“Before I pass the floor to my cousin, Lori Phipps, Master Boat Builder, who will share her vision for the future of DynaCraft Yachts with us, I want everyone to meet our newest company—DPP Holdings.”
She spoke eloquently for another twenty minutes, delivering a high-level business plan. The new company would take responsibility for the family holdings, including the compound at Eighteen Mile Creek and the DiNamico building. DPP would become the family’s management firm. And while it would begin small, she waxed eloquent about its potential, even suggesting that with the right leadership there would be opportunities to expand into investment management. It was important that everyone buy into her plan and that the new holding company be presented as the jewel in the crown. After all, if they wanted Lou to bite the forbidden fruit, it would have to be the biggest and the best.
Once she had made her case, at least for DPP and DynaCraft, she introduced Lori and took her seat. Marnie quickly slipped into the seat Lori had vacated. She couldn’t physically intimidate Lou the way his sister did, but she could embarrass him and make a scene if she had to. From where she was sitting, Georgie watched him carefully while he frantically sent text messages to someone. While Lori explained the developing opportunities in component yachts and custom builds, Georgie surreptitiously surveyed the room wondering who Lou was communicating with, then she spotted him. That little baldheaded weasel! It was one of the family attorneys. The one who had been so embarrassed to let Lori read Aunt Georgina’s letter. That was only eight years ago! At least the homophobe wasn’t one of the influencers on the board, just his runner-up. And soon to be dismissed as the attorney of record. She sent a quick warning text to Marnie. If Lou still planned to mount his challenge, it would come the moment Lori finished speaking but before she could sit down beside him and shut him up.
Sure enough, the minute Lori concluded with her financial projections, he stood, trying very much to look like the man in charge. Before he could finish straightening his suit jacket, Henry was on his feet and Marnie too.
“Thank you Lori,” Henry said, adding, “before we ask questions, and I know we all have many when it comes to the legacy of our oldest brand, it’s time to take a break.”
With the meeting suddenly broke up, Lou’s objections, and his steam, evaporated in an instant. While Zoe made haste to join her father, Marnie intercepted the offending attorney. She asked him and the senior lawyer from their firm to join her in the lobby for a private word. As they made their way from the room, she strolled casually, chatting amiably. Lori, alerted by Marnie’s quick text and with Henry in tow, followed Georgie and Tyler as they stepped out of the room to join them.
In the grand foyer of the DiNamico building, Marnie stood with her sister and her uncle, the three people who controlled one hundred percent of the family holdings, and told them without preamble, “As our representatives, we have reason to believe you have breached our confidentiality. Therefore, as of this moment, you will no longer represent this family. If you wish to maintain your relationship with any particular member of our clan, you may do so but be warned, we intend to file a complaint with the Bar Association and we are currently considering filing for damages.”
With that said, Marnie turned and taking one of Henry’s arms, guided him back in the room. The two blindsided lawyers stood there looking dumbfounded. Tyler had retrieved their jackets and briefcases while Lori made it clear they weren’t getting back in the boardroom. After some blustering threats and objections they stormed out.
“That’s two down,” Lori said, offering Georgie a fist bump.
“Modular building…teardowns?” she asked, quoting two new ideas Lori had shared during the presentation. “Nice!”
“You like it?” When Georgie nodded, she laughed, and exclaimed, “You should. It was your idea!” She gave her another fist bump before wrapping her arm around her protectively. “You’re doing it Bender, you got them listening. You do know you could have just come in here and strong-armed everyone with your share?” She shook her head in awe. “That’s the thing about you that I love and the part Lou doesn’t get. I know it never occurred to you but with your share and Marnie’s or even just Leslie’s vote, you could’ve made all the changes you wanted. Hell, you could’ve fired Lou and no one would’ve said a word! My baby brother on the other hand has earned himself the smallest piece of the pie, yet that little bastard would get rid of all of us if he could. I don’t get it! What the hell is wrong with him?”
