Paul picked her up the next morning in a pale blue vintage Lamborghini that was almost a work of art. He drove her down to the port at full speed, chatting with her, and stopped next to an enormous sailboat. Suddenly, she realized that it was the one she had admired the day before. The Lady Luck was Paul’s boat.
“I saw this boat yesterday.” Maggie grinned at him in surprise. “She’s beautiful.”
“I love her,” he admitted. “I’ve had a few boats, but I only love this one. She was built in Italy. I keep her here. She’s registered in the Cayman Islands for tax reasons, I like keeping her here. I spend as much time on her as I can. In some ways, she’s home to me.” He had apartments all over the place, but his boat was home. He had certainly grown up to be footloose and fancy-free, and lived extravagantly. It suited him. He didn’t seem to be hurting, or grieving over his marriages. She wondered what kind of women he had married, probably flashy ones. They had both grown up so much in thirty years, and taken such diametrically different paths. But his seemed to be working well for him. Hers had too, until the crash. She was doing okay now. She was slowly getting back on her feet and trying to get used to being alone.
Their day of sailing on the Lady Luck was absolutely perfect. They motored out of the port, and when they were clear of it, the crew turned off the engine and sailed his spectacular boat, which glided peacefully through the water. He was an expert sailor, and took the wheel for a while. He had a crew of eighteen on board. They sailed fairly far off the coast, and then came back to eat lunch in a protected cove near Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. As they sat in the outdoor dining area, waited on by two stewardesses, eating lunch prepared by a fabulous chef, he talked about his years of racing all over the world, climbing Everest, his thirst to conquer impossible odds, including his marriages. Her life had been peaceful and uncomplicated compared to his, and certainly not exciting. In many ways, Maggie found he hadn’t really changed since their time together at seventeen and eighteen, despite the luxurious trappings. He was bigger and older and had more expensive toys, but the drive he’d had then was still the same, and she suspected probably always would be. And he was just as kind and gentle as he had been as a boy. She wondered if her father had been that way, endearing but thrill seeking. At nine, she couldn’t have assessed it. She thought her father was a hero, but maybe he had been as driven to take risks as Paul was. She was grateful that she’d had the sense to marry Brad and have a quiet life for almost twenty years. Paul’s unquenchable thirst for danger would have terrified her. But Paul was still alive, and Brad wasn’t, so nothing was predictable, as Paul had pointed out. And oddly, she still felt the same attraction to Paul she had at seventeen, and she could feel that he was attracted to her too, but they had nowhere to go with it. They would be off to their own lives again in a few days, miles from each other, living different lives. It was obvious to her that he was thoroughly enjoying his life just the way it was. He seemed to have no regrets that he was divorced.
They were lavishly but discreetly waited on all day. The crew never intruded on them. There was a constant stream of food or drink if they wanted it. They swam off the boat after lunch, and laughed like old times, like two kids. She remembered what a good sense of humor he had, and how much fun he was to be with. She had forgotten that about him. He could make anything seem special, even when they were both poor, and teenagers.
“I was always impressed that you wouldn’t sleep with me,” he said after they swam, as they lay in the sun close together on sunbeds.
“I knew you were leaving, and I was afraid that if I got pregnant, I’d never see you again.”
“That was smart of you. You were a woman of principle even then.”
“Just not a risk-taker, like you.” She laughed, and he grinned. When they got too hot in the sun, they went swimming again, and chased each other in the water like children. At sunset, they finally sailed back toward Monaco, and he looked at her seriously.
“What are you going to do now? Are you really going to get a job?”
“I have absolutely no idea,” she said. “I don’t know why anyone would hire me. I’m a great car pool driver, I make good pancakes and a decent meatloaf. Other than working in a diner, or driving an Uber, I’m not qualified for much of anything. I like to think I was a good wife, but who knows.” Brad had been so easy to please. She wondered now if she had done enough for him. Maybe she should have done more.
“Did he leave you any money?” Paul asked her softly, worried about her. She nodded, but didn’t say anything specific. “Do you have to get a job?”
“I can’t sit on my ass for the rest of my life doing nothing. I’ll drive myself crazy. I was thinking I might work in an art gallery or something.” She still loved art in all its forms, although Brad had never been interested in it. He liked numbers.
“Why don’t you come skiing with me this winter?” Paul suggested out of the blue.
“I haven’t skied in years. I learned in college, but Brad didn’t like it. He played golf with his clients, and baseball when he was a kid and football in high school.”
“I go helicopter skiing in Canada every year. But I was thinking more like Courchevel, which is fancier and would be more fun for you. You could hit the bunny slopes, and I could ski the three valleys, which is fairly challenging. I don’t have anyone to go with me. I’m between women at the moment,” he said, looking boyish and mischievous, and honest with her. They were still friends, after thirty years apart.
