Mid Life Love (Mid Life Love #1)(76)

“That was very sweet of you. You didn’t have to do that...”

“They tried getting in contact with me to say thank you, but I never called them back. Probably never will. I told Corey to tell them the message was received.”

“Your foster parents are his real parents?”

He nodded. “He’s still mad at them for how they treated me, but he can’t write them off like I can.”

“And your foster sister? What happened to her?”

“Jessica? She’s my executive assistant.” He smiled. “When Hayley finishes grad school, Jessica will become a trust advisor and Hayley will be my new EA.”

“Must be nice...You plan on ever forgiving your own parents?”

He took a deep breath and balled his fists. He looked off into the distance and then he looked over at me. “Not for a very long time...Would you if you were me?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I guess I can’t imagine Ashley and Caroline not wanting me to be a part of their lives when they got older.”

“That’s because you always wanted to be a part of theirs...” He clenched his jaw and I knew that the conversation was over.

He was clearly still hurting from his past with his parents and I wasn’t sure if he would ever get over it; just like I wasn’t sure if I would completely get over Ryan.

We both sat underneath the ship’s awning and looked out into the rainy horizon, drifting into different memories, different places.

“What was your first impression of me?” I asked, trying to break the silence.

He turned to face me and smiled. “Jesus she’s sexy.”

“You’re lying!”

“It’s true. What was yours?”

“He’s sexy, but he’s wearing a hoodie so he’s probably way too young for me.” I laughed and he rolled his eyes.

“Glad we’ve cleared that up.”

“Have we?”

“If you think we haven’t, I can think of a few ways to make you say we have...” He pulled me close and kissed me. “I’ve been meaning to ask you this: Do you know how to dance?”

“We danced together at my birthday party before so I guess—”

“I don’t remember us really dancing at your birthday party...”

I rolled my eyes. “No...I just know how to sway to the music. I never took the time to learn.”

“Let’s work on that.” He reached for my hands and pulled me up. “You said you liked the dance floor on the top deck earlier, right? I think that’s the perfect place for a Sunday lesson.”

“The dance floor is outside and it’s raining...”

“How observant.” He laughed and walked me upstairs, into a room full of audio equipment. He flicked a few switches and the screens that were on the wall became blue.

“Good morning, Mr. Statham.” A gray haired man walked into the room and tipped his hat. “How are you today?”

“I’m great, Sam. Have I introduced you to Claire before?”

“No sir.”

He placed his hand on the small of my back and pushed me forward. “Claire, this is my captain Sam. He directs all of my yachts. Sam, this is—” He paused. “This is my girlfriend, Claire.”

Did he just say “girlfriend”? Is he out of his mind?!

“Pleasure to meet you, Miss.” Sam reached out and shook my hand. “The co-captain is now at the wheel sir. I’ll be retiring to my cabin for the rest of the day.”

“Thank you, Sam.”

I waited for Sam to leave the room and narrowed my eyes at Jonathan. “We have titles now?”

“Of course not,” he said. “I just thought girlfriend sounded better than ‘woman I like very much and love to f**k.’ But if you prefer that...” He hit another switch and the outdoor dance floor lit up. “I think we should start with the waltz. That should be easy enough.”

He grabbed my hand and led me outside. The rain was still drizzling, and a light fog was creeping onto the deck.

I heard the sound of strings and piano keys floating out of the speakers, felt Jonathan spinning me around to face him.

“So,” he said as he looked into my eyes, “we should see if you have any rhythm first.”

He pulled me into his arms and moved me to the beat, but I couldn’t keep up. For every step he took forward, I stepped back—for every movement to the right, I awkwardly moved to the left.

“And you clearly don’t ...” He laughed.

I let go of him and crossed my arms. I’d never been good at dancing; my mom had given up on me becoming her ballet protégé once I turned five. She even joked about how Ashley and Caroline must have gotten their dancing skills from Ryan.

“It’s okay.” He pulled me back and held my hands out in front of me. “Just let me lead and we’ll take things slow. Everyone has to start somewhere...Step right...Then left...”

He started adding more instructions—double-step, twist out, step back—and before I knew it we were waltzing across the wet floor.

I tried not to look into his eyes, to act like I was too focused on following his commands, but he made it so easy that I couldn’t help but gaze at him.