I like when Tiffany is happy. It’s all I want for her and my son. However, something in my gut feels off. I didn’t like her basing her happiness on someone else. People let you down. I’d hate to kill her mother for making my baby cry. Maybe I’m just being jaded.
“I’m happy for you. I hope this new version of her is the real version.”
“I hope so too.”
The inflection in her voice tells me how much she’s hoping for this.
Wanting to change the topic, I plant one last kiss on her lips and then place my wife back down on her feet. The sun was sitting low over the horizon, in another hour it would be night.
“So, what do you want to do tonight?”
“You mean besides going to a party filled with sexy football players?”
I reach for her. She dodges me and squeals before taking off. She doesn’t get far before I catch her, lift her up, and then toss her over my shoulder before heading to the pool and jumping in with her.
By the time Tiff and I got out of the pool and had dinner, it was dark outside. Now, she and I were sitting on a lounge chair on the back patio with her lying against my chest between my legs. The sound of the party was a low hum in our ears. From how the perfectly placed landscape and shrubbery were set up on the side of the house, we couldn’t see our neighbors, but we could hear them.
“This is so peaceful.” Her soft voice whispers.
The crashing of the ocean beating against the shore was the perfect background sound to this soothing night. The lights inside the house were off, and the only lights around us were the moonlight and pool lights.
“That it is.” I stroke the back of my hand against the bare skin on her belly.
“Can we do this every year?” She tilts her head up to look at me. “Just me and you and Noah coming out here and recharging by the ocean.”
I drop a kiss on her lips, unable to keep my mouth off hers. “Whatever you want, Angel. All you have to do is ask. If you want, I’ll buy this villa and we can come back to this spot.”
Her gaze narrows. “It’s that easy for you? Just drop a million dollars on a villa just because I said I like it?”
I lift my shoulder in a lazy shrug. “Yeah.”
She shakes her head. “That’s crazy. You’re not wasting your money on a once-a-year vacation home for me. You already own a private island.”
With a finger under her chin, I turn her gaze back on me. “First off, it wouldn’t be a waste of money if it made you happy. But more importantly, don’t ever look for the bottom of my wallet, Tiff. You won’t find it. Your only job is to spend my money. You let me worry about making sure it’s there to spend.”
I don’t let go of eye contact until I know for sure she grasps my words. Finally, she dips her chin in acknowledgement. I release my hold on her chin.
“Tell me something,” she asks, turning back to face the ocean view. “What made you go into the hotel business? Was it something you always wanted to do?”
I go back to mindlessly stroking her belly as I think over her question. “Honestly, I got into hospitality out of desperation. When we were coming up, we spent most of our lives just tryingto survive after the boy’s home.” My mind lingers briefly on that short time before Nathaniel appeared like a guardian angel.
“My brothers and I were homeschooled after we left the boy’s home.” That’s the safe way of calling what Nathaniel did. He hired tutors to come and teach us, but traditional education wasn’t the only thing they taught us.
“Mason is the only one who went to college. Salv, Kaz, and I opted for alternative routes.” By alternative, I meant the streets.
“Mase was hellbent on us having real jobs. He taught us that we needed backup plans for our backup plans. Real estate was an easy option. Salv bought up a few restaurants and a nightclub. Kaz has always been tech-savvy. He created a startup tech company, and then there was me.
“I had no idea what I wanted to do. Until one day, I saw that there was an old hotel up for sale. It was built in 1919. It was going to need a lot of work, but I knew the potential. My father had taken me on a road trip one year, and we’d passed the old hotel. He talked about the structure and the history. When the place came up for sale, I knew that was my sign. It was the very first Basille Hotel and Resort.”
“You were twenty-five, right?”
I chuckle. “You’ve been doing your research on your husband, I see.”
She waves off my comment. “I really wanted to be your lead designer on North River. I needed to see who you were.”
It’s crazy to believe that it was only two years ago that I met this woman for the first time. So much has changed since that day. It almost feels like a different life. Like I was reincarnated, and that is the remnant memory of a past life.
“So let me get this right,” she goes on to say. “You’re a hotel tycoon. Salv owns restaurants, clubs, and bars around the city.”
