"Uh-huh. Besides, I saw you when you walked up here. I just wanted to see how you would handle that." He was still placing small kisses at the nape of her neck.
Shocked, she turned around and smacked him playfully on the chest, "You're bad."
He caught her hand and kissed the back of it.
"And how did I handle it, huh?" she asked.
"Like the pro that I know you are … "
Everybody else started to gather around and someone had even rolled the coolers a lot closer than where the girls had left it so that they could have access at an arm's length. Annette noticed that Troy was still talking to the same girl, but her friend was gone. That's good that she had gotten the message. She didn't mean to run the girl off, but Jordan was one Heat Ryder that she certainly wasn't going to have.
"Annette, I can't believe I missed it the other night when you and Tara shared that kiss," Troy said, turning his attention from the girl to Annette and Jordan.
"I didn't know that it was that worthy of being seen," Annette replied.
"Are you kidding me?" Troy said, "That's some bold shit that you and Tara did and that deserves lots of attention."
"Troy, I want you to tell Annette about our business and what we do," Jordan said, taking another swig of his beer.
"What? You mean at the shop or the dealership?" Troy asked, drawing his legs up and propping his elbows up on his knees.
"All of it. I held back all that information from Annette when I met her and I want her to know."
"Well, we got pretty lucky after winning some money out in Vegas years ago. Thanks to Jordan, most of that money was invested. With another portion of it, we purchased a used luxury dealership that was not doing so well. The owner was pretty old and didn't have the stamina to keep up with times, you know. And actually Jordan was working as a mechanic at the time at another dealership, so he knows all about cars and motorcycles, so it wasn't rocket science to us to start up our own car repair shop as well as the auto parts store across the street from it. The auto parts store is actually a franchise, so we don't own it outright. The dealership and the repair shop, we do own."
Troy was doing a pretty good job of telling the story. He seemed like a very intelligent individual. No one would guess in a million years by the type of fun that these brothers liked to have and the crowd they kept, that they were rich men, as well. She kind of understood why they kept such a low-key lifestyle.
"Jordan and I like to have a lot of money, but we still like to live within reasonable means, you know. We don't have super rich friends. We didn't purchase a mansion and all that good stuff. We just like to be normal people and have normal friends. Not that we don't want that type of life for the future, but right now our motto is to live the good life now and later. If we spend it all up now, there won't be any left for the future. I don't know about you, Jordan, but I'm gonna live to be one hundred."
Everybody laughed, as they imagined Troy living to be one hundred years old.
"I could identify with that." Annette nodded. Now she knew why Jordan didn't make a big deal of telling her about his money. Annette didn't tell Anthony, Bianca, and Denise for the same reasons. Who cared about money when you had all the loyal friends in the world? Well, that's what she thought until Anthony got caught cheating. But now she understood. She was hesitant to tell her friends because she didn't want them to feel that she was better than they were, because she wasn't, or feel embarrassed because while they were struggling to pay rent and find suitable jobs out of college, she was sitting on a nest egg that she didn't earn. The only difference between Annette and the regular rich kid … well, the minority of them … is that she wanted to earn her bread and that is why she believed in working like the average Joe.
"What do you mean? You can relate? Can you possibly imagine what it feels like to have money that you don't know what to do with? Or so much money that your friends think that you're the bank? I'm not trying to start something here, but that's why we don't tell females shit about what we have because most of them are gold diggers or will become gold diggers. It's very seldom that we come across some, like you, that don't give a shit about our money. You know what I'm saying? If we were dead broke, I want her to think of me in the same way," Troy went on.
"And you might think we're just making this stuff up to boost our egos or something, but we're not. If you were in our shoes, you would know what it's like to get burned and feel like a complete dummy in the end."
"I don't know what it's like to get burned, but I know what it's like to hide the fact that you don't come from money," Annette said. She felt that it was okay to tell Troy and Jordan about her secret. The secret that none of her friends knew.
"What do you mean? You got rich parents or something," Troy asked, reaching out to grab another beer from the cooler.
"Yes. I've already told Jordan that both of my parents are deceased … died in a car accident when I was just four years old. Like you two, my parents were self-made millionaires. On their death, the entire estate was handed down to me. I wasn't rich on the spot because the will required that the majority of the money be reinvested on the regular by their financial advisor. My aunt, who raised me, got a sizable chunk of that fortune. She always wanted to send me off to the finest private schools and colleges with that money, but I refused. I wanted to go to a normal school and live a normal life. I felt abnormal already as it was, seeing other kids bring two parents to all the dance rehearsals, and choir practices, and what not. I just wanted to be seen as normal, so I went to a regular old college and got a regular old business degree. On my college graduation day, I inherited everything."
"Word?" Troy said, looking at her like she just told him that she was an alien from outer space.
"Really? Why didn't you tell me that?" Jordan asked, looking confused.
"It wouldn't have made a difference, one way or the other."
"And you were beating up on me for not telling you … ?"
"I'm still not believing this. Sorry for asking, but are you bluffing?"
"No, it's true. I have four different checking accounts and two investment accounts, some of which is managed by my investment broker, I pay for everything in cash, except for when I just feel like pulling out my AmEx card, that's why I have always been hesitate when accepting a job position, because I want to do what I want to do. When I finally accept a position, I want it to be because I enjoy doing that job."
"That makes sense now," Jordan nodded.
"Don't get me wrong, though, I think I share your values of living responsibly now to live just as freely when you're old. That's why I believe that finding my own career is crucial to my future."
"You're a smart girl, Annette," Troy said. "It's always a good thing to have a back up plan, a career to fall back on." Troy grabbed two more bottles of beer out of the cooler. "Well, I'll be back in a few. Ramona and I have some getting to know each other to do." Troy turned to look at the girl sitting beside him, who had been waiting so patiently. They both got up and starting walking away from the beach.
"Now, we understand each other, Annette. Can we promise each other something?"
"What kind of promise?"
"That we never keep secrets from each other anymore, no matter what?"
"I promise," Annette whispered, leaning back on the beach sand.
"So do I," Jordan said.
"Can I ask you something, Jordan, and you not get upset?" Annette turned towards Jordan, running her fingers through her hair.
Jordan reached up and ran his fingers through the same strands of hair that she had just touched. "Anything. I will never get upset with you for asking me anything. That's part of getting to know each other." His hands moved down to her waist.
"Have you initiated any females into this group?"
"I have. As a matter of fact, I am a considered a senior member of this group now, so it's expected of me to recruit new members. I initiated Alex, the guy you met the first day we went riding and Justin, but I don't think you've met him. There's also Phillip, who lives in Florida now. A couple other fellas who hang out with the mature members, I also initiated. Those guys were long time friends of mine, when I invited them into the group. The last time I initiated a female was a year ago."
"Where is she now? Is she here?"
"No, she's not with the group anymore. We weren't in a relationship if that's what you think. That was purely sex and convenience."
"I see." Annette wondered if Jordan considered her only sex and convenience. After what she blurted out in the room upstairs this morning, he had every right to.