Chapter Twenty-Nine
Jake
Kristen stuck her head into my office. “You called me?”
“Uh, yes,” I said. “Just give me a second.”
I turned to Denver and smiled. “Other than that, everything looks good?”
“Everything looks excellent,” Denver nodded. “You’re doing a good job, Jake.”
“About that… I wanted to call in a meeting with the board soon,” I said, as Kristen walked into the room and shut the door. She hovered in the background, conscious not to make a sound.
“A meeting with the board?” Denver repeated. “Is it about the Shanghai deal?”
“No,” I said. “It’s personal.”
He frowned. “Personal?” It seemed he had a habit of repeating everything I said.
“Yes,” I nodded, struggling to keep the impatience from my voice.
“You’re not resigning, are you?” he asked. I was gratified to hear a little note of panic in his voice.
“Not exactly,” I said, enjoying making him squirm.
“Not exactly?” he repeated again.
He was a mousy man with a large mustache that was obviously groomed. He looked more like a cartoon character than a real person. He had been on the board for almost eleven years now and was one of the few board members who made the attempt to give me personal visits. I wasn’t sure if it was genuine concern or just random check-ups, but I had stopped caring about that a while ago.
“I just want to discuss a few things about my schedule and my workload.”
“You want more money?” he asked immediately.
“That’s not what I want to talk about,” I said. “Though if the board were to decide I deserved an increase in salary, I wouldn’t say no.”
“How urgent is this personal meeting of yours?” he asked, looking a little worried.
“How about we try and schedule it in for next week?”
Denver’s eyebrows hit the ceiling. I knew that getting all the members of the board together was a difficult thing to do. Which was why I had asked that the meeting be scheduled within a week. I figured that then it would happen within a month or two at least.
“Next week?” Denver said, repeating my last few words again. “That is impossible.”
“Make is possible,” I said pleasantly.
“Joseph is in China till the seventeenth, and Jonathan is in Mexico for another month…”
“Well, inform everyone and see when the closest possible available date for everyone is, okay?”
Denver sighed tiredly. “Fine… I’ll let you know.”
“Excellent,” I nodded.
“I’ll take my leave then,” he said as he stood up.
I walked him to the door, and Kristen opened it for him. He gave her an appreciative smile that bordered on creepy and then left.
“Do you think they’ll be cooperative?” Kristen asked.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” I said. “You look lovely today.”
She blushed at my unexpected compliment. “Thank you. So do you.”
“I look lovely today?” I asked teasingly.
“You do,” she laughed. “You look exceptionally handsome.”
I smiled and then took her hand. “Hey, you know what I was thinking?”
“Do tell?”
“I was thinking we could head out to the beach for a nice lunch?”
She raised her eyebrows. “Lunch is only an hour long,” she said. “And we have so much work to get done…and we’ll never make it back to the office within an hour.”
I shrugged. “Well, I’m the boss,” I reminded her. “And, I’m saying we can get away with it.”
I saw her smile grow bright and mischievous. “You sure?”
“Yes,” I nodded, leaning in and kissing her on the lips. “I’ll meet your downstairs in five?”
“Yup.”
We met by my car seven minutes later. I had made the suggestion on a whim, but now I was extremely glad I had decided to be spontaneous. I had found it increasingly difficult to concentrate the last few days. My obsession with Kristen was deepening, and I could feel it. I could feel myself falling for her, and there were moments when it felt like I was already in love with her.
Even when I was not with her, I thought about her constantly. It had made me realize that I spent much less time thinking about Daphne. For the first time in a long time, I was actually happy and hopeful, and the emotions were so alien to me that for a while I hadn’t even recognized them for what they were.
As we drove, I held Kristen’s hand in mine. It took us about twenty minutes to get to the beach, and once we were there, I felt Kristen relax. “I love the beach,” she said.
Since it was midday during working hours, the beach was peaceful and tranquil. There were very few people walking the beach, and the few who were, were absorbed in their own thing. The pier was practically empty as started to walk down, enjoying the soft breeze against our faces.
“What do you think?” I asked. “Burgers by the bay or would you prefer hot dogs?”
“Let’s do both,” Kristen suggested. “That way we can both share.”
“Brilliant idea,” I nodded. “If we keep walking in this direction we’ll find a shack that sells amazing burgers.”
Holding hands, we walked down the pier. We must have looked a little out of place in our work attire, but it was a glorious kind of freedom, to be released from the pressures of work. I realized how much I’d missed out on all these years. Working myself to the bone had been a good distraction while I needed it, but now Kristen was there to distract me, and now work was nothing more than an inconvenience.
“It’s ironic, isn’t it?” Kristen said, breaking through my thoughts.
“What is?”
“We work for a maritime shipping company, and we never see the sea?”
