Chapter4
She heard the waves crashing and felt the sun on her skin before she opened her eyes. She stretched, and strong arms pulled her closer, David’s soft, heavy breathing music to her ears. Even sound asleep, he was aware of her. He inhaled her scent and buried his face in her hair, then snuggled into the pillow and was dead asleep again. She sighed.
She was exactly where she wanted to be. Just like the night before on the beach, she wanted this moment to last forever.
The ocean stretched out for miles beyond the glass, the view completely unobstructed from where she lay on the king bed in the center of the room. Like the rest of the house, every exterior wall of the master bedroom was blue tinted glass. The effect was perfect, letting in just the right amount of sun without glare. The master bedroom took up the top half of the second floor, so the view had a panoramic quality, and it was breathtaking.
“You don’t have to get up just yet,” he said, his voice thick with sleep.
“It’s alright. I’m still on Central time. Let me make you some breakfast.”
“That sounds wonderful, but there’s no food in the house.”
“There’s not?”
“I don’t get to spend much time here, and I don’t have a set schedule, so I don’t leave anything here that’s perishable. There’s wine, sodas, bottled drinks and a couple cans of soup.”
“The quintessential bachelor pad.”
“Are you teasing me?”
“I am.”
He slid his phone to her, still laying on his side, completely naked.
“Order breakfast and I’ll make sure that my cleaning lady, Julia, stocks the fridge next time she’s here.”
Kelissa opened the app on his phone, swiped through the breakfast menu until she found a spread she thought they both would like, then clicked on it and hit send.
“There’s no price on it,” she said. “And nowhere to check out, add a tip, or input our address. How does it even work?”
“You’ll get used to it,” he said.
“Get used to what?”
“Being wealthy. There are no prices listed because the price fluctuates based on the market for the freshest fruits and cheeses during the fall and winter months. The gratuity is already worked into the cost and they bill my account directly. They use the location feature on my phone to deliver the food.”
“So, you can order food no matter where you are, and it will show up?”
“If you have a GPS signal, then yes.”
“That’s insane.”
“Or is it the best thing ever?” he teased.
“It really is.” She slid into his arms, sighing in contentment when he pulled her close and she fit against him like a puzzle piece. “This whole thing is the best thing ever. The house, you, the beach. I feel like I woke up in a dream.”
“Wait until you see my home.”
“Can we just live here?”
He chuckled, kissing her on the forehead and giving her a squeeze.
“I’ll try to adjust my schedule so we can stay here on the weekends. But my home in Bonita is much more convenient.”
“Bonita?”
“It’s another suburb, off highway 54. It’s one of the few places left in the city that you can buy a large house with some land.”
“I just like the remoteness of this place.”
“The mansion feels like this. I only have seven acres, but it’s surrounded by trees and backs up to a nature preserve. I don’t really have any neighbors except one down the road, and they keep to themselves. It really is just like this.”
“Except there’s no beach.”
“But there is a stable.”
“You have horses?” she asked, her voice filled with childlike excitement. “I’ve always wanted to ride horses.”
“That’s good, because you’re going to need to learn. One of the photographers I want to introduce you to sells his pictures to horse magazines all over the country, and he’s always looking for fresh faces.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“He’s going to be at the first fundraiser, which is for the Pegasus Foundation. They rescue retired racehorses and find them homes. That’s how I met Rich. I bought a horse he had his eye on, and he decided it was easier to make friends than to try to outbid a millionaire.”
“Smart man,” she laughed.
“Very. I think you two will be good friends. He has a lot of money and a lot of talent, but he’s one of the most humble people I know.”
“I thought you were a billionaire.”
“I wasn’t back then,” he said. “I’ve known Rich for eight years. I had just turned twenty and I was trying to drum up some more wealthy clientele. You won’t believe how much old money floats around places like that. Once you close on a house for one person in that hard to break inner circle, word of mouth spreads like wildfire. I doubled my income that year, and I made my first billion by twenty-five.”
