Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,61
your dad gave me. That’s important to me. So where this is going? I don’t know yet. Maybe nowhere.” She was trying to be as honest as she could with him, although he was young to understand it.
“Are you having fun with him?”
“I am,” she said, and smiled.
“Then why don’t you just enjoy it and see what happens? Why do girls have to get so serious all the time?” She laughed. He sounded like a man.
“Are you having problems with that?” She was curious about his love life. He didn’t tell her as much now that he was in Boston.
“I don’t know. I’ve been seeing this girl, and she always wants to know where it’s going. I don’t know where it’s going. I don’t want to worry about that now. I just want to have fun with her. She acts like she wants to get married. I’m too young for that.”
“Yes, you are. And I’m not interested in getting married either. I just wanted you to know that we’re dating.”
“Can I tell people?” he asked, smiling widely. He had had none of the bad reactions she had feared. He was being very mature about it, maybe because of who Paul was.
“Yes, you can. It’s not a secret.”
“Wait till I tell the guys you’re dating Paul Gilmore.” They both laughed at that. Paul was a star in Aden’s world.
“He invited us both on his boat in the South of France in July. It’s a beautiful sailboat.”
“I’m coming!” Aden said immediately. Problem solved. She had heard horror stories of children his age and older objecting vehemently to their mothers dating at all, but Aden had no problem with it. And the fact that she was dating a legendary race car driver was even better. There was a bit of stardust in Aden’s eyes. She just didn’t want Aden emulating Paul and wanting to race one day. She had already said that to Paul many times. She didn’t want him glamorizing it to Aden, or doing anything dangerous with him. She had a feeling that Aden would find his way to his own dangerous pursuits soon enough. He had the DNA for it on her side. She was enormously relieved by his sensible reaction to her news, and he didn’t seem at all surprised that she was dating. It had been over a year since his father died.
She called Paul and told him about it late that night, when Aden was out. It was late enough to be morning in London.
“I thought he’d be okay with it, or at least I hoped so. But you can never tell with kids,” he conceded.
“I think he’s hungry for male company, or male guidance. His father has been gone for fifteen months now. He hangs around a lot with his friends’ fathers, and he was very close to the coach last year in high school.”
“I’d like to spend time with him when I’m around,” Paul said softly. “We’ll have fun together on the boat in July,” he promised her, and she was touched. She noticed that he sounded tired, and he had been stressed lately. He never discussed his business problems with her. She knew he had corporate entities in several countries and they seemed very complex. Her own financial setup was much simpler and her investments had done well in the past year. She had gathered that Paul liked the high stakes in his financial affairs too. His theory was that you only made the big money with big risks, but you lost big too. It was the exact opposite of how she invested her money. She wanted to hang on to as much of it as she could, and have it grow if possible, for Aden to have in later years. Paul invested as he lived, on the razor’s edge, with his money, with his life, with his career. Danger was always the principal ingredient, and she didn’t want him sharing that with her son. She knew where it could lead.
* * *
—
Aden went back to Boston after spring break. He would be home in two months for the summer. His first year at BU had gone well. His grades were reasonable, though not extraordinary, but he had been through a lot of difficult changes in the past year. And he had enjoyed playing on the junior hockey team. He was looking forward to discovering Europe with his friends in June. And now he would be joining her and Paul on