Georgie shook her head, as confused as her cousin. “Pride?” she suggested, “maybe…only boy?”
Lori chuckled. “You know, I can still remember Sophia changing his diapers. Every time the cold air hit his junk, he’d go off like a rocket! Gramma used to keep his new diaper ready like a catcher’s mitt! Thirty-five years later and the bastard’s still going off every chance he gets!”
That made Georgie laugh. She made a hand signal mimicking a rocket blasting off into space. “Bean counters!”
Marnie stormed out of the boardroom with Tyler on her heels. “Lori get inside. Tyler take Georgie upstairs, now!”
Tyler, white-faced, looked close to tears while Marnie was ready to blow a gasket. Georgie reached out silently placing a protective hand on her sister’s shoulder. “What?” she asked gently.
Almost under her breath and clearly struggling for control, she blurted, “That little bastard filed a written challenge for a vote of confidence. Under the old incorporation papers he has that right. Now we have to vote and you have to leave.”
“When?” she asked calmly, “when did he…file?”
Marnie handed her the petition to read. It was stamped with yesterday’s date. “By stalling, we actually gave him the upper hand!”
“No worries,” she offered with a smile.
“Yeah,” Lori added. “Everyone’s seen what our girl can do. Come on Marns. Don’t sweat it. You and me are gonna go in there and explain the facts of life. After the preview they just got, how the hell can anyone—”
“Get in here girls!” Lou ordered from the threshold of the meeting room. “Some of us have work to do. Stop wasting time!”
Marnie, with her back to Lou, almost went ballistic.
Georgie and Lori, recognizing she was seconds from going all Incredible Hulk on his ass, grabbed on tight. The moment she had enough control not to implode on the spot, Georgie squeezed her arm. “You got this…boss!”
“How can you smile?” she hissed. “We don’t know how he’s stacked the deck. What—”
“Big guns!” Georgie said, with the most ironic of grins. Reaching into the pocket of her suit jacket, she removed and unfolded a document and gave it to Marnie. Judging by the deep creases in the paper and its slightly yellowed color, it wasn’t something she had just pulled together.
As Marnie read the first page her eyebrows began to rise. Now she had what she needed. Without comment, she and Lori returned to the meeting.
Georgie watched without emotion as Zoe, with a smug look, pulled the big oak doors closed. Reaching for Tyler’s hand, she walked Tyler to the elevator in silence. Despite an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events, Georgie wasn’t upset. Actually she looked quite pleased with herself.
Tyler waited until the elevator closed before asking, “Please tell me that wasn’t your resignation? I swear I will kill that man if he manages to—”
Georgie wrapped her arms around her, delivering a scorching hot kiss before admitting, “Not resigning…no worries.”
When the elevator door opened Tyler realized they were on nine and not the executive level. Following Georgie inside her apartment, she said, “Okay, still confused. What did you just do?”
Grinning from ear to ear, Georgie wrapped her arms around her again. “My Tyler…Brilliant mind…”
Now Tyler was smiling. She liked this game. “So it’s just my mind you’re after? What about my smokin’ hot body?”
Georgie’s hands were instantly inside her jacket, combing
up her sides and back. Pulling her close, she offered a single brief kiss, before explaining, “You said something…made me think! Before last…deployment,” she indicated herself, “worried…what if Dad and Henry…”
“You were worried they would pass while you were away?”
She nodded. “Aunt Georgina’s shares…only they knew.”
“Oh my God baby! All that time and no one else knew you had already inherited a third of the company. What did you do? I know you must have prepared something but I can’t imagine what that could be.”
Enjoying the opportunities presented whenever Tyler wrapped her long arms around her neck, Georgie’s hands migrated from her back to find her small sensitive breasts.
“Oh God, you’re doing it again!” She begged, already aroused, “No, no, no. Bad girl!” She pinned the offending digits in her grasp. “I will not have you getting me…not until I know Marnie and gang aren’t about to come barging in. Now tell me. What brilliant thing did I inspire?”