“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult,” she said as she laughed at him, “to be invited as filler.” They were still oddly comfortable with each other because they had been so close as kids. They still felt like teenagers when they were together. She had always been able to say anything to him and in a way, neither of them had changed. They were just older, and richer. His lifestyle was impressive, and his boat was fabulous, but he was still Paul, in spite of the luxuries that surrounded him, and she hadn’t changed either. He wasn’t a show-off in an obnoxious way. He just lived well. Very well.
“We could go skiing after Christmas,” he persisted. “I assume you’ll be with your son during the holidays.”
“Yes, I will.” She wouldn’t give that up for anything. He was the main event for her, the only event now, and she wouldn’t let anything interfere with that.
“You could bring him if you want.”
She smiled at him.
“He has to go back to school then.” She thought about it, and it might be fun to go skiing with Paul, as friends. Sooner or later, he’d be involved with another woman and she wouldn’t have the chance. And she liked the idea of coming back to Europe. He would be fun to do things with. He always had fun.
“I’ll be on the boat in the Caribbean during the holidays. I always send it over in the winter. It’s great to have it there. And I have friends who show up. Would you meet me in Courchevel after the holidays, Maggie?” he asked her with the look of a cocker spaniel pleading for a treat, and she laughed at him.
“Maybe. You might meet the love of your life before that. If you do, my feelings won’t be hurt if you cancel the invitation.” She had no expectations, which made everything easier between them.
“I won’t cancel it. And I met the love of my life thirty years ago,” he said, suddenly serious. “I just didn’t know it then. I was too young to recognize it until you were long gone, and I had no idea how to find you.”
“What does that mean?” She was startled by what he said.
“Just because we didn’t see each other doesn’t mean I stopped thinking about you or loving you. I always have. Feelings like that don’t just vanish into thin air.”
“You could have found me if you wanted to. I didn’t go far,” she said. She couldn’t imagine that he had loved her for thirty years.
“Would you have married me if I’d found you?” he asked her longingly. She looked at him squarely when she answered him.
“No. You were everything I was afraid of, and my mother warned me about. She was right. People who wantonly risk their lives the way you do, and are addicted to it, are dangerous for those who love them. I don’t want to end up like my mother, dying young, with dementia, because the losses were too much for her.”
“You’re stronger than that,” he said solemnly.
“I hope so. But I still wouldn’t take the chance. It’s too dangerous. Brad never scared me or broke my heart. He died in the end, but he wasn’t risking his neck or my heart when he did. You’re dangerous, Paul. You always were, and now you have all the tools and skills to do it better. You’re still racing, you go helicopter skiing. You probably still skydive and mountain climb and do all the other crazy things you did. You couldn’t even afford it then, and managed it anyway. I can’t do that to myself, or my son. He needs stability in his life, now more than ever.” And so did she. She didn’t want to give that up.
“He has you for that,” Paul said thoughtfully.
“Yes, he does. And I’m not sure you’d be a good influence on him. He has some of that thirst for risk that my father had, and you do. I try to keep a lid on it, but I know it’s there, just waiting to spring out.” She looked concerned as she said it. She worried about Aden, a lot. She could sense her father’s genes in him.
“I like him already,” Paul teased her.
“If you ever invite him to do something dangerous with you, I’ll kill you.” She sounded like a lioness protecting her cub when she said it. He could see that she meant it, and he intended to respect it.
“If he has that in his DNA, you won’t be able to stop him, though,” he said wisely. She knew it too.
“I know that. I’m just hoping to slow it down a little. He plays ice hockey in college.”
“People like us have nine lives,” Paul said to her. “Like me. I’m still here.” And Brad wasn’t, but he didn’t say it. He didn’t have to.
“One day you use up those tickets. I don’t want to be around for that.” She was serious and he knew it.
“All right, if I promise not to jump off a mountain or kill myself on our ski trip, will you go with me?” He was determined to convince her, but she looked at him and shook her head. They had lost each other for thirty years and a day after he’d found her, he wanted her to go skiing with him. It seemed too soon to her, and he wanted to start where they’d left off, at eighteen.
“I might go skiing with you sometime, but if you don’t behave, I’ll leave.”
“Behave in what sense?” he teased her. “Risk-wise or in other ways? You’re all grown up now, Maggie Kelly.”
“You missed the boat on that,” she said gently. “I still feel married to my husband.” He nodded. He could tell. She was still wearing her wedding band, which was a clear message. He planned to respect that too. He had never forced her hand before, and didn’t intend to now. And despite growing up in poverty, he was a gentleman.
“Separate rooms,” he promised her, and she believed him. He had always been nice about that when they were dating in high school too. He had never insisted, or tried to push her to do something she didn’t want to do. “What are you doing for dinner tomorrow night?” he asked her, changing the subject.
