The Billionaire's Yacht

by Nikki Larson

  “Yes,” Raven said with a smile, “I’m only looking out for you. You know that, right?”

  Thea sighed and smiled wanly, reluctantly. Raven always could make her forget her problems. With her logic and faith in God, she always made everything all right, even when life appeared to be falling apart.

  “So, what happened exactly?” Raven asked her.

  “I don’t want to go into it right now,” Thea explained, taking a bite of the warm, soft cookie and savoring the chocolate melted within it. “Later, okay?” It wasn’t too hard to hold Raven at bay. She respected Thea’s privacy, and would wait until Thea was ready to discuss everything that had transpired. Which would happen, eventually. “Just suffice it to say that I lost my nanny job with the billionaire, in a big way.”

  “Did you do something scandalous?” Raven teased, to lighten the mood.

  “You know I didn’t,” Thea told her. But now that she thought about it, maybe she had. Kissing Lucas was foolish. Scandalous? Maybe not. But it was certainly daring and probably unwise, to get her heart all wrapped up in someone who could never be hers. She took a long sip of her lemonade and pointed out to her sister where she had a piece of chocolate clinging to her upper lip.

  “Here?” Raven asked, wiping her face with a napkin.

  Thea nodded. “You got it.”

  “I’m clean now?” she said playfully. It was Raven who had taught her a good sense of humor, a lightheartedness about all things, and Thea would be forever grateful for her passing along such a sunny outlook.

  “All clean,” Thea told her cheerfully. But her mood darkened when she thought of him and his lies. “I found out he wasn’t who he said he was.”

  “See? I told you he was an imposter,” Raven said as she went to open up the blinds to let more light in. “I’d read the tabloids, all that stuff written about him. I could have told you, if only you’d asked for the details. But no, you preferred to keep your head in the sand.”

  “As always,” Thea lamented. “As always.”

  Chapter 26

  “So, you have a problem with lying. Is that what you’re trying to say?” the pastor asked him.

  Lucas sat in the pastor’s upstairs office with a view of the parking lot below. It was nondescript, and rather depressing if you asked him. He was expecting something more, a beach or mountain view, maybe. There were a few palm trees visible from the window, so that was something.

  “Well, no, I don’t think so,” Lucas explained, setting his iced coffee down on the table in front of him. “It was just an agreement I had. A business arrangement, that’s what it was. There was a man with a need, and I helped him fill it.”

  “Now, that doesn’t sound all bad, does it?” the southerner drawled.

  “No, that’s what I was trying to tell you. I wasn’t trying to do anything bad. But it seems to have turned out that way. My girlfriend sure didn’t appreciate being deceived, I’ll tell you that much,” Lucas confided in him. “Hey, so where are you from, anyway?”

  “Alabama, originally,” Rogue replied.

  “No kidding! Me, too,” Lucas said, slamming a fist onto the arm of the couch. “I thought I heard it in your voice. Alabama, no joke.”

  “Whereabouts in Alabama are you from?” Rogue’s eyes lit up with interest.

  “Freeport,” Lucas answered. “Freeport, Alabama, home of the little green gators,” he said with a chuckle.

  Rogue squinted his eyes at that comment.

  “It was our high school mascot.” Lucas explained. “Our mascot was an alligator, and my sister Stephanie used to tease me and say we were the little green gators.”

  “Oh, I see,” Rogue said, leaning forward. “Well, it’s great to meet a fellow Alabamian. Hey, is that even a word?”

  “I don’t know,” Lucas replied. “But sure, we’re fellow Alabamians if that’s what you want to call it.” He reached out and gave the man a fist bump.

  Lucas was grateful Pastor Rogue had put him at ease. He’d been feeling so uptight when he’d arrived, but now he just about forgot why he was here.

  And the moment he realized he was content–Poof!–just like a puff of air, the good feelings were gone and Thea’s anger and her leaving were back on his mind again.

