by Lacy Hart
“Looks great, Jodie,” I said to her, admiring her work.
“I think it will do the job,” she said.
We both took off our aprons and placed them on one of the workstations. Mom quickly snatched them up and stuffed them into her bag.
“I’m doing laundry tonight, so I’ll wash everything,” Mom said as she grabbed some of the towels lying around as well. “Are you two coming for dinner?” she then asked.
We both looked at each other, knowing neither one of us had anything else to do tonight.
“I guess I’ll be there,” Jodie said to Mom.
“How about you, Kelly?” Mom said, waiting patiently for an answer.
“She doesn’t have anything better to do, Mom. She’ll be there,” Jodie stated for me.
“Okay, dinner is at six. I’ll see you two later.” Mom looked around the kitchen to make sure everything looked okay. “Alex, I’m ready to go,” Mom yelled.
Alex popped in from the storefront and came into the kitchen.
“I’m going to meet Amber and Rhiannon down at the beach, if that’s okay?” Alex asked.
“That’s fine,” Mom told her, seeming skeptical about what would happen. “Just be home by six for dinner.”
“That’s only an hour from now,” Alex whined. “I can get something to eat down here. Please, Mom.”
“No, you can be home for dinner at six. We have to work tomorrow,” Mom reminded.
Mom gave us a smile and walked out the back door. As soon as the back door had closed, Alex let out a sigh.
“I’m glad she let me go,” Alex said as she stripped out of her t-shirt and jeans, revealing the paisley bikini she was wearing. She slid into a pair of flips and looked at Jodie and me.
“Does Mom know you’re wearing that?” Jodie asked her.
“No, that’s why I waited until she left. And you’re not going to tell her either,” Alex said to Jodie. “I just bought this yesterday. It’s so cute.”
Jodie and I looked at each other, stunned.
“Alex,” I said to her, trying not to sound too much like the big sister, “You’re practically falling out of that thing it’s so small.”
“Relax, Kelly,” she told me, adjusting the top of her bikini to push her cleavage out even more. “You know, if you two would actually wear something a little sexier to the beach instead of those old lady one-piece suits, you might actually have boyfriends.” Alex smirked as she put her t-shirt on over her barely-there bathing suit.
“Get out you brat!” Jodie yelled, snapping a towel at Alex and catching her on the behind. Alex laughed as she went out the back door.
Jodie went back over and picked up the basket and carried it to the back door. I grabbed my backpack and put it on my back, set the store alarm, and we both went outside.
As hot as the kitchen can get while we are baking, it seemed even hotter outside today. The bright sun made me squint as soon as we walked out the door, and I stopped and reached for my sunglasses and put them on so I could be more comfortable. Jodie and I ambled along the boardwalk, heading towards the edge where the large house was located.
“Do you think Alex is right?” Jodie asked me as we walked through the crowd on the boardwalk.
“About what?” I said as I sidestepped a couple of seagulls munching on someone’s lost French fries.
“About dressing sexier,” Jodie said. Realizing she had said that louder than she intended and had gotten some looks from guys around her, Jodie smiled and laughed.
“Jodie, come on. She’s eighteen, she doesn’t know anything about dating, relationships, or guys beyond high school.”
“I know,” Jodie answered, “but she is the one with a boyfriend. I don’t know about you, but it’s been it’s been about a month since I even went out on a date.”
“A month? That’s no big deal,” I answered. I knew it had been much longer for me, and I was hoping Jodie wouldn’t bring it up.
“All I’m saying is maybe we need to make more of an effort to put ourselves out there.”
Jodie and I had reached the end of the boardwalk and could see the high wall that surrounded the property now.
“Put ourselves out there? You mean like Alex who was bursting out of her bikini? No thanks, I don’t need attention like that,” I answered as we turned and made our way down the staircase.
“That’s not what I meant, Kelly, and you know it. I mean we should go out more, have some fun, maybe meet some new people, some men.”
We turned and starting walking down the road towards the large iron gate.
“Jodie, I work six days a week and so do you. I don’t know that I have time to go out and meet people, never mind start a relationship. I’m just trying to keep our business going.”
We stood in front of the big iron fence, trying to figure out what to do next. There was a buzzer located on the wall to my left, and I started to walk over to press it. Before I could get there, I noticed Jodie had stopped in her tracks and was staring at something inside the gate. I walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder.
“What’s going on?” I asked her.
Jodie just pointed with her left her hand, and I followed her gaze. I immediately saw what she was looking at. There was a man there without his shirt on, washing the black limousine in the driveway. He was reaching over the hood of the car, scrubbing it down with a large sponge. You could see that he had a finely-toned body as the muscles on his back worked as he moved on the car. You could see the marks of tattoos on his left shoulder and his right bicep.
