Behind The Proposal novel Chapter 46

"What?" Tom nearly exploded. Gabe had promised him he'd behave. Tom had left him in charge, believing that the responsibility was what his brother had needed. He'd been an idiot.

"Exactly. So I'm dragging his sorry ass back home. We need to work on his attitude. He'll be working with you, closely, so he doesn't do anything like this again. He is not to be in charge of anything," his Dad instructed.

"Fine," Tom agreed. "What about my house?"

"Greta is organising someone to clean up. Nothing appears to be broken at least," Dad murmured. "We're flying out first thing in the morning."

"I'll meet you at the airport."

"What do you want, Tom?" Gabe grumbled twenty-four hours later as he sat in Tom's office.

Tom had had to cancel two meetings so that he could sit down with Gabe to have yet another discussion about his behaviour. Their parents had tried time and again. So now it was Tom's turn. "You need to clean up your act. What you did was incredibly stupid." Tom shook his head. He was furious and was trying to control his temper. He needed to talk some sense into him, not yell at him like he was sure their father had already done. "And all this after you swore you'd behave. You're lucky you still have a job considering you took advantage of the hotel, stole alcohol and let your staff take the blame."

"We own the damn hotel, what does it matter?" Gabe shrugged.

Tom blew out a breath and silently counted to ten. "We've discussed this over and over. It was ridiculously stupid, and this all has to stop. Now!" he barked as he clenched his teeth together.

"So I made a mistake," he shrugged again, obviously not caring.

"One that could've been avoided," Tom groaned. "One that could've seen someone else lose their job."

"At least I didn't drag a wife and child into my mistake." Gabe raised one eyebrow and looked up at Tom, who stilled and glared back. He was not going to react. "Oh, I know more than you think I do, big brother. I know about the deal you made with Grandpa and Dad," Gabe grinned maliciously.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tom denied, but kept his gaze on his brother, not wanting him to think he was right.

Gabe just leaned back on the wall and crossed his arms across his chest. "You gotta admit that you kind of rushed into it."

Tom shrugged and spread his arms wide. "What can I say, when you meet the right woman, you just know, and you don't want to let them go."

"Sure," his brother laughed. "Do you love her at all?"

"Yes, I love her. I love them both," he declared and knew it to be true. He hadn't seen it coming. He didn't believe in love. He had never fallen in love before, but he was in love with his wife and it was an incredible feeling, knowing that he'd spend forever with her.

"Really?" Gabe drawled, unconvinced.

"Yes, and now if you'll excuse me, I need to get on with my work so I can get home to see my wife and daughter before I have to head back to Hawaii tomorrow to clean up your mess," he said and walked out of his office.