Luck wasn’t keeping Zayn from confiding in him. It’d been his own choices in that regard too, and River determined to set things right.
He pushed away from his desk and out into the reception area before making for Zayn’s closed office. Zayn didn’t answer, which happened often enough. In these cases, River usually pushed through anyway, and he did so.
Zayn was sitting with his seat reclined and his earbuds in. River stood before his desk, waiting for Zayn to remove the earbuds and give him his attention as he had so often before. But Zayn’s eyes shifted to him. A grimace cinched the corners of his eyes.
“I’m busy,” he said. “I’ll let you know if I need anything.”
“Sure. You look busy.” River hoped to win a smile from his friend, the way he once would have. Zayn sat up and frowned at him.
Guess he wasn’t in the mood.
“Okay. I’m going out of town for a few days,” River said with resolution. He wasn’t sure where the notion came from, but in that moment, with Zayn’s rejection and the coldness clanking between them in place of their friendship, River needed someone to talk to.
“Heading home?” Zayn asked.
River gave him a nod. “Yeah. I’m taking a few of my sick days. I’ll be back Monday.”
“See you later then.” Using his feet, Zayn rotated his chair toward the window.
River’s mouth opened and then closed. That was that.
“Okay, then,” River said, turning on his heel.
He took the subway home to his apartment and packed lightly. He didn’t own a car he could actually drive—his Mustang sat in the garage, waiting for its parts. River was accustomed to taking public transportation to get from place to place. He headed for the subway and then to Port Authority’s bus terminal in Midtown. River’s heart lightened as he stared out the Greyhound’s wide windows and left New York behind.
The nice thing about the Eastern states was the swiftness of travel from state to state. Back in Arizona, during the summer he’d spent with his grandparents, it took a whole day to get from one end of the state to the other. But he arrived in Central Harbor, New Hampshire, the five hours flying by, before he knew it.
His childhood home didn’t exactly have curb appeal, yet it summoned a rush of comfort to him. It was a trailer with a pallet serving as a gate to keep the dogs from running out. River smiled at the Australian shepherds and bent to scratch behind their ears. They made a racket at his approach, and he grinned at his younger brother and sister as they stepped out onto the rickety, wooden porch.
They were both dark-haired and bronze-skinned like he was, a trait they inherited from their mother’s Spanish blood. He was surprised at how much taller they both seemed. It hadn’t been that long since he’d seen them.
“River?” his sister, Sofia, gave him a smile. “What are you doing here?”
“Just thought I’d stop by for a visit.” His sister hugged him around the waist before trudging back inside. River followed her in. The space was as crowded as always; hazards of a too-small space with too many furnishings. Bookshelves, old TV stand, coffee table, and two couches. The TV blared a football game, and his brother plunked onto the sagging, orange couch across from it, remote in hand.
“Where’s Mom?” River asked.
“Went to the store,” said Lucas without looking at him. “She’ll be back any minute.”
River sat on the couch beside him, inundated by the latest cat who’d claimed the family. He stroked its fur and rubbed its head, earning an instant purr. “How’s summer school going?” River asked.
His brother shrugged. “It’s going.”
“You catching up?”
“What do you care?”
River blinked. “What makes you think I don’t care?”
Lucas gestured with the remote. “Come on, all your attention goes to that boss of yours.”
“It’s my job,” River said. His mom was the only one who understood what he was trying to do. He didn’t like how plastered to the TV his brother seemed to be. Was it like this all the time?
River reached for the remote but Lucas jerked it away.
Hmm. This visit wasn’t going as he thought it would. He tried a different tack. “You should come visit me in New York sometime. You’d really like it. There’s some amazing sites and lots of national history.”
“National history? Where do I sign up?”
Whoa. Had he ever been this moody as a teenager? He couldn’t remember. He couldn’t understand why his brother seemed so distant. River had come home to visit at Christmas, but that was seven months ago. He supposed he could probably visit home more often if he prioritized it a little more. His siblings were growing up, and he was missing it.
Still, five hours was five hours.
The sound of a car’s wheels crunching gravel brought him to his feet. He peered out of the door as his mom cut the ignition on her brown Ford Thunderbird. It rattled a little too much for his liking.
River pushed his way out through the screen and into the hot summer afternoon, which, ironically, was cooler than the stifling trailer. He took the shaky, wooden steps, hurrying to help her move the pallet aside since her hands were full of pizza boxes.
“River?”
“Hey, Mom.”
She burst with a grin. “You didn’t tell me you were coming home.”
“I didn’t know until a few hours ago. I hope it’s okay.” River nudged the barking dog aside long enough to shut the pallet gate. His mom was propping the screen door open with her foot. River rushed to hold the door for her.
“Are you kidding? Of course, it is. I’m glad I got some extra pizza.”
“I can buy you guys dinner tonight, Mom, you don’t need to waste this on me.”
“Nonsense,” she said, placing the pizza boxes on the small square of counter space inside the trailer.
“Thanks for dinner, Mom,” Sofia said as she lifted the lid. Lucas was right there beside her, retrieving several slices and returning to the couch to finish watching his game. The TV volume rattled him. Did Lucas have to turn it up so loud?
