Strong (Stage Dive 4.50)

“May I remind you that you said working twenty-four-seven no longer appealed to you,” I said. “That you wanted to make time for more in your life. Like a relationship, perhaps?”

His mouth opened slightly, but nothing came out.

“Given the old saying, begin as you mean to go on, does disappearing with barely a word for four days sound like a relationship to you?”

“I definitely should have made more of an effort to stay in contact with you.” He licked his lips. “It was an error. I can see that now.”

“And the next time there’s an emergency situation?”

“I’ll call?”

“Not good enough,” I said, turning away.

“Love…”

“If you want me to be all in on this, then you need to make an effort to be there. Things will always come up, needing your attention. I get that.” I attempted to smooth down Gibby’s hair a little. It didn’t work, but it was quite calming. “But you can’t talk marriage and children to me, even jokingly, and then disappear for days.”

“I wasn’t joking,” said Sam, voice low and serious.

“Marriage and children?” The whites of David’s eyes seemed huge. “Really?”

Sam made a noise in his throat. “Yes, Dave. I love her. Is that a problem?”

Holy shit. I just kind of froze.

“No. Just a…no,” said David. “You two? Right. Um, none of my business. Sorry, I—”

“Stop speaking now, man,” wisely suggested Mal.

“Yep.”

Hands cupping my face, Sam frowned. “Love, I’m sorry. You’re right, I messed this up and I did want to slow down on the working around the clock and having no life. So you’re in charge, you tell me how to fix it and I will.”

“Marty’s in charge?” asked Mal, tone somewhat astounded. “Seriously, man?”

“Shh,” whisper-hissed Lena.

I did my best to ignore them all while Sam stood in front of me, waiting. Because I was in charge. At least right now. This required some thought. “I don’t want to run your life, but I do want to be a part of it. I know that much. I also know that if you keep doing the same job you’re doing now, at the rate you’re doing it, this is going to keep happening.”

He nodded. “You want me to consider retiring?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head slightly. “You’re like me, I think. Without something to keep your brain occupied you’d slowly go insane.”

“Probably.”

“Definitely.”

“What then?” he asked. “Time to consider a change of vocation?”

“But you’re good at this and you enjoy it. Hell, you’re the best.”

“Hell,” repeated Gibby, still clinging to my leg.

“So, my thought is, what if you went into business for yourself?” I asked, turning the problem over inside my head. “What if instead of being the guy standing out on the driveway at all hours, you were the person in the office managing everything and only on site some of the time?”

Speculation filled Sam’s gaze. “You know…that’s not a bad idea.”

I smiled.