Aurora Book 1: Soitera

15. Yacht Race

Everett and I spend the rest of the week playing on the beach.

On Friday, the dress lady shows up and makes me fancy. I would find her job annoying, but she really seems to love it. She puts me in a short dress this time. That's nice. The train thing was annoying. Then Everett and Jack take me over to Franks.

A fancy lady opens the door for us. "Welcome, Jack. You two must be Everett and Aurora." She gives us each a hug. "Welcome. Frank is in his study." She motions to a hallway like she is done with this conversation.

"Thank you."

Jack leads us to a door and I crack up laughing.

"Woman." Everett shakes his head.

"Stop messing with her. She needs to be serious about this."

"Fine." He rolls his eyes.

The door opens and Nyx jumps up. His chair crashes to the ground. "AURORA, MY LOVE."

I jump into his arms and wrap my legs around his waist. "I knew I would see you again."

"I have missed you so much. Who is that imbecile?"

Everett rolls his eyes and sits on the couch with Hugo.

"Never mind him. We found each other again."

"You are right. We will be together forever."

"Well, this is..." Jack stares at Frank.

Frank stares at us. "Well. I guess you two already know each other."

The help gives Cassie a drink. "Thank you. I need this. This is more drama than my show. Even Dante's jealous."

Dante catches my eye and winks. Somehow, he already knows. I crack up laughing.

Nyx puts me on my feet. "Did you see their faces?"

"That was good. We need to do that more often."

Cassie finally catches up and laughs with us. "That was something."

"So, you two don't know each other?" Frank turns to Jack. Jack shrugs his shoulders.

Nyx fixes his seat and sits down. "We do. We met earlier this week. She tried to get me out of my pants."

I smack his shoulder. "YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO TELL THAT PART."

"IT'S TRUE?" Cassie lands with her ass on Frank's desk. "SPILL GIRL SPILL."

"It's not like that." I find my own chair. "He needed a swimsuit. I was helping him figure out his size. I yanked on it to make sure it wouldn't come off in the ocean. I was not trying to get him out of his pants."

Nyx rolls his eyes. "That's what she says now."

"Well, next time, I'll let your pants get blown off."

"Yea. That would be nice. My pants can get blown off whenever they want."

The boys start laughing. Cassie hops down. "You're all gross."

"Well, I know one thing for sure." Dante takes a glass from the help. "These two are going to have a hell of a fun time at school."

Frank crosses his arms. "Well, they better not have too much fun. We're not ready to be grandparents."

Nyx shakes his head. "You're my uncle. Not my dad. I can't make you a grandpa."

I rub my eyes. "I'm not related to any of you."

Nyx smirks. "If you get pregnant, we can make Frank and Jack take care of it until we graduate. It'll be fine."

"Which one is going to be the grandma?" I nearly fall off my seat laughing.

Hugo chuckles. "It almost makes me want to go back to see what kind of hell they cause."

Nyx shakes his head. "You're too old for that."

I smile at him. "You can be a teacher now."

"OH! Shot to the heart. We're old. I didn't realize it until now." Cassie gets off the desk. "Someone give me a wheelchair already."

Frank is dead serious. "I am not the grandma."

Nyx and I nearly lose it.

Armen shakes his head. "They won't have that kind of fun for a couple of years anyway. They're still too young for that."

A shiver goes through me. I'm not sure why, but I did not like hearing that.

Dante spits his drink out. "I never touched Cassie."

We all turn and look at him. Nobody says anything for a second. We're all confused. I think he's even confused.

"That was an odd confession." Jack crosses his arms. "I'm not going to be the grandma either."

Cassie rolls her eyes. "Thanks' for clearing that up, Dante. Although I'm not sure why it was needed. Actually, I never slept with anyone from BlackRock. I was faithful to my boyfriend at another school. He however, decided to sleep with everyone he could."

Everett shakes his head. "People, pull it back to reality. Why are you even talking about this stuff? And nobody can make either of you a grandmother. Relax. It'll never happen. We also don't need anyone's s****l history."

"He is convenient to have around." Cassie smiles.

Nyx nods. "Yea, he's not really an imbecile. I just had to say something when he walked in. We didn't know if he would come or not."

Cassie refills her glass. "How did you know it was a joke, Dante?"

He's still a little pink. I think he's embarrassed about his earlier confession. "Everett rolled his eyes. If it was real, he would have had a different reaction."

Hugo cracks up laughing. "I didn't even put that together, and he was sitting by me. I should have known too."

Nyx jumps a little and turns to me. "You know what we should do?"

"YES." I bounce in my chair.

"What?"

"Whatever you want. This is boring."

Cassie shakes her head. "And now I feel even older. Where did my youth go? Well, whatever. I'm in. What we doing?"

"Race the yachts."

"YES."

Frank and Jack yell, "NO."

Frank rolls his eyes. "Oh please. You just know mine would win."

"No, I have the motor upgrade. I would definitely win."

Those two go back and forth for fifteen minutes. Every time they seem close to settling it, Nyx, me, or Cassie jump in egging them on again.

"FINE. Care to put your money where your mouth is, old man?"

"100,000 says I kick your ass."

"You'll be $100,000 poorer in 5 minutes. We'll race to your island. Get your asses to the yachts." They run out.

I stand up and fall back into my seat laughing. Nyx can't stand up yet.

Cassie glances around. "I can't believe that worked. These two are scary good."

Everett stands up. "Come on you two, walk. I had to deal with them for a whole day. You wouldn't believe half the s**t they talked me into. Just keep pushing them when they laugh too hard to walk."

I lose it and grab the desk. Nyx falls into his seat.