“And you started in real estate?”
“Mostly. I dabbled in a few other business ventures, but real estate is what I’m good at.”
“Did you come from money?”
He laughed.
“Not really, though we never hurt for money, either. My father was a luxury car salesman. It didn’t pay as well as you’d think it would, but when the owner passed away, he left the dealership to my dad.”
“They must have been good friends.”
“They were. When my dad finally retired, he gave the business to me and I sold it after a few years. I know it ate away at him. But he’s too old to keep it going, and I am not really the car salesman type. I used the money I made to invest in my real estate business.”
“Where are your parents now?”
“They moved to Mérida, in Mexico to be near my mother’s family.”
“I didn’t realize you were Hispanic.”
“Only half. My father was white, hence the last name Rogers.”
“Where did he meet your mother?”
“He was shopping in Tijuana, and he felt someone pull his wallet. He grabbed their wrist and when he turned around, he was face to face with my mother.”
“So, it was love at first sight? How romantic.”
“It was. She had made her way to Tijuana hoping to make it across the border, so she could make a better life for herself and help the family she left behind. She was only twenty, and my father was nearly forty. I’m not sure what they had in common at that point, but my father is seventy now and my mother just turned fifty. They’ve been happily married for thirty years. They must be doing something right.”
“That’s a sweet story.”
“What about your parents?”
The smile slid off her face and she wished she’d never asked him about his parents. It was inevitable that the conversation would turn to her own parents, and she didn’t want to kill the mood.
“I don’t want to ruin the moment.”
“How could you do that? You’ve talked about your dad before; he sounds like a standup guy.”
“My father is amazing. My mother was amazing, too. At least, what I remember about her.”
He let out a heavy sigh.
“I’m sorry. I should have realized that you didn’t talk about her for a reason. You don’t have to tell me if it’s too painful.”
She shook her head.
“You know what? It’s fine. I can’t hide from what happened forever. It’s been fifteen years.”
“So, you were seven?”
“About to turn eight. It was right before my birthday.”
“What happened?”
“We had my birthday party early, because my birthday was on a Tuesday that year. Some of my friends were there, and some of my neighbors came over to celebrate.” She closed her eyes, the tears already welling as the memories flooded back to her. “I was blindfolded, swinging at a piñata that my dad was swinging from a tree limb. I hit it as hard as I could, and I heard tires squealing and what I thought was the piñata breaking beneath the bat. I heard a scream and I took off the blindfold, and people were running.
My dad called out to my mother and he was running. He scooped me up and held me against him as he ran. I remember the fear in his voice when he said, ‘Baby close your eyes, Daddy’s got you.’ I did what he said, but it was too late. I already saw the people on the ground, bleeding and wailing in pain.”
He pulled her closer, but he didn’t say a word, his body rigid.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but there was a man walking by my house on the sidewalk. A rival gang drove by and saw him, and they opened fire. He was standing right in front of our privacy fence, and they had automatic weapons. The rickety fence was no match for the bullets. Seven people died at my party, including my mother. I saw it as a sign, I guess. In my mind, I was seven and seven people had died celebrating my birthday. I never celebrated a birthday after that, and my dad was never the same. He took a job in Iowa a month after we buried my mom, and we haven’t been back.”
“Iowa isn’t that far from Illinois.”
“It’s not. But it’s a world away from the life we lived. My father only had to work one job to support us, and he managed to buy a little three-bedroom house in a quiet neighborhood with a little yard in a nice school district. The teachers all knew what happened to me, and they were so patient with me. My dad dated once or twice, but he never could get past the second date. He raised me alone, and stayed home until I had enough money to get my little apartment.”
“What did you do before you started your Instagram account?”
“I waited tables for a little while, but my account took off pretty quickly, and I had all these ad sponsors. As soon as I made enough to cover all my bills and build a savings account to fall back on just in case, I quit my job as a waitress and started going to school online and focusing on my modeling.”
