(Boy) Man Next Door

chapter 1

Sam was used to being the shy girl; hair covering the face dressed in jeans and dad's jerseys, soft spoken and plain. She was used to being classified as the clumsy bookworm that most men would stay away from. Used to all her past relationships failing because of her usual chooses in the same tirelessly deceitful boys who would use her and drop her like a rag.

She was so used to it that she was sure as hell sick of it. So the day when she received the call from New York, the one she's been praying for, for a month now, Sam immediately picked up her things and packed, shocking her fifty something year old father, who'd recently just gotten remarried and was living a good life. Or one any other fifty something year old would be content with anyway.

Sam knew her father hadn't noticed how tired of Delaware she'd become. How could he when all around him good things were happening daily? It didn't surprise her that her father hadn't noticed, and she didn't blame him either. She was happy for him after all, and she'd had him all for herself for 18 years. He'd focused all the years in raising her and forgot about being anything but a dedicated father. Her mother having died when she was five, he was all Sam had.

Thankfully, her dad and she were close. So close in fact that it hadn't gone too well when she told him the idea of his only daughter going four hours away from home. Or the fact that she would be dropping everything she had in Delaware to go run to the city for a new job. Or the fact that she would be living alone in an apartment in Brooklyn, and that the only other person she knew in the city was a cousin whom he hadn't seen for years and had no recent news of. Sam had tried to reassure him of his cousin's stability but, as all fathers tend to be he hadn't cared to hear anything that might reassure him. Especially when he was so used to having her with him; his little soldier and baseball partner.

"Aww dad, you know you've got Edna to watch the games with you, and I just feel so in the way now." Sam tried explaining. Her long dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, away from her face, better to pack things away without getting caught on anything, as was customary for her. Her father stepped away from the doorframe of her bedroom, soon to be former, where he had been propped against for a few minutes as she worked over the boxes. He stepped from it, as she watched her father approach her by her bed. She hovered over a half packed cardboard box, a hand resting against the flap of it as he glanced at her. Her suitcase rested on the bed almost fully packed as well.

"Sweetheart you know you're never in the way, Edna loves you..." Mr. Truman placed a hand on his daughter's shoulders, so she could stop packing for a moment and they could talk. Taking her hand in his own larger one he sat on her twin sized bed.

Upon sitting, it somehow made Sam nostalgic for her younger years, and the little private talks between her dad and she. The one's that had been so awkwardly spoken but, had still left Sam aware at how well her single father had managed to raise her. She smiled at the memory of them foro a minute, as she stared at her anxious dad in the face. His light blue-grey eyes were worriedly glancing at her, his hand holding hers tightly as he spoke.

"Dad I know Edna doesn't mind me here, and I know you don't either, believe me I do. But I just need a new start, you know. Get away from this town and start fresh." Sam pressed her father's hand as reassuringly as she could for a moment, feeling the callous hands of hard-working father that she loved more than life itself. "It has nothing to do with you two. I love you both so much, and I want you both to have your own time together. I want to start my own life and this job at Sports and Hits, well it's just about perfect. I've got everything ready for me in New York, and Laura, you remember cousin Laura mom's second cousin once removed? You know she worked so hard to find me the cutest little apartment, a one bedroom in Brooklyn. It's just about fate that I go there, considering how quickly she managed that! You know?"

Mr. Truman sighed, and grabbed his daughter, squeezing her tightly to him. In response, Sam held fast, slipping her arms around his thick waist and hugged him back. She exhaled the scent that she had long ago come to acknowledge as her father's special fragrance and tried very hard not to cry. He smelled of trees, outdoor smells and a slight hint of old spice cologne. All the smells that said her father. He spoke over her head, holding her close, "Well wherever you go, whatever you decide to do baby girl, I just want you to know this will always be your home. You hear me?"

A smile formed, hidden in the fold of her father's embrace, as Sam mumbled, "I know daddy."

Clearing his throat and wiping his tears with the sleeve of his shirt before he pulled away, Mr. Truman got up from the bed. It rose from his weight absence, as he looked down at his daughter for a second, "Well then...since we've got that all cleared up, Edna is making you a special last night in Delaware dinner. I better go see if I can help her with anything."

Sam smiled softly at her father's slightly sad expression which he immediately hid behind his usual bravado. He nodded at her smile and bent down to kiss his daughter's forehead for a moment aware that in the past twenty-three years, eighteen of which had been him alone, of raising the bright and lovely girl before him, Sam had always been solid and trying for her own independence. He had no reason to deny her the freedom at long last since she was twenty-three and clearly ready to begin life as a real true-blue adult at last. With that in mind, he headed out her bedroom door to help his newly married wife with dinner without another word.

Sam got up from her child hood bed, and glanced around the room, hands on her hips. All her bookshelves were empty. All her medals and trophies from an equal amount of school and sports events gone. As were all the pictures of her baseball junior team, her school newspaper crew, pictures of her father and her mother together and separate, all safely wrapped in newspaper and ready to go along with Sam's clothes, shoes, and a few personal items.

All the boxes were sealed and ready for the move. Her father had promised to send the rest of her boxes through a rent a truck as soon as she landed safely in New York and saw the apartment her cousin had rented. He'd forced his daughter to allow him the cost of the truck as a welcome home gift for her move to the City. Sam had no objection to the gift and gratifyingly accepted the offer. The boxes would reach New York two or three days after she did. This only meant she had to pack her essentials in a totally different bag or perhaps two bags, enough to last her those few days without all her possessions. The more she thought about her move the she more got excited.

She couldn't wait to begin her new life in thebig Apple.