Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
“God, it’s good to hear your voice,” Cal said. I could hear the smile in his voice, and it immediately grounded me.
“You took the words right out of my mouth. How are you? How is Annie?”
There was a slight pause before he said, “She was brain-dead when I got there. They took her off the machines the next day, and we’ve already had the funeral.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I said without thinking.
“I got to say goodbye to her,” he said in a soft voice. “So that was good.”
“Are you doing okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I think I am. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”
My heart rate picked up, selfishly hoping his thinking had included me. Maybe he wanted to plan a meet-up. Even if he just wanted another romp in the sheets, I’d take it. I’d take anything I could get with him, even if it was temporary.
“Thinking about what?” I asked.
“What I want to do next. I have this idea… and I wondered if you might be able to help.”
Yes. Please. I would help him with absolutely anything he needed.
“Of course. What kind of help do you need?”
A little voice in my head tried to warn me that this was finally going to be the part where he asked me for money, but a much, much larger voice shouted, I don’t care.
“One of you mentioned on the ship that the family foundation did work with programs like the Special Olympics. I want to apply for some grants to help set up an adaptive sailing program for people with disabilities, and I wondered if you knew anyone who’d be a good resource for researching and applying for that type of grant.”
It took me a minute to process what he wasn’t saying. He wasn’t asking me to fund anything. He wasn’t even asking for our foundation to fund it. All he wanted was help learning how to do it himself.
“Of course,” I said immediately. “Anything you need. Let me reach out to the foundation director and find the best person to help.”
Cal let out a breath. “Great. That… that would be great. Thank you so much. I almost didn’t call you because I didn’t want you to think I wanted a handout. I don’t. But I also really don’t want to fuck this up either.”
“I think that’s a great idea. No reason to reinvent the wheel when someone else can show you the ropes.” What was I even talking about right now? All I knew was that I wanted to keep him on the line as long as possible. “Tell me more about your idea. It sounds interesting.”
He launched into an excited description of what he had in mind. While I listened, I wandered down the hallway to my office and got comfortable on the sofa.
He told me about almost moving to Singapore. My heart dropped into my stomach at the thought of him so far away. Thank god he’d changed his mind. I’d been to Singapore twice and loved it as a visitor, but I couldn’t picture him being happy there as a resident. When he told me Annie’s nephew’s idea for getting rid of the sailing and turning the camp into a church camp, I let out a growl of annoyance. Cal laughed.
“No, it’s okay. I was angry at first too, but then I realized this was good. It means I won’t have any sailing competition on the lake. Kids interested in sailing won’t have to choose between the two programs. You want Christian fellowship? Go to Campside Cove. You want sailing? Go to… well, I don’t know what the name will be yet, but it’ll be awesome,” he said with a laugh.
“I know it will,” I agreed. “Tell me more about what piqued your interest for adaptive sailing.”
As he spoke, I could hear his passion for the subject. He told me about the first year he’d spent in the Caribbean taking as many instructor courses as he could.
“That’s where I learned to teach adaptive sailing, and it was incredible. We’d had two campers over the years who’d needed adaptations, so I’d already researched it a ton before taking that instructor course. But the instructor who taught me was unbelievable. She’s a double amputee and total badass.”
He told me more about her and the course, and I could tell how excited he was about his idea.
“Jon, no one in this region is offering this right now. The closest adaptive sailing program is in Galveston which is a four-hour drive from Dallas and eight hours from Oklahoma City. Hell, you can’t even do it yourself if you don’t have the right kind of lift and transport equipment. But that’s where your help comes in. If I can talk to someone who understands what all is involved in setting up a program for disabled athletes, I’ll be less likely to overlook things and make newbie mistakes.”