“That’s what I’m talking about, Kelly,” Jodie whispered as she kept her eyes locked on him. “I think I got pregnant just watching him wash the car.”
“Yes, he’s very attractive,” I said to Jodie. “But we have a job to do here.”
“You’re right,” Jodie said as she approached the gate.
“Excuse me!” she yelled, getting the attention of the man.
He turned to face us and smiled, and then tossed the sponge into the bucket beside him. He slowly walked over towards the gate, and we could see even more definition in his six-pack abs and pecs.
“What can I help you ladies with today?” he said to us.
There was a mixture of sweat glistening on his forehead and water dripping down his body seductively. The image was like it was right off the cover of a romance novel. The top of his shaved head was a bit red from the sun.
Jodie was immediately tongue-tied and couldn’t say anything, so I stepped forward.
“Hi, I’m Kelly Barton, and this is my sister Jodie. I own Sand and Sprinkles, the bakery here on the boardwalk. We just thought we would stop by and give you this basket to welcome you to the neighborhood. It’s quite a house you have here.”
The man walked over and pressed the button on his side of the gate, and the gate retracted into the walls. Jodie and I stepped across, and I gave Jodie a nudge so she could break the spell she was in for the moment and hand him the basket.
“Well thanks, that’s very kind of you,” the man said to us, taking the basket. “But I’m not the owner of the house. I’m James, James Colbert. Mr. Woods is the owner of the house. I’m his driver and bodyguard.”
“Bodyguard, hmmm,” Jodie said with a smile. I could tell it was taking all her strength not to reach over and touch James’ body.
“Is Mr. Woods available? We would love to meet him and say hello,” I asked, still hoping to go inside the house and see the kind of gaudiness the house was decorated with. I imagined Mr. Woods as some overweight, entitled, rich man with too much money and time on his hands that wouldn’t even say thanks for the basket.
“I can check, hold on one second,” James said. He reached into his pocket and picked up his cell phone. He pressed a button and started talking into the phone.
“There’s a couple of people from one of the local businesses here. They have a gift for Mr. Woods and want to know if they could bring it to him.”
We waited patiently
for an answer as Jodie kept looking up and down over James’ body. I think he started to feel self-conscious about not wearing a shirt and reached over into the limo and grabbed his t-shirt and pulled it on. The t-shirt clung closely to his body, and Jodie reached her hand over to mine and squeezed it tightly.
James simply said, “Thanks,” into the phone and hung it up.
“Sorry ladies,” James said apologetically. “We didn’t get down here until about 5 AM or so, so we were all pretty tired. Mr. Woods is asleep now.”
“The drive didn’t seem to wear you out any,” Jodie said with a sly smile.
James laughed at Jodie’s comment.
“I have the easy job,” James answered. “He’s the one running the billion-dollar company.”
“Oh,” I said to James. “We were wondering if it was some famous actor or rock star that moved in.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” James said, looking over at Jodie, still staring at him. “Mr. Woods founded and owns STW Enterprises.”
“I never heard of them,” Jodie said. She acted like a giddy schoolgirl now, her left foot scraping along the driveway back and forth.
“Yes, you have, Jodie,” I said, trying to snap her back to reality. “They’re the company that makes all those things that are designed to help preserve and save the oceans.”
“That’s right,” James said to me. “They do a lot of great work, and he’s a good man to work for.”
“Well, I guess we’ll let you get back to work James. It was nice to meet you and thanks for passing the basket along. I hope you get to enjoy some of the snacks in there,” I told him as I shook his hand.
Jodie thrust her hand out quickly to shake James’ hand as well, and placed her left hand on his arm, feeling the muscles he had before slowly breaking away from him.
“It was nice to meet both of you as well,” James said. “I’ll bring this inside now and let Mr. Woods know you came by. I am sure he will stop by the bakery to say thanks.”
“Great, thank you, James,” I told him.
“Yes, thank YOU, James,” Jodie said breathlessly.
I reached over and grabbed her hand and tugged her along behind me until we were back outside the gate. James reached over and pressed the button to close the gate behind us, and we watched him disappear into the house with the basket.
“Well that stinks,” I said to Jodie as we made our way back up to the boardwalk.
“What stinks? That was awesome!” Jodie said. “Did you see the muscles on that guy? When he put that t-shirt on, I just wanted to go over and rip it right off him.”
“That’s not what I am talking about Jodie,” I told her. “And you’re right by the way; you obviously need a night out somewhere. You couldn’t have acted hornier. I meant we didn’t get to see inside the house or meet Mr. Woods. I would have liked to have met him, acted all nice, and then let him know what I think of him and his giant house taking up all that space and closing off the beach access there.”
“You said his company does good things to save the ocean,” Jodie told me. “And James said he’s a good guy to work for. Maybe he’s not the jerk you think he is.”
