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A knock on the door was followed by Oaks poking his head in, hand covering his eyes as if he hadn't seen us all naked before this.
"Breakfast is done, hope you're hungry," he said, peeking through his fingers. He let his hand fall away when he found we were just talking.
"Feel free to not get dressed, sunshine," he said with a wolfish grin.
"I'm not eating breakfast in a towel," I laughed, letting it drop just to tease them. They watched with rapt attention as I slid on my bikini, covering up with Jackson's shirt this time. His scent of coconut and tea leaves was the perfect subtle hint to relax me.
Fate gave me an array of betas for a reason. They calmed my rampant nerves and overthinking in a way that nothing ever had.
Twenty minutes later, we were all seated around the table with an entire breakfast buffet in front of us. I took a bit of everything and dug in until I saw Isaac wasn't eating.
"What's wrong?" I asked, frowning.
He shrugged. "I was just thinking how nice this feels. It's been a long time since we've had a family outside of us."
"Same for us," Jackson said, the brothers nodding along.
This time thankfully, there wasn't sadness accompanying the conversation, but hope.
"We were just talking about this downstairs," I said, figuring we may as well dive into this conversation now. No one could run away this time.
"Oh?" he asked, eyes narrowing the slightest as he tried to read between the lines. His shoulders tensed as if he were bracing himself for what was to come.
The words tumbled from my lips, recapping my feelings and thoughts on our future.
"I've been thinking about that a lot," Colt said, his fingers tapping at the table. It was something he did when he was anxious, I noticed.
"And?" Sawyer prompted, waving his hand in the air for Colt to continue when he didn't finish the thought.
Colt snorted. "I was thinking that maybe we could do longer breaks between charters. Say we do a month on a month off or something like that. Match on shore time with travel time."
Isaac raised his eyebrows and almost everyone at the table grew quiet thinking it over.
"So, we buy a house in Lockwood," Vince concluded, giving me a look since we just had this conversation. "We live there during our time on shore and have a security system in place for when we're away."
"That's half a year on, half a year off, is that enough charters?" I questioned. Making them take a huge pay cut didn't sit well with me. They shouldn't have to sacrifice like that.
Isaac leveled me with a serious look. "We could not work for two years and have enough money to support this entire pack." He didn't say it in a cocky way, more just stating a fact. "Most of us come from money and have the luxury to do this. I'm not saying we shouldn't work, Iwantto do the charters. I love what we do but I also have different priorities now."
His eyes met mine and I melted. I loved that they weren't willing to just give up their dreams for me. That was an unhealthy way to live their lives. Melding our lives together in a way that worked for us all was the right way to go about it.
Silas looked at Oaks. "I know that you are pretty particular and have your own space in the galley, but I'd love to help you out if you want it?"
"I actually had fun when we cooked together," Oaks admitted. "I'm willing to give it a shot."
"Wait, what?" Colt accused. "You don't let any of us in there to help you, even if you're metaphorically drowning in work."
"He's different," Oaks said bluntly. "He listens and learns, I can help him do things the way I like. You're stubborn and don't care about cooking."
"You've got me there," Colt said with a grin. At this point, he was just fucking with Oaks.
Amos let out a breath and ran a hand along his stubble. "I think I'm going to have to take a class or two on yachting, figure out what all that entails. I'm not against the idea of learning the ropes."
"Literally," Vince said with a grin on his face that had us all laughing.
"Nice pun," I said dryly, rolling my eyes.
"We can point you in the right direction," Vince reassured him, serious this time.