He knew how hard his mom worked at her dead-end job just to keep this roof over their heads, pay for Lucas’s sports fetish and Sofia’s cheerleading.
Were either of his siblings working at all to help pay for things?
“So Lucas, you got a job yet?” River asked.
“Not yet, Dad,” he said derisively. “Pickings are pretty slim around here.”
“McDonald’s not good enough for you?” River said. It was half-tease, half-truth. “Sometimes you have to take what you can get.”
“What, like you did?”
“Yeah. I didn’t start working for a billionaire, man. I started at Crawford’s Repair. You gotta start somewhere and then work your way up while you finish school.”
“Wow,” Lucas said dryly with his mouth full of pizza. “I’m so glad we had this little talk.”
He stood up and stalked down the hall. River took advantage of his absence to shut the TV off, leaving blessed silence behind.
“Don’t mind him,” River’s mom said. “He talks about as much to me.”
“He’s nearly eighteen, Mom. He should be helping pay the bills if he’s living here.”
“I know,” she said, lowering her head and nodding. “I know. But something tells me you didn’t come here to rag on your brother.”
No, he didn’t but seeing things now, he wanted to.
River glanced around the cramped living room. He’d grown up here, but it no longer felt like a place he belonged in. Settled as Lucas seemed to be, it didn’t feel like his family belonged here either. All he’d wanted for so long was to help his mom rise above, to be in a place where she deserved.
“Your Ford isn’t sounding too good. Let’s go check it out and I’ll tell you what’s on my mind.”
River would save the lecture for later. He followed his mom outside, suddenly nervous about telling her what troubled him. He’d never
really talked about a woman with his mother before. Then again, he’d never felt about a woman the way he felt for Aaliyah Elir.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
River’s mom beamed at him. “That’s right, my mechanic. How’s your Mustang coming?”
“Slowly but surely. I’ve been saving every extra penny I have. For you.”
“Nonsense,” his mom said, slipping back into her shoes and leading the way outside. The afternoon hadn’t yet cooled. The bright sky was filled with cottony clouds hovering over a distant line of trees.
She patted the dog on the head before heading through the pallet to where her car awaited. Something leaked into a black puddle beneath it. “I’m doing just fine as I am, River. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
River got into the front and popped open her hood. A swift glimpse at the corroded battery cables gave him concern, but that couldn’t be the reason for the rattle. He wondered if some broken pieces weren’t loose inside her catalytic converter. A battery or alternator he could replace, no problem. But something like that would require a shop.
“Zayn was invited to meet with Ahmed Elir at his resort in Clearwater Beach, Florida last week,” River said.
“Sounds fancy.”
“It was. Mr. Elir invited me along as well, and it turns out, he was trying to arrange a marriage for his daughter, Aaliyah.”
“Oh?” His mom had way too much intuition in her gaze. She leaned against her clunker and folded her arms.
“As the situation happened, Zayn agreed to the engagement only to leave without telling Aaliyah a word. He had me step in and spend time with her in his place, and…”
“And you fell in love with her.”
No skepticism accompanied the comment. No gushing, romantic suspicion. This was a statement of acceptance.
River twisted the cap on the oil and removed the stick to check its level. He should have brought a paper towel out with him. He lowered the wand into its place and peered at her. “That’s just it, Mom. I don’t know.”
“You don’t know if you love her?”
He straightened, feeling his lower spine work out a kink. “Is it possible to fall in love with someone you’ve only known for a few days?”
She smiled at him with a tender, understanding expression. “I don’t know about love,” she said. “Love takes time, River. But a possibility? Attraction? Definitely.”
“There was definitely attraction,” he said, raising his brows.
“So she seemed to reciprocate your feelings?” his mom asked.
“Yeah. I mean, I thought she did. She told me she wanted to pursue a future with me, to see if it would be possible. But her father is sick; he was in the hospital when I left. Things with Zayn got complicated when he found out she wanted me instead of him, and we just didn’t end things on the best terms. I don’t really know what to do now.”
His mom edged in closer. She placed a hand on his forearm. “Love isn’t like fixing an engine, sweetheart,” she said. “You pop this hood open and turn the ignition to listen for a few misplaced clunking sounds. After tweaking some knobs or replacing a part here and there, it’s fixed. You can’t talk to a car to know what it needs. But a woman?”
River gave his mom his full attention.
“You can talk to a woman,” she said. “Most women, anyway. If you tell her how you feel, you might be able to see what needs to be fixed. It might work, and it might not, but you’ll never know until you at least start that conversation.”
“How do I start that conversation?” His voice was timid, more so than he realized. “How can anything even work out between us when we’re so far from each other? Long-distance relationships very rarely have a good track record, and it’s not how I want things to be.”
“Are you thinking of quitting? Moving closer to her?”
He rested both hands on the inside of the engine and lowered his head. “I don’t know what I’m thinking.”
Now that she mentioned it, could that be a solution? Would Aaliyah even consider it? He supposed his mom was right. He needed to talk to her.
“It’s too far,” he said.
“From what, sweetie?”
