Eye in the Sky Bk 02: Artifact Ch. 03

I must thank my team. Harddaysknight is my mentor and gives me critical review. SBrooks103x also gives me a pre-post read. My editors are Girlinthemoon, Hale1 and GeorgeAnderson. I thank you all.

The Jet Ski churned through the crystal clear water. Oliver kept it around 25 knots and half-turned to watch Kane weaving back and forth across the wake. Ben towed Bannon just ahead and a little farther out. The girls had never skied before and discovered they loved it. Bannon popped up out of the water easily and on her third try she had it mastered. It took Kane a little longer. The physics were a little more difficult because she was bigger, but she was persistent and strong and once she learned to lean back and let him snap her up out of the water, she was up and flying.

They skied until they were exhausted, relaxed on the beach and ate lunch. They played in the water for a while and Oliver tied on tubes and they rode the tubes out in the surf, bouncing and shrieking across the chop.

They went shark fishing, hiked over the island, took the flats boat to an exposed sand island and spent the day and rode ATV's around the island.

They took The Nimbus out and spent two days and nights at sea. The time passed when they could have taken The Nimbus back to Nassau, and the girls wanted to stay on the island for the two more days.

The day they had to leave, Kane got up and took a shower. She put on a white fluffy robe and walked downstairs. She got some fruit Monique had cut up and put out and a cup of coffee and went looking for Oliver.

She found him at his desk in the library, typing away at his computer. He was very involved and didn't notice her until she came up behind his chair and set her coffee on his desk. She wrapped her free arm around his neck and looked over his shoulder, munching a piece of apple with her head against his.

"Whacha' writing?" she asked him.

"It's my latest book," he told her. "I'm about halfway through, and I've got my hero's into a jam. I'm trying to get them out of it."

"What's the name of it?"

He showed her the first page and she read "Working Title," at the top of the page. She laughed.

"What's it about?"

"It's about this wonderful guy that meets a very beautiful girl. Just as they're starting to get acquainted she flies away and leaves him. He spends the rest of the book with a broken heart and dies horribly in the end."

She stood up and threw back her head laughing. She spun his chair around to face her. She pushed his legs apart, sat on his knee and pulled his head against her.

"I don't want to go, Oliver. I just have to get back. I'm not professionally decadent like you. I have to get a job and start a career so I can take care of myself and Bannon. This has been like a dream and I don't want to wake up, but the sad truth is that I live in Belfast and I can't stay here. Maybe we can come back some day."

"I'll buy you both a ticket any time you're free," he told her. "Do you know, Kane, I can give you a job."

"What do you mean? What kind of job?"

"Well, you know I need an estate manager. I'm going to have to try and find one when we go to Nassau. You could do that. I've been thinking about this. You're smart and organized and all my people respect you. If that's not enough, I'll be finished with this book in a month. If you want to be my literary agent, I'll give you that job, too. My contract expired two years ago with my publisher. I've got two proposals for movie deals that I haven't touched. If you take the standard agent's fee that's quite a lot of money. I'll get an eight to ten million dollar advance. After that, once it sells more than about 600 thousand copies I'll get up to about 20 percent in royalties. If you were to negotiate the upper limits of that and take 15 percent for your fee, that's 150 thousand dollars from the advance alone."

Kane was shocked. This was something she hadn't expected. The thought of making 150 thousand dollars made her heart skip a beat.

"Don't you already have an agent?"

"Yes, but I don't have a contract. I'll fire her and hire you."

"I don't know anything about negotiating a book deal."

"So learn, you've got as long as you want. I don't need to sell this book. I'll wait till you're up to speed. I won't be finished for at least a month."

"I don't even know who to talk to. They won't take me seriously because I'm not an agent."

"Who says you're not an agent? Do you think agents just get a degree in being agents? If you say you're an agent and you have this book to sell, you're an agent. Do you really think that if you show up on the doorstep of any publisher in the world and tell them that you have the first book of a new trilogy by Oliver Brennan for sale that they'll tell you to get lost?"

"Why wouldn't they? I'm nobody from nowhere."

