Page 24 of Dr. Stone (Billionaires’ Club #9)
Which Andie will most likely be enjoying if I manage to lose her to this man.
“You seem upset about that,” my mother said, most likely catching my irritation at Titus’s name.
“No,” I shook it off. “I’m happy for you, Dorian. You finally got Hawk in with the family’s gold.”
My dad’s lips curved slightly, “Dorian handled the negotiations personally, wrapping them up and shaking hands over Vega Sicilia wine in a private hangar outside Barcelona.”
Dorian’s ego was the size of Everest, nodding as if he were in the room with a hundred global elites, and they were eating out of his hand.
“By the time we’d finished,” Dorian said after a sip of his drink, “I’d given Titus not just a new fleet of private jets but the ability to disappear and reappear in any part of the world, faster and quieter than anyone else.”
“Cheers to you, then,” I said, trying to refrain from making snarky comments about Titus and the goddamn Vega Sicilia wine toast of it all.
“Darling,” my mother said while Dad and Dorian continued talking about a new client, “tell me how work has been for you. You’re rarely over anymore, and I have to say I’ve missed those blue eyes and vibrant smile of yours.”
This is how it usually went when we got together to catch up when Dorian was visiting.
Dorian spoke of how well he was furthering the family’s legacy, reassuring Dad he had nothing to worry about with the business in Spain, Mom feeling the need to elevate my career as if I worked at a gas station and was barely scraping by, and me, trying not to dissociate and leave my body so I didn’t have to deal with all the pretentiousness.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said, dismissing it to allow Dorian all the space he wanted to keep playing show and tell, getting as many pats on the head from Dad as he could handle.
“Nothing to talk about? Surely there’s something new happening at Saint John’s ?” Dorian mocked. “There must be a new scandal,” he chuckled with my father. “I believe it was Jake Mitchell who I saw last in the tabloids, or was it his friend, Collin Brooks?”
“Dorian,” my mother’s icy gaze immediately killed the smile on my brother’s face, “it is positively rude to insult those men and your brother.”
“The scandals in your circles tend to run much stronger than the ones at my hospital,” I added.
“If you must know, though, unlike you and me, who will probably never find love or even a stable relationship, both men can look back on their scandals with relief now that they’re both happily married and settled down. ”
Dorian’s gaze narrowed at my jab. His relationship with the heiress to a Spanish luxury conglomerate had gone up in flames and not the kind that left any room for a second chance.
He’d fucked it up, plain and simple. The sad part was that I think he loved her, but cheating on someone like her wasn’t just reckless; it was self-sabotage.
At least Jake and Collin, for all their legendary antics, never crossed that line. They weren’t cheating on anyone when they were out being wild, chasing the next thrill, loving women briefly, and leaving them just as fast. They were idiots, sure, but they weren’t liars.
“I see your point,” Dorian shot back, our dad staring at us, waiting for our bickering to be over. “Tell us, how is this wonderful hospital life going for you?”
“I know you think what I do is a joke, but to me, it isn’t.
I couldn’t expect you to understand the feeling of saving lives or losing one you couldn’t save.
When you deal with life and death and the families that go through these journeys with their loved ones, you see the world much differently than if you are closing deals while toasting with specialty wines. ”
“That will be enough,” my dad said right on cue before standing. “Dinner is about to be served, and your mother wishes to enjoy the meal with her sons in the garden chalet this evening. Dorian, I want to go over some details about the latest venture Sebastian and I will be moving forward with.”
Dad was practically best friends with old man Sebastian Aster, and Dorian looked up to the guy as if he were another father.
The Aster I was closest to was John, for obvious reasons.
We both chose to go into medicine rather than carry out the family legacy, and we both had to hear shit about it all the time.
This was going to be a long-ass night, and dinner hadn’t even been served yet. I’d planned to be in Costa Rica for the grand opening—before I knew Andie was going with Titus—but three doctors called out this week, leaving Jake, me, and two others to spread ourselves thin.
So instead, I planned to spend the night on my boat, under the stars. Tomorrow was my only day off, and I wanted the kind of silence you can’t buy. Let Titus have the lights, the cameras, the spectacle. That wasn’t my arena anyway.
Mine was with the ocean, the sky, and the steady knowledge that when it came to Andie, I didn’t need to dazzle her. I just needed to be real.