“I’m flying to London tomorrow, for the last week of my trip.” She smiled at him and he smiled back. They were good together, they always had been, even as kids. She considered him a friend now, not a romance, no matter how attractive he still was.
“I’m supposed to fly to London tomorrow too. I was going to delay it for you. Do you want to fly with me?” he asked, and she grinned.
“Sure. Are you flying the plane?”
“No, I have a pilot, two of them. You’re safe. Will you have dinner with me in London tomorrow night then?” She hesitated and then nodded. The old attraction still wasn’t dead. But she knew better now. She wasn’t going to let him get under her skin, no matter how nice he was to her, or how much fun he was to be with. He was still the same Paul, addicted to risk. Maybe worse, since he had the means to indulge it in every way he wanted to, which made him even more dangerous now.
They pulled into port at eight o’clock that night, after a full day on the boat. It had been heavenly. He had a very pleasant life. He invited her to have dinner on the boat. They had a delicious meal, prepared by his excellent chef. A light pasta with pesto and fresh tomatoes, a salad, and lemon sorbet for dessert.
“What are you going to do in London?” he asked her. He liked talking to her, just like old times.
“All the tourist stuff.” She smiled at him, unembarrassed. She wanted to see it all, just as she had in Rome and Paris. “I want to see the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Tate, the Tower of London, the crown jewels, Westminster Abbey, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. All the silly, corny stuff, like Madame Tussauds.”
“I’d do it with you, but I have meetings all day. Where are you staying?”
“Claridge’s. It’s been a nice trip. I saw everything in Rome and Paris. A friend said I should go to Venice, but I’m saving it for next time.”
“I hope that’ll be soon.”
“Do you ever come to the States?” she asked him.
“Not often. Only when I have business there,” he said. “Would you come if I race in the States?” he asked, and she shook her head.
“I don’t want to see you get killed.”
“I won’t. Nine lives, remember?” He said it like a true gambler. They always thought they would win, or they wouldn’t take the risk.
“If that were true, my father and brother would still be alive,” she said soberly. “I wish Brad had had just two lives.”
“Fate plays a part in it too,” he said gently. “I’m a good driver. I won’t get killed.”
“I hope not, for you.”
“There’s no one it will matter to, if I do. I’ve kept it that way, so I can do what I want.”
“It would matter to me, now that we’ve found each other again. Even as a friend, I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t,” he said with certainty. He didn’t want to lose her again.
They talked until ten o’clock, and then he drove her back to her hotel. On the way, he stopped at the casino and asked her if she wanted to go in. She looked shocked.
“Like this?” She was wearing white jeans and a white sweater and sneakers. “Will they let us in?”
“They’d let me in naked with a rose in my teeth. I spend a lot of time here,” and a lot of money. He loved to play blackjack and it evened out for him. He won and he lost, in large amounts, as she had seen the night before.
She followed him into the casino, and much to her amazement, no one complained about the way they were dressed, although she knew there was a dress code. He took a seat at the blackjack table and pointed to the seat next to him. She slid onto it and watched him play. He appeared casual and relaxed, and bought a stack of expensive chips. He lost them quickly and then made a big win. He bet all of it, doubled it, and then lost it all, and stood up with a smile. He looked at Maggie. “The table’s cold. Time to go home.” She had a feeling that he had just lost and won thousands of dollars, and broke even in the end.
He walked her into her hotel. “I had a great day,” he said happily.
“Me too,” she said, smiling at him.
“I’ll pick you up at eight tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks for letting me hitch a ride,” she said, and he left a minute later. It was nice being with him, and odd too. It was a flashback in time, with the benefit of everything she’d learned since. She wasn’t sure how much Paul had learned. He was still risking everything, at the blackjack table, on the racetrack, and in life. She wasn’t willing to do that. Her mother’s words had stuck with her, no matter how appealing he was. But it would be fun seeing him in London. Now she had a friend to have dinner with.
She packed her bags, and got ready for the trip, and then lay in bed thinking about the day on Paul’s boat. It had been fabulous. She wanted to call Helen, but didn’t feel comfortable telling her, she might make too much of it. Aden didn’t need to know either, that she had run into her first love. So for now Paul was her secret, just as he had been before, when her mother forbade her to go out with him, and she had anyway. She reminded herself as she fell asleep that men like him were a dangerous secret to have. Maybe even as friends. But she knew she was smart enough not to fall in love with him again. He was a wild one, just as her mother had said. But there was no reason why they couldn’t be friends. And there was no one to stop them. They were grown-ups this time. Or at least Maggie was. Paul was never going to grow up, but he made her feel like a kid again. Seeing him was like a trip back in time to a very sweet place she had almost forgotten, and remembered now, like a warm summer breeze from the past.