4. Nina
CHAPTER 4
NINA
T he morning was quickly turning into a disaster.
First, Nina had woken to a message from Rashad, telling her to plan for a weekend of sailing. Nina knew instantly that she wouldn’t be able to leave her kids that long, nor did she want to. Worse, there was a text from Amanda as well.
Nina, I’m so sorry, but I seem to have the stomach flu. I don’t think I can watch Kate and Miles this weekend.
Nina replied to her babysitter that it was fine, and she should take it easy, but the text created another wave of panic. Now, Nina couldn’t even spend the day in a meeting with Rashad unless she found a new babysitter immediately. She made a few calls to babysitters she’d worked with in the past, but no one had time on such short notice. Nina’s mom, Amy, lived an hour away, but she was out of town for the weekend with friends, so Nina couldn’t call her. She wasn’t about to leave her kids with an untrusted babysitter, not for a whole weekend, so she was going to have to cancel with Rashad.
“Mommy?”
Nina looked up from her phone to see Miles standing in the doorway. He was wearing his dinosaur pajamas and held his favorite stuffed rabbit by the ear in one hand. His blond hair was tousled and his blue eyes were still heavy.
“Hi, honey.” Nina had barely registered that she was still in her own pajamas in bed — she’d been so worried about sorting out the babysitter situation that she hadn’t even got dressed yet.
“What are we doing today?” Miles crossed the room and climbed into bed with her. He snuggled up against her, resting his downy head on her shoulder. Nina breathed in his distinctive shampoo-and-cornflakes smell.
“I’m not sure yet,” Nina said honestly. “Is your sister awake?”
“No, Kate’s sleeping.” Miles yawned. “Is ’Manda coming to watch us?”
“Not today.”
“Oh, good.” Miles looked up at Nina and beamed. “I like you home.”
“Me, too.” Nina’s heart melted. She wasn’t sure what she’d been thinking, giving up a Saturday with her kids. Yet the problem of what to do about Rashad loomed. She still needed to deal with him. “What do you want to do today?”
“Adventure,” Miles said. He’d recently seen a children’s show in which the characters were always going off on adventures, and it had become his favorite word ever since.
“Adventure, huh?” An idea occurred to Nina, although she wasn’t sure it was a good one. “What about a sailing adventure?”
“Yeah!” Miles’s eyes gleamed. “I like boats.”
“Me too.” The idea began to form more clearly. Certainly, a yacht like Rashad’s would have numerous staff who could keep an eye on Miles and Kate while Nina and Rashad talked business. With any luck, Nina would be able to get the twins onboard and happily occupied with wave watching and coloring books before he even noticed they were there. Then, after the meeting, Nina and her kids could enjoy a lovely afternoon of sailing, which Kate and Miles would love.
Perhaps it wasn’t wise to bring two young stowaways to a business meeting, but Nina couldn’t bring herself to feel guilty. Rashad clearly had ulterior motives for this meeting — namely malicious motives against Nina’s company. She could have her own ulterior motive: giving her kids a nice day at sea.
“Where’s the boat?” Miles asked, bouncing a little now. His sleepiness seemed to have dissipated.
“My friend has one,” Nina said. It wasn’t the truth exactly, but it was close enough. “How about you go and wake Kate up? I’ll be there in just a minute.”
“Okay!” Miles bounced off the bed and dashed away to wake Kate.
Nina rolled out of bed and hurried into the shower, hoping to get clean and dressed before the twins got up to too much mischief. She felt good about her plan — all the way up until she remembered how difficult it always was getting Kate and Miles ready to do anything.
“Kate got more blueberries,” Miles whined, staring into his sister’s bowl of oatmeal.
“I want toast,” Kate put in, her mouth contorted into an exaggerated frown.
“Everyone is getting oatmeal,” Nina said as gently as she could. “Miles, I gave you each ten blueberries. Remember? We counted together. Now, we need to be out the door in a few minutes, so eat up and let’s go.”
Kate looked down at her oatmeal with such a deep sadness that she looked more like a seventy-three-year-old wondering where her life had gone than a three-year-old contemplating her breakfast, but she took an obligatory spoonful. Meanwhile, Nina ran upstairs to throw together a few changes of clothes each for her and the kids, some swimsuits, and some entertainment for the twins. When she got back downstairs, Miles had a purple streak across his forehead and Kate was laughing like she’d just seen the funniest movie ever.
“Oh, Miles, did you put another blueberry on your head?” Nina asked.
“Yeah!” Kate laughed. “It was so funny, Mommy!”
“I bet. Come on, Miles, let’s get you cleaned up.”
By the time they were all ready to go, it was already almost eleven. Nina barely had time to run a comb through her hair and grab a few last-minute things before rushing them all out the door. In the car, Miles and Kate sang along to their tape of children’s songs, the breakfast pandemonium seemingly forgotten, but Nina still felt flustered.
