Page 4 of The Bet
He could take the hint. He knew that if someone pissed Tobias off, his brother would cut them off and be done with them.
“You’re flying with mom and dad, right?” Tobias asked, indicating the topic was done with.
“Yup.”
Fuck, yes. Xavier’s insides tanked at the thought. Giselehadto come, if only to be a distraction. The 17-hour flight from New York to Fiji, with a stop in LA, was tough enough, and if his parents were going to be on the same flight, it was going to be hell on earth. On landing, they had to take a small plane or a boat from the main airport to Kawaya.
The thought of being stuck on the flight made his stomach churn. “Shame you decided to go a few days beforehand.” Otherwise they could all have traveled on Tobias’s private jet, and it would have made the journey bearable.
“It’s my wedding, and I’ll do whatever the hell I want.” Tobias was traveling a few days earlier with Savannah and Jacob. Everyone else was coming a few days later on commercial flights, all paid for by Tobias.
With it taking almost an entire day to get there, then four days on the island and a day to get back, it was going to be nearly a whole goddamn week. He had to make sure Gisele came along because, in that heat, with his parents and god knows who else, on an island that was remote; he’d go crazy unless he had something to do. AnddoingGisele would be the best way of passing the time.
Tobias gulped down his drink and announced that he was leaving.
“Already?”
He’d been hoping to hang around The Oasis for longer, and spend some increasingly rare time with his brother who he barely got to see much these days. It used to be the case that he could convince Tobias to come out every few months. Xavier used to insist on it just to get his workaholic brother out into the world of the living. But, ever since he had met and fallen in love with Savannah and her young son, Jacob, his brother no longer seemed to have much time for anyone else. Xavier missed that, a little.
“Has Savannah ordered you to be home for dinner?” The idea of domestic bliss bored the hell out of him.
“I promised Jacob I’d be home early.”
Xavier’s eyebrows shot north. Pretty soon Tobias Stone’s household would be like The Waltons. Saccharine bliss.
Enough to make him want to puke. What the hell had happened to the man once dubbed New York’s most eligible bachelor? Not that Tobias had ever been a player but, as Gisele had shown him on one of those stupid online celebrity websites, his brother still held strong on the list. It didn’t seem to matter that Tobias Stone was getting married. But what irritated him was seeing that he was number 7. And what pissed him off even more was finding out that Luke was number 4.
Number fucking 4.
And the man didn’t even seem to be interested in chicks.
As for himself, he knew why he was so far down the list. He was nowhere near as wealthy as Tobias.
He wasn’t a billionaire.
Yet.
And if truth be told, he wasn’t so sure he wanted to work that hard to become one. He was doing pretty well as he was.
