The helicopter landed on a private helipad at the Coronado Island Resort. The red-roofed white sprawl had been a favorite of stars, celebrities, and Mafia dons back when all those careers had been glamorous.
The beach was crowded with sunbathers and volleyball players, of course, plus the surf pounding on the rocks and the tourists parasailing behind motorboats, and the kids playing and the drones flying and the seagulls screaming over it all.
Salt spray danced in the air around them as they strolled barefoot on the sand, holding their shoes.
Colleen stared at everything, her head swiveling and dark caramel hair flying around her head in the sea breeze.
They talked about music and movies, just fun things that Tristan liked to talk about with his littles.
Not that Colleen was his little.
She certainly was not.
She was a foundling employee, not a plaything.
But she seemed so distracted by the water, turning and walking backward and staring at the sky, that Tristan asked her, “First time at Coronado Island?”
Colleen laughed aloud. “It’s my first time seeing the ocean!”
“You could see it from the windows of the hotel room,” Tristan noted.
“Yeah, but that was from up high and way back. This is my first time on a beach. I knew the ocean was big. Of course, it’s big. I mean, you can see that on a map. My fourth-grade classroom had a globe, and you could see how much ocean there was, and the Pacific Ocean was really big. I just never expected it to go all the way from horizon to horizon and look like it was rising up into the air out there. It looks like the Earth curves up instead of down and around.”
Tristan glanced out to where the sun was nearing the sea. The water did indeed look as if it were higher than the beach where they stood, an eternal swell of a wave at the edge of the world.
She said, “And I’ve read where people talked about the scent of the ocean, but I get it now. It smells like everything in creation stewed together. It’s got the salt, and the fish, and seaweed, and a thousand different things that my nose doesn’t know what to do with.”
Tristan stood back while she took a few steps toward the sea, saying, “It’s just so big and so loud. I’ve seen some of the lakes outside Phoenix, like Lake Pleasant and Big Lake, and some of my friends in college went up to Lake Powell for spring break. They showed me a video of the houseboats up there. But I didn’t know the ocean was so loud. No wonder amphibians crawled out to escape and live on the land. It sounds like life is battling for survival in there.”
“Maybe it is,” Tristan said as the waves clawed at the white sand shore.
Colleen tossed her shoes on an outcropping of black rocks, and Tristan rolled up his trouser legs so they could splash their feet in the frigid water until their toes went numb and then sprint back to the beach when the waves leaped at them.
The sun swelled and reddened as it floated lower, and Tristan found their table he had reserved at the resort’s restaurant on the actual beach itself.
Waitstaff in black-tie suits showed them to their table and brought them water, wine, and bread.
Colleen kept watching the ocean. At high tide, it was only a dozen yards away or so.
Like himself, most of the other men were wearing suits, while the women wore cocktail dresses and carried their high-heeled shoes as they walked across the sand.
She asked him, “Am I underdressed?”
Her fluttery skirt and white blouse were just so feminine and attractive that he couldn’t imagine her in anything else. “You’re perfect.”
While they talked, her gaze kept straying back to the water, roiling just yards away while the sea breeze plucked at their napkins and the white tablecloth. “It’s so huge.” She turned and looked at him, her dark eyes full of stars. “I’m so glad I got to see it.”
Tristan grinned at her as he tore into his supper, eating with gusto. “Wait till I show you the Mediterranean.”
When they returned to the hotel from the helicopter, Jian took Tristan aside. “I booked this two-bedroom suite for us a week ago, before Ms. Frost joined your entourage. Nevertheless, as you have officially hired her or at least promised her a salary for administrative duties on a handshake deal, and I believe the offer was only for administrative duties unless I am mistaken, it would be unseemly and presumptive for her not to have her own, separate room. I have taken the liberty to reserve one for her several floors down and arranged for her luggage to be delivered there. I assure you; it is more than adequate.”
Disappointment settled over Tristan, though he did not move a muscle to acknowledge it. “Thank you, Jian. Of course, that’s the appropriate thing to do. I have some business to attend to. Could you please inform her?”
Tristan strode into the master bedroom and closed the door.
Dammit.
No, it was more ethical to give Colleen her own room.
