Graham sighed. “Now she’s going to lose it all.”
Alice shivered in the cooling evening breeze and stood up to find her clothes. She tossed Graham’s pants at him. “She doesn’t have to...” she said thoughtfully, pulling her shirt on without a bra.
Graham, as appealing shimmying into his pants as he’d been getting out of them, scowled at her. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve got some flush clients who love this place,” Alice suggested. “Isn’t Gizelle’s mate a billionaire? Hasn’t royalty stayed here? What if Scarlet ran a crowdfunding thing? Like, a timeshare program, but without the vulture salespeople, to raise enough money to buy it outright. They’d have to sell it to you if you came up with the cash, right?”
Graham stared at her. “They’d have to sell it to me, but they’re listing the island as a whole; we’d have to buy the entire thing. They want three hundred and fifty million dollars.”
Alice tried not to choke on the very idea of that kind of money.
“That would be... a lot of crowdfunding,” Alice conceded. “And I think I have a squashed strawberry in my underwear.”
Chapter 24
When Graham and Alice returned to The Den, there was no real way to get back in to his room privately, or sneak to the shower, or pretend that nothing had happened, so they didn’t try. The rest of the staff was already gathered in the living area, and the hum of conversation that they’d heard through the open windows came to a stop when Graham cracked the door.
Everyone politely pretended they weren’t craning to see if it was Graham alone, or if Alice with him, except Breck, who turned completely around on the couch, propped his chin on both hands, and greeted them cheerfully.
“Welcome back, your lordship!”
Darla gave a chiding murmur that couldn’t hide her amusement and Laura threw a pillow at him.
“There’s a bottle of wine on the counter,” Mary pointed out.
“Oh, good,” Alice said, opening cabinets at random until she found the glasses. “You want one?”
Graham shook his head.
While Alice filled her tumbler, the others discretely rearranged themselves on the chairs and couches so that the only free spots were together.
Graham stalked to take one of them, Alice following. He settled gingerly into place, wishing he had taken a glass of wine simply to have something to do with his hands. Alice flopped down beside him, pushing her sandals off with each opposite foot and tucking her legs up under her. They weren’t quite touching.
Everyone grinned.
“We’ve been talking about how we might save the resort,” Jenny said quickly. “We’re thinking about trying to raise the money ourselves. If we can, they have to sell it to you.”
“If you’re in,” Laura added.
Graham grunted.
“Great minds think alike,” Alice said. “We were just talking about that.”
Jenny had her computer in her lap. “We’re definitely going to ask Conall, and Magnolia. Laura and I are still fighting legal battles over the life insurance policy that Fred stole when our parents died, but Fred’s estate is running out of appeals to make, so we should get it soon. It will be a pretty good drop in the bucket.”
“I... have a few things of value,” Bastian said uncomfortably.
“You can’t sell your hoard,” Saina said to him, dismayed.
Bastian took her hands in his. “It’s not worth a lot,” he said, looking embarrassed. “But this is greater treasure.” He looked around at the others in The Den. “If the resort isn’t here, I don’t have a hoard worth having.”
Saina kissed him. “I know people who can fence anything we need.”
“I have some jewelry,” Lydia said thoughtfully. ?
??Nothing spectacular, but some of it is gold.”
“I’ve got a watch,” Tex said. “It might have some value as an antique.”