Chapter Eleven
~
So here I was getting ready for a trip to the Jersey shore with a man who owned an entire Island. It was somewhat surreal.
“Are you ready?” he asked me around ten.
“I’m ready,” I told him, still trying to contain my excitement. I hadn’t been on any kind of vacation since my father died over ten years ago. The thought of a simple trip to Jersey was thrilling to me.
The driver took us to a place called Avalon. I had never been there of course, but I had also never heard of it. Aiden told me that King James I granted it as a Province in 1584 and that it was fishing and hunting area for those first two hundred and fifty years. In the 1800’s a developer had a vision to turn it into a resort destination. Since then it has become a tourist hotspot, but more of an upscale one than others that surround it.
We were at a place called Seven Mile Beach. As soon as I stepped out of the car I could feel the cool ocean breeze against my face and taste the salty air on my tongue. The wind was blowing slightly and the waves were crashing in beautiful, serene arcs. We were surrounded by tall dunes and miles of pure, clean white sand. There was no commercial boardwalk and although the city of Avalon boasted a number of small boutique stores and several upscale restaurants, the beach was quiet and looked almost untouched. I could actually see whole seashells just lying out on the beach. I would have loved this place as a kid. I remember coming out with my father when I was little. We went to the boardwalk though and the seashells that hadn’t been crushed or picked over were few and far between.
Aiden took my hand like we were lovers, or at least friends. I guess we were, in a way. We began to walk along the beach, stopping occasionally to look into a tide pool or to inspect an indigenous plant. I couldn’t remember when I’d ever felt so relaxed, and I knew that since I’d met Aiden I had never seen him so happy.
AIDEN
I don’t remember the last time I took the time to do something so relaxing. Maybe I never have. My ex-wife told me that was why she’d turned to my best friend. She said that I worked too much and made everything about business and money. She said that I didn’t know how to have fun and that’s what life was supposed to be about.
I do remember that my life was fast paced while she and I were together, but I had taken time with the baby. I actually took a two week vacation when he was born and for the next two years…before she took him away from me, I made time to see him every day. I’m sure that if I had been given the chance, I would have continued to find time to spend with him, I could have learned a new way of life.
But if I was being honest, she was right about me not taking time for her. I was under the assumption that she understood that I was doing what I needed to do for our family. She was an adult she should have been able to understand, right? I was creating a legacy that our son and his children and their children could live off of for generations. She didn’t understand though apparently. Instead, she hooked up with my best friend and had a baby she considered passing off as mine. Well, she did pass off as mine, at least long enough for her and her new man to save some money from the job I had given him. I still thought it was important to leave something for your family when you’re gone, I think never remarrying, and the contract that I have with Holly are my best bets. I will have my child and no one will be able to take him or her away.
I stopped and sat on a rock while Holly explored, oohing and aahing at everything she saw. It was fun to look at things through her eyes. There was so much of life she had never experienced that it was almost like being with a child when she did. I slipped off my shoes and socks which was something else I hadn’t done before, at least not since I was a kid, and as I followed her along the sparkling white beach with the scent of the ocean in my nostrils, I realized that I liked it. The feel of the warm sand beneath my feet was somehow relaxing in itself. I looked at Holly, splashing barefoot along the edge of the blue-green ocean and I realized I liked her too, probably too much. But I understood that this was a business deal, a contracted arrangement. I was able to separate my emotions from my business. She looked at me then with one of her dazzling smiles and I found myself hoping that she truly understood it as well. Sometimes I was a little bit worried that she was getting too attached.
“This beach is so pretty, and there’s hardly anyone else here. It’s like our own private island,” she said. Then, remembering what I’d told her earlier she added, “Oh not that having your own private island is anything new to you.”
I laughed and said, “Well, it’s not like I’ve ever been there.”
“Are you kidding? You have an island and you’ve never even seen it?”
“I’ve seen photos,” I told her with a grin. “I don’t have time to be sitting around on an island. It’s pretty far out, not just a day trip.”
“Well, it will be good anyways when you have your child. Imagine taking boating trips out to an island that your father owns and spending days exploring it. It makes me want to be a child again just thinking about it.”
I did like the way she said, “Your child,” but I didn’t care for the fact that she was trying to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing with him or her.
“I think having a child might decrease the amount of time I have to spend on an island, rather than increase it,” I said. That might not be the case, but I suddenly felt the need to make her understand that she wouldn’t have a sa
y in how the child was raised.
She stopped walking and said, “Really? A vacation exploring with your child doesn’t appeal to you at all?”
“He can explore, of course. I’ll send him with his staff.”
“With his staff? Are you serious?” she laughed, but I could tell she wasn’t amused.
“Of course, why wouldn’t I be? I’ll need a nanny and then when you throw in a driver and a cook…well, then it’s a full staff pretty much.”
“But to say he’ll explore the world with his staff? Aiden you realize that children need their parents attention, right? Not just a pat on the head every now and again?”
I felt the annoyance flare hotter. She really was trying to tell me how I should raise my child. The one that she was being paid very well to walk away from. It made me angry and I snapped at her, “You realize that you have no say-so on the subject, right? This will be my child, not yours and I will raise him as I see fit. I’d prefer that you kept your opinions on that subject to yourself.”