"I don't think you really know who I am, Kane. Trust me, if you pick up the phone right now and call any publishing house in the world and tell them you have half of a new book by Oliver Brennan, they'll send a private jet for you, fly you to their office and put you up at the best hotel in the city."

"Are you really that good?"

"No, but when I'm on my game I'm pretty good, and I know how to write books that will sell. I've had 20 consecutive best sellers. I'm no Hemmingway, but I'm big. Trust me; you won't have any trouble selling this book."

"How much will you pay me to be your manager?"

"I think the title would be executive assistant. I'll tell you what; you take care of me and I'll take care of you. I hate taking care of details. I can do it and I can show you how, but I don't like talking on the phone, I don't like doing deals and I don't like managing my money. You take care of all that and I'll match what you make on the book deals."

"Jesus Oliver, that's 300 thousand dollars."

"Yes, but that's not all, if you negotiate those movie deals you can probably double that. I'm worth more than 400 million dollars, Kane. I have real estate all over the world and my money makes money. I may not seem like that to you because you see me living simply here with my son. That's because I'm a simple man. I sold my first book when I was about your age and I really never liked all the attention that came with it. Ben's mother never liked it either, but she did all the stuff for me that I would give to you to do. We wanted Ben to grow up without being a celebrity's kid."

Kane was overwhelmed. Her mind was spinning and she didn't know what to say.

"Well, I don't know what to do. Do you know why I came down here Oliver?"

"No, I thought you just got up and were keeping me company."

"I did, and I am, but I thought this was going to be our last day here and I didn't know if I'd ever see you again. I came down here to seduce you Oliver. I'm not going to do that, anymore."

"I take it all back," he told her. "You're leaving today and this may be the last time you ever see me."

She laughed and hugged his head to her. "The reason I'm not going to do it is that you just totally destroyed the mood. Damn it, Oliver. I had this all planned out and you've ruined it, but maybe there's something else now."

She stood up and held his head between her hands and kissed him. "Let me go get dressed and think for a minute. This is not how I had my life planned."

She took her cup and went upstairs to Bannon's room. She woke her little sister up and lay beside her, hugging her slender form to her breast.

"Kane, is something wrong?"

"No honey, well, maybe. How would you like to live here, Bannon?"

"I would love it, but how could we do that? Can we? I have to tell you, Kane, I really like Ben. I think I would like to be his girlfriend. I think he likes me, too, but I never dreamed, I mean, what in the world are you talking about?"

She began to cry. "It isn't nice to make me think about staying when you know very well we can't."

Kane began to cry as well. "I'm so sorry, Sis. I wasn't just getting your hopes up; I was asking you a serious question. I know how you feel about Ben. I feel the same way about Oliver. The thing is, he offered me a job. If I take it we will live here and I'll work for him. I don't know how that will change how I feel about him. It's a big decision, honey. I'm scared and I needed to hold you and talk to you about it. You're all I've got."

"Will you make lots of money?"

"Obscene amounts of money. More money in one year than Dad made his whole life."

"So what's not to like? We live in the coolest house I've ever seen, on the coolest island in the world with the coolest boy I've ever met; we live with someone you want for a boyfriend and we have lots of money. You're being silly, Kane."

"I know, but I just need to think about it. What if I do want Oliver to be my boyfriend? Will it be weird if I work for him? If we come here, I won't be doing what I went to college to do. If he fires me or I quit, will I still be able to get a job doing something I'm actually qualified to do?"

"Let's go talk to him," Bannon said. "Maybe he can answer some of those questions."

She got out of bed and led Kane back downstairs. She went into the kitchen and told Monique what she wanted for breakfast, got a glass of orange juice and led Kane into the library. Oliver was sitting with his head in his hands. He looked up when they came in and Bannon went to him and leaned against his back with her arms encircling him.

"Oliver, we need to talk," she told him.

"I know. Kane, I've messed things up and I'm very sorry. I combined two things that have nothing to do with each other and made it awkward. I didn't want you to go. I should have just kept my mouth shut. I hate the thought of you two leaving."

"We don't want to go, either," she told him. "The thing about holidays is that they come to an end."