“Simple.” She laughed delightedly, squeezing Tyler’s hands. “Proxy.”
It took her a moment to put it together. Shocked at the simplicity, she asked, “You gave Marnie your legal voting delegate? Oh my God, that’s brilliant! Wait, is it still valid? Please tell me it wasn’t drawn up by those bastards Marnie just fired?”
She shook her head, explaining instead, “Other guys.”
Tyler was so relieved she threw herself into Georgie’s arms. At the same time, Maggie padded in, dropping her squeaky toy, her warning of an impending family intrusion.
“Moment of truth!”
As she said it a light went off in Tyler’s mind. “Oh my God baby. You wanted this to happen! I think I understand. This was your way of settling the ‘crazy’ issue once and for all!” Still putting the pieces together, something else occurred to her. “You could have pulled that proxy out at any time. I know you, you don’t forget things like this. Do you?” she challenged. “I think I get it. You didn’t just push people to take a stand, you pushed them to lead. Marnie and Lori have been holding back. They needed to take a step up and take control! You did this for everyone! Still, I can’t believe you took this chance.”
Tracing her fingertips across Tyler’s cheek, she repeated her own personal maxim, “Better to know.”
They could hear the main entrance door on the upper level open, and several bodies triumphantly marching in.
There it was again, the gentleness, the amusement and the knowledge Georgie so readily conveyed in her eyes. Accepting the hand she offered, they walked together to greet their visitors at the foot of the antique staircase old Luigi had installed so many years before. Tyler squeezed her hand warmly. She was smiling now and ready to face the music together. “Baby, no matter what happens,” she promised with a grin to match Georgie’s, “I won’t let go.”
Epilogue
One Year Later
Tyler stood in the galley of the company’s newest boat, the DynaCraft Super 69. While she was technically a seventy-foot long sailing yacht, they had stuck to the naming conventions first created by old Luigi. He would always measure the keel length from transom to bow, excluding the bowsprit. He believed, and in some cases it was true, that shaving a foot off the registered length of the vessel would save on docking fees and insurance. Still there had been more than enough jokes, most of them from Lori, on the irony that four lesbians would be taking the company’s first sixty-niner for its inaugural shakedown cruise. This new boat featured all the modular design characteristics and breakdown features Lori and Georgie had been suggesting for years. Because the sixty-niner was actually too big to ship by transport truck, it, or more correctly she, had been sent by rail to Newport Virginia, where they watched as she was unloaded by a huge crane then suspended for her christening. Tyler, more than honored, hadn’t expected to be asked.
When Lori handed her the bottle of champagne, she explained the technique. “On TV they always hold the bottle by the neck. That’s only good for hitting people over the head! Now, what you really do is take it by the label, and you just want to come down with the neck just hitting the edge of the bowsprit. Don’t try to hit it, just make like you want to swing right past. When you connect, it should feel like a surprise.” Pointing out the place to aim for, Lori moved to stand with Georgie.
Holding the bottle as if she were about to pour, and with the label protecting her hand as Lori had instructed, she gave the bowsprit a quick pass and was surprised when the neck broke cleanly away and champagne spurted out the top. With that done and cheers rising all the way around, the boat was immediately lowered into the water.
Lori and Georgie began the painstaking prelaunch inspection. This would not be Tyler’s first sailing trip. Georgie had been teaching her to sail, but a few weekends on Lake Erie in the summer didn’t compare to this. They had shoved off from Newport News in mid-January. While the sky was clear, the air was cold and a harbinger of the days to come. Georgie and Lori hadn’t been chosen to take the new boat out based on privilege, or the rights of the designers. They were the only two sailors in all of DME qualified to handle a boat this size, and they were good.
