AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do what, baby,” he asked, turning to face me.
“Live my life here in Charleston,” I stated. “It hasn’t worked for years and I’ll fail again, Bo. I know I’ll slide right back into the same pressures. I can’t do it by myself.”
“You can hire people, Hayes. You can find a middle ground,” he said. “I believe in you.”
“And what about you, Bo? What are you going to do?” I asked. “Are you willing to stay and help me?”
He was solemn and didn’t speak at first. I knew disappointing me was hard for him. He was a pleaser, a supporter, but I also knew he was strong and I needed that no matter what decision he made.
“I’m sorry but I can’t live in Charleston, Hayes. I tried it once and I was unhappy and you were miserable,” he said. “I can’t face seeing that happen again. I’m sorry.”
I stared at my hands that were folded in my lap. His answer was the one I’d expected but not the one I’d hoped for. How could he trust that I wouldn’t fall back into the same routines I’d spent my entire adult life adhering to? He couldn’t and I didn’t blame his reluctance.
“Can you take me with you?” I asked. His eyes expanded and the reality of my question sank in as he studied my face. “Please? I don’t want to go home, Bo. I don’t want to be without you.”
“Are you asking if you can come live with me in my fishing shack?” he clarified. “Me and you? As a couple? In Beaufort?”
I nodded and smiled through tears. “Yes. I am asking you to take me with you. Do you think you could do that?”
I thought he might need a minute or so but I was wrong. His eyes were heavy with tears but he managed to smile through them, reaching for my hand and squeezing gently. “Yes,” he responded. “I believe I can do that.”
EPILOGUE: Bo
Three Years Later
Hayes was on the dock below me practicing his knot making skills. He sat on the edge of the pier below our new boat with his legs hanging over the edge, not quite long enough to reach the cool river water beneath us.
His head was tilted toward his hands as he carefully fed the rope through practice loops, then held his handiwork aloft to inspect whether he’d achieved the knot. He didn’t know I was staring down at him with a heart so full of love I could have burst. He was adorable and boyish as he fussed with the rope, never giving up and always giving his all. He was bare chested with a pair of worn khaki cutoffs, and I sure as heck didn’t mind the view. He claimed he was turning thirty soon but I wasn’t buying it.
His hair was sunkissed and his skin was golden from months of working and playing on the water. I’d never seen a more relaxed and carefree Hayes over the past two years. He’d slid into my world as if he himself had been born to it. The fact that he wore my John Deere baseball cap backwards on his head proved he’d shed his Charleston pretension like it was a bad rash. He was casual, masculine, unintimidated, and aware of the world around him. He liked himself. I loved him.
“What do you think, baby?” I asked, standing above him on the boat’s deck and beaming ear to ear. “You think Memaw is looking down at this?”
“I’m sure she is,” Hayes answered, shielding his eyes and admiring the name stenciled on the side of our new fishing boat. “Miss Hazelsounds perfect,” he agreed. “Are you sure you can drive something this big?”
“We’re about to find out,” I stated. “At least the state says I’m qualified after all the testing.”
“Aye aye, Captain,” he said. I signaled we were leaving to two crew members, our company’s newest employees, on the dock near Hayes. Them and Hayes were accompanying me on my first test run of the Miss Hazel, ournew-ishfifty-five footer. Hayes had wanted me to buy new but I wasn’t the kind of man to buy anewanything.
“She has to stay docked here in town?”he’d asked when the seller had delivered it to our slip.
“Yep!”I’d responded.“She’s too big for our dock, plus we unload our catches here from now on.”
He nodded and glanced at the big vessel looking slightly intimidated.
“We’ll be safe, baby boy,”I’d promised.
I looked at my man as he came aboard, marveling once again at the changes in him. The business man had given way to a life of being with a fisherman and all that came with the lifestyle. I hadn’t seen him in anything but shorts and tank tops for months. He had a pair of old tennis shoes on too because I told him flip-flops weren’t safe on the fishing boat.
Hayes Crawford Jr., the now twenty-nine-year-old billionaire from Charleston, had long ago faded from his uptight persona and morphed into a far less anxiety-ridden person. Together we helped him through his anxious personality with therapy and loads of love and support. The man I lived with now was able to live his life any way he saw fit, with no pressure to be anyone but him.
One of the biggest steps that Hayes took was to hand over the primary day-to-day operations of his massive holdings to a person with the experience to manage his kind of wealth. The world is a small place, and the people that intersect our lives can end up being precisely what we need in them.
Through my buddy Lucas, I arranged a meeting between Hayes and Perry Jackson. They hit it off and Hayes immediately liked Perry’s approach to life and his skill sets at managing large estates. Perry had suggested returning Hayes’ inheritance to a trust that Perry would oversee. There were many tax benefits and less pressure on Hayes to enhance the trust’s growth. Hayes had told Perry that he’d never felt good about receiving such wealth so young and wished that the trust could live on for years and benefit others beyond him and his family. It didn’t surprise me that Hayes had decided that the money go to charity upon his death.
Hayes received asmallerlump sum of money before transferring the holdings back into the trust and he collected an annual stipend. Of course, these changes did not stifle Hayes’ approach to work or the goals he had for our lives. He was still an aggressive negotiator and marketing genius. We were standing on the first part of his master plan.
I carefully pulled away from the dock and navigated us out of the harbor. Hayes stood beside me in the wheelhouse as we made our way down river. He hadn’t been out with me since I’d completed my captain’s license certification and he nervously watched as I took command of our boat.
