Chapter 13 #2
Kit grinned. “I can’t recall any of our larks involving sleeping in hammocks.”
“Much less in a cold and drafty workshop. Even as boys, we had better sense.”
Kit chuckled. As silence descended, he realized that, despite his earlier words, he wasn’t sleepy.
Although he hadn’t said so, he felt that as their would-be saboteur hadn’t come last night, then it was more likely he would wait until Sunday night, when this area of the city was even quieter, even more certainly deserted.
Faced with the prospect of a wasted evening and night, Kit decided he might as well use the time to think of other things.
Out of the darkness, Wayland murmured, “It occurs to me that, over the past weeks of non-stop discussions about what we want our business to be, the one topic we haven’t touched on is how we see our wider lives developing once the business is established.
” He paused, then went on, “I suppose I mean what else we want in our lives besides the business.”
As that was precisely the direction in which Kit’s mind had gone, the subject he’d been wrestling with over the past week, he bit the proverbial bullet and volunteered, “I’ve been thinking about that quite a bit in recent days.”
“Have you? Do tell.” Amusement rode beneath Wayland’s words.
Kit smiled into the dark. “You might have noticed that, over the past weeks, I’ve had other calls on my time, namely the school and the lady who manages it—a Miss Sylvia Buckleberry.”
“I had noticed that,” Wayland drily replied.
Kit went on, “I’d met Miss Buckleberry before—a month or so ago. She was a bridesmaid at Rand and Felicia’s wedding, and being a groomsman, I was partnered with her throughout the event.”
“And?”
“She treated me as if I was…someone she definitely didn’t want to know.
” If he was brutally honest, he’d been fascinated by her from the instant he’d laid eyes on her—as she’d walked up the aisle ahead of Mary and Felicia.
But that attraction had been immediately quashed by the downright chilly way she’d responded to him.
He’d written her off as a lost cause—as a spinster too strait-laced to bother with. One he should forget as soon as he possibly could.
Instead, a bare month later, she’d stormed into his office and shown him a completely different side of her—a vibrant, passionate lady—and his initial attraction had roared back to life, stronger, more powerful. More insistent.
“What?” Pure puzzlement on Wayland’s part.
“Indeed. To this day, I have no idea what caused her to behave as she did, but suffice it to say that, since we met again here and have been working together to resolve various issues at the school, she’s altered her view of my poor self.
” Given their kiss last night, he decided he could feel assured of that.
“Were you out with her somewhere last night?”
“Yes. She accompanied me to a concert at the Council House.”
“Really?” Interest sparked in Wayland’s voice. “You took a lady—an unmarried lady—out for an evening in the full glare of society?”
Kit’s smile turned wry. “Indeed.” Wayland knew all about Kit’s late mother and her machinations and how that had affected Kit’s attitudes toward ladies and marriage.
“Well, that is a development,” Wayland said, amazement still flavoring his tone.
After a moment of staring into the dark, Kit said, “You know that, with my mother’s example before me, I believed marriage was not for me—not for any of us.
Not Rand, Stacie, or Godfrey, either. That none of us would ever be able to find our way to marriage, a family, and all the rest. When Ryder married so clearly for love, I could shrug that aside—he’d never been caught in Mama’s coils and was our half brother to boot.
But when Rand married Felicia… I was there and saw them, and as cynical as I am, not even I can deny they’re in love. ”
He exhaled softly. “And that means I was wrong, and love is possible for us, if we look. If we find it—or it finds us. And especially after seeing Rand and Felicia more recently—seeing their relationship bloom, as it were—I found myself asking, if love could find a way past Rand’s resistance, which was every bit as strong as mine, then why couldn’t love come for me? ”
He heard his question fall into the silence. Considered it again, then softly added, “If I look, if I find it—or it finds me.”
Wayland didn’t say anything, but Kit knew he was listening.
Kit shifted in the hammock, then, as its swinging settled again, said, “In a nutshell, Rand marrying has had me rethinking my attitude to marriage—that perhaps Mama’s influence is waning at last, and it’s time I ought to actively think about finding a wife. ”
That brought a snort from Wayland. “You are thinking of a wife—specifically, Sylvia Buckleberry. You do realize that you’ve spent more time with her in recent days than you have with any other marriageable lady ever?”
