Page 128 of Scandalous Lover

Chapter Forty-Six

Naomi

The last thing I ever want to do is leave this man sleeping in bed, but I have to. He needs to rest for his shift in a few hours, and I have an important conversation looming over my head.

I creep out to Sam’s golf cart and click the key, navigating out to the main road and toward the resort. Toward my brother’s house.

I find him making coffee alone in the kitchen. “Morning.”

He raises his eyebrows but pulls another cup from the cupboard and fills them both. I watch with a smile as he adds two spoonfuls of brown sugar and a half inch of cream to mine. When he finally speaks, the tone of his voice takes me by surprise.

“I almost came looking for you, but Reina convinced me to wait for you to be ready and come to me.” The tenderness in his words is reflected in his eyes.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say this man had been crying.

My guard is so confused, all I can do is fall back on oldhabits and apologize for having done nothing wrong. “Sorry. I could have called, I was just busy with other things.”

His face twists into a wry smile. “Busy with other things could be the title of our entire relationship.”

I take the cup from him in silence, no idea what to say to that.

“Want to sit out on the patio?”

I nod and follow him out to the expansive deck overlooking the resort and the teal blue ocean, glittering in the early morning sun.

“You really are the king up here, huh?”

I mean it as a joke to lighten up the mood, but when Dom doesn’t answer, I feel the need to apologize once more. “Sorry, I?—”

“No. I know what you mean. You’re not the first person to have made that observation.”

His tone is unreadable, and I shift uncomfortably, like a child about to get in trouble. What is it about this man that does this to me? Probably a lifetime of history. And his resemblance to my father, who only spoke to me when I was in trouble.

“Sit,” he says, motioning to the chairs next to his on the deck, facing out over the unobstructed view.

I obey, crossing my legs and taking a sip of the delicious coffee. “Dang, this is really good.”

“I can order you a machine like I have, if you want.”

I smile over at him, hearing his words for what they are. An attempt at a truce.

I open my mouth to let him off the hook, but he stops me.

“Let me start, okay?” He doesn’t wait for my permission before going on, looking out over the ocean instead of at me. “I talked with Sam, but I’m sure you know that already. He…I…”

He breaks off in uncharacteristic hesitation, shifting in his seat to face me. “I’m sorry for how all of this went down. I’msorry that I haven't been there for you all these years. I had so many reasons and excuses planned for when we finally talked, but they all sound so stupid now. I just…I just lost a lot when she died. I was a kid and Mom was my entire world. You didn’t get to know her, which sucks, but I did. Twelve years is almost an entire childhood. She was the center of my universe and to have her sucked away so suddenly, it really affected me. I know it wasn’t your fault, but she was gone, and you were there instead, and I wasn’t able to ever separate the two things. It was all made worse by the fact that without her there, Dad turned all his focus on me. When she was alive, she shielded me from the brunt of it, mostly, or maybe I was too young for him to bother with. But once he lost her, turning me into the man he wanted became his only goal in life.”

He pauses for so long that it feels right to say something, so I do. “I’m not sure if that was worse than being ignored completely.”

Dom meets my gaze. “I don’t know either. I know that back then, I would have given anything to be left alone completely. I was jealous of the freedom you had. But the loneliness must have been hard as well. It’s not like there were many other options out there.”

I shrug. “I didn’t really know any different.”

We fall into silence for a few moments. When he finally speaks, it’s to offer something I dreamed of hearing my whole life—a glimpse into the family I never had. I should have known it wouldn’t be a fairy tale, considering how it all ended.

“They never really got along. No, I guess that’s not right. It was more like we hid from him. Mom and I would spend whole evenings tucked away in giant closets upstairs when he would get into his moods, which I understand now meant he was drunk. She spent her life avoiding him as much as possible. I don’t know why she never left. Maybe it was impossible. I’msure it would have been very difficult, considering he was the one with the fortune. She came from a local family, her parents had been killed in her late teens. Car accident. If I could go back, I’d ask her why she married him. I would give anything to know the story of how it all started.”

He looks out at the view. “I was too young to know to ask those kinds of things. When she got pregnant again, things got better. Dad was the happiest I ever remember seeing him. We went on family outings and had meals together. He was a changed person. I remember him smiling, kissing her belly. They would laugh and talk. It was the first time in my life I felt like I had parents, rather than just me and mom hiding from the scary monster. When it was time for you to come, I was sent away to stay with Ben’s family. And I never saw her again.”

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