Page 28 of My Ex-Fiance's Best Men

My phone pings. It’s been quiet all day—for once. Dominic stops with me as I take the phone out of my purse.

“Maybe it’s important,” I mutter, unlocking the screen. “Oh, no.”

“What is it?”

My blood runs cold as Matthew’s name pops up. I can feel my lips twisting with what I can only describe as sheer disgust.

“It’s Matthew,” I reply, my voice trembling slightly. I feel a shadow come over Dominic’s face before even looking up and seeing it. “He apologized for how he acted. He wants to meet and talk.”

Dominic thinks about it for a moment, his eyes carefully analyzing my expression while I do the same to him. He puts on a smile and snatches the phone from my hand with a laugh.

“Forget about him,” he says, slipping my phone in his pants pocket. “We’ve got plans tonight.”

“We do?” I giggle as he slips his arm around my waist and guides me up the steps leading to the beach. “What kind of plans?”

“Dinner, champagne, and as much time in the bedroom as you desire.”

“Just the bedroom?”

“We could always try out the Jacuzzi, but the neighbors might see us.”

Why does that naughty thought entice me? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that all it took was the promise of a wonderful night with Dominic, August, and Theo to completely obliterate Matthew’s unexpected presence from my mind.

Here, he no longer exists. And for the first time since he broke off our engagement, I feel truly and genuinely happy. Free as a bird, ready and eager to soar and reclaim my spot at the center of my own universe.

Where I belong.

8

DOMINIC

Phoebe looks like a goddess under the moonlight.

We’re out on the beach, away from the resort. Morning will be upon us in a few hours, but until then, she deserves to do whatever she wants with what’s left of the night. Theo and August are sound asleep, sprawled across her bed. I could’ve stayed back, but I’d rather be out here with her.

She’s restless.

“The water is fantastic,” she announces, frolicking through the incoming waves.

I love the way she lets herself be free in the ocean. It’s the purest version I’ve seen of Phoebe so far—this, and the Hula dance. The way her hips swayed to the music, the way her lips moved to the song… it will stay with me forever. My own precious memory of her.

“Why don’t you join me?” she asks, coming toward the shore.

I lay in the warm sand, content with just watching her. “I’m good, baby. I like watching you more.”

“Ah, you’re a voyeur,” Phoebe jokes.

“Does it bother you?”

It’s an honest question. I’m trying to figure out her love language so I can learn it and speak it fluently until she sees no other future except one with the three of us. I know August and Theo feel the same way. Phoebe isn’t indifferent to us, either. We just need to mend that broken heart before she offers it to us.

“Not at all,” she replies. “Actually, I kind of like it.”

“Why?”

“It makes me feel safe. Knowing you’re out here, watching over me,” she says with a smile, then turns around and goes back to jumping in the swelling waves.

The way she said that does something to my brain. It rewires the entire circuit to the point where I might just make it my mission to keep her safe, always. From everyone and everything. Including her own family.