I felt like a terrible person for thinking it, but maybe an all-out war was not the worst thing. It was time to be done with it. It was time to just get it over. I wanted the Scarluccis to pay. I wanted them all to die; every last one of them.
And I couldn’t feel guilty about that.
They’d tried to kill an innocent woman over money she owed them, and because they thought she put the Zefarri’s up to trying to bully them. They had to know better than that. They were just looking for a damn excuse.
“Fantastic,” I said. “It’s usually a bit weird to sleep the first time in a new bed, especially when that bed is in someone else’s house. But I’m glad that you felt comfortable.”
“Yeah, the bed is amazing. I may have to steal it when I leave,” Libby joked.
“Hey, take it,” I said. “You can by all means keep it.”
Libby laughed. “I was joking.”
“I know, but I wasn’t,” I said walking over to where she was sitting. I sat down on the other chair beside her and basked in the rising sun for a moment. The silence was nice. Libby was wearing a robe and I had to wonder what was underneath it.
“Do you always begin your mornings this way?” Libby asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I was this close to hopping in there to make sure you weren’t drowning.”
“Ah, so you were watching…” I teased. She had totally opened herself up to it.
Instantly I saw a bit of blush in her face. I wanted to be sorry, but I just wasn’t. Red was a good look on her. She was so beautiful, but she also had this sweetness to her that just made her totally irresistible.
“I just happened to saunter out here and watch you jump in,” Libby said. “And what if I was watching a bit?”
I was impressed with the boldness of her question, yet I wasn’t sure if she was being flirty, or just joking back at me as good as she’d gotten. I decided to let it lie for the moment and just see what happened.
“There isn’t anything wrong with it,” I said. “But, to answer your question, yes, I do this every single morning.”
“That’s good,” Libby said. “I think routines are great for everyone, not just small children. You know, with them they love routine and if you don’t give them a strict one to follow, they are left to their own devices which they don’t understand.”
“Yeah, I see that. How did you get so great with kids? Have you always been?”
Libby leaned back and closed her eyes for a moment, as if trying to retrieve a memory. “I think I’ve always just sensed what kids want. They are really very basic, though a lot of people try to see them as such inferior beings that we can’t possibly understand what they want.”
“But you see them differently?” I asked. I was genuinely intrigued. I’ve always had a strong bond with Toby, and I’ve never had any problems understanding him. But I don’t think I’d be able to have the same kind of rapport with other people’s children, the way that Libby did.
“I do. I think that the trick is to see that they are so open. I think that is where most people go wrong. Kids are so totally open, just telling you everything they want right away. People just need to know how to ask the right questions.”
I nodded. “I can see that. So, you’ve always known exactly what you wanted to do?”
“Yeah. How about you? When did you decide that you wanted to be a captain of industry?”
I laughed. “I’d hardly call myself that. I’ve always thought of myself as more of a renaissance man. I just do whatever interests me. That’s all I’ve ever done.”
“Well, a lot of people pursue hobbies and they don’t get successful from them. What’s your secret?”
“That’s the problem; people see them as hobbies. They don’t understand how they can use those hobbies to provide great value to other people. That is what it is all about. If you have a passion for something, you have to figure out how to use it to provide value to other people and then those people pay for that value. If you do that then you’ll never have to work another job you don’t like in your life. You’ve done that, right?”
Libby thought a moment about what I was really saying. “Yeah, I guess you are right. But I’m not massively successful. That’s what so many of us want to know; how do you get to your level of success.”
“Well, you do what you love, and you provide great value to people, but you need to find a way to provide that value to a lot of people. That’s the next step.”