Nadine Book 7

44. The Plan

We all get on the boat and I go right to the bar. Last time we were here, they got drunk and ignored me. This time, I'm going to kiss Tobias. Break up with Elek. And maybe go on a date with Nikolas. I guess he is cute. Then I'm going to get drunk and ignore everyone for a whole day. I also want to be a pirate at least once too. I'm happy I have my plan.

I walk in Johen's room. He's going through his drawers.

"Everyone is running all over. What are you doing?"

"Making sure I have everything to be a pirate."

I rub his back.

He relaxes with my touch. "I should be doing something else though."

He kisses my marking spot.

Then someone knocks on the damn door.

"Maybe they'll go away." He kisses me.

"They sound like they're trying to break the damn door down."

He shakes his head and opens it. Elek, Tobias, Nikolas, and Tye sit in the sitting area.

"So what are you doing?"

"Well, I know what I'm not doing."

I sit between Elek and Tye. Then the alarm goes off, and a red light turns on.

I look at it for a second. "Well, that was fast."

Tye smacks my butt on the way to the door. "I expected this to be a longer trip."

No one rushes, but we go up to the deck.

Dipak looks at everyone. "Took you long enough."

Tye points the village. "We haven't even left the dock."

"Pirates can strike anywhere, Tye. We are going out into open water to be pirate bait. You better be on your toes. That alarm goes off again, get your asses up here."

Dipak looks at us again. "Good. In the event, we take a pirate ship. No one goes on it alone. Girls, you stay back until we can clear it."

Marcus smirks. "Awhile back we acquired a pirate treasure map. Instead of just going in circles, we are going to go to another place the map may be showing."

I jump up and down. "PIRATE TREASURE."

Dipak smiles then moves the boat away from the dock. "Let's search for pirate treasure, sweetheart." 3 sails drop and we take off.

I run to the front of the boat and watch the water. I missed this.

Nikolas sits beside me. I snuggle into him, and he wraps an arm around me. I close my eyes and feel the wind on my face. I breath in. I even missed the smell of the water.

He sits me on his lap. I put my head on his chest and breathe in again. He smells good.

He kisses my head and hugs me tight. I snuggle in and hold him.

I wake up an hour later. In his bed. Alone. He always did leave me alone to sleep. Alone to wake up.

I fix my hair a bit. Then go to the dining room. Everyone is at lunch talking about the treasure.

I sit with Marcus and Dipak.

"Did you have a good nap, angel?"

I nod and start eating.

Everyone on the other side of the table cracks up laughing. I am immediately hit with regret that I'm here. It's going to be exactly like last time.

Then Tye sit by me and kisses my head. "You excited about looking for pirate treasure, babydoll?"

"I hope it's lots of gold coins."

"Me too. I hope we find another treasure map too. We can keep searching for treasures until we get Tre's boat."

Dipak smiles. "I want to fish the Nile. I bet we can catch something weird."

"You're f*****g crazy. We would catch something that would eat us."

Tre laughs. "Remember how fast he got out of there last time. He ran like a little girl."

"I don't regret that."

"Me either. I'm glad you took me with you."

Johen kisses my head. "What's so funny?"

Tre looks at him. "Tye running like a little b***h from a fish."

"THAT THING HAD A LOT OF f*****g TEETH."

They lose it.

Johen jumps. "I HAVE AN IDEA."

"What is it?"

"Glass boat. The glass, the unbreakable glass. People could see underwater. Think about going over a reef in the ocean. Or the fish. That would be amazing in the Nile. Can you imagine seeing a crocodile go under the boat? Or a bunch of those fish?"

"Can we have a glass boat?"

The brain answers Dipak, "No sir. You could put glass panels or windows in the bottom of the boat. Highly recommended that we do that for you. They have to be sealed."

I scratch my head. "Well s**t. Now Tye needs another boat."

Johen nods. "I need a boat too. Glass bottom boat ride sounds romantic. I have that big river right there."

Dipak nods. "You could do fishing too."

"So could you. You're in the perfect f*****g spot for fishing and glass-bottom boats. Hell you could do river fishing or deep sea fishing. The sea is so close to you."

Dipak shakes his head. "We can't put multiple boats everywhere. Tye could take 2. He has all the room in the world. But docking is expensive for the rest of us."

"You wouldn't need more than 1. You will need a good schedule. Mornings are for fishing. Afternoons for glass bottom sightseeing. Tye could get a glass bottom boat and I could give massages on it over a reef when he's not doing tours. Just imagine an hour massage while you watch the reef and fish swim under you."

Marcus nods. "People would pay for that."

Tye nods. "Let's get me another boat."

Dipak shakes his head. "Let's let Tre and Elek get through your fishing stuff first. Let's see what they think before we get you another boat."

"Yea, that's a good idea."

"I have a question."

