Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
But today’s also a good day for better reasons. Today marks the first day of me officially stepping back from work at the company I built from nothing. And I couldn’t be more excited.
After all, Castle Capital will run just fine without me physically being at the office. Cole is as much a bulldog as me when he wants to be, and I know he’s keeping the ship sailing on course. Castle Capital was my life - I mean hell, I fucking lived above it. But that was then. That was before I found my true soulmate in this world and realized there were more important things in life.
Like my family, who’s just fallen asleep watching the world’s goofiest cartoon movie. I glance at my wife and grin in the near-darkness of the living room. She nods, smiling back, and the two of us stand with the bundles of blankets and pajamas in our arms. James, our four-year-old, is snoring quietly in my arms, and I can see Parker, our two-year-old daughter, asleep in Lyra’s as we bring them down the hall to their rooms.
We’re not in the same place, of course — not living above my company anymore. It was certainly big enough, don’t get me wrong, but too close to work.
No, we’re in a different place now. Still a penthouse, still on top of an obnoxiously big building, and still with fantastic views though. I mean, I may have stepped back from work, but I still have more money than I could possibly spend. And besides, fuck it: I know what I like and what I want.
Clearly, I think as I gaze at my wife, tucking Parker into bed.
My Lyra. My angel.
Our relationship raised questions and brows of course. After all, she was eighteen, I was twenty years older. But it worked, and it continues to be the strongest relationship I’ve ever even conceived of. And after all, I fell in love with all of her — body and soul, the physical beauty and the gorgeous, deep, inquisitive and fierce spirit inside. So, it was a lot more than just her age, trust me. It’s not like I was some sort of pervert.
…Well, maybe a bit of one, but I don’t think she did or ever will complain about that.
And in the end, if anyone did or does have a problem with us and our relationship? Fuck em. Who cares? Play for keeps, take what’s yours, and and keep what you take.
I still live by that motto, by the way.
With the kids asleep, we move back to the living room and collapse onto the couch. We could have paid help when it comes to our kids, and we do, while we’re both at work. But when we can be home with them, there’s no need for anyone else. Exhausting? Hell yes. But worth every fucking back ache and lost hour of sleep.
Here’s another thing I love about my wife. When the two of us go together, she could have just stepped back from everything and lived a very comfortable life doing nothing but yoga and shopping. But, that’s not the life for Lyra, and it’s one of the reasons I’m so crazy about her. She still went to school, and still killed it there, and still got into an incredible business graduate program after getting her undergraduate in art history and antiquities. She blind-pitched (so they wouldn’t know it was my wife) a board of my trusted advisors on a new investment idea for Castle Capital, and they ate it up.
So, that’s what she runs now: the new art and antiquities wing of our investment portfolio, which not only deals with crazy expensive ancient art, but is also one of the top donators to public school art programs and un-funded new artists. And she’s kicking ass too. She’s smart as as whip, and even though a lot of people underestimate her when they first meet her because of her age, it’s an advantage. There’ve been many CEOs of other trusts or other foundations who walked out of meeting with my angel feeling like they’d gotten their balls sliced off after she showed them how much of a killer instinct she really has.
That’s my girl.
On the couch, she snuggles into me, tracing a finger over my chest as she sighs.
“Should we watch something slightly less manic and animated?” She grins as she looks up at me. “There’s that new movie with—”
“I can think of seeming more fun than a movie.”
The flush comes into her cheeks instantly, and as they grow red, her eyes get that hungry glint to them. Yeah, I think we can both think of something more fun to do right now then a movie. Because despite the four-year-old, and the two-year-old, and the jobs, and the way life just heaps on you sometimes, there’s one thing we both always seem to find time for, no matter what.