Colin called me over to him, and I settled in next to him, his arm around me as he spoke with his brothers about fish and fishermen and fishing trips. Things I didn’t care for and understood nothing about. But when Landon spoke about the beach near my mother’s retirement community, I finally had something to interject.
Landon livened up when I agreed with his favorite Mexican restaurant in that area, and we tried to convince his brothers what a lively place it was on that boardwalk by the ocean, especially on a weekend night.
“You’ll have to show me when you introduce me to your mother,” Colin said.
Before I had a chance to react, Stephen jumped in. “Meeting the mother? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yesterday you were introducing her as ‘just a coworker,’ and now you’re going to meet her mother?” His air quotes were exaggerated to prove his point.
Colin looked at me and shrugged. “It’s up to Katelynn. I’m simply expressing my willingness.” A quick wink afterward, and I was ready to jump into the ocean in celebration.
Is this really happening?Am I moving too fast? Is he? Or is this exactly how it’s supposed to feel?
It seemed too good to be true.A rich executive brings me to an exclusive island and tells me on a yacht that he’s ready to meet my mother when I give the word?He was always one step ahead of me, but I was ready to meet him wherever he was at. If only I could get myself to speak from the heart.
They caught fish with great fanfare, including Colin's catch of a large bluefin tuna. He insisted that I be in the picture that Landon took of him and the fish.
“Let me have your number so I can send it to you, and you can post it,” Landon said.
Colin’s jaw clenched, and I quickly answered, “Oh, I rarely post pictures. Send it to your brother, and he’ll share it with me later.”
“Okay,” Landon said and moved on to take a picture of Ron, who had caught something as well.
I put a hand on Colin’s chest. “Are you alright? You understand that I don’t care about posting anything on social media. Or that you’re… well… rich.”
“I know,” he said, nodding. He put both arms on the railing, and I followed suit.
“You haven’t told me what happened at the gate with Andrea. You don’t have to,” I quickly added.
“I want to. It’s only that everything happened so fast last night, and after we were… distracted with each other.”
I laughed, and he continued.
“When I got to the gate, she was on the passenger side, shouting over the driver into the intercom. When she saw me, she opened her window and called me over. I shouted for her to go home, that we wouldn’t let her in, that I knew what she’d done, and that she was too late. She yelled back that I was jealous, a coward, and that I used her to get the company publicity.”
He paused then and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
“It was absolutely ridiculous. I wasn’t working with my father at that time, and she knows that back then I could not have cared less about the agency. Anyway, security showed up after that, and she gave in and left.”
“How awful. I’m sorry she keeps putting you in horrible situations.”
“I’m just glad I found her out before I married her,” he said.
I looked around until Stephen came into view, laughing loudly with Landon at something or other. “It doesn’t seemthat Stephen minds marrying someone who will put up with anything to get your family’s name or money.”
“No, he doesn’t.” He shrugged. “But that’s not what I want out of a marriage. My whole life, I’ve seen marriage as a thing of convenience. But when Andrea tried to convince me we were a ‘power couple’ and it would be mutually beneficial, I was sick to my stomach. I don’t want that kind of thing to be part of the equation. I decided then I’d probably never get married because what I wanted didn’t exist.”
My heart sank. In truth, it broke a little.
He didn’teverwant to get married? True, there were a lot of shitty people and marriages that he’d seen throughout his life, but he didn’t know of one good marriage?
“Your parents are still married,” I pointed out.
“Technically, yes. But my mother spends her days here. My father in the city. I don’t ask and they don’t say, but that’s not fulfilling, is it? No, there aren’t many happy marriages out there.”
“My parents were happy together until my dad died,” I said. It was as if I were trying to convince him of something he’d already made up his mind about.
“To your knowledge. Look around. Is Pam with Ron because of his awesome personality, his fifteen years on her, and his round belly?”
I stood quietly. I wasn’t sure how to process all of this and make it make sense with how he’d been talking to me earlier.
