Page 138 of Release Me

“Twelve are committed. Ten to my ex and some friends from back home, and two to my sister. Who looks too good in a bikini for my liking, before you ask,” I add quickly. Britt was thrilled to accept the plane tickets I paid for her and her best friend, Dani. They’re making a long weekend of it, crashing at my house for a few nights.

That means I have four left. I had an idea—crazy as it is—to offer a ticket to Sloane. She’d probably tear it up. Still, it’d be worth it to try. It’s the least Wolf Hotels can do.

“You invited yourex?” Belinda notes. “Is she a good friend?”

“No, actually. We broke up a few years ago and it was ugly. Just got back in touch.”

“This should be interesting.” A look passes over Belinda’s face that I can’t quite interpret, but it’s gone in the next second as Henry Wolf appears. “Right on time.”

“Ten minutes early, actually. Hello, Belinda.” He offers her a rare, wide smile and a hearty handshake.

I scan the lobby, but there’s no sign of the pregnant redheaded woman of my dreams.

“Ronan.” Henry extends his hand.

It feels foreign to accept, but I do anyway, and the contact is … civil.

“My wife is up in our room, resting,” he confirms with a smirk, reading right through me. “I’ll tell her you said hi.”

I smash a grin.I’ll tell her myself when I text her in about five minutes, you prick.

“Lena had a meeting with her staff, but she said she would be here to greet you—oh, there she is.”

We turn as one to watch my counterpart stroll across the lobby floor, cheerful in head-to-toe salmon pink. I’ll admit, the tropical colors are growing on me.

But I still won’t wear that fucking tie.

Even Henry is dressed down—if that’s possible—in a plain black golf shirt and beige dress pants.

Fifteen minutes of polite chatter about reservation numbers later, Henry suddenly holds out his hands. “Okay, who wants to start with the tour?”

“Tour of what?” He’s seen the hotel before. The bastard is such a control freak, he probably dictated every screw and board of wood to the architects and engineers.

“You first, then, Ronan.” He smiles and moves toward the front doors.

I trail after him. “And what am I showing you?”

“All of it.”

“They’ve guaranteed their work?”Henry asks as I coast along the path past the ninth hole, his hand gripping the roof of the golf cart for purchase.

“With a pretty little seal on their paperwork and everything,” I mock. “I’ve got the guy’s personal number. Just waiting for the first big rainfall to see if I believe him. Ithink we should break whatever agreement we have with those other assholes and use these guys going forward.”

“We’ll see what our legal team can do. According to ParMasters, we’ve in breach of contract by going to Legacy Greens?—”

“Fuck them. They shouldn’t get paid to do work they did wrong in the first place, and they weren’t going to have it done in time anyway.”

“I agree, and I would have made the exact same call. Good job.”

His words boost my confidence more than I’d like to admit. I don’t need Henry’s approval, damn it.

But it does feel good.

“And how are things with Belinda?” he asks.

“Surprisingly good. I don’t think she hates me anymore.” Based on the thinly veiled proposition earlier, she may want to fuck me again. That is a situation I do not need right now.

We round the corner to the infamous eleventh hole.

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