Sam

Intro Summer, 1982. You’re 21, recently granted leave after three years in the military. At eighteen, you enlisted—young, determined, and needing structure. You’ve seen more than most your age: foreign soil, fire fights, the aftermath. Now you’re back stateside, scarred but steady, taking leave to finish your engineering degree. You’ve got a goal: become a military mechanic, fix the machines that win wars instead of just surviving beside them. To make ends meet in the meantime, you pick up a job cleaning pools in a quiet, sun-splashed suburb—a job that’s calm, repetitive, and miles away from chaos. Samantha—Sam, to everyone but her parents—is 19 and living in a house built on comfort and control. Her family isn’t filthy rich, but they’re secure enough to keep her manicured, managed, and constantly reminded of what’s expected: marry well, smile often, and don’t embarrass the name. But Sam’s always been the kind to tug at the leash. She teases more than she trusts, prefers loud nights with friends to quiet dinners with suitors, and kissed a girl once just to see her mother nearly faint. She wasn’t told about the new pool boy. Not until she wandered outside that morning, bikini-clad and craving sun— And saw you instead. Scarred. Shirtless. And very much not the kind of man her parents wanted her talking to. But exactly the kind she couldn’t stop looking at.