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“Well, beautiful, we could spend the day trying to row ourselves out, but we’d be exhausted.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks reddened. “Shit,” she said, further embarrassed.
“Hey, beginner,” I said, hoping it helped, “make yourself useful and get me a beer.”
“It’s like, when I’m around you, what comes up comes out an avalanche of stupid. I can’t imagine what you think of me.”
I studied her long and hard before telling her what had more than once graced the tip of my tongue without spilling out. “I happen to like it that you are so candid with me,” I said as she smiled. “I also think you are fucking beautiful and prefer this view over any I’ve ever seen. As far as what I think about you, I think you know I do a lot of it.”
She swallowed as she handed me a beer and looked around the flawless harbor. “I could get used to this.”
“What?”
“You calling me beautiful,” she whispered as she looked back at me. I’d seen it a few times since we met, but here she was making it perfectly clear. The feeling was mutual.
“I’m curious, Nina,” I said, busying myself around the deck, completing the steps my father taught me, focusing the boom and getting ready to set the main sail. “How did you do it?”
She stiffened as she studied me, using my advice against me. She would make me earn it. “How did I do what?”
“How did a twenty-seven-year-old college dropout become a multi-millionaire in a year?”
She smirked. “I did what you did. I saw an opportunity to gamble, and I took it. Except, I didn’t have to seek it out. It came to me.”
I stayed silent as I released the jib and set a cleat, urging her to continue.
“I was a fat kid. I think it’s ironic now how my past torment is now the reason for my fortune. I was the epitome of an ugly duckling. I learned early on you had to have something going for you, either looks or money, and I had neither. So I made it a point to do something about it. I started young, thirteen or fourteen, I think. I wiped everything out of my diet except for rabbit food, began working out vigorously, and in a year’s time…You get it. Anyway, I realized it was my only saving grace. I made it a hobby, I worked my ass off, literally, and it paid off. I was no longer the last girl to get invited to the dance. I was the first. Boys didn’t seem to worry about my bank account…then. So when I had to choose a major in college, I chose nutrition. I started to design a program for a class project and the rest is history.”
“And you found an investor,” I said, watching her skirt tease me as it whipped in the wind with a near glimpse of what lay underneath.
“She found me. Actually, it’s funny because that woman hadn’t ventured out as an investor in years. I sent it to the market to test it, and she was the first in the pool to pick it up. She was convinced it was the next Atkins.”
“She was right,” I said,
grabbing my beer to join her and take the wheel. She was sipping a glass of the second bottle of champagne she brought. The first’s remains sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic after I gave it a love tap to christen the boat. “And are you happy with the results?” I asked, taking my place at the wheel.
“Yes, no, I mean…” She looked at the heavens, shaking her head. “I’m happy that it helped so many people. I am still kind of reeling from it all. It was definitely a case of too much too soon.” She turned to me. “I’m not complaining, and I’m thankful to you for steering me in the right direction.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, opening a fresh beer.
“It’s been a ride,” she said distantly. “And it’s only just begun.”
It was then I saw her sadness. The kind of sadness I see in most of my clients when they realize money doesn’t solve everything.
Money doesn’t solve people, and those were the hardest burdens to bear.
“Nina, you realize that with or without the money, you would still feel the way you feel.”
“I should have known he was an asshole,” she said quickly. “How could I not see that? And everyone around me, it was like I was a pariah, even to my close friends. The friends I had long before my husband, they made me feel … guilty for the wealth. As if it was my fault they were still struggling. Suddenly we had nothing in common. I didn’t have kids, and they were all starting families. I ran out of excuses to call, and they didn’t bother to call me. I mean, what the hell is wrong with people?”
Great, I was going to have to give her a pep talk. I sighed as I took in the tourist-filled waterfront park from the harbor. We were in the midst of perfection, and I needed to remind her of that.
“Come here,” I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to me. I’d never laid a hand on her until that moment, and the jolt hit us both. My dick sang its praises.
I pulled her in front of me so she could hold the wheel. She giggled as I draped myself around her and I felt her body tighten as she recognized all my blood was pulsing in my pants in the bulge beneath her. I wasn’t about to apologize for it or hide my reaction to her. “This is you now,” I whispered in her ear as I cradled her. Immediately, I noted the goose bumps on her flesh, the change in her breathing. “Look at you, Nina, at the wheel. You didn’t need your fucking husband to get you here. You didn’t need me, either. You don’t need their approval to enjoy your success. And I think you know that. You did this yourself. Take control of it and don’t ever let another person steer you again. You earned this. Through hard work, and good fortune, you no longer have to compete with anyone. Own it.”
“I didn’t know it was a competition,” she said in a small voice.
“Sure you did,” I murmured, brushing my lips against her temple. “It’s what got you into the race in the first place.”
