King and Yara

Chapter 17 (Yara): Send Her Up

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

There's a lot to be said for having a small, tropical island as your getaway. The island itself was no more than one mile long and two miles wide. The ocean was that intense turquoise blue and the beaches were white sand. Every morning I went out to watch the waves for an hour or two. The owners had beach chairs and umbrellas in small groupings along the beachfront, which was no more than one hundred feet from the gorgeous house that was mostly windows.

During the mornings, I also paddle boarded, swam in the pool or walked along the beach. In the afternoons I napped and waded along the shore. The very nice caretakers were a couple in their forties, and they lived in a small house about a quarter mile from the main house. He'd offered to cook for me, but I'd told him I'd be fine on my own. His wife popped into the house every morning while I was on the beach to tidy up and disappeared before I returned.

In the evenings, King called with the children, and I listened to them recount their days before they began asking questions that never failed to make me smile: Did you see any sharks? Did you throw any starfish back into the water? Did you find any sand dollars you can bring home? Did you make a sand castle? Does the sun really sink into the water?

But they always ended with something that killed me: we miss you.

Nobody had ever really missed me before, so it never failed to melt my heart. As much as they missed me, I think I missed Carter and Louise more and made sure they knew how deeply I missed them. Their father, however? I wouldn't admit to King that I missed him, even though I did.

King hustled them off the phone after that, hitting me with his soft smile he reserved for the children and me. "They're not the only ones who miss you. Sleep well, Yara."

Then he'd hang up, trying to be respectful of my time, knowing that this was supposed to be a thinking getaway for me. I'm sure if I hadn't insisted, he wouldn't have let the children call me at all since he was trying so hard to give me my space.

When thinking about King and adopting the children got to be too much and hurt my head, I'd pull out my text books and laptop and work on the reports I had due. I finished all three and my other assorted assignments in the first week, so for the second week, I focused on working ahead.

The adoption took up most of my thinking time and I kept looking for any downsides to it. One day, I called King with a question I had about the adoption. Figuring he'd be at home, when he answered my call, he didn't greet me like he normally did. Instead, I heard him say to me very softly, "Just a second, Yara. Hang tight." 

Thirty seconds later, his voice was normal. "Sorry, I was in a meeting and had to step out. Are you OK?"

"Yes, I'm fine. You didn't have to leave your meeting; this is nothing urgent."

"It's fine. A completely unexpected meeting that's kind of blowing up. A large number of shareholders from GlobalTech approached me about a hostile takeover of the company. Since I pulled out of the deal very publicly, the company's stock has been in a free fall and the investors are understandably nervous and upset. They want me to acquire a block of shares and push out the existing management with a proxy fight."

"So, you'll be working with Carmen?" Did the temperature just drop?

"No, she and her father and the other top-level executives will all be gone once we win the fight. I wanted to talk to you about it tonight. They just approached me this morning and right now, we're fact-finding. They didn't even make an appointment just to make sure word didn't get out; they just showed up and my assistant called me at home. The nanny was able to come watch the children so I could take the meeting."