“From you,” he said, stunned he even had to state as much. Five hours wasn’t bad. He could come home whenever he wanted or needed to. But days away?
His mom smiled and took his face in her hands. “I know you’ve had it in your head ever since your dad left that you need to take care of me, but you don’t need to worry about me. I’ve got a good job, son. I work long hours, I’m making ends meet. This is your life; you need to follow through on your dreams. If I let you hold yourself back from finding love, from finding what you truly wanted, I’d never forgive myself.”
He blinked at her. “You’ve never held me back from anything.”
“Think hard. What do you want to do?”
The answer came to his mind instantly. When he’d gotten his job working for Zayn Hassan, it was never intended to be a life plan. Everything he’d done was a rung on a ladder. There’d always been an inner competition within himself to make sure he never turned out like his father, to be like his grandfather instead. Happy, at peace, and kind. To invest well was also part of the dream, to be financially secure enough to enjoy his life and make a difference in the lives of his mom, his children, and grandchildren.
“I want to be like Grandpa Alejos,” River said.
His mom’s smile stretched. “He had a great life. Married his high school sweetheart.”
“I know,” River said.
“It sounds to me like you know what you need to do,” his mom said. “You just need to take the plunge and do it. If this girl is meant to be in your life for longer than a whirlwind handful of days, no one else is going to make that happen but you.”
Her words sent a rush of purpose, through him. He slammed the hood of her car shut, wiped his hands on the cloth she handed to him, and pulled his mom into a hug, trying to pour as much of his gratitude into it as he could. “Thanks, Mom. I really needed to hear this.”
She patted his back. “I’ll miss my favorite mechanic.”
He grinned. Resolution stormed beneath his sternum. His mind had been so clouded, so unsure, but for the first time since returning to New York, the way before him cleared.
River arranged an appointment to have her car taken in and then passed the rest of the evening playing Mario Kart with his brother and sister. After long chats, heartfelt laughter, and an arm wrestle battle with Lucas, they each headed to bed.
Lights dimmed, he settled onto the couch for the night and pulled open his laptop. He needed to check his accounts, to see if this would even work.
He’d been saving money for years and then turning around and reinvesting that money. He’d been experimenting with different companies, different strategies.
The screen blared as he took in the numbers. His eyes were tired. He wasn’t reading things correctly, was he? After returning to New York, he’d taken Aaliyah’s advice and examined Elir’s stock. She’d been right, it had looked promising, so River added it to his list of investments and put in a large amount of capital. It hadn’t done a whole lot since, but now? The statistics on the graph had jumped overnight.
The numbers from Elir Resorts alone weren’t enough, but combined with several other big-name stocks, he had to blink to make sure he was seeing things correctly.
“No way,” he mumbled in the muted light seeping from the dimmed lamp in the corner. There couldn’t possibly be that many zeroes. That many commas.
He’d read book after book about money, about investments. It had taken years of trial and error, some money lost, but now, he couldn’t believe what he saw.
River plugged the percentages and statistics into his spreadsheet. The numbers added up once more, showing the same number he’d calculated.
“I’m rich,” he said in shock. Then louder, “I’m rich!” Ill at ease, he knew his mom and siblings were sleeping, but he couldn’t help it. The
words ripped from him.
His mom shuffled out from down the hall, tying her bathrobe around her waist. She squinted at the light, and her voice was filled with sleep. “River? It’s so late, sweetie, what are you still doing up?”
He leaped from the couch and swept her into his arms. “Mom, look at this. You won’t believe it.”
“What is it?” Squinting, she peered at the blue light from his laptop screen.
He directed her attention to his findings. Chances were, she knew little about stocks, but he pointed her attention to his spreadsheet. “Is this accurate? What am I seeing?”
She gaped at the screen.
“Honey, are you—are you a billionaire?”
“I—yeah. I think so.”
Her grin widened, her eyes gleaming. She took his face in her hands. “River, this is amazing news.”
“What’s going on?” Sofia appeared at the end of the hall, scratching her stomach. River rushed over to her, pulling her into a hug and spinning on the living room floor. He was so glad he’d discovered this here, with his family, instead of alone in his apartment back in New York.
Lucas stepped out next. “Dude, seriously?”
“Come here, man.” River gripped him by the shoulder. “See this? I started at my loser job and worked my way up. I learned and studied.”
Lucas examined the numbers. His mouth gaped. “Seriously?”
River shook him. “You can do this. You can do anything you put your mind to, man, if you’re willing to put in the work.”
A smile spread over Lucas’s face too. He clutched River’s arm. “I’m proud of you, man.”
“I’m proud of you too. Now get off your butt and help mom out around here.”
Lucas laughed, and so did Sofia and their mother. “I would except I don’t have a car…” Lucas inclined his head in River’s direction with hopeful expectancy.
“If you promise to get a job and start taking care of yourself, I think I can help you with that.”
Lucas and Sofia hugged one another and jumped in place. The dogs outside seemed to sense the excitement. Their barking was clattering through the night, undoubtedly waking the neighbors. River didn’t care. This moment deserved some fanfare.
Aaliyah and the Billionaire's Lamp Page 14