“You are such an amazing spirit,” he said. She could hear his anguish for the child she’d been in his voice, but she was thankful that he didn’t try to make her share more than she was ready to. “Your mom would be so proud of you.”
“I hope so,” Kelissa said. “I like to think she would agree that modeling is the right path for me. It’s because of her eye color I inherited that I stand out from the crowd. It’s not often you see a black girl with green eyes unless they’re mixed.”
“And you’re not.”
“Not recently,” she laughed. “There are rumors about my great-grandmother but no pictures of her, so we’ll never know. My parents are both dark like me.”
The doorbell rang, interrupting their conversation.
“I’ll get it,” she said when he started to get up. “You spoiled me last night; let me spoil you a little.”
He smiled and laid back down on the bed.
“That’s fine with me. I have to go to work tomorrow so I don’t mind taking it easy today.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” she laughed, pulling on a lavender tracksuit without bothering to put on a bra or panties. “I have a lot of plans today. After breakfast.”
She jogged down the steps, the tile floors cool against her bare feet. She was expecting the doorbell to ring again before she got there, but when she opened the door, there was no one there. A large box with a handle on either side to make it easier to carry read “perishables, please open immediately” took up most of the stoop, and a smaller box sat beside it. The smaller box had her name on it. She picked it up, revealing an envelope with David’s name handwritten on it with and nothing else. She put the box with her name on it atop the big box, then stuffed the envelope between the two boxes and carried them inside.
She used her hip to close the door, the electric lock sealing the door a split second later.
The box was surprisingly light, so she decided just to head straight up the stairs. Besides, she was sure that David had ordered something for her, and she knew he would want to watch her open it. She was excited. She had no idea what it could be.
She set the boxes down on the table in the corner, grabbing the small box and the envelope, practically skipping to the bed and dropping down onto the soft mattress.
“Did you order this for me?” she said, tossing the envelope to him and showing him the box.
“I did. What’s this?”
She shrugged.
“It was under this box.”
She pulled at the edge of the tape until she had it up, then opened the box while David opened his envelope. She was focused on opening the box, which had another box that barely fit inside. Opening that box took a little more work, but when she finally got it, she laughed and threw her arms around David and kissed him quickly.
“How did you get this? These aren’t even out yet.”
“I have my ways,” he said.
She was rummaging through the box and he had finally removed the letter inside the envelope, reading while she pulled out the purple, protective case and put her brand-new phone inside.
“This is perfect.”
“I’m glad you like it,” he said, but he sounded distracted. “Will you excuse me a minute?”
“Is everything alright?”
“Yes. Just some unexpected business. There’s a table on the balcony. If you want to set up breakfast, I’ll bring some drinks up in a moment. Feel free to play with your new phone until I get back. It should be activated, and the Wi-Fi password is ‘beachhouse.’”
“Seriously?” she laughed. But he was already gone. “It must be important,” she mumbled, but she was too excited to be mad.
The phone was exactly what she’d asked for just the night before; silver with a purple case. She turned it on, following the prompts to update her account and within minutes, her contacts and all of her content from the other phone was on the new phone.
She went out onto the balcony, lining up the perfect selfie with the ocean in the background, then hurriedly wrote a caption about exciting adventures and new beginnings. She made sure every inch of the picture was on point, then sent it with the hashtag “no filter.”
After she was done, she brought the box to the table, carefully cutting the tape that held the bottom of the box to the cover with the tiny piece of plastic made just for the job that was taped to the box. Just like David had done the night before, she lifted the top and the table was set, the bottom of the box a decorative tray made of corrugated plastic. It was a sweet setup that Kelissa was sure had made someone millions. And if there was more than one platter, a special frame that held each platter stacked above the other with room to spare came out of the box with the platters, creating a tiered serving area.
“The rich really do have it good,” she said, grabbing a strawberry and dunking it in the heavy cream dip made for the fruit.
David came in then, deftly grabbing the strawberry before she could bring it to her lips and feeding it to her. She smiled, taking a bite and licking her lips when she was done.
