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yachts & hots

—

THE BEACH WAS the perfect place to be right now. Sure, Jack was sick, but that was okay because I had gotten him all cleaned up in the bathroom and he was okay now. Now, it was just the two of us lying in the sand together, both blowing off our responsibilities without a care in the world. I had found us both pairs of cute sunglasses being sold at a booth, so we had our eyes shielded as we sat there, looking like a pair of divas and for a second, I felt like I was a part of Jack's wealthy world.

"So," I asked, lifting my virgin piña colada to my lips to take a sip and then lowering it. "This is so much better than going to boring old school, am I right?"

"Yes, Marilyn," he beamed, looking up at me in admiration. But then his expression darkened and his lips curled downward. "Wait, but what if mommy finds out I'm not at school and what if I get in trouble? I'm scared, Marilyn."

I sighed and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer to my side. "None of that is going to happen — at least not the trouble part," I assured him. "Hey, come with me."

I got up from the sandy ground, picking him up and holding him to my chest with one hand while the other one held my phone. "I'm just going to call your mother to see what I should do in order to not get fired, okay?"

He nodded nervously, but he still nodded so I took it as my cue.

I wanted Selena not to know about this, but I needed to stay in her good graces — and George's since he was coming back — if I wanted to keep this job and use it to my advantage to help Teddy nail this case. So I pressed the dial button by Selena's name and held the phone to my ear in waiting.

After the third ring, I wasn't met with the usually crisp and calm greetings that she usually started her conversations off with, but a more frantic, "why the hell is my child not in school?"

Call it mother's intuition?

"The headmistress just called me, telling me that Jack wasn't there," she said, proving my original hunch wrong. "What in the hell are you doing? Are you trying to sell my child?"

"No," I said, scandalized, "of course I wouldn't sell Jack, he's the only one of you guys that I — okay, forget what I said. But no, Jack just got sick, so I'm taking care of him. That's all, ma'am."

"Mrs. Gates," she corrected, making me glad she wasn't here so I could roll my eyes as much as I wanted. "And okay then, just make sure to call the headmistress — I'll send you her number — and tell her that, and remember to pick the kids up at seven. The house should be ready by then."

I shuddered at the thought of what she and George would be doing for nearly twelve hours, but I held firm, answering "you got it," to Selena's commands before hanging up. Jack was watching me expectantly, waiting for me to tell him the details about what happened on the other side of that call.

"Hey, kiddo," I said as I used my free hand to tussle his hair. "What do you think of your school's headmistress? Is she a sweetheart or is she a crab apple?"

"She's a top notch bitch," he said, making me choke on the air I was breathing in.

"Where did you learn language like that," I said in surprise. "Don't ever say stuff like that, that's inappropriate."

"Jacob taught it to me," he said innocently, cocking his head to the side and giving me those eyes that he knew I couldn't refuse. Jacob taught it to him, my foot. He was lucky I didn't have a bar of soap with me.

"Yeah, alright," I said, "let's go get some food."

This beach had a cluster of shacks that sold food in them, as well as food trucks parked as close by as possible in order to snag as many hungry customers as they could. Walking through, there was a multitude of options. Mexican food, Chinese food, burgers and fries, funnel cake, Ethiopian food, Mediterranean food, homemade donuts, pizza by the slice, cotton candy, ice cream — you name it. Of course, I found out that Jack had a voracious appetite when he told me wanted to make a stop at almost every place — not exactly wise for someone who threw up all over a car mere hours ago. And of course, I found out that I didn't have a lot of money when I looked into my purse and found two crumpled up five dollar bills when our food cost twelve dollars.

"Let me handle that," I heard someone say behind me, slapping another five dollar bill down on the counter beside me.

"Thank you," I said, turning to face the mysterious person who offered to pay for my food, only for me to freeze in my spot. Because it was none other than Teddy Burke standing there. He looked amazing, actually, his hair sun kissed with a pair of sunglasses perched in it, wearing a Hawaiian-print button-down shirt that was opened all the way — I did my best not to dwell on that — and a pair of khaki shorts. That wasn't the problem, or at least the only problem. The main problem was that he was here of all places. This was supposed to be my day off.

The cashier didn't seem to know or care about what was going on inside my head, because he took the two bills from my hand and the one from Teddy's without a word, punching buttons on the cash register and handing Teddy the leftover change. "Have a nice day," he said, clearly trying to get the three of us to leave so he could serve his other customers behind us.

We stepped out of line to the side, waiting for the people to cook our food. While we were waiting, I preferred for Teddy not to talk to me and let me go back to spending time with Jack on the beach, but with the smile on his face, I could only tell that wasn't going to happen.

"Can't believe we ran into each other here of all places," Teddy said with a chuckle, trying to goad me into picking up a conversation with him, but I wasn't going to budge so easily. "Yeah, my brother and I were on our yacht and we —"

The rest of what Teddy was saying had faded into the background as my thoughts took the center stage. Teddy had a yacht. He had a freaking yacht. I mean, it wasn't something that wouldn't naturally come up in the few conversations we had, but it would've been nice to know at least. I had no idea why that would've been nice to know or how I would've known in the first place, I just felt a type of a way knowing that.