"What is it, sweetheart?"

"My spa and packages are together. I can take the day passes and stuff for the spa for the packages. So, say the spa sells no day passes all month. Absolute 0. Not 1. It makes no money all month. But the packages store sells 1000 packages with the day passes in it. How do I figure out how much the spa made?"

Tre looks at me. "You said it already. The spa made 0. The packages shop would have made the money. You own them both, so that's ok. But if you wanted to guarantee the spa made money from those 1000 packages, you would have to sell the day passes to the packages store. Then the spa would make money from them. We can talk more about that later."

Dipak nods. "It would cause more problems if you were trying to sell yourself stuff. Then balancing it all out from both sides."

"Ok. Another question. You know how we can make doors go almost anywhere?"

"Yea."

"Can't we make big doors and send the ships to Tye's island every night, so you don't need to pay for docking?"

"OMAR COME HERE A SECOND."

"Say that again, sweetheart."

"Can we make big doors that could send ships to Tye's island every night, so they don't have to pay for docking?"

"Technically, yes. But multiple of you will have to go to the ship daily. Someone would have to conjure a doorway big enough for the ship. Then someone to make the door. Then, after it passes through, you will have to get rid of the door frame. That is entirely too weird to be found in the middle of the sea."

"We can't do that. No one has that much time every day. But we could send ships to Tye's island to get worked on. We could transport them that way."

"You can conjure a big door frame off the side of the island. Don't put it in my resort views."

"Fair enough."

"Yea, that's a good plan."

Then the boys get up.

I go up to the wheel with Marcus and Dipak. "Can I steer?"

"Of course, sweetheart. Keep the compass pointed the right way."

Marcus kisses my cheek. "You should talk to Elek about what you heard."

"No. I don't even want him to know I was checking on him or that I cared. I know what I mean to him and that's nothing. He'll be fine." Nikolas sits on the bench.

"What if you misunderstood, angel?"

"I didn't. I saw it play out. It's not a rumor or anything else. It was real. He said everything I needed to hear."

Nikolas sits up. "Who did?"

"I'm sworn to secrecy."

"I was worried about Elek 1 day. I red roomed him. He was talking about going out and getting laid. He said he stopped kissing people in front of me, so I would think he liked me. Now, they want me to talk to him. I'm not doing that. I've heard enough."

"Then why in the world did you put him in the businesses?"

"It was quite genius for a teenager, actually."

"Thank you."

"She gets to tell him everything is over between them because they are in business together now. He never gets to know what she overheard."

"Oh wow. Does he know anything?"

"Not yet."

Nikolas looks at me. "You have to talk to him. You're going to break his heart. He does care about you. And by dropping in on a conversation, you could have misunderstood anything. Hell the s**t me and my brothers say to each other is always exaggerated and half the time is inside jokes between us. If anyone overheard the stuff we say to each other, they would think we're insane."

"He doesn't care about me. And even if he does a little bit, I'm sure he'll get laid and be fine again. I'm not taking this from you 3. Not like any of you like him. Don't even pretend that you're not glad I'm done with him."

I leave the wheel and go below deck. Assholes. Every last 1 of them are assholes. They try to make me feel bad for what he said. And none of them even like him. They never have. Tye hates him. But instead of being happy I won't be kissing him, they are making me think I'm doing something wrong.

I walk in the bar.

Johen, Tye, Elek, and Tobias are playing cards. "YOU'RE ALL ASSHOLES. NONE OF YOU MAKE ANY SENSE." I grab a box off the cupboard and throw it at their table. "ASSHOLES." I leave and slam the door.

Tre puts an eyebrow up from down the hall.

I walk back in the bar. They're sitting there playing cards again. "AND ANOTHER THING. I WILL..."

Tre and Nikolas walk in.

"Come here baby. Let's go talk about what's bothering you."

"NOTHING IS BOTHERING ME, TRE."

He nods and picks me up. I wrap around him. I love him. "Then let's sit and snuggle. We can calm down. Maybe I'll rub your feet with some oil."

I giggle and hug him while I shake my head fast. He carries me out.

Tobias says, "He calmed her down quickly."

"Yea, she likes him." I hear them laughing.

We get to the end of the hall and start going up the steps. Nikolas is coming out of the room with Elek. Assholes.

"You want to go up and drive the boat, baby? Or did you want to sit and cuddle?"

"Drive the boat."

He carries me to the wheel.

Dipak looks at us. "What happened?"

"Someone was yelling and throwing things. She wants to drive." Tre puts me down. "So what's going on baby?"

"Nothing."

"I'm sworn to secrecy."

"It's ok. You can tell Tre. You said it was a genius idea."

"It is genius, sweetheart." He motions for Tre to go sit with him on a bench.

Marcus puts his arms around me and helps me steer.

"I love you."

"I love you, angel."