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Seventeen
BROOKE
“And you’re totally fine with it?” I asked, for the third or fourth time. “You’resure?”
Devin nodded, packing the last of his things. The luggage pickup was first thing in the morning. Anything we weren’t taking on the Race with us would be shipped back to our home addresses, all courtesy of the network.
“Jeremy managed to cover one of the groups we were supposed to lead next week,” he said. “The other one…” He let out a long sigh before finishing the rest of his sentence. “The other one we tried rescheduling but ended up having to cancel.”
“No,” said Hayden. “Not cancel. We handed their trip over to Legendary, remember?”
Legendary Tours, I’d already found out, was the guys’ biggest competitor. It must’ve broken Devin’s heart to lose the booking to them.
“Doesn’t matter, really,” Devin shrugged. “They’ll get the money now, not us.”
“It matters because we didn’t just bail on the customer,” said Hayden, “we found them an alternative. Let them spend a week with Legacy this year, and have a totally shit time. Then next year they’ll come with us.”
Devin grunted. “If they have a shit time they might not come back at all,” he pointed out.
“They will if we offer them a discount.”
I left the room and went outside before the conversation devolved any further. In a way Devin was right; taking the next month off to chase each other around the world was wholly irresponsible for any budding business owner, much less one living paycheck to paycheck. And in this case, all three of the owners were going off at once.
On the other hand, I felt almost guilty at how easily I was able to get the time off. Cliff had been cool and supportive, joking that if I won the million dollars I’d have to buy him a new Yamaha side-by-side.
“Deal,” I told him without even thinking. Then, after being wished even more luck, we jovially hung up. The whole call had taken less than three minutes.
A million dollars…
My next call would’ve been to my poor teammates, who would most likely shit once they learned of their missed opportunity. Only I couldn’t call them. The non-disclosure forms we signed were airtight, and required we talk about the Race only when the situation absolutely required it. At least for now.
“Hey beautiful.”
Out on our private little beach, Reese was sitting in the sand. He looked rested and content for it being one o’clock in the morning.
“You should be in bed,” I told him.
“Then come to bed with me,” he smiled.
“No, I’m serious!” I scolded him. “If we’re really going to do this, all four of us need to be well-rested.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“You think I’m kidding?” I went on. “Who knows what they’ll make us do tomorrow? Maybe swim all the way around the island, or run a half-marathon, or—”
“I ran the Race too, if you remember,” he said. “I’m well aware of what they might make us do.”
He reached up for me, and I took his hand. Without warning he pulled me into the sand with him.
“I’m more worried that Devin’s heart’s not in it,” Reese said. “We bought the land and built the company together, the three of us. To the point where we’re so indispensable, getting away for a whole week was already tough.”
“I know,” I replied. “And now it could be a month more on top ofthat.”
He pulled me between his legs, then wrapped his arms around me from behind. It felt good leaning back against the warmth of his chest. Just a yard away, the waves practically lapped at our feet.
“Once that golden pistol goes off, that’s it,” said Reese. “No calling home. Everything in Minnesota could be crumbling down and we wouldn’t know.”
“Who’s Jeremy?”
