“You have to go alone?”
“Not necessarily, but I’m not sure you’d enjoy it, now that I know you a little better. Maybe we can just hang out and talk on one of those hammocks down by the water? I don’t have to be there until eleven or so.”
“Eleven o’clock at night? For a networking event?” I didn’t mean to sound so skeptical, but that seemed a little odd. “Yeah, we should talk. You’re going to need to tell me more about that.”
We kicked off our shoes and carried them down to the sand, making our way to the hammocks lined up by the water. There were a few fluorescent light posts around the area that I wasn’t a fan of, but they had to keep the spot well-lit to keep people out of trouble.
We climbed into one of the oversized hammocks and I laid my head on his chest.
“So this networking event,” I began, needing to know more.
“Yeah, they do these all the time. It’s just a few guys getting together, discussing current events, money, whatever.”
“So like an investor meeting?”
“Well…” He paused, and I hated the way it seemed like he was choosing his words carefully. “There are card games. It’s like a poker night.”
“Ah, so you’re gambling.” That made more sense. “These are other people you work with?”
“Associates of people I know. That’s how I was invited,” he explained. “Sometimes they’re open invites. Those are usually a little busier. Small bets, a little more friendly… This one is more of an invite-only kind of thing. It’s a little more exclusive. Men with certain interests. That sounds bad, by interests I just mean money. It’s a little higher end, so they don’t open it up to just anyone. This one is only ten hands. That’s it. Maybe an hour total. It’s not bad.”
“And this is happening up in the North Sixty? At like a clubhouse or something? Those are all really nice big houses. Can you take me?”
“It’s at a residence, John Ford is the name I think. Do you know the Fords?”
“I went to school with a guy named Andrew Ford, but he was a total nerd, so I don’t remember him much. I think he lived up that way though. That must be his dad?”
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
“What, that you’re going to a nerd house?”
He laughed. “No, I love nerds. They’re engaging and interesting and you can learn a lot from them. I’m afraid of the fact that you may know some of these people I do business with. Maybe it’d be better if you didn’t go.”
“Okay,” I said softly, not really understanding what he was getting at. “Wouldn’t that be advantageous to you though? A networking event where you already know someone, me, who may have a connection to those other people? Sophia makes me go to these Chamber of Commerce luncheons for my design business, and they’re awful, but it’s bearable when you have someone to help make that connection. She’s my savior at those things. So is my dad when he attends them, he knows every business owner in town.”
“Can I tell you something I never wanted to say?”
I sat up, staring at the worried expression on his face. “Of course. You can always tell me anything. Transparency, remember?”
“That’s the reason why I left the masquerade ball that night I met you.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I saw you across the room, I just…I felt something. I know that seems like a stupid thing to admit, and it’s hard to explain, but every guy knows that feeling. It caught me completely off guard, like a twelve year old boy seeing a pretty girl and recognizing for the first time what that beauty can do to him. I guess I didn’t expect to see anyone my age there. Usually those events are riddled with older people, and that’s the furthest thing from my mind. Occasionally there’s a rich young couple or two in attendance, but otherwise everyone else holds an AARP card. I was just standing there, talking to some guy about his retirement portfolio, and I heard this laugh. You were talking to your friend, and out of nowhere, you laughed and it lit up the entire room, like I could feel the sound of your joy from across the hall, and it made me smile. I turned and looked, and when I saw you, I…I swear I skipped taking a breath. Your dark hair was up and I could see the curve of your neck, and I just…I wondered what your skin felt like. You completely overtook me. I tried to pretend like I didn’t notice, but I know I was failing miserably.”
“Lexi told me she caught you staring at me.”
“That’s just it, I couldn’t stop. I’ve never had a pull like that before where I wanted to know someone so bad just from one joyful spontaneous laugh. I had to meet you.”
“Then I rambled about goat cheese and insulted your suit, and you realized that laugh was my only redeeming feature?”
“Just the opposite. You were intuitive, which I found fascinating, and your honesty and self-awareness was adorable. You had this conviction about you, this fiery personality, and I was drawn to it. In my line of work, I’m around a lot of BS. Money does that to people, but there you were, being yourself – honest and forthcoming and unique – and I knew I was in trouble. Yet I couldn’t back down. I needed more of you. But when you told me who your father was – a name I’d already heard thrown around in some of my other business conversations - I realized how connected you were to all of these people. I was conflicted. I have a strong sense of never mixing business with pleasure. It never ends well. There are a lot of sides to what I do, and some of those sides are not good. I didn’t want to mix you up in any of that, so I panicked. I bailed. It was all I could think to do.”
“You’re not doing anything illegal, so what’s wrong with being mixed up in it?”
“Just because I may not be doing anything illegal, maybe I know people who are. I come across them all the time in this business. People tend to change when it comes to money, V. Their moral compass changes, and they don’t always think or act rationally. I see it all the time. Good people turn into bad people over it. I’ve seen it a lot. I never want you mixed up in all that, in any way.”