She liked to arrive for her business meetings prepared, having read about the people she was meeting with, taken her time getting dressed, and arriving early so that she could take a quiet moment before the meeting began. Instead, she found herself pulling into the marina’s parking lot almost fifteen minutes late, disheveled, with two preschoolers in tow and no time to prepare.
“Come on, guys.” Nina unbuckled Kate and Miles from their car seats and slung the bags she’d packed over her shoulders, feeling more like a camel than a businesswoman. Then she took a child’s hand in each of hers and began walking them all towards the dock.
“Now, when we’re on board, I’ll need to do a little work,” Nina explained. “I’ll find someone nice to keep an eye on you, but I’ll need you to be quiet and well-behaved. After I’m done with work, we can play together and have a nice afternoon. Okay?”
“Okay, Mommy,” Kate and Miles chorused. Nina wasn’t as comforted by their quick agreement as she might have liked to be. Her children were the lights of her life, but perfectly well-behaved angels they were not.
It took Nina several more minutes to find the dock where Rashad’s yacht was moored. She hurried her kids along, hoping against hope that Rashad would be busy somewhere and that she could find a place for her kids to wait and someone friendly to watch them before he started asking questions.
“Nina?”
Nina’s heart sank as she raised her gaze. Of course. Rashad was standing on the yacht’s balcony, looking down at her with a bemused expression. He held a glass of golden liquid in one hand and wore shorts and a button-down shirt. He looked every inch the relaxed millionaire, which was the complete opposite of how Nina felt.
“Hi.” Nina let go of her children’s hands, smoothed her hair behind her ear, and raised a hand to Rashad in greeting. “Sorry, I was running a little late.”
“Right. And you decided to bring a few extra guests?” Rashad looked meaningfully at Kate and Miles. As if on cue, the kids waved.
“Hi, Mommy’s friend!” Miles called. Kate, a little shier than her brother, stayed quiet, but she waved too.
“Hi, children.” The bemused expression grew. “Just a moment. I’ll come down and we can… discuss… how to proceed.”
Nina’s heart sank again. If Rashad told her that they couldn’t have a business meeting with her kids on board — which, she could admit, would be a fairly reasonable request — she wasn’t sure what she’d do. The best-case scenario would be returning home with her kids and trying to find a babysitter for the next day, which wouldn’t be easy.
A moment later, Rashad was on their level. He beckoned Nina and the kids across the gangplank and onto the lowest deck. Nina held a little extra firmly on to both her twins’ hands, knowing that the yacht probably looked like a giant playground to the rambunctious three-year-olds.
“Nina.” Rashad strode towards them, his arms spread. He’d put the drink down somewhere, but he still looked like he was on vacation. “Thank you for coming to meet me.”
“The pleasure’s mine.” Nina nodded in lieu of a handshake, the twins’ hands still in hers.
“I have to ask, though, if we might have had a bit of a misunderstanding. I imagined you’d come alone.”
“As did I.” Nina smiled self-consciously. “Unfortunately, the babysitter canceled last-minute, and I wasn’t sure we’d get another opportunity to meet.”
“Right.” Rashad still looked far from convinced.
“Rashad Al-Zayed, these are my children, Miles and Kate Kendrick.”
“Hello.” Rashad looked down at the kids, then held out a hand to shake. Miles quickly gave him a sideways high five, while Kate hugged one of Nina’s legs.
“We haven’t exactly covered handshake etiquette,” Nina admitted.
“I can see that.” But there was a hint of a smile behind Rashad’s bemused expression. He straightened up. “I’m not really sure how to proceed.”
“We can have our meeting,” Nina said, with more confidence than she felt. “If you have someone who can look after Miles and Kate for a few minutes, it should be fine. They’re very well-behaved.” Miles took that moment to let go of Nina’s hand and run to the railing, where he promptly stuck his head through the top and middle rails.
“I don’t have anyone who can watch them,” Rashad replied. “The yacht is staffed by a skeleton crew, and they’re all needed for sailing.”
“Please, Mommy’s friend,” Kate said suddenly, looking up at Rashad with big blue eyes. “We like boats.”
Rashad hesitated, then sighed. “All right. It’s unorthodox, but we can give it a try. I’ll tell the crew to get us on the water. Nina, please make your way to the first floor — there’s a meeting room set up.”
“Thank you.” Nina wished she didn’t feel indebted to Rashad so early in what would surely be a difficult process.
“All right.” Rashad didn’t seem sure how to react to her gratitude. He hesitated as if there was more he wanted to say, then abruptly turned and headed towards the back of the ship. Nina squeezed Kate’s hand and called Miles back over. For better or for worse, they were on the way now — Nina, her staunch business rival, and her three-year-old twins. What could go wrong?