"Yes, but I've never had anything like you two happen to me on vacation. If you go to Disney you realize that you have to leave. You can't live at an amusement park. You wouldn't even want to live there. It would be a small world pretty quickly. I've never been in this situation before. Ben and I have only lived here a month and I started thinking about the house and the island after you leave. I started thinking I don't know how I'll ever be satisfied being here by ourselves."

"That's very sweet Oliver," Bannon told him. "I don't want to go back to Belfast. I'll think of something I want to tell Ben, or you, and I'll turn and you won't be there. That makes me sad. What's the other thing you mixed in?"

"Well, I offered Kane a job. I was trying to think of a way for you to stay, and I knew she was looking for a job and I was looking for someone to do a job. I offered it to her. I know it seems like I was trying to bribe her to stay, but I really didn't mean it that way. I didn't mean it like that, Kane."

"Well it made me feel all confused. I really like you, and I was sad like Bannon about leaving, but I was going to make a sweet memory with you. Then all of a sudden this other thing came up. It sounds like you're trying to get us to stay by offering me a job I'm not qualified for."

"That's not the way I meant it, and I apologize for being an idiot. I want you to stay because it makes me happy for you to be here. It makes Ben happy for you to be here. That's it. I want you to stay, but I know you can't stay and just put the rest of your life on hold. So, I want you to stay, and there's a job available on this island for you if you want to stay. There's no strings attached. I'll still give you the job if you don't stay. How does that sound? Don't tell me you aren't qualified. You're smart and practical. You just graduated from college. You were an Olympic Volleyball player. That shows dedication and commitment. All you have to do is be prepared. You walk in there and they see you and they hear you and you know your stuff and you'll knock them dead.

She tried to interrupt, but Oliver waved her objections off. "I have lawyers who will tell you everything you need to know. You'll be qualified. I wasn't qualified when I wrote my first book. You learn the job by doing it. So, here's what I think you should do. I think you should get on the plane and go back to Belfast. I'll send my legal team to you and you meet with them. Then you decide whether you want the job or not and let me know. If you decide to take it, then you can come back here, or you can do it from Belfast. I'll buy two open ended tickets to Nassau that you can use any time you get a chance. If you don't take the job maybe you could use it to come back on whatever holiday they have in Northern Ireland. You're welcome any time."

"Kane, I think that's perfect," Bannon told her.

She nodded. "I think so, too. Thanks, Oliver."

"There's one more thing." He picked Bannon up and stood. He squeezed her so hard that she gasped and kissed her cheeks over and over. "I love you, Bannon, and I want you in my life whenever you get a chance to visit us."

He put her down, walked toward Kane and she backed away until her back was against the wall. He reached behind her, pulled her firmly against his body and kissed her fiercely. She stiffened a little, and then as his lips worked against hers, she melted into his embrace. The kiss went on and on, and she was gasping when he finally pulled away. He kept holding her and looked into her eyes. "If you don't come back soon I'm coming to Belfast to find you. I'm not letting you get away without finishing what you came down here this morning to do."

She blushed deeply and kissed him again. Bannon cleared her throat and Oliver opened their embrace and pulled her in.

She pulled him down and whispered in his ear. "I love you, too, Oliver, and I think you did the right thing kissing Kane. She really, really likes you."

"Thanks, Bannon; keep reminding her," he whispered back.

"What are you two conspiring about?" Kane asked. "I'm right here, you know."

They packed their bags. Oliver thought it was a good sign that they left most of their new clothes behind. They got Ben up, drove down to the helicopter hanger and Oliver used the golf cart to tow the chopper out.

They got in, he fired the big turbines up and the bird whirred to life. The thumping air grew louder and Oliver eased the big bird off the ground. Neither girl had ever ridden in a helicopter before, and they clutched the armrests tightly. Oliver cruised at about 200 yards off the water and in a couple of hours they landed at the same airport from which the girls were flying.

They stood in line with them until they were checked through the metal detector. Oliver and Ben hugged the girls, kissed them goodbye and they boarded the plane. They went back to the chopper and flew home.

