New York Billionaires Series

“Honestly, yes. I wasn’t expecting to feel that way. It was something I added to my bucket list because it felt like a challenge, something completely unlike me, but it was fun.”

I look back to her shaking off sand from the wet suit. Water droplets across her skin shimmer like diamonds under the sun. “Want to walk back?”

She tosses the wet suit over an arm. “Sure. Along the beach?”

“Let me just return this to Brody.”

Because I’m shameless, I watch as she jogs across the beach to where the two instructors are working. If I’d had trouble being around her before, it’s nothing to what seeing her in a bikini does. She has the body to match her wide, beautiful smile, and before I met her, I’d never thought of describing someone like that.

Now I don’t think I’ll ever want anyone else.

Summer shrugs into a sundress when she returns and takes Ace’s leash from me.

“Thanks for watching him,” she says.

“I didn’t mind.”

She puts on a pair of sunglasses and sweeps her wet hair to the side. “Did you get some work done, at least?”

“Some, yes.”

“I feel kind of guilty for not working.”

“But your aunt gave you these days off, didn’t she?”

“Yes, but the company is in such a delicate state, I can’t… No, Ace, don’t touch that.” She tugs softly on the leash and the golden trots away from a jellyfish resting on the shore. Her phone dings and she digs it out of her bag. “Oh, look at this,” she says, showing it to me.

I have to shield my eyes from the sunlight to make out what’s on the screen. “They’re fixing the windows?”

“Yes, Vivienne stopped by to check on the progress.”

“Where did you tell her you were this weekend?”

Summer smiles. “Well, I said I was with a friend by the beach.”

“So, not a lie.”

“No,” I agree. “Not a lie.”

She pushes a tendril of hair back and turns to the shoreline. Slips off her sandals and carries them in her free hand. “I’m going to walk along the water’s edge.”

It’s a moment’s hesitation, but then I toe off my loafers and join her. The sand is wet and warm beneath my feet, the water reaching me cool and refreshing.

“Do you walk here often?”

I shake my head. The true reason we’re walking back is practical. I’d given my driver the day off after he dropped us off here.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

If she questions my use of drivers, Summer has never mentioned it. I don’t know what to say if she does. That I’m no longer allowed to drive.

“My family has a house not far from here,” I say. “So I know these beaches pretty well, even if it’s been a long time since I spent a weekend here.”

“They do? Did you spend your summers there?”

“Yes, most of them.”

“Together with your brother,” she says.

“With my brother,” I confirm.

“That must be lovely. You know, having a sibling and all. You know I’m an only child.” She kicks up water, and we both watch as Ace glances sharply that way. She does it again and he lunges after the wave, only to have it recede beneath his closing jaws.

“We were close growing up,” I say. “Not so much anymore.”

Because I’m not pleasant to be around anymore , I think, and I don’t know why I’m different around you. Why I like myself more when you’re next to me.

“We’ve grown apart.”

“People do that sometimes,” she says. “So, does that mean your brother is the one who works in the family business?”

“The family business,” I repeat.

“Yes,” she says, eyes sliding to mine with mirth. “You know, the one bearing your last name.”

“Right, that one. Remind me, how long did it take for you to connect those dots?”

This time, the water she kicks is in my direction. I step away, raise my leg. Preparing to strike.

“No,” she says. “Mercy!”

The splash I send her way barely reaches the hem of her dress, but she laughs regardless, the sound like the school bell ringing out for summer break. It’s still softening my nerves when she sidles up to me again. “Why don’t you work in the hotel industry, actually? Unless it’s a sore subject.”

“It’s not.” I put my hands in my pockets and turn my face up against the sun. That’s something I’ll still have, later. Not the light itself. But the warmth. “Do you know that company I worked on before Opate?”

“It was a small tech start-up. They were three college grads working out of a studio apartment in Brooklyn when we bought their company and gave them the financial and human capital to expand.”

“They must have been so grateful.”

“Grateful now, perhaps. Desperate back then. But… have you ever used Ryder, Summer? The app?”

“Yeah, of course. My friends and I sometimes use it to order food after a night out. Why?” She looks up at me, her eyes widening. “No, don’t tell me.”

“The three college grads were the ones who started Ryder?”

“They were. And while I was doing that, I was helping my business partners work on a medical company, a start-up within the finance industry, a consulting firm… My brother has spent the same years managing an already mature business. Sometimes, he’ll scout locations for new hotels. Sometimes.”

“You like the new,” she says. “The untested.”

“I like there to be stakes, and there are very few in managing the Winter corporation.”