  It was as if he couldn’t let himself be happy for long. He had to always dwell on the bad times, the struggles, the problems. “Look, Doc, what’s bothering me is… I’m not sure if I did the right thing or not.” He’d already explained the situation, the arrangement between himself and Grunt, and the choices he’d made going into it.

  “So, what do you think?” Pastor Rogue drawled. “And by the way, don’t call me Doc,” he teased.

  “Oh, I didn’t,” Lucas countered. “Did I?” He shifted in his chair. “I wasn’t aware of it if I did. I apologize, Pastor.”

  “You don’t have to call me pastor, either. Just Rogue. Call me Rogue.”

  “Okay. Rogue.” Lucas looked him in the eyes, noticed his beard and his close-set, dark friendly eyes. “What was the question again?”

  “Do you think you did anything wrong?” Rogue reiterated.

  “Do you?” Lucas threw it back at him, because he was still confused.

  “It seems to me,” Rogue began, “that you don’t want to admit any wrongdoing on your part. Are you afraid to see your own failings and sins?”

  At the word sins, Lucas’ heart began to beat faster and his palms began to sweat. He stared out at the bleak parking lot before answering. “I guess so,” he finally admitted.

  “And why is that?”

  Rogue’s probing was beginning to make him squirm. But the pastor’s concern for Lucas, his willingness to engage him, to listen, was drawing him in.

  “Because I don’t want to be a schmuck, I guess,” Lucas began. “Because I don’t want to think of myself as a bad person. Because I want to go to heaven, and if I’m a sinner, that pretty much disqualifies me. I guess that’s why.” He rubbed his temples, which were beginning to throb.

  “So that’s what you’re afraid of?” Rogue asked him in his gruff, downhome manner.

  “Yeah,” Lucas admitted. “That’s it.” It was hard to be this honest with someone, but in some ways it felt good. He was getting the stress off his chest, at least. He could breathe a little easier now, though he had a hard time sitting still.

  “Well, then, I’ve got some good news for you,” Rogue replied.

  “You do, do you?” Lucas asked. He could barely blink, hanging on what the man had to say.

  “You’re a sinner,” Rogue told him.

  “Now, that’s not good news, pastor,” Lucas scolded him.

  “Let me finish, now,” Rogue said with a grin. “We’re all sinners.” The truth of this was stated without reservation. “Do you remember the story of Christ dying on the cross?” he asked him. “All of us have heard the story at one time or another, I would guess. This being America, and all.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Lucas allowed.

  “Well, do you know what it means?” Rogue asked him.

  Lucas could have taken Rogue’s question as condescending, if he’d thought about it, but instead he just thought of it as a very good question. What did it mean, exactly? “I’m not sure that I really do,” Lucas allowed.

  Rogue planted both elbows on the desk and leaned forward, meeting Lucas’ gaze. “Let me go over with it you,” he offered. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. That’s John 3:16. You’ve probably seen it displayed at ballgames and such.”

  “Yeah, I have,” Lucas recalled.

  “Most people know that verse,” the pastor explained, “but if we keep reading, it gives us a little more clarity. It says, ‘God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’ What I am trying to point out, Mr. Lucas Flaire, is that God doesn’t want to condemn you, he wants to save you. Jesus died on the cross because we are all sinner
s and we cannot save ourselves. Our efforts fall short. Our righteous acts are like filthy rags. Nothing we do is enough to redeem ourselves. Instead, we simply need to repent of our sins. We have to acknowledge them and ask for forgiveness. That’s the hard part. We don’t like to admit we do wrong. It hurts our pride, if you know what I mean.”

  “Indeed, I do,” Lucas agreed.

  “But we are a selfish folk. This life is ‘All About Me,’ if you know what I mean.” Rogue’s fingers made quotes in the air. “We look out for Number One. But we forget that God has to be Number One in our lives. He’s got to be Lord.”

  Lucas felt his lip curl into a snarl as he pondered what that might mean in his own life. He pictured giving up everything that was fun, exciting, adventurous. “I don’t think I like it.”

  “Well, now, it’s not quite what you think,” Rogue told him.