I stared up at the night sky. Thousands of stars were littered above us as far as you could see. The soft waves of the lake against the shoreline were rhythmic and predictable. I liked the way Miles wasn’t predictable. There was an element of excitement to it, and admittedly, living in Grand Harbor my whole life, there wasn’t a lot of excitement at all.
“Are you afraid the money will change you?”
“No. It’s not that complicated for me, because I already know what it’s like to not have it. Many of these people don’t. That’s why they don’t always deal with it so well when there are disruptions with their investments. Sometimes there are…situations. I just don’t want you around any of that.”
“Take me with you tonight,” I said softly, tracing a finger down his arm. “Mix me up in your world. I’m not afraid of it. I can’t imagine you’d ever let any harm come my way.”
He pulled me in and wrapped his arms around me. “You’re right about that,” he replied with his face nestled in my hair. “I will keep you away from the bad parts, so long as you promise to trust me.”
“I do,” I whispered back. In such a short amount of time, I trusted him more than perhaps any girl should trust a boy – and it didn’t bother me one bit.
Chapter 7
“If they even let you in the room, which they might not, you shouldn’t even look at the cards,” he explained as we drove up the steep North Sixty hillside. “Your facial expressions can’t give anything away. Definitely don’t ask any questions.”
“I’ve played poker before you know,” I replied with a grin, “it’s not that hard.”
“Oh yeah? You’re a poker expert?”
“My parents took me to Vegas for my twenty-first birthday. I won four hundred bucks. I’m not that bad. My dad taught me to play when I was little. While other eight year old girls were playing with Barbies, and I was playing poker with my dad.”
“Olivia Prescott, Gambling Lord,” he teased.
“I’m just
trying to reaffirm that I’m not going to blow this for you. I get the game. I won’t speak.”
“It’s just ten hands, and then we’re out of there. We can do something fun afterward, I promise.”
We pulled down a small street and parked by the curb of a giant white house. It rested on top of the hill, overlooking the lake. My parents had a really nice lake house, don’t get me wrong, but propped up on the hill like this? It was on a completely different playing field.
Miles grabbed my hand and began leading me around the side of the house.
“Aren’t we going in through the front door?” I pointed to it as he led me right past it.
“That’s not how these things work,” he explained, leading me down a stone path toward the back of the house. “We don’t want to wake the Mrs., that kind of thing.”
Miles knocked four times on a back door and a man in a black suit opened it. “Blackhawks,” he said to the doorman, and he simply nodded.
“Who’s she?” the guy asked, nodding at me.
“She’s my plus one,” Miles said nonchalantly. “It’s only ten games tonight, Tony. She can sit in the bar area.”
“You’ll have to clear it with Ford,” he replied in a gruff voice, closing the door behind us.
Miles led me over to a barstool in a pseudo kitchen area overlooking a pool. “Stay here for a sec.” I sat down, following his orders. Miles slipped into another room, and although I could hear men talking quietly, I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Miles came back a minute or two later.
“Sorry, you’ll have to wait out here. No guests in the room, they’re pretty strict on that. But there’s a full bar in here if you want a drink,” he said, opening up the cabinets. “Or do you want to take my car for a bit? You can come back and get me?”
“I’ll stay,” I responded, reaching out for a glass. A nice selection of bourbons lined the back wall. “I have nowhere to be. There’s a book on my phone I want to finish, I’ll be fine.” He gave me a quick kiss, lingered, and then kissed me again.
“Wish me luck.”
I smiled and he left, heading back into the room. A dark, wooden door was closed behind him. The small talk hushed and I could hear a man’s voice, though it was a bit muffled.
“Buy-in tonight is ten thousand.”
Dollars? I almost choked on my drink. What kind of a poker game was this? The gentleman detailed a few more rules, and then the room was quiet. It didn’t exactly sound like networking to me.
Time passed and I heard familiar words, like fold, raise, things like that. The voices all blurred together though with the door shut, so I couldn’t specifically pick out which one was Miles. I poured another drink, and finally overheard some conversation as I passed back toward my seat. I paused.
“Who brings a date to one of these,” an older, deeper voice said in a mocking tone.
“My girl wanted to come, and I’m not one for disappointing a woman,” Miles replied. I smiled at his use of ‘my girl’ and I loved how those words made me feel.
“She knows what you do?”
“Parker, I’m not convinced you even know what I do,” Miles replied, and there was laughter around the table. “Work-life balance, gentlemen. You could learn a thing or two from the younger generation. Spending time with her while I’m working – everybody wins. Kind of like how I just won this hand.” There were groans from around the table, and people throwing jabs at Miles, though I couldn’t hear them all as they talked over each other.
I smiled, opened my book, and started reading. Time passed, and I made another drink. I stared out at the pool area, taking in the intricate landscaping, the outdoor kitchen area, and the pool house. The view out to the lake was spectacular from this high up. The moonlight spread across the water and it was absolutely beautiful.
“Dammit!” I heard a fist hit the table. It was pretty loud, and it startled me.
“What’d he take you for on that one?” an older voice asked.
“Seventeen K.”
