And judging from the stillness in the front half of the kayak, my answer had hit with all the subtlety of a nuclear bomb.
Shit.
Finally, after the longest moment of my life Saylor asked, “And you never went to college for that, huh?”
I smiled and went back to stroking my oar in the water. “Nope.”
“Huh, I guess my mom was wrong. College doesn’t always spell success.”
My smile grew into a grin.
We went back to our banter so smoothly I don’t know why I ever worried about her reaction.
“Do you use a cleaning service back home?” I asked. “Or are you a control freak?”
“That’s a not-so-subtle change of topic.” She tipped her head, and I would’ve given anything to see her expression about now. Then she laughed softly and I relaxed. “Or do you have a secret Cinderella kink, and this is your way of telling me?”
I laughed with her. “Nah, I just tried to hire one for my mom while I was on tour, and she yelled at me for a solid ten minutes, going on about wasting my money and how keeping a woman’s home is a point of pride. I don’t know. I was wondering if it’s a generational thing, or if my mom is just weird.”
“I guess it’s one of those things that sounds amazing but is kinda weird in practice for some people. And I might be one of those people. My ex used a service which kinda freaked me out when I moved in with him. I ran around and hid my underwear before they came over every time.” She made this cute sounding snort. “Like they cared what my panties look like.”
I was a total dog because I was wondering what her panties looked like. Was she a boy shorts girl? A thong wearer? Maybe hipsters?
“What about you?” she asked, jolting me out of my mini-fantasy. “You have to have a cleaning service for your big mansion in California, right?”
I hitched a shoulder and then drug my paddle through the clear water. “I lock up my closet and my office on days that they’re scheduled. Honestly, I’d lock my whole bedroom suite, but then I’d have to clean my bathroom, and that’s not happening.” I smiled at her cute snort again. “I guess like you, I like my privacy, and maybe I have a hard time trusting people too.”
“Huh.”
“And I never thought about it from that perspective before. So thank you.”
Saylor nodded and didn’t say anything after that, but I could tell by the tilt of her head, she was taking what I said in.
I smoothly turned our kayak in the water and let the current carry us most of the way back to the main beach where we’d started. Once we beached, I hopped out and went to help Saylor, but she was already stepping out on her own. “That was fun. Thanks for talking me into it.”
“Thanks for being a good sport. I love being on the water, not as much as Samu, but still.”
The smile slipped off her face. “I guess I get now why you laughed about being anti-billionaire.”
“I’m not a billionaire. I’m nowhere near billionaire status.”
She didn’t look like she believed me.
I gestured to the beach around us. “Billionaires own their own beaches, hell they own their own airplanes. They don’t accidentally book a vacation at a couples resort.”
Her shoulders dropped away from her ears. “You got me there. I mean, I know you didn’t fly private, since you tried to seduce me into joining the mile high club.”
I laughed, totally unashamed now. “In my defense, women throw themselves at me on a regular basis. I thought you recognized me and were interested. You were giving me all these signals.”
“I was going to pee and made eye contact with you.” She scoffed. “How was that a signal?”
I gestured helplessly. “I was horny and you’re hot.”
She rolled her eyes and turned to leave.
“Again, in my defense, I’m going through a dry spell, and I was vulnerable because I’m pretty sure this is the end of my whole career.”
She turned back to me and narrowed her eyes. “Seriously? You just told me you just ended a two-year international tour. What’s your idea of a dry spell? One day?”