“Of course James is going to say that, he gets a paycheck from the guy,” I shot back. “Maybe his company does good things just so he can make a lot of money and he is a jerk personally. I’ve been around these rich guys plenty when I went to culinary school, Jodie. They all think that their money entitles them to whatever they want. They may put on a public display, but behind the scenes, they can be assholes.”
We walked back to where the bakery was and down the steps to my scooter.
“You need a ride to Mom’s?” I asked Jodie.
“I’m not getting on that thing with you,” Jodie said, backing away. “You drive that like a maniac. I’ll take my car over, thanks. Besides, the walk to my car will give me a chance to think more about James washing that limo.”
“Whatever you say,” I said with a laugh.
I unlocked my scooter, strapped my helmet on, and started up the scooter to head off. I worked my way over to Neptune Path and came to a stop on the scooter, so I could have a look down at the house. Plenty of people were walking along the street to catch a glimpse of the place before moving on to the next block so they could get beach access.
I sped off towards my Mom’s house, kicking up some gravel and sand from the street as I left.
I should have given him some of the day old, stale muffins, I thought to myself, trying not to get angrier about what Mr. Woods would be doing in his mansion on the beach tonight.
5
Damian
I spent the bulk of the rest of the morning and afternoon getting my room in order, putting clothing away and trying to get my office organized with what I might need. I then browsed through the kitchen, seeing how it was stocked with food, supplies and the like in case I wanted to do any cooking. I hadn’t done much cooking of my own in years, even though I loved to do it. There just wasn’t enough time to do it myself, and I found myself going out more or ordering in. When I bought the house, the realtor gave me the names of some private chefs in the area if I ever needed anyone, but that felt too decadent to do.
After my housecleaning, I went and explored the rest of the house. The top floor had the full kitchen, my bedroom, a dining room, a living room with a bar area, sun porches, and bathroom. Down on the second floor was the pool, the exercise rooms, which I had them outfit with all the equipment I would like, including some of the boxing equipment and a ring to work out in. Boxing had become my exercise of choice over the last couple of years. It had been a great way to get out stress and aggravation that business, politics, and my personal life could provide, and I didn’t want to miss out on it if I could avoid it. The second floor also had four more bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and a small sitting area.
The bottom floor I had reserved primarily for Shannon and James, and they had the only bedrooms down there. I made sure each room was built so they would be most comfortable, getting input from them and using what I knew about them, so they had everything they needed. The game room was also down on the third floor, with a bar area, big screen TV, pool table, jukebox, and sitting room. There was even a separate room down there that was a small movie theater with a movie screen that we could use.
The house looked perfect, and the builders, designers and everyone involved had done a great job putting it all together. I decided to go back up to the porch outside my room for a while to look out over the ocean some more. As I sat there admiring the clear blue sky and the calm ocean waters, I found my thoughts drifting back to when I was at the bakery this morning. Sure, the donut was awesome, but that wasn't where my mind kept going. I kept thinking about the woman behind the counter, Kelly, who came out and waited on me. There was something about her that I couldn’t get out of my head. Yes, she was certainly beautiful, with her light blonde hair and captivating eyes to the way she smiled and laughed, but there was more than that I found myself drawn to. The kindness she showed to me, a complete stranger to her, was not something you saw very often anymore.
I sat back in one of the reclining lounge chairs and slipped my sunglasses out of my shirt pocket and put them on. I looked up and could see a yellow kite flying off to just to the left. Someone was obviously having some fun down on the beach, a family perhaps, letting the kids laugh and control the kite, urging it on higher and higher. It brought me back to the times that my brothers and I would do the same thing while my mother sat under her big umbrella on the beach to keep the sun off her for the many hours we would spend running through the sand and water.
All this reflection made me realize just how lucky I have been since my childhood. I got to enjoy vacations with my family and probably had privileges that many other kids never got to experience because of the position my Dad held. I went to good private schools, got into Stanford and got my degrees in environmental sciences and then my MBA. I also got the opportunity to experiment, do in
tern work, and work on my invention ideas thanks to the opportunities I have had over the years. It was Dad’s contacts that allowed me to get some of our first inventions introduced to big companies. I loved coming up with better ideas to clean up the ocean waters, get rid of oil and pollution, and even started work on the garbage islands and acres of trash out in the Pacific and in other locations.
Once those first inventions took off and did well with companies, it was making contacts with governments around the world that allowed us to really implement some change and give the oceans a chance. I was able to quickly build a staff of scientists, environmental specialists, business people and more, to the point where STW had over 5,000 employees around the world. I never thought that things would get so big, that I would oversee a huge corporation worth billions of dollars, but once it all started to happen, I found that I needed to make some changes in my life.