It wasn’t something I talked about all the time, or anything. And I’d never been on a fancy yacht like this! Normally, I just paddled about in rowing boats in the park. Like the one Sam hadn’t let me borrow the night of Charlotte’s wedding.
“This is amazing,” I said, craning my neck upwards as we got closer. “We get to have dinner on the water?”
“Yes!” Sam laughed. “We’re going to yacht on the water,” he teased once we reached the yacht. It was very grand. I’d only ever seen yachts like this in films. There was even a crew! They greeted us upon arrival and we were given a tour that included safety instructions but mostly consisted of showing off how good the yacht looked.
We got to sit at the fort and watch the yacht depart, my hand squeezing Sam’s so tightly that he gave me a small nudge. “I need that to play hockey,” he told me seriously, like I could possibly truly damage it.
I made an effort to loosen my grip, but it was hard not to give in to my excitement. The view looked even more spectacular from the boat, the water bubbling and splashing past the prow as we ventured further out onto the darkening river.
“This… is a lot more than I imagined a date with you would be like,” I admitted, glad that the gathering twilight would hide the uncertainty in my face. “Don’t get me wrong,” I rushed to add. “I love it. It’s just... It feels like something out of a movie. Not something that real, ordinary people get to do.”
In a way, that was the point, I supposed. “You’re not really ordinary, anymore, are you?” And yet, Sam was the same good-hearted man I’d loved, I knew that.
Turning my head, I struggled not to smile at the expression on Sam’s face. He was thinking about my question, like it hadn’t been rhetorical. The thing was, Sam definitely wasn’t ordinary anymore. Not that he ever had been ordinary, as far as I was concerned. But back then, at the start of his NHL career, sure there’d been money but Sam would have never have spent it on something like this.
We were two kids from a small town. Back then, any money seemed like so much. But now... Sam probably earned more in a year than I did in five! Now, he could rent a yacht for a first date and without even putting a dent in his finances.
“Maybe I’m going a bit big,” Sam admitted. “I mean... I know I am. But... I want to impress you. And to make you happy! And I knew a yacht would make you happy. It’s... yeah, probably too much, but you love it, I can tell.”
He wasn’t wrong. Who wouldn’t love watching a sunset from a yacht slowly moving across a river?
Butterflies gathered in my stomach, making me feel as if my blood was fizzing in my veins. It had been a long time since someone had wanted to make me happy the way that Sam did. And even longer since anyone had known how.
But under the pleasant buzzing, I felt a slink of anxiety. “I want to make you happy, too.” Trying not to chew my lower lip, my hand ventured up into my hair instead. “But I don’t know if I can impress you like this.”
I’d thought that my advantage had been knowing the local area well enough to take Sam on an incredible date. Now, I wondered whether that would even compare to the life he was used to living.
“I would be a bit surprised if you took me for a dinner on a yacht,” Sam commented. “I think maybe I’m more of a hot air balloon sort of guy?” he added teasingly. Before I could object that I couldn’t take him on any date this grand, Sam shook his head, his hand reaching for mine. He untangled my fingers from my hair so he could hold my hand instead.
Sam gave a light squeeze to it, making me turn to him more. “You impress me. Whatever you choose to do, I’m impressed. I know you don’t have the kind of money to take me on yacht rides - or hot air balloon rides, for that matter - but I don’t need you to. You like this, don’t you?” he asked and I gave a nod.
“Good! So enjoy it. Let me enjoy you enjoying it. Worry less.” It sounded so much like an instruction that it made me laugh, like I could just switch the worrying off.
And with Sam, maybe I could. He had more money than me now, yes, but back when we’d first fallen in love, we’d both had whatever we could scrape together from our allowance or working odd jobs around town.
If Sam had liked me then, there was no reason to believe he needed fancy dinners on impressive yachts to like me now.
“Okay,” I agreed, squeezing Sam’s hand back. “I mean, it’s pretty impossible not to enjoy this. It’s dinner on a boat! On a river!”
I grinned. “But I’m going to have to put a lot more thought into your date,” I teased. Already, I had ideas forming.
“What kinds of dates did your other girlfriends take you on?” Maybe it was a weird question to ask. Judging by the way Sam looked at me, he thought it was. “I missed out on ten years with you,” I reminded him. “And the girlfriends you had then were a big part of that.”
“That is true,” he hummed. “It’s still a bit weird to talk about my previous dates on my current one,” he argued. But when I shrugged, Sam shrugged back. “Okay, let me think. Kelly and I
