“I’ve always been good at it. I did it in college for friends. Helped them schedule their classes around outside commitments and helped them budget their money from part-time jobs so they could afford what they wanted on their own schedule. Eris—my maid of honor—suggested I try to make a career out of it. So, I started small.”
“What do you mean, small?”
“I charged a one-time fee of ten bucks to help people for a couple of hours. I advertised just to friends and family, and they started talking to people about what I did. Sent people to me to help with bills mostly. It sort of spiraled out of control after that.”
“So you own your own business.”
“I guess.”
“There’s no guessing about it. You took a passion and something you love, and you built your own career off it,” Ash said.
“Yeah?”
“You don’t seem convinced.”
“I don’t make millions of dollars a year or anything.”
“Does that make you any less of a business owner?” he asked.
“I don’t think so?”
“Kallie, you’re a business owner. You have a product you sell to the market, and you advertise your services. They pay you for your service, you provide said service. And you don’t answer to a boss. You are a business owner.”
“Then ... yeah. I’m a business owner,” she said.
This woman was remarkable. She was a business owner and wouldn’t even admit it. Didn’t even know it! Ash grinned at her and watched as a soft, breathless giggle fell from her lips.
“Remarkable,” he said.
Kallie let out a massive yawn and Ash grinned. He knew the perfect place that would cure the rest of her hangover. He stood to his feet and held out his hand, their eyes connecting as Kallie looked at him warily.
“It’s just a nap. I think you could use one, and I know where you can take a fabulous one,” he said.
And after a few beats of silence, she slipped her delicate hand into his.
He pulled her outside and lead her to a secluded grove a few villas down from where Kallie stayed. It was on the edge of the beach and it was covered with trees, and the small cove was strewn with hammocks for the guests to use. Kallie gasped, and he saw a light return to her eyes. He smiled as he led her to one that sat over in the corner near the lapping of the waves.
“Come on. That one’s open,” Ash said.
He led her over and watched as wonder poured over her features. Such a small thing brought her such joy, and it tugged at a part of him that had laid dormant for a long time. He slid into the hammock and then helped her in, parting his legs so she could slip between them. Her head settled onto his chest and her arms curled up around him, and he was blanketed in her warmth as the warm breeze swayed the hammock gently.
“I didn’t know about this place,” Kallie sai
d.
“It’s a well-kept secret. Not advertised, but if you know the island you know it’s here,” he said.
That was all they said. Ash lay there, cradling Kallie against him, as they swayed gently in the hammock. The waves crashing against the shoreline was the only sound that could be heard. The seagulls were squawking in the distance and, every once in a while, they could hear someone splash in the waves down the shoreline.
It was relaxing, and he could feel Kallie sinking into him.
He ran his fingers through the soft tendrils of her hair as her breathing evened out. He relaxed deeper into the hammock, taking in how her body molded to his finely tuned musculature. The blanket covered them both from the harsher rays of the sun and the breeze whipping around them somehow kept the cool. Even as Kallie slept against him. Ash felt more connected to her than he’d ever felt to anyone in a long time. Longer than he was willing to admit to. He wasn’t exactly close with his family. If anything, he’d done his best to separate himself from them and their stuck-up ways.
Ever since he was young, he knew he didn’t fit in with them.
Ash had friends, but no one that was close. He had people he visited in the places he frequented most. The island. Australia. Hawaii. People that looked out for him when he ventured back to surf. But he wouldn't call any of them “close.”
But having Kallie on top of him? Blanketing him and breathing softly into his chest?