Page 133 of Scandalous Lover

I nod, unsure of where this is going.

“Do you remember when I tore the side of that shirt crashing my bike? And my dad called up the owner of the team and ordered me another jersey with the same signature. And grounded me for a month when I threw a fit about not wanting a new jersey. About just wanting my old one. He threw it away and yelled at me for being ungrateful. Do you remember what you did?”

I huff out a soft laugh. “I’m pretty sure I snuck onto your estate and pulled it out of the trash.”

“But that’s not all,” Dom says and takes a deep breath. “You had your mom sew it up for me.”

I laugh again, remembering. “Yeah, I guess I do remember that. I’m surprised you remember, honestly. You had so many signed jerseys from all the players.”

“Yeah, but what I didn’t have was a mom who would help me fix what I broke. All I had was a father who threw money at me like I was a problem he wanted to silence. Who never took one second to try to understand why I was upset in the first place. You, though. You had a great mom. Still do. That’s what we were all missing. Someone who cared enough to show up with time and attention, rather than just sending gifts from afar. You learned that from her, and you gave it to us. I show up now in my own life, for my fiancé, for my employees and my friends, because of you. Because you showed me how. And shit, Sam, if you ever didn’t know that, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you’ve been thinking you don’t contribute to our lives because youdon’t have the same sized pockets. Without you, I would be my father.”

“Same,” Ben calls from down the table.

“Oh, hell yes. I would absolutely be that asshole,” Avery agrees with a full body shudder.

“You guys,” I start but I get silenced by all three of them standing to pull me into a group hug. It’s just as well, because I have no words to describe how much this all means to me.

I’ve lived the better part of my life feeling like I owe them something, when the whole time they were feeling the same way about me. I make a mental note to speak up in the future when I’m having doubts about my worthiness. I have spent years building trust in my friend group and in this community. I would be a fool not to lean on that support when I need it.

When we all finally pull away, I glance around the room, where there’s not a dry eye in sight. I smile at the sight of my entire management team and extended business partners all in one room together sharing a cry.

A soft throat clear brings our attention back to the table and we retake our seats, turning to the lawyer who is still wiping his misty eyes. I feel a hand on my shoulder and look up to find Naomi there, red eyes glittering lovingly down at me.

“We,” the lawyer pauses to cough once more to settle his voice. “We are here this afternoon to go over the original contracts and to sign and get notarized a new amendment Mr. Adams has brought to the table.”

I glance over at Ben, who gives me an encouraging eyebrow raise.

“The original papers are what you remember, of course. I’ll have you turn to the signature pages at the end of the corporate contract.”

He pauses while we get there. Ben finds it firstand shows Avery the page number. When we’re all staring down at the black, photographed copies of our decade old signatures, he goes on.

“There seems to be some misunderstanding about the structure of the corporation, so we’re here today to work that out. The purchase contract was drawn up here on Faraday, making the sale a foreign transaction, owned jointly by the four of you, as we can see on the signature page of that contract. The privately held company, however, is registered in New York. Subject to New York law, the four of you each hold twenty-five percent ownership of the corporation, and you also make up the entire board. To be clear, the purchase agreement, and the investment of funds decided by that agreement, is a completely separate entity from the corporation itself. The purchase agreement can in no way be used by any of the owners to claim a majority share of the corporation nor can it be used to gain additional voting power over the other board members.”

I nod to the man, understanding why we’re all here. I suppose I could have looked these papers over myself and come to these same conclusions, but having it spelled out in black and white by a lawyer does make me feel all that much better.

“That being said,” the lawyer goes on. “At the time of creation, you four, the board members, did not elect to assign yourselves titles. As you can see on the final signatory page, each of you was named as Partner only. And that is what we’re here today to change. If you’ll turn now to the new documents below the original contracts.”

I flip alongside the guys until we’ve all reached the new documents. They carry the letterhead from Ben’s firm back in the States.

“These documents have been drawn up to assign titles to the four board members. You can all turn to the last page whereyou will sign under your new assigned role to accept. We have a notary on hand today to finalize the paperwork.”

I glance to my best friends and co-owners on either side of me, none of whom are in any hurry to get to the last page.

They already know what they’re going to find there.

With a sigh, I flip to the end and find my own name, and the words underneath it, right above the blank signature line.

President.

I scan quickly to find the other assigned roles and find the titles. Dom is Vice President. Avery is Secretary. Ben is Treasurer.

“Does this mean we’re going to start having board meetings?” I joke quietly to the guys beside me.

“We already have board meetings, Sam. The four of us meet to make decisions about the resort every other month. Now they just have an official title. And we all have official roles. We should have done this at the beginning, but we were young and dumb. Better late than never.”

I look back at the papers in front of me. “President?”

“You’ve always been the damn boss, Sam, just sign the papers.”

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