They had pushed hard for the first three days. Clear of the Virginia coast, they surprised Tyler by setting course due south and heading straight into the blue. She had marveled to see how well Georgie and her cousin crewed together. While the sixty-niner had an autopilot and a very advanced navigation and communication system, someone still had to be at the helm and on watch twenty-four hours a day. And on a sailboat, even a big one like this, it meant someone had to be outside in the elements. For that reason, and simply because they could, they had pushed the new boat hard, harnessing every ounce of wind her sails could hold. While the wind held up, they had made good time, easily covering three hundred miles a day. Still, Tyler hadn’t started to thaw out from the cold until midafternoon on the third day out when they had just made the imaginary point on their southward journey where they would finally turn west for the Florida coast. By the next evening, the lights of the Jupiter lighthouse were easy to spot. At first light they docked in West Palm Beach for provisions and for a chance for Lori and Georgie to address a few glitches they had uncovered.
Happy to leave them to their tinkering, Tyler had taken the opportunity for a little shopping. Georgie, she had discovered, owned all of one bathing suit. She preferred to spend her sailing time in the boat. When she did feel like a swim, she wouldn’t hesitate to jump in wearing whatever she had on. Now in Florida and heading for the Caribbean, Tyler was determined to replace her horrid blue one-piece, which looked suspiciously like military issue, with something more suitable. After all, it would be a shame to hide Georgie’s smoking hot curves under that potato sack or worse, board shorts and baggy T’s. If they were going to spend three or four weeks sailing the Islands, she would need more than one swimsuit. And if Tyler was choosing, it certainly wouldn’t be another nondescript sack.
West Palm Beach turned out to be a gold mine for beachwear. She had nabbed more than a half-dozen suits for each of them, including one extremely sexy black bikini she could hardly wait to get Georgie into. Even after all this time, she could be extremely shy. Still, she had coaxed her into her first tankini without a challenge. The boy shorts bikini took a little more convincing but even that was easier than she expected. Tyler, it seemed, had discovered the key to getting her to take a risk. “Do it for me,” she would say, and it worked every time. Learning that something was important to Tyler was all Georgie ever needed to hear.
Now, after two weeks of cruising they were anchored in a wide mouth bay leeward of Buck’s Island. There had been two other sailboats in the area. One had pulled up anchor that morning while the other was more than a mile away. Lori and her friend had just left with a picnic basket, and taking the dinghy, they had headed out for a day of exploration. Tyler had a good idea just what kind of exploration Lori was planning but was just as happy for the time alone.
Knowing they
would be alone all day, she laid the bikini out for Georgie, hoping she would take the hint. Now, standing in the galley, she was barefoot and wearing a sun wrap with her bikini bottoms. The sun coverup was more about protecting her skin than her modesty. Tyler, like Lori and her friend, had no compunction about bathing topless and did so on days like these. Taking a break from the book she had been enjoying from the built-in daybed on the shaded aft deck, she wasn’t prepared when Georgie streaked by, tossing the bikini top at her as she raced up the gangway ladder and out on deck.
Still in shock and holding the top in her hand, she heard a splash and, dropping everything, double-timed up the stairs and onto the long wide swim deck. For all Georgie’s athletic abilities, she was not a swimmer. Even worse, her head injury made it very easy for her to become disoriented in the water. To combat this little quirk she had taken to jumping in backward so she would always have the boat in sight. Even that was no guarantee and every time she jumped in the water Tyler panicked. Sure enough, she immediately lost sight of her. Tyler, now at full speed, charged off the end of the open transom and over the swim platform and dove in head first. When she broke the surface she searched the sea frantically.
“My Tyler!”
Turning around, she found Georgie behind her, hanging onto the swim platform and grinning up a storm. Splashing toward her, she warned playfully, “You geek! You scared the…” Through the crystal clear waters, she could see Georgie had changed, electing to wear the bikini bottoms only. “Oh baby. What you do to me!” Every ounce of Georgie was fluid and in motion. “I swear, you keep doing things like this, and I may have a stroke!”
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