“This is a beautiful spread,” he said, still standing beside her. “Listen, something’s come up and I have to go into work for a few hours. Are you okay here?”
“I am.”
“Perfect.” He kissed her. “I can send the car to come get you, so you can go clothes shopping if you want, or you can take one of the cars in the garage. Do you drive?”
“I do,” she said. “I even know how to drive a stick.”
“That’s a pleasant surprise. Take whichever car you like. The insurance card is in the glove box if you get pulled over. They have full coverage, so you’re covered no matter what, but if you decide you like one enough to drive it exclusively, I’ll make sure you’re on the insurance.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t, but it’s easier for you if you get pulled over.”
“I’ll try not to drive like a complete idiot,” she teased.
“Perfect. Have fun today and don’t worry about the cost. Just buy a few evening gowns that make you feel like a million bucks, and whatever swimsuits you want. Here’s the number of my personal assistant. I have an account at most of the boutiques around here. If you go somewhere else, Sara should be able to help you with payments. Also, hit Mary’s Tack for an English horseback riding outfit for the photo shoot.”
“Are you going to be gone long?”
“I don’t know.”
“I can go with you.”
“No, there’s no reason for you to go. You’ll be bored, I promise. Just get your wardrobe together and make sure you have everything you need, and I’ll see you when I get home tonight.”
He pulled his wallet out and handed her a credit card.
“I haven’t gotten one with your name on it yet, but this pin is 1988.”
“The year you were born?”
“Yes. I’ll be twenty-nine in December.”
“You’re not really worried about personal security, are you.”
“That’s what I have lawyers for. If I make my Wi-Fi and my passwords hard to remember, then I forget them. No one is going to steal my identity; I have too many resources.” He pulled her out of the chair and hugged her tight, then kissed her again. “I have to go.”
His footsteps were hurried as he walked out the door and a few moments later she heard a garage door open and sportscar going down the street and disappearing around the corner.
She sat on the balcony for a long time, enjoying her breakfast even though she wasn’t happy about being left alone so suddenly. But she had a new smartphone and GPS, and she knew she could find her way back.
Determined to make the most out of this day, she opened up the navigation and set the beach house as her “home” destination. Now, no matter where she ended up, she would be able to find “home.”
She got dressed quickly and did her hair, then she headed for the garage beneath the house. She jogged down the narrow stairs, flipping the light switch on and took in her options. The garage was the same size as the first story of the house, underground on three sides and sloping up to the street level on the other. The vast space held six cars, not counting the one that David had left in. Seven cars total.
Each one was a different color, but they were all what she would consider neutral; silver, white, gray, navy blue, and one the color of champagne. Nothing too flashy. But the cars themselves were ultimate luxury, and she wasn’t sure if she could pick just one.
After looking each car over, she went with the Jaguar. A sleek and sexy SUV called the F-Pace, which was a deep blue that wasn’t quite navy. The seats were butter soft leather and dark gray, the entire polished wood paneling that Jaguar was known for.
She sat in the driver’s seat, not surprised to find the key fob sitting right there on the center console. The beach house was a fortress, and even though David seemed flippant about security, the house itself and the garage were guarded with state-of-the-art equipment that was years ahead of private home security. No one was going to break into this garage and steal these cars, at least not by normal methods.
She started the engine and it purred to life. Still in park, she took a picture of her manicured hand holding the steering wheel so the emblem was clearly visible, the odometer in the background counting less than one thousand miles on the engine. She decided to save the picture to post later just in case she got better pictures. She didn’t want to flood her account with too much and risk losing followers. That was always a possibility she was careful to avoid, and now was not that time to mess a good thing up.
She carefully guided the lustrous SUV out of the garage and waited for the door to close completely before she took off down the deserted road. She was tempted to open the engine up, but the powerful car was already more than she was used to. She’d promised David she wouldn’t drive like a complete idiot and she meant to keep that promise.