"I'm going to miss them," Ben told his father.

*****

Kane took two months to make up her mind. She had been offered a job with the men's soccer team as an athletic trainer. She learned that it paid 69 thousand dollars a year. She met with Oliver's legal team and spent two weeks going over what to look for in a book contract. She learned what would be required of her as a fiduciary in managing his investment portfolio. She decided that she could handle the job and called Oliver.

"Do you still want me?" was her first question. Finding that he did, that he had finished the first book and was ready for her to offer it to a publisher made up her mind.

"Oliver, I don't want this to get in the way of our friendship," she told him. "If you don't feel like we can have the same relationship we had before, I won't do it. I want to be your friend, not your employee."

"My wife did these same things for me. It never came between us. I trust you Kane. I know you'll make mistakes, but that doesn't bother me. If I only had 100 dollars, it might be different. I only offered you the job because I wanted you here with us and I knew you couldn't be here without a job. I think you can do it or I wouldn't have offered it to you. I'll never ask you about it unless there's something I think you need help with. You do the job, we get to have you here because you are our friends and life will be good. You don't know how much we've missed you. The house seems empty without you and Bannon here. I don't know how I can explain it any better. We want you here. I think we've got the beginning of something special. I don't want you to take the job if it messes that up. Will you at least give it a try?"

"I want to do it," she told him. "We'll fly out next week and let's just see how it goes, okay?"

"I couldn't think of anything better," he told her. "We'll be waiting at Nassau when you get here."

He was as good as his word. When Kane and Bannon touched down in Nassau, a man was standing in the airport holding a sign with their names on it. He collected their bags and drove them to the port where The Nimbus was waiting.

Ben was standing on deck looking for them when they arrived, and he shouted for Oliver when he saw the car pull up. Oliver came running, they ran to the dock and helped the girls carry their bags. They got them stowed away and The Nimbus put out to sea.

The girls changed into clothes more suited to being on a boat, they met on the back deck and began to catch up on what was going on.

Kane and Bannon were wearing white shorts and bikini tops and Ben had brought sodas for himself and Bannon, and beer for Oliver and Kane.

They reclined on the big cushions and Oliver pulled Kane down beside him, pulling her close. She snuggled her cheek against his chest and draped her legs over his. She sighed.

"I've missed this," she told him. "I think I was born to be a boat girl. Can we just live on this boat?"

He laughed. "I suppose we can. How long do you want to stay?"

"I think for the rest of my life. But really, how long can we just cruise around?"

"We can go more than 3000 miles," he told her, "then we have to refuel. We can stay as long as you want. We could take a cruise if you want to. We could just stop at all the islands and pretend we're on a cruise ship. Do you want to do that?"

"I think I do. Can I work from here?"

"What kind of work do you need to do?"

"Well, if I'm going to sell your book, I need to make some calls, maybe see some people face to face, and talk to the legal team from time to time."

"Then you can do that. We have satellite phones, you can set up any meetings you need, fly the people to whatever island you choose and meet with them there."

"Who do you want to sell the book to?" she asked him.

"The big companies are Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and Hachette Livre. I recommend against that last one. They have some sort of problem with Amazon and it's complicated. Any of the others will do unless you want to take some small company and help them make a splash."

"No, I'm happy with one of those. Do you know who I need to talk to?"

Oliver knew all the major players and he promised to give her names and numbers when she was ready.

"So, tell me what's been going on with Darby Island," she asked.

"Well, we've got the housing done for the people who work for us," he told her. "They've all moved in and the house seems a little empty. You and Bannon will live with us if you want to, in Baxter House."

"That's what we planned unless you want to get rid of us," she teased.

"It will be tight quarters, but we'll manage," he laughed. "I set up an office for you in the library with me. We won't worry about if for a few weeks if we're going island hopping. Say, Kane, do you mind if I kiss you?"

"I don't recall you asking before," she told him. "I was waiting for you to just push me up against a wall."

"No walls handy," he told her. "I'll just have to make do."

He tilted her chin up with one hand and claimed her lips. Bannon squealed when she noticed.