Page 130 of Scandalous Lover

I smile over at him, happy to have finally broken through his gruff exterior. “If you’ll have me.”

He huffs and smiles. “We would be a force to be reckoned with.”

“Unstoppable.”

He folds his arms and cocks his head at me. “Speaking of which, you’re getting awfully close to accessing your trust. Any big plans?”

I shake my head. “My big plans are here on Faraday. In a little room in the jungle. Maybe a small Wi-Fi upgrade, but that’s about it for now.”

Dom actually laughs at that. “That damn property. He won’t give it up, even with all the trouble it’s caused him.”

“It’s a point of contention.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You know? You know that he feels like he’s less than you guys and is always trying to find ways to prove he’s good enough? Why don’t you do something about it?”

Dom shrugs. “What can I do? He feels that way despite all of us reassuring him that he’s an important part of the team, the most important part if we’re being serious. That’s his own demon to battle. Nothing I can do is going to change any of it.”

“You could sign over his part of the resort to him.”

He looks over at me sharply. “What do you mean?”

“Sam told me that you paid his share. That he isn’t a partner at all, that I’m more of an owner than he is because all the money came from the Fuentes fortune.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s not true. Or, at least, it’s not entirely true.” He lets out a heavy sigh. “I’ll look into it. I never paid that much attention to the paperwork. Ben handled it all. But if Sam thinks that, he must have seen something in those contracts that I didn’t.”

I watch as his forehead crinkles and his eyes fall closed. “I wish he would have said something sooner.”

“It seems you’re not the only one with communication skills to work on.” I get a bit of side eye from Dom and smile. “I guess we all have something.”

“So you’re staying on the island.”

I nod.

“Well, if you need a place to stay, your room is always open. Or we could get you an apartment or a house or something. You know, if it’s too soon for you to live in shanty town with Sam.”

“You can’t call it that,” I say with a laugh.

Dom laughs, too. “I know. Bad habit. But seriously, let me know. And if you want a job…”

I smile and shake my head. “The job at The Sands isn’t what I’m looking for, but I am going to start working with Fran on weddings.”

He smiles. “She’ll be happy to hear that.”

We fall into a comfortable silence, both looking out over the gorgeous view, sipping our now cold coffee.

I start to hear noises from inside the house and feel our sibling time coming to an end. “Dom?”

He looks over at me. “Hmm?”

“I’m glad to have you now. Even though we missed a lot of years. I’m happy we made it here.”

“It’s not too late?”

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