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"Don't get your hopes up."
"I never hope," I said. "I go after what I want and I usually get it. Usually."
"But not always," she said. "You've lost before."
"Oh, yeah," I said and peered around into the great room, expecting to see someone but the place was empty. "Everyone must be down at the beach."
Then, I walked her up to the bedroom on the second floor, down the long hallway of rooms for my parents, Dana, if she was going to be here, and then my room at the end. I opened the door and she walked in.
I could sense her amazement when she took it in.
A huge four poster king sized bed sat in one corner. Beside it stood a chest of drawers, a small plush sofa and chair. A set of double patio doors opened onto a personal balcony that overlooked the greens and ocean.
"This is fantastic," she said and opened the patio door. She stepped on the balcony and I heard her take in a deep breath of salt air. "It's heaven."
I went to her side and rested my hands on the rail. "Yeah, it's pretty great. At night, I like to hear the roar of the surf. We're close enough that you can hear it when the doors are open. You can see some pretty decent stars as well. There aren't too many houses around with any lighting."
She smiled and then turned to me. "So, Mr. Big Shot, what's first on the agenda?"
"Something to eat. If you look down at the beach, you can see my family is sitting around a table by the barbecue."
"Sounds good," she said and together we left the house and made our way down the path past the putting green and swimming pool, to the beach.
I wondere
d who was there. People usually arrived Friday night for one of our weekends, and stayed until Sunday afternoon, but people came and left all weekend for meals and meetings.
I took her hand and prepared to meet my family and their guests, wondering what kind of weekend it would be.
Chapter 13
Alexa
* * *
If I was impressed with Luke's lifestyle and fortune before I saw the beach house, I was even more impressed – and a little overwhelmed – after. Sure, I saw it on Google earth, but a blurry tape was no match for the real thing.
I tried not to gape, but it wasn’t easy.
"I feel like the country mouse coming to visit the city mouse," I said as we walked past a tennis court, an enclosed swimming pool, and a putting green to the beach where the barbecue was taking place.
"Don’t worry," Luke said. "These are all flesh and blood people. Most of them inherited their wealth, and most of them have just as many flaws as anyone from your neighborhood back in Oregon. In fact," he said and leaned in closer. "Some of them are even more fucked up that your average middle class person. I bet your father is far more together than any of the men here, despite their wealth and privilege."
I smiled at him. "You think so?"
"I know so," he said, nodding. "These men have worked hard in their businesses, but several had it passed on to them and they merely took over the reins of power. They didn’t build their businesses."
"They still run them," I replied, trying to dampen down my awe.
"Sure, but many of the wealthiest men I know only make decisions, and leave all the grunt work of running an organization to underlings. They spend a lot of time on the golf course, having business lunches, taking jaunts in their private jets to talk to other businessmen and have business lunches, play on different golf courses. It's an entirely different sort of thing from actually building a company from the ground up."
"Like you and John did with Chatter," I offered.
He squeezed my hand. "Exactly. I know what it’s like to start from scratch. Yes, I had seed money, but I earned half that money myself, investing. Every business has to either bootstrap or use money they've begged, borrowed or stolen. I started with a hundred thousand dollar investment account that I accrued from years of selling comics and investing my inheritance. I used that to fund the startup. John chipped in his own savings, and we were off. The rest was hard work, a brilliant idea and a lot of legwork getting it started."
I smiled, impressed with his accomplishments. He was a bit cocky about it, but then again, he was waiting on a two billion dollar deal to come through. I figured he could afford to be a bit cocky…
"So, who all’s here," I said when we approached the group of people sitting around a table under a huge gazebo.
