Page 56 of Challenged by the Single Dad

Dom took a sip of his beer. “You know I don’t like to talk in front of large crowds. And with something so important riding on what I would say …” He shook his head. “You guys are much better speakers than I am.”

His brothers exchanged skeptical looks with each other.

“I’m fine with that,” Bennett said. “However, you will still need to be there. We are proposing this as a team—as a business—and you own one-fifth of this business. You’ll also need to field questions regarding any plans for the bar and restaurant.”

Dom nodded. “I can do that.”

“Would you guys like me to write drafts of what I think each of us should say? Or would you prefer to write your own piece that pertains to your portion of the business?” Bennett asked.

“Why don’t you write it so it’s cohesive,” Jagger said. “Has flow and the same speech pattern. I can help with that. Then once you have the rough draft—the bones, so to speak—we can add in the details we want to include.”

Dom, Clint, and Wyatt all nodded.

“I say we have a proposal at least somewhat ready by the end of November,” Bennett said. “That way if the Island Elders decide they want us to present before Christmas, we’re ready.”

More nods.

“Next on the agenda,” Bennett said, sliding his finger across the screen, “we need another bartender. Renée has said she’s fine helping out on the bar, but she prefers serving and doesn’t want to lose her serving position and be forced to only bartend. We need to hire another bartender.”

Dom grumbled.

“I say we do it the way we did it before. It worked well, and we got Chloe. We’ll put out the same job posting and do the joint interview.” Wyatt sipped his beer then turned to Dom. “Unless you have any objections?”

Dom had plenty of objections, but his brothers would likely dismiss all of them.

It took him long enough to trust Chloe, and now he had to add another person to his small circle of people he trusted? Chloe was a unicorn. He highly doubted they’d find anybody as qualified or trustworthy as her.

When he didn’t say anything, Bennett nodded. “All right then. I’ll renew the posting and we’ll see what happens.”

Clint’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he checked it. “Huh?”

“What’s up?” Jagger asked.

“A message from Brooke. Apparently, Chloe got back to the hostel last night and the front desk guy—Joey—let another guest from one of the dorms into her private room to use her shower. She got there and the guy was in her shower. She’s demanding a full refund and has checked out. Now she’s homeless.”

Anger immediately lashed through Dom. “Does Hawke know about this?”

Hawke Taylor was the owner of the biggest campsite on the island. Attached to the campsite was the hostel with dorm rooms and private rooms. The property and campground had been in the Taylor family for generations. Hawke was also one of the volunteer firefighters on the island, and he frequented the pub. He was a good guy, and Dom knew for absolute certainty that he wouldn’t be okay with the shit Joey pulled.

“Oh, I’m sure she’s going to let him know,” Jagger said. “If she doesn’t, we can. That’s fucked up right there. Talk about a violation of privacy.”

“Brooke is asking if we know of anywhere Chloe can stay?” Clint added.

Wyatt snorted. “Dom’s got a spare bedroom in his house.”

“Not fucking happening,” Dom said, way too fast for his own liking.

“Yeah, we’re already not sure how to navigate the fact that you had sex with an employee,” Bennett replied dryly. He narrowed his brows in thought while his fingers flew across the screen of the tablet. “Cabin Four is vacant right now.”

“We can’t let her stay there for free. As much as it sucks, the bullshit at the hostel isn’t our fault. Hawke should be putting her up, if anything,” Dom said.

Bennett nodded. “I agree. But I’m sure we could come to some kind of an arrangement. See what she was paying at the hostel and what her rent budget is. Maybe she’d be interested in helping with the housekeeping of the other cabins. They’re only sporadically rented right now anyway since it’s the offseason. Would offset other costs.”

Everyone but Dom seemed to really like this idea.

But the idea of having Chloe so close, even when she wasn’t working, was like dangling a carrot in front of a starving horse that had just had his first bite in averylong time. Now Dom wasn’t simply starving, he wasravenous.

“Actually,” Clint started, cocking his head, “that’s not a terrible idea. And I say this for the next bartender we hire too; if we do some shuffling, we might be able offer affordable accommodation to the next bartender in one of the cabins too. We could even see if the next bartender and Chloe want to share a cabin since a few of them have two bedrooms.

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