Cassie shakes her head. "Pull it together, or they're going to figure it out. Then we won't get the race."

We glance at each other and run for it.

I get on Franks boat with Nyx. Then we stand there. The motors are on. Everett winks at me and gets on Jacks boat. Makes since he rides with his uncle.

Dante yells, "BUCKLE THEM IN."

"YEA, I KNOW." Hugo gets on Jack's boat.

Dante pulls me and Nyx to the back of the boat. He buckles me and checks Nyx. Then he sits between us.

"You strapped in?"

"Yea, we're good."

"Hold on. I am not losing 100k to that old boat."

Nyx and I crack up laughing again.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" His wife comes stomping down the dock. "You're both old..." I don't hear the rest of it. She stands at the end of the dock with her hands up. Then she drops them fast.

We take off so fast I grab Dante out of reaction.

"You're alright." He rubs my hair.

I peek and Nyx has his arms in the air. I laugh and do it too. It is fun. The ocean is going by so fast. We keep getting hit with spray. It feels good out here. Then we go airborne. Really really airborne. My ass is off the seat.

Nyx and I both grab Dante this time. We are flying every time we hit a wave. "THIS IS A BOAT NOT A PLANE."

Dante just laughs and has me by my arm. "Almost over. Look."

The dock is coming in fast. Too fast.

Then he slams on the breaks and we slowly bump into the dock.

"I won by a lot." Frank jumps out.

I stand up and nearly fall. "I'm surprised I didn't pee on anybody."

"You and me both." Nyx wobbles around.

"I still might pee. My body is having some delayed reactions."

"Are you good, baby?" Everett jumps into our boat.

"That was a lot."

"Yea, that was a lot. And you guys were a lot faster than us. Can you walk?"

"No." Nyx answers. "No, I cannot. Thanks for asking."

"Take off your shoes, woman. That'll help. I don't know about you, Nyx. Let's just get you onto the dock at least."

"Don't leave me."

"I won't leave you. Let me get him off the boat before he pukes."

"Oh, thanks for bringing that up." Nyx turns green.

Dante runs over and shoves him off the boat with Everett. The three of them laugh so damn hard.

I get my shoes off and wobble around. "I think I'm good now."

"Good job." Dante lifts me to Everett.

Cassie walks over to us. "I'm not doing that anymore." She turns around and falls off the dock.

Armen goes in right after her. Him and Everett get her out. Then Armen pulls himself out. I lay down. I can't move anymore.

Armen smirks. "Shows what you all know. My suit is fine for ocean swimming."

"You kids need to quit f*****g around. Let's go into the house." Jack walks by us.

I roll over. "I think I might have to crawl."

Cassie rings the water out of her dress. "Happens."

Hugo and Everett get Nyx off the dock. Dante guides me. Armen won't even let go of Cassie.

Dante rubs his face. "I'm using a helicopter to go home."

Nyx and I look at each other. "HELICOPTER RACES."

Cassie shakes her head. "No. I'm no longer embracing my youth. I'm happy to be old. That was a fun time reminiscing, but it's over now."

We finally stagger into the house and Jack and Frank are still arguing.

"I already bought the new yacht. It'll be here next week. Then I'll kick your ass."

"You're not going to win. My engine has the turbo."

"Put your money where your mouth is. Double or nothing."

"Fine. Next week. Let's go, Nyx."

"Nope. I'm taking a yacht break. Dante, can I borrow your helicopter?"

Dante smirks. "Yes, that's fine. But it's very slow and won't win a race against anything."

Frank turns to Jack. "At least he admits it." Both of them storm off.

Nyx gives Dante a dirty look. "You really had to ruin our helicopter race?"

"Neither of you are racing helicopters. It's not safe. You can take it home, but no racing."

"Fine. Thank you. At least I can get a break from the boat that thinks it's a plane."

"Well, I'm going home. I'm all wet. See you tomorrow." Cassie leaves.

Nyx falls into a chair. "What's tomorrow?"

She pokes her head back in the door. "Dante's New Year's Eve party. But I don't think the kids are invited." She disappears again.

Nyx nods. "Dante, the teenage party is going to swing through your party and steal some alcohol. Look the other way when it happens."

He laughs. "I don't care if you guys come. We're just going to be swimming anyway."

"Sweet."

Jessica comes in from another doorway. She is pissed. She crosses her arms. "No. They will not be going. There will be no adults there that are mature enough to make decisions for children. You have proven that today. Racing yachts with children on board? Are you out of your minds?"

Dante, Hugo, and Armen freeze. Nobody seems to know what to do.

I can probably fix this. I start sobbing and tears fall out of my eyes. "They wouldn't stop arguing about whose yacht was faster. The boys strapped us in and made sure we were safe. We didn't know what to do."

She runs over and hugs me. "It's ok, sweetie. You're all safe. That's what matters. I deal with Jack and Frank. They should never have let their argument go that far. They are old enough to know better."

I nod and wipe my eyes.

She looks at everyone else. "They can go for a few hours after dinner. But they will not be spending the night at your house. No way in hell I would trust that." Then she walks out. She might be more pissed off than when she got here.

Nyx waits for the sound of her heels to disappear. "That was a neat trick."

"Thanks." I wipe my face off. "I didn't know if I could do it. But I've been feeling a lot of pressure lately. I let it out. I actually feel better now."

Hugo cracks up laughing. "Well, you got us out of trouble. Good job."

Nyx stands up. "Remember this tomorrow when the teenagers steal your alcohol. But I'm leaving. What time is dinner? I'll eat here."

Everett nods. "6. Be a little early."

"Fine."

The boys walk out with Nyx and Everett puts his arm around me. "Let's relax before dinner."

"Good plan."