  “What’s it like?” Lucas dared to ask him.

  Rogue seemed delighted by the question. “It’s like freedom,” Rogue said, spreading his arms wide and grinning broadly. He reminded Lucas of a football coach on a high from a recent win. “It’s like this glorious freedom to be who you were always meant to be, but you never dared to consider it.”

  Lucas’ saw the light in Rogue’s eyes, the excitement, the life there. “Really?” he asked, still unsure.

  “Look, if you want your life to change, if you want to embrace who you were always meant to be, you have to accept that there are dark parts of yourself you don’t want anymore. They’re holding you back, brother. You don’t need all that old stuff anymore–the lying, the deception, the pretending. All that can go away. You don’t need it anymore. What you need is to find your life’s purpose and find out who you were created to be. You want that?” Rogue asked him.

  “Well,” Lucas answered, considering it. “I guess I do.”

  Rogue bounded up from his chair and motioned for Lucas to stand with him in the center of the room. Lucas relaxed when Rogue put his arm around him like a brother and squeezed his shoulder.

  “Bow your head and pray with me,” Rogue offered.

  When Lucas did so, the pastor prayed, his voice strong and sure: “Lord, Heavenly Father, we are two sinners come to enter your favor. Jesus, we accept your sacrifice on our behalf. We know that you are not only the Son of God, but you are God himself, God in the flesh, come down to make us whole and to give us new life. We know we are sinners. We need your forgiveness. So we ask you now, come into our hearts and our minds and make us whole. Make us who you’ve always intended us to be. Give us strength to live for you. Take all our selfishness away and give us fulfillment. Direct our paths. Amen.”

  Lucas felt lighter than a feather. He was walking on air. “Are the angels singing now?” he asked Pastor Rogue.

  “You can bet your bottom dollar, they are.”

  Chapter 27

  Thea was content and comfortable living with her older sister for over a year now. But Wesley obviously was not all that happy with the arrangement. It wasn’t going to work out for much longer. Which was sad, because Thea loved the neighborhood–her early morning walks around the lake when she could watch the ducks swimming and see the bunnies scamper back into their hiding places in the bushes. There were always children playing happily at the park, families enjoying each other’s company, girlfriends walking together, people talking, discussing whatever was going on in their lives. There was a sense of community, of hospitality. It was so nice to be around people, and not live alone. The last thing she wanted was to live alone. But soon it would be time.

  Once she saved enough money to move, she was going to miss everything about this neighborhood, and her sister’s company.

  “So, tell me about the Hunt children,” Raven said suddenly one evening while Wesley was engrossed in the Dodger game.

  “They’re wonderful,” Thea said. She hadn’t ever thought of them as the Hunt children until now. They’d always been the Flaire children, to her. And why Raven was asking about them now, when she’d never been interested in them before, was beyond her.

  “You’re speaking of them in the present tense,” Raven noted, “like you’re still with them.” She and Thea sat at the dining room table, so as not to disturb Wesley as he listened to his game.

  “Well, I’m sure they’re still wonderful,” Thea argued. “Why do I have to talk about them in the past tense? They still exist; they’re still important.” What was with Raven today? She seemed on edge. But of course, she never did embrace the fact that Thea enjoyed being a nanny. Raven preferred for Thea to have ‘a real career,’ which is why she’d gotten Thea her latest job as a secretary in an office.

  “Well, sure,” Raven said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I get it. So, tell me about them.”

  “First there’s Gwenna,” Thea began. “At seven, she’s the oldest, and oh-so-smart. She has blonde hair and green eyes. Hazel, I guess. She’s very athletic, a dancer. She likes to dance around the room, all over the yacht, and she’s quite good. She can sing, too. She has this beautiful voice. Kind of like a young Sheena Easton, if you can imagine that. She’s the one who told me Lucas is not her real dad, but Mr. Gregory Hunt was. We called him Grunt.”

  “Grunt?” Raven scoffed. “Who calls anybody Grunt?”