Kit grunted. Wayland was right, but Kit had had enough of baring his soul. “So that’s me—what about you? You’ve shown precious little interest in anything beyond yachts for years.”
“I know. But it’s only since returning here and feeling that, with Cavanaugh Yachts, I’ve finally got my feet planted solidly beneath me that I’ve realized that the years are flitting past, and here I am, still a bachelor.”
“You’ll be an even more desirable parti in a year or so, once the business takes off.”
“True. And unlike you, I have no excuse—nothing in my background to turn me against marriage. Admittedly, my parents’ union isn’t any great example, but at least, marriage-wise, I’m starting with a clean slate compared to you.”
Wayland fell silent for a moment, then ventured, “I think it’s been ambition that, until now, has consumed me.
It was always my dream to be the designer of the world’s best yachts.
That was always going to be the way I made my mark in the world, and until I got there…
Well, I literally didn’t see anything beyond what I needed to advance toward that goal.
As you know, ladies have barely impinged, and only when the itch got so distracting I had to attend to it—so that I could keep working as I wished to.
My life over the last decade has been strictly defined by my one overriding goal. ”
In the dark, Kit nodded. “Single-minded focus. That is, indeed, your greatest asset and your besetting sin.”
“Exactly.” Wayland paused, then went on, “But now, being here with you and starting Cavanaugh Yachts, I can see the end in sight. And it suddenly occurred to me that achieving that goal is, in reality, only one step—one cornerstone, if you will—in building my life, the sort of life I want.” Wayland sighed gustily.
“So I started asking myself what else I wanted in my life, and I realized that to truly enjoy the fruits of my ambition, I need a wife and a family to share them with. I’m not explaining this well, but it seems to me that I need a wife and family in order to make sense of becoming the best yacht designer in the world. ”
After a moment, he continued, “I never before looked past achieving my ambition, but I suspect my wanting a wife and family has always been there, but with my focus locked on my central goal, I simply didn’t notice. And now I have.”
Knowing Wayland as he did, Kit could understand that. But there was something else in what Wayland had said… Kit murmured, “What did you mean by saying that a wife and family would make sense of your ultimate success?”
Wayland snorted softly. “I did say I’m not sure how to explain…
” After several seconds had ticked past, he offered, “Think of it this way—seeing our first yacht on the water is going to be a great moment for us. Immensely satisfying. Seeing the first yacht we sell to someone else sailing away will be another instant of extreme satisfaction. But what happens when our twentieth hull slides into the water? Where will the satisfaction come from then?”
Kit let Wayland’s words percolate through his brain.
After some time, he ventured, “You mean that, in order to continue to give satisfaction, a successful business needs to enable something further—something beyond the walls of the business itself.” As the words fell into the silence, he sensed he was on the right track.
“A successful business needs to power some other, greater purpose.”
He couldn’t see Wayland, but suspected his friend was nodding as he replied, “I think that, for men like us, regardless of the details of our upbringings and younger leanings, a family is the one thing that will give us the greatest purpose in our lives.”
Kit nodded, too. “A family will anchor us—be our port through any storm—and give us reason for continuing to strive to succeed.”
Wayland sighed feelingly. “And with that, all should now be clear.”
Kit smiled. As the night settled comfortably around them, cocooning them in dark and quiet, he let his and Wayland’s words float through his mind, absorbed the thoughts those words conveyed, and let them sink in.
Of all their comments, his own about an anchor that held one in safety throughout any storm resonated most strongly—that, and Wayland’s invoking the notion of cornerstones.
Kit realized that he’d already started thinking of Sylvia as his…
not cornerstone but lynchpin, the central anchor around which the family he wished to create would revolve.
For him, she was the key.
As for his mother’s lingering if waning influence, he now saw that as a net constraining and restricting him—holding him back.
Not being one of Lavinia’s children, Ryder had never been trapped, but all three of Kit’s other siblings and he had.
Now Rand had broken free, and Kit felt as if he was on the cusp of doing the same.
Stacie and Godfrey, being younger and more firmly under Lavinia’s thrall, were, he suspected, still enmeshed, but for him, yes, it was time to snap the last strands and walk free.