Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,74

early, and Maggie had just gotten to the breakfast table when they hoisted Aden smoothly up the mast, and he loved it. When he came down, he said the view was fantastic. They sailed out to swim after that, and Paul and Aden went out on the new Jet Skis, and then went fishing that afternoon.

In the end, Aden stayed almost three weeks and said it was the best time he’d ever had. He hated to leave, and would have stayed, but he didn’t want to disappoint his friends, who wanted to finish the trip with him.

They had a massive water war on the last day, with full-on water balloons flying, and all the Super Soakers and water guns that Paul had bought in use. Everyone got drenched, including the captain and first officer, and even Maggie, and both sides claimed victory.

Aden looked genuinely sad when he had to leave, and he and Paul hugged each other. “Come back soon with your mom,” Paul said in a gruff voice. “It’s going to be damn dull around here without you. And take care of her when I’m not around. I have a race coming up in September, and she gets mad when I get banged up. You’ll have to come see a race sometime, if she’ll let you.” But he doubted that she would.

“I’d like that,” Aden said, and looked like he was about to cry. Maggie hadn’t realized how acutely he missed male companionship, and Paul was everyone’s dream father, the perfect hero to look up to. They’d played with every toy on the boat, watched movies at night, swam, sailed, fished. Aden had gone parasailing behind the boat and water-skied, and so had Paul. They had had several long talks about Aden’s future, and Paul’s philosophies about life. Paul told him that he had some regrets about not settling down, but it wasn’t in his nature, and he was lucky to have run into Maggie again. A more settled life wasn’t a bad thing, if you found the right woman. He hadn’t at the right times, and now he was just enjoying his life and playing it out until the end.

“Be careful,” Aden had said to him, and they hugged one last time before Aden left the boat and waved from the dock. Maggie rode to the airport with him, and was sad when she came back.

“He loves you,” she told Paul in a tender voice. “I mean really loves you. Thank you for being so good to him.”

“I love him too. He’s a great kid. He misses his dad a lot. I could never take his place. I’m not that kind of guy. You two brought up a wonderful boy and taught him all the right things. But I can be his friend now. I’d be honored to.”

“He thinks you’re the greatest thing that ever lived.” She smiled at him. “And I kind of agree with him,” she said and leaned over and kissed him. He pulled her onto his lap and hugged her as they watched the sun set over Monaco. They were setting sail for Corsica that night. He liked sailing at night, and she had come to love it too. They would motor part of the way because it usually got rough in Corsica on the way to Sardinia.

“You’re an incredible woman, Maggie,” he whispered and then kissed her. “I understand better now why you don’t like crazy risks. Aden needs you. And so do I.”

“I need you too…try to remember that,” she said in a serious voice, and he nodded. But he made no promises. He never did. He knew that the forces that drove him were stronger than he was, maybe even stronger than his love for her.

Chapter 13

Maggie left Paul in Monaco in mid-August to fly back to the States and meet Aden at home. He was spending two weeks there before going back to Boston for school. He talked a lot about Paul. The rest of his trip had been anticlimactic after his time on the boat. Nothing measured up to that, but more than the boat, he respected the man. He saw Paul as a brave warrior and a valiant person, who had lived by what he believed in, and had been true to himself all his life. Maggie didn’t disagree, but she also saw what it had cost him and that, except for her, he was alone. His skill as a driver was undeniable, and he was