Page 131 of Scandalous Lover

The sadness in his voice hits me right in the gut. I know we still have a lot to work through after this conversation, but I know I have my brother now, and it feels good.

“No, it’s not too late.”

Chapter Forty-Seven

Sam

“Sam, can I get a minute?”

My head turns at the sound of Ben’s voice from the doorway of my office. I’m just packing my stuff up and getting ready to head out after putting in a solid half-day. Now that I know the resort can run just fine without me, I may be taking a few more of these now and then.

It doesn’t hurt that there’s now going to be someone waiting at home for me, either.

“Sure, man. Of course. I didn’t realize you were still on the island. What’s up?”

He remains leaning on the doorframe, tall and dark, looking more business casual than usual in black shorts and a short sleeve button up. Ben recently found love himself and it looks good on him. We don’t see him down here as much as we’d like, as his world mostly revolves around his New York office, his son who’s in college up there, and now his lovely Pilates instructor fiancé. Still, once every other month or so is more often than most people get to escape to the tropics, even if he is working quite a bit when he’s on island.

“Upstairs. In the conference room,” he replies.

My eyebrows go up, but I remain firmly seated in my chair.

It’s not that I don’t love a good meeting, but the last time I got pulled away for one of these mysterious meetups by one of the owners, it didn’t go so well for me.

Ben sees my hesitation and softens. “Nothing painful, I promise. Just got some paperwork laid out up there.”

Leave it to one of your best friends to know your weaknesses.

I’ll never say no to some good, old-fashioned paperwork.

He holds the door to the third-floor conference room open to let me enter ahead of him.

I have to hold back my surprise at the crowd gathered in the medium sized room.

Avery, of course, with Fran tucked under one arm. Reina and Victoria, Ben’s fiancé, share the loveseat along one wall. Our HR manager and her staff are standing beside them, as well as most of the department managers from the resort. I see Daniel from the spa and Marcus from Reef. I nod in greeting to our real estate agent, Karen, and Mackenzie, the local import/export boss.

After glancing around the full room, my eyes fall to the table where, indeed, there is quite a bit of paperwork laid out. As curious as I am about the cohort of people assembled here, I’m even more interested in the papers. I can see copies of the original purchase agreements for the resort. I see the legal documents Ben drew up for our new corporation, one where we would all be partners in this crazy venture.

I’m just taking a step forward to examine them closer when the door flies open once more, hitting the wall behind it and making the room jump collectively.

“Sorry I’m late,” Dom says, “Naomi was up at the house and we got talking.”

I watch as his face transforms. I’ve been getting more and more used to seeing emotion on the hard features of my most closed-off friend when he looks at his bride to be, but this is different.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say the guy’s been crying.

“It’s no prob?—”

I start to reassure him, although it’s hardly my place to do so, considering I have no idea what he’s late for, but he silences me with a massive hug.

“I’ve missed her so much.”

I let the words and their meaning settle over me and slowly bring my arms up to hug him back. I can’t think of anything to say, so I just hold him for a long moment.

When he pulls away, he’s indeed wiping his eyes.

“I probably would have died not ever knowing Naomi as a person. I never would have backed down from that old shit. I would have died on my damn hill, waiting for her to be the first one to call. But you,” he pins me with the intense stare I’ve gotten used to holding my ground under over the years, “you’re going to keep her here, on my island, where I’ll get to know her. Sam, I never could have asked for that. I never would have thought to suggest it. Never would have taken a step back and looked at myself long enough to know that having her in my life was even what I needed. But that’s the Sam magic.”

He takes another step back and Ben comes up to stand beside him, one hand resting on his shoulder supportively. I watch as Avery takes up his other side.

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