Page 65 of The Billionaire's Teacher

I shrugged. “And Mom and The General want to do this Christmas cruise. I invited him along, because it beat trying to split the difference and not deal with his guilt trips. He’s a big no on the cruise though, and probably isn’t speaking to me anymore.”

“Mixed blessing.” Cody shot an understanding glance my way. “My dad’s currently in the same boat. All because I don’t want to meet the woman he cheated on Mom with.”

I winced. “Sorry, man.”

“So there really isn’t a chance for something between you and this woman?” Austin tossed his cards into the center. “I’m out.”

I shook my head. She hadn’t even looked back, not once, when she got off the plane in Puerto Rico. She’d practically run off the plane in the first place. Now, a week later, I’d had two emails and one phone call from Zee to close out my dealings with the charter company and when I’d worked up the courage to ask about Sunshine, I’d gotten the brushoff. A professional one. But still a brushoff.

I tossed my cards in. “I’m out. Cody can’t shuffle for beans.”

“Hey. It’s not like I know what I’m dealing to anyone. You get what you get.”

Scott pointed at Cody, then me. “And you don’t have a fit.”

I laughed. “How’s that work on Beckett?”

Scott waggled his hand from side to side. “Depends on how much he wanted whatever he didn’t end up with.”

“Exactly.” I blew out a breath and pushed away from the table. “On the positive side, I think I might buy that island.”

“Whoa. Back up.” Noah set his cards down on the table. “You want to buy an island?”

“Yeah. I think I do.” I lifted a shoulder. “I get how it sounds. I mean, come on. Who owns a whole island, right? But it’d be great for hosting dive trips. Totally unique compared to what other operations are able to offer. And I’d be happy to vacation there.”

“What about the Caymans?” Scott frowned. “We have a house there. I guess I thought you’d all either hang there or get your own place nearby. It’s kind of our thing, you know?”

“I know. It’s not like I can’t do both.” I stood and went to the food table. Maybe it was dumb, but I couldn’t get the island out of my mind. I’d done a little online digging and was pretty sure I’d found the real estate listing for it. The coordinates were close—not exact—and the photos of the house were spot on.

If I pictured Sunny in all of them? Well, that was my own problem to deal with.

“Anyway. I’m going to reach out to the listing agent on Monday. Then we’ll see what we see.” I dropped another half-sub on my plate and returned to the table.

“What’s it listed for?” Tristan added more of his chips to the pot.

“Twenty-five.” I left off the million. It felt odd to tack on. And the guys would figure it out.

“For an island? That’s cheap.” Tristan rested his cards on the table. “What’s wrong with it?”

I laughed. Only Tristan. “The house needs some work. Hopefully not a complete demo and start over. It’s a little over two hundred acres, which appears to be in the midsize range for private islands in the Caribbean.”

“Who knew?” Austin shook his head.

“Yeah.” I took a bite of my sandwich. “It’s only got the one house. There’s a dock of sorts on the other side of the island from where we landed, but the pictures suggest it’ll need a ton of work, too. I think that factors into the price.”

“So how much are you going to have to put into it to make it livable? Or functional for your dive stuff?” Scott tossed his cards in. “I’m out.”

“Dunno. That’ll be part of negotiating, I guess. The current owners got into some tax issues, so when they left, they didn’t care if stuff got ruined. It’s not a short sale, but they’re also pretty motivated.”

“Tax issues?” Tristan frowned. “That could be bad news.”

“Not really. I guess the owners didn’t realize that just because it was a private island it wasn’t also a sovereign nation. So they weren’t paying property tax.” I pulled out my phone and made a note to ask the agent what that was likely to run. I could afford the purchase. I could afford to rehab the house and build up the dock. But if it was going to be a big outlay every year for taxes, I might have to rethink if it would be worth it in the end. “It’s part of the decision-making though, for sure.”

“Shoot me the info when you get it. I’ll do some research and see if there’s more you should know before you dive in. International real estate isn’t my field though.” Tristan shook his head. “You and Scott, man.”

“What did I do?” Scott held his hands out, insult obvious on his face.

“You bought that place in the Caymans?” Tristan didn’t add a “duh” but it was clearly implied.

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