“Why don’t you go out and tell your girl? I’m sure she’ll really appreciate the work-life balance of your wallet being drained.” The room erupted with laughter.
“Just deal the next hand.”
The way the door muffled the conversation, I had to be hearing things wrong. Seventeen K? As in Miles just lost seventeen thousand dollars? I felt like I was going to pass out. That was the rent for my apartment for the year. I must’ve heard that wrong.
More time passed, and things would be quiet in the adjoining room, and then loud eruptions when a hand ended. Finally around twelve-thirty, Miles exited the room.
“Let’s go,” he said hurriedly. “We need to get out of here.”
“What happened? How’d it go?” I grabbed my purse off the counter. I still hadn’t finished my last drink.
“We can talk about it later. Let’s move.” We made our way to the door. I turned around to see an older gentleman, probably in his sixties, staring back at me from the room Miles was in. He looked at me curiously, and I thought for a minute I knew him, but couldn’t place him. “Come on, V.” Miles grabbed my hand and led me out. We followed the same stone path around the side of the house back to his car. We climbed in and he started the engine, quickly maneuvering us down the road.
“What happened in there? Is everything okay?”
“Everything is great. What do you want to do tonight? Anything you want.”
“We can go back to my place and watch a movie?”
“Something bigger,” he said, shaking his head. “Think of something better you want to do. Anything.”
“There’s a bonfire party that might still be going on down by the west bend,” I suggested. “One of my co-workers is throwing a…”
“You’re not understanding me,” he said with a giant grin, pulling the car over on the side of the road. He put it in park and reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out an insanely large stack of bills. Most of them, if not all, appeared to be hundreds.
“Holy…”
“Pick something bigger,” he cut me off, reaching into his other pocket to pull out another stack. “Anything in the entire world you want to do, say it.”
“That’s all money from poker?” I’m pretty sure I gasped louder than I intended.
“Over forty-three thousand dollars, yes.” He stared back at me and I wasn’t even sure what to say. “So sure, we can go to your apartment and watch Netflix, if that’s what you really want to do. Or we can literally do anything else.”
“Miles,” I began, unsure of what to even suggest.
“We can go to Chicago, or maybe catch a flight to New York? We can go see a show, go to nice restaurants,” he rambled.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?” He stared back at me with a serious expression.
“I have dinner at my parents’ place tomorrow night. It’s my brother’s birthday.”
“Oh,” he said quietly. “And you like this brother?”
“Yes, very much,” I replied with a laugh. “Birthdays are a big deal in my family. I can’t miss it.”
“Not even for Broadway tickets?”
“No,” I continued to laugh, “not even for that. It’s important.”
“Fair enough. But we’re still not going back to your apartment. Not tonight. What time do you need to be at dinner tomorrow?” He pulled the car back onto the road and headed down the hill.
“Six. Will you come with me? I’d like you to meet my family.” I knew they would love him. Even my brother would enjoy his company.
“I have some work obligations tomorrow night, otherwise I’d love to. Raincheck?”
“Sure. More poker?”
“No, something else I’ve already committed to. It’s fine, we can do dinner with them another night. Any other night, I promise. In the meantime,” he paused, pulling his car up to the valet of the Carlisle Hotel. It was a fancy old historic building right on the water.
“What are we doing?”
He got out and opened the car door for me, leading me inside to the lobby.
“Spending every second together until six pm tomorrow,” he said with a wink.
He spent a few minutes at the check-in counter and within five minutes, we were opening the door to a gigantic penthouse suite overlooking the water. The moon lit up the dark sky and it was breathtaking. It was as if we were alone in the world, with nothing but a piece of glass separating us from the forever-ness of the water stretched out before us.
“Look at me, V. Nothing about this has to be temporary. These surroundings, this view, us – it’s all yours as long as you want this kind of life,” he said softly into my neck as his lips grazed my skin.
I turned to him, touching his face. “Yes,” I whispered.
Chapter 8
I awoke to the sound of a gentle knock. I opened my eyes, confused for a moment by my stark white surroundings. The walls were white, as were the curtains, and the bedding…
“Sorry, that’s room service.” Miles leaned over and kissed me. His dark hair was wet and he had a towel around him, apparently just having stepped out of the shower. I smiled. Every single thing about him appealed to me. His face. His sense of humor. His body. His touch. His spontaneous personality.
I stretched, hearing the sound of the door close. Miles entered with a metal cart full of food.
“Brunch,” he said proudly, crawling across the bed. There it was, his biggest flaw: he was apparently a chipper morning person. I knew he had some sort of serious imperfection. The joyful look on his face, however, made it seem almost forgivable. Maybe.
“What time did you wake up?”
“Probably a couple hours ago? I did a quick work out, took a shower…”
“I knew it. I always fall for the crazy ones.”
He ticked my sides and I burst out laughing. “Sleep is overrated. You can’t find me irresistibly charming if we just lay around with our eyes closed all the time. I only have seven and a half hours left with you today.”
The Weight of Forever: (Grand Harbor: Book Two) Page 7
