The Billionaire's Swipe

“What do you want then?”

“For starters? You.” He leans over and kisses me again. “After that, I don’t know. It wouldn’t be so bad to disappear for a while. Get my thoughts in order.”

A wild thought leaps into my mind. So unbridled that I almost mistake it for an impossibility. But now that I’m here with Michael, I’m starting to realize that impossible doesn’t exist. “Then let’s do it.”

He looks over at me, cocking his head to the side like a quizzical puppy. “Do what?”

“Disappear. Keep heading out to sea. We can sail down the coast or, I don’t know, all the way out to Hawaii. The point is we don’t go back today or tomorrow or even next week.” I feel like I’m setting out on the highway west again for the first time. The whole world is before me. Endless possibilities.

Michael is hesitating, but then his hand tightens around mine.

“I guess I have to break my promise then.”

“What promise?”

He wraps his arm around me, his fingers closing on my side. “To get you home before curfew.”

Chapter 10

Three Weeks Later

We were supposed to have left hours ago, but I insisted that we bring a take-out bag of burgers before we started the next leg of our journey. Hopping down the coast, we’d been able to stop just about whenever we wanted to stretch our legs or go on shore to restock. But there are no pit stops along the way to Hawaii.

A simple bag of burgers had turned into an all out, last-minute shopping spree that saw us loading up the Seas the Day well into the afternoon. Not that I was worried about running late. I haven’t been worrying about much of anything lately.

“Is that it?” Liz asks as we stand on the dock, looking around ourselves to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything.

“I think that’s just about it.”

Liz is shaking her head, but suddenly she pops with excitement and yanks her phone from her pocket. “I almost forgot!” She wraps an arm around my waist and holds the phone out in front of us. “I promised to send Becky a picture before we left.”

As I smile and she snaps a dozen photos, I say, “I’m really going to have to meet this Becky one day. Without her, we never would have met.”

“Maybe we can take her out on the boat when we get back.”

When we get back. It’s an idea that used to scare me, but not so much anymore. And it’s not like we’re heading back up to Washington right away. We won’t anchor in Seattle anytime in the next month or two. But when we do eventually arrive back home, at least I know what I’m going to do. And it’s all thanks to this girl next to me.

“Maybe we can even recruit her for our little endeavor.”

“Ooh,” Liz says, looking up at me. “That’s not a bad idea. She’d totally be into it. She’s all about saving the environment.”

“As long as my dad goes for it, I say we try to bring her along.”

My dad. The CEO of Harding Enterprises. The one who used to hold the key to my future, but no more. Not now that I’ve taken hold of the reins. Sure, he could totally shoot down my idea to work as an on-the-field Board Member, sailing around the world, checking in on our various solar projects. But I doubt he will. He’s all about the business mind, and he’ll see my proposition as me putting the foot in the door.

But the only place our feet are moving now is off the shore and onto the Seas the Day. We wave goodbye to the couples we drank beer with on the dock the past few nights. Other fellow travelers who will be continuing on their own adventures soon enough. It was fun anchoring in LA for the past few days, but I sigh in relief when I can’t make out individual boats tied up at the harbor any longer.

After setting the ship on autopilot, I join Liz in the galley. She’s setting out the burgers we bought earlier.

“They got a little soggy,” she says, but I don’t care. Because behind her, I can see out the window that the sun is setting. And I’m lucky enough to be alone with this beautiful creature.

We eat and talk about what we want to do once we hit Hawaii.

“I’d like to take some surfing lessons,” Liz says for the tenth time. She’s been talking about surfing since we were halfway down the coast. “I never got to ride much more than a boogie board back in Florida. The waves are just little nothings there.”

“Surfing lessons. Check,” I say. “And how about we do some hiking?”

“Sounds good to me.”