  “Harley does,” Thea explained. “Did, I mean.” Thea stopped for a minute as her throat constricted with emotion. She stared out the front window to gather her composure. She wasn’t that close to Mr. Hunt, but the kids were, and that was what hurt. They’d have to do without him now, as they’d learned to do without their mother. “When Harley was younger and he didn’t speak clearly,” she continued. “He couldn’t say Gregory Hunt. It came out as Grunt instead. Lucas told me he and Mr. Hunt thought it was hilarious, so they kept it. Kind of sentimental of them, wasn’t it?”

  “I guess so,” Raven said warily.

  When she was in one of her moods, she wasn’t one to be won over easily. Thea chose to skip right over it.

  “Then there is Lily; she’s five. Cute as a button. She has dark brown shoulder-length hair and big brown eyes. She’s very shy at first, and clingy. Lucas said she was very close to her mom. Her mom died; did I tell you that?”

  “Yes,” Raven answered. “I know. It was all over the tabloids. She was a famous singer, right? Did concerts and things?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Thea recalled. “You would know. I guess everyone would pretty much know.”

  “Yeah,” Raven agreed. “So continue….”

  “Okay, so Lily is a great storyteller when she thinks you’re not listening. She’ll make up stories for her siblings if they ask. I always pretended not to listen, because if she caught me listening, she couldn’t continue. She got too nervous and she’d get tongue-tied. So I had to busy myself with wiping down countertops or something quiet so I could still hear her. Sometimes I’d keep a book in the living room where the kids would play, just so I could pretend to be reading when she started telling one of her stories. That girl has quite the imagination.”

  “Had,” Raven corrected her sister.

  “Had,” Thea repeated. “Wait, why does it have to be past tense?”

  “Never mind,” Raven replied. “Go ahead and use present tense. I’ll stop correcting you.”

  “Thank you,” Thea said, irritated. She knew Raven was trying to insinuate that she’d never see them again, and it was getting underneath her skin. Why rub it in? But no use in letting Raven know she was getting all riled up about it. She kept her voice purposely even, so as not to rock the boat. “Do you want to hear about the baby?”

  “Sure,” Raven agreed, smiling. She always did like babies.

  “Oh, he’s adorable,” Thea told her sister. “He’s more like a toddler, I guess, since he’s over a year-and-a-half. His name is Hutch and this one time he got stuck driving his little orange car.” Thea couldn’t help but smile at the memory. “He kept saying, I ‘tuck; I ‘tuck.”

  Raven didn’t smile much at the story.

>   “I guess you had to have been there,” Thea allowed. She decided not to even mention Harley, because Raven was obviously losing interest.

  Raven bit her lip in apology.

  “That’s okay,” Thea told her. “Well, in any case, the kids were adorable. They still are adorable.” She tilted her head, waiting for some type of correction, but none came. “Why do you ask?”

  “You miss them,” Raven noted, without answering her question.

  “Of course,” Thea said. “But since Lucas and I are no longer an item, I’ll need to get over them and move on.”

  “You seem so… well, almost cold about it,” Raven commented. She took a bite of a cookie, and listened for Thea’s response. Raven did always like to stir the pot. It was like she thrived on drama. She really enjoyed gossiping, talking about other people in unflattering terms.

  Thea was going to point that out to her someday.

  But not today.

  “It’s how I deal with it,” Thea confided in her. “I don’t want to get all upset.” Thea frowned at the thought.

  “You have to go through the stages of grief,” Raven advised her. Though Raven could be all sunshine and roses some days, she also knew life had dark things that needed to be dealt with. You had to deal with reality and then move onto better things. She’d taught Thea this from the start.

  Just then Wesley jumped up. “Go, go, go! Yes!!” he shouted, throwing his fist in the air. “Home run! Yes!!”

  He really needed some male company, Thea decided. Someone to watch these games with, she thought as she stifled a yawn. “What were we saying?” she asked her sister.

  “The stages of grief,” Raven repeated.

  “Oh, yeah,” Thea said. “I’m not going through that.” She pursed her lips at her sister in defiance, just like when they were little.