"Can we go on it," I asked, clasping my fists together like a beggar.

Teddy cocked his head to the side in confusion. "What do you mean? I invited you on it twice while I was just talking to you. Were you not listening to me?"

"She was thinking about the boat," Jack chimed in, giving me an unrelenting desire to pinch him. But Teddy was still looking at me expectantly, so I guess my revenge would just have to wait.

"Sorry," I said to Teddy with a weak grin, "I was not just thinking about the boat, I was spacing out because of how hungry I was."

"Well we have food on the yacht," Teddy said, "like hella food. So just say the word and we can go."

There it was, that word again. Yacht. Oh dear, was I turning into a gold digger?

Thankfully, I heard one of the cooks call my order number, so I turned around to pick up the two greasy bags of food from off of the counter behind me. When I turned back to facing them, Jack was already standing next to Teddy with a grin on his face.

"What can I say," Teddy said with a goofy grin on his face, "he already agreed to go."

I felt something fall down into the pits of my stomach. But I was pretty sure it was in a good way.

—

I HADN'T SEEN many yachts before, but the S.S. Justice had to be among the worst names I've ever seen for one. It made some sense considering it was owned by two lawyers — who just happened to be two incredibly handsome lawyers — but that was neither here nor there. I would've still been cringing at the title and begging to find out who christened it so I could tease them, had I not be in the pool right now.

It was just Teddy, Theo, some girl with Theo who clearly wasn't the girl he was with the other day, and I because Jack had been sat down in front of a large screen TV much like the one he has at home and he was perfectly fine with that. I was fine with that because I didn't feel like Theo was the best person for him to be around anyway. He currently had his arm draped over this girl's shoulder as he was whispering what I was sure were obscenities in her ear.

Teddy on the other hand, was sitting quietly with his back against the wall, slowly sipping at his beer, staring at the water for the duration of the time. So maybe this wasn't a good idea after all. But then I saw his eyes light up and I knew I should've been more careful of what I wished for.

Before I knew it, his hand slapped out at the water, causing it to splash up into my face. I shrieked, trying — but failing — to avoid as much of it as possible. "What the hell, man," I asked, wiping water from off of my face so I could see better.

Teddy and Theo both seemed to think that was funny because they were laughing their asses off. Meanwhile, Theo's...companion didn't seem to agree with them.

"I'm getting out," she huffed, grabbing onto the ladder and pulling herself out of the swimming pool. "Because my injections are just settling in and I do not need you splashing water in my face."

"What? No, baby," Theo said, paddling towards the ladder before following her out. "You know I wouldn't do that to you."

Thankfully, they took this argument outside of the pool room because I really wasn't that interested in it. But that meant it was just Teddy and I left in the pool. And I wasn't quite sure of how I felt about that just yet.

If Teddy had picked up on this, then he didn't really seem to show me, because instead he just sidled closer to me, a smile on his face. "Hey, sorry about that," he said. "I thought it would've been funny, but if you're mad, I totally get it."

I waved it off, even though I was a bit upset at him for that. "I mean, maybe give me a fair warning next time," I said. "Because that was pretty embarrassing, especially in front of Theo and whoever that girl was."

"Yeah, I don't know her either," he said, causing us both to chuckle. "Also, I get it, but at the same time, you threw a rock at me the other day, Marilyn." He brought his face closer to mine, so I could see his forehead better. "There's even a scar for crying out loud."

I rolled my eyes. "You brought that one on yourself, though. Dressed like a thief and literally going through someone else's belongings in the dead of night. I don't believe in people deserving things based on what they're wearing, but that's for girls in short shorts, not men dressed like criminals and doing criminal things."

"Not even if they're in the name of justice," he asked with a frown.

"Well how the hell would I have known your intentions," I said.

"You could've asked before throwing a rock at me, but whatever you say, I guess," he said with a roll of his eyes for extra emphasis to support the fact that he was still mad about it. "Speaking of that night? Did you find anything yet? Any evidence?"

I shook my head. "No, Selena blindsided me about taking care of the kids today, plus George is coming back from some kind of business trip, and they're penciling in some alone time for most of the day, so I won't be back until later."

"Oh, okay then," Teddy said and it was then that how little space there was between us finally registered. His forehead was barely inches away from mine, meaning our faces were just as close. I knew that if he wanted to, he could've head butted me if he wanted to truly exact his revenge on me, so I stepped back a bit, my eyes still trained on him. And when I was out of his vicinity, the distinct twinkle in his eyes had faded for just a second, but I could swear that I saw it.

But there was little time for me to dwell on that, because he turned and gripped the edge of the pool, lifting himself out of the water. When he was finally out, he walked his way over to the cooler and grabbed a beer from out of it before leaving the room for good.

Sitting there all alone in the pool, with Teddy having just left like that, I couldn't help but wonder if I had done anything wrong.