories to return went, but that didn’t stop him from wishing for an instant miracle. He hated that his daughter was a prisoner in her own mind and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to help her.
“No, she hasn’t.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” his boss said, compassion flooding his voice. “It will happen. She’s a strong little girl with strong-willed parents.”
Sam nodded, even though his boss couldn’t see him. “I assume you are calling about the Murray project.”
“I really hated to bother you on vacation, but seeing as how you were the head of this new construction build, I wanted to run a few things by you so that way when you came in you weren’t in the dark and didn’t feel like we did things without your permission. It’s regarding a redesign.”
The only man to give Sam a second chance at a career Sam loved was on the other end of this call. So, if Bill was calling and asking for extra work, Sam sure as hell was going to deliver on every single thing his boss asked. And he was going to go above and beyond because this would be the best design he’d ever come up with.
Sam smiled as he turned away from the window and headed to the pantry. “I work for you, remember? This is your company.”
“That may be, but you owned a company that was a huge success and I’m damn lucky you came to work for me. So I figure treating you like an equal is the best way to get you to stay here.”
Sam chuckled as he pulled out a box of pasta. “Considering I need this job and you saved my ass, I’m certainly not going anywhere. So what’s up with the project? Wait, you said redesign.” Sam set the box of pasta on the island and gripped the phone. “Murray changed his mind again, didn’t he?”
“Afraid so,” Bill stated with a weary tone. “He has decided to expand his initial building and wants to know how we can add an extra twelve hundred square feet.”
The blueprints of the new country club in Stonerock ran through Sam’s head. The idea of having to start over on this project made him cringe, but at the same time this was job security and Sam would do whatever it took to please the client.
Besides, this was also one of the best forms of therapy for him—using his mind to create something, then building it from scratch. The process was always grueling and time-consuming, but he wouldn’t change it for anything because the end result was always rewarding.
“I’ll get right on it,” Sam promised.
“I hesitated to call, but I figured you would want to be the man in charge.”
Sam couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride at the confidence his boss had in him. Not long ago Sam had his own construction outfit, but of course that was another thing he’d ruined on his long path of destruction. The pills had hindered his mind on days and there had been projects he’d fallen behind on, others he’d forgotten completely. The snowball effect kept going until he’d hit the bottom.