I laughed. “I suppose that is ironic,” I nodded. “I used to love sailing.”
“You sailed?” she asked, looking up at me with interest.
“When I was a teenager,” I nodded. “Uncle Ashton had a little boat that he loved, and Henry and I used to take it out all the time.”
“Henry was the cousin you lost in Afghanistan, wasn’t he?”
“He was,” I nodded. “But not before he distinguished himself for bravery; he has a medal of honor.”
“You must be proud,” she said, squeezing my hand.
“I am,” I nodded. “But sometimes… I wish he’d have been less brave.”
“I understand that,” she nodded. “How has your aunt been doing?”
I hadn’t mentioned introducing the two of them recently. I figured I’d give Kristen some time to get used to the idea before I mentioned it again. “She’s doing well,” I nodded. “She’s seeing someone, actually.”
“That’s great,” Kristen smiled. “Good for her.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “She’s been so consumed with Henry’s death that she forgot to live her own life.”
“Something you understand very well,” Kristen said pointedly.
I smiled. “Okay, fine… I did the same thing.”
“Not that I blame you,” she assured me. “It’s not an easy thing to lose a spouse…and I can’t even imagine losing a child.”
“I know,” I nodded. “It was the most awful thing that had happened to our family. It nearly destroyed me, and it broke Uncle Ashton and Aunt Margo.”
“Is that the reason they divorced?”
“I think so,” I said. “They didn’t have any major problems before that. And, I remember all the fights preceding Henry’s enlistment. He had discussed enlisting with them, and Uncle Ashton was angry. He felt as though Mom had encouraged him to enlist because of the history in our family.”
“Margo is your father’s sister?”
“That’s right,” I nodded. I looked out towards the ocean. “Henry was the better sailor, though… That was one of the reasons I looked up to him so much. He was amazing at whatever he attempted. We used to sail miles out into the sea and then we used to eat burgers and talk about how we were going to enlist one day and distinguish ourselves as war heroes.”
Kristen looked sad as I spoke. “You miss him, don’t you?”
“He was the closest thing to a brother I had,” I replied. “Which is why the military helped me so much in the aftermath of his death. It gave me that same sense of brotherhood again.”
“I can’t imagine that kind of life,” she whispered.
“What kind of life?”
“Marrying a man who was fighting wars in foreign lands… I would be out of my mind with worry. I don’t know how your grandmother or your mother did it.”
“They were strong women,” I said.
“They must have been to have raised someone like you.”
“Someone like me?” I asked, not sure what she meant by that.
“Someone brave and strong and kind and…passionate.”
“You think I’m passionate?”
“You’re passionate about your work, about your military career, about your son… You were passionate about your wife while she was alive, and you’re passionate about your family.”
I smiled, noticing how easily she had mentioned Daphne.
“Do you mind when I mention Daphne?” I asked.
“No of course not,” Kristen said immediately, and I could tell from her tone that she was sincere. “She’s Noah’s mother, and I wouldn’t ever want to ignore that. I understand she was an important and cherished part of your past, and I respect that. I don’t want to compete with her memory because that’s one fight I know I’m going to lose. So I’m just going to do my best to be the best version of myself for Noah…and for you.”
I grabbed her suddenly and kissed her hard on the lips. She giggled against me and pushed me back. “People are watching,” she said self-consciously.
“I honestly couldn’t care less.”
Kristen looked at me with surprise. “You know, I never pegged you for the kind of guy who was okay with public displays of affection.”
“I’m usually not,” I admitted. “Daphne and I would hold hands in public, and that was about it. I’ve never really been one for public displays of affection. But with you…it’s different.”
I could tell that those words meant a lot to her. She didn’t want to be compared to Daphne all the time, nor did she want our relationship to mimic the one I’d had with Daphne because that would reduce her to a paler version of a stronger love. We were both starting to realize that this was a relationship in its own right—and it had nothing to do with Daphne.
We made it to the shack I had told her about and I ordered burgers and hot dogs and shakes. Then we found a bench with a spectacular view of the ocean, and we sat down to enjoy our lunch. For the first time, I wasn’t checking my watch or anxious about meetings. I just wanted to sit here with Kristen and enjoy good food and good conversation without having to worry about anything else.
“Maybe I’ll buy a yacht,” I said suddenly.
Kristen raised her eyebrows. “Maybe you’ll buy a yacht?”
“Yeah… Why not?”
“You’re serious?”
I smiled. “I told you I loved sailing… And think about it, if I bought one, we could sail into the ocean and spend the whole day on the sea. Noah would love that.”
She smiled. “That does sound kinda perfect.”
I nodded. It was the first time that I’d planned anything, and it gave me a little thrill of excitement. Was it possible to leave behind pain? Was it possible to let go of all the anger and frustration and just be happy? Sitting there with Kristen…it certainly felt like it.