Rescuing the Bad Boy (Second Chance #2)(103)

He was about to open his mouth and shout for Aless, when the man himself rounded the corner, unbuttoning cuff links, his eyebrows nearly hitting his widow’s peak.

“Donovan.” He gave him a once-over, then a smile. Alessandre looked like him in a way. Full head of black hair, but the cut shorter, and with hints of gray at the temples, thick eyebrows, similar height. The main differences were Aless’s dark brown eyes and an accent muddled from years of travel.

“You can’t buy the mansion,” Donovan told him.

His smile faded. “No?”

“No.” Donovan crossed his arms, shivering slightly in the air-conditioned house.

Aless blinked at him a few times, then crossed his arms over his chest as well. A standoff. In business matters, Aless got what he wanted. One didn’t become wealthy and powerful without being good at bargaining. “What would you say if I told you the closing was finished?”

Donovan’s heart sank. “What?”

“What would you say if I told you I called Mr. Torsett and we closed a day early?”

Scott Torsett. Who Donovan had foolishly signed over power of attorney for the sale. It had happened without him.

Mind racing, he said, “Sell it back to me.”

Aless held up a hand.

Donovan didn’t let him speak.

“You can’t have the mansion, Aless. I’m going back.” Needing his friend, his mentor, to understand, he sucked in a breath and blurted out the truth. “The woman I love is there. And so’s my dog,” he added, vowing to find Gertie and hoping whoever owned her wasn’t too attached. Wondering what he’d have to pay to get her back.

Wondering what he’d have to do to get Sofie back.

Now fighting a hangover from the rum and dehydration from the coffee, Donovan realized he didn’t have a plan yet for how to win Sofie. Well. He could come up with something on the flight home.

Home. He waited for the sting of that word. It didn’t come.

“You’re going back to Evergreen Cove for a woman?” Aless asked.

“Why is not your concern. How much? That’s the only question now.”

Alessandre raised an eyebrow, unfazed by Donny’s anger.

“How much?” Donovan asked on a near shout.

Aless shook his head. “No need to haggle.”

“Listen, I want the mansion and you’re going to sell it back to me.” Donovan wasn’t above putting Alessandre in his place. Not for something this important. “I get that you want the house for your next project, but this isn’t a project to me. This is my life. You and I have similar pasts. You know as well as I do why we are both single without families.” He gave his friend a meaningful glare. “You know.”

Donovan learned from Caroline that Aless, too, had an abusive father. It wasn’t hard to guess by the man’s reverent silence now that Aless knew Donovan’s past as well. God bless Caroline’s meddling.

“I think of Sofie and you know what I think of next?” Here it went, laying it out for the first time. “A family. Babies, Aless. Kids. I never imagined a day I’d want a child of my own.”

His only thoughts involving children revolved around how he shouldn’t have any lest he further Robert Pate’s abominable bloodline. He swallowed thickly. “Never thought I’d have a reason to try.”

“I can’t sell you the mansion, Donovan.”

His chest went hollow. Before he could humiliate himself by begging—which he was not above doing in this case, Aless spoke again.

“I don’t own it. And I’m not buying it.”

Donovan digested that statement. Alessandre didn’t own it. He didn’t… buy it? What happened? Not that it mattered. The mansion was Donovan’s. Step one. Now to figure out— “You mentioned a dog?” Aless’s eyes went over Donovan’s shoulder, and a small smile tipped his mouth.

On cue, a bark sliced through the air. Donovan turned to find a big, wet dog, white-with-brown-patches, pale blue eyes, and tongue lolling, scraping across the wood floors. Gertie bounded over to him, hitting him square in the chest with cold paws.

“Hey, girl.” He caught the dog’s square head in his hands and squinted at Aless. “Why do you have Gertie?”

“I brought her,” a soft voice said.

He turned his head to see a woman step into Aless’s living room. A brunette toweling her wet hair, her green eyes rapidly filling with tears.

Gertie’s paws left his chest, courtesy of Alessandre. “I’ll take her outside and give you two a moment.”

But his voice sounded miles away. All Donovan could do was stare at the woman he’d just announced he wanted to have children with.

“Scampi, what are you doing here?”

“Currently?” She blinked a few times. “Crying.”

He rushed to her. When she was within grabbing distance, he pulled her into his arms and laid a kiss on her mouth. She melted into him, her lips cold, her tongue warm, wet clothes sticking to his. She tasted incredible, like he remembered, but somehow new.

Because you love her.

So much.

He pulled his lips from hers but didn’t loosen his hold on her.

“Sofie, baby.”

“Donny.” Her hands linked around his neck, her fingers in his hair.