Chapter 28 – Tristan
TRISTAN
“You have secrets, you three. Old women see what others miss.”
“Grand-mère…” My voice trails off.
“The heart wants what it wants, oui? Sometimes more than one thing.”
Her gaze flickers between the three of us.
“What exactly are you suggesting, Grand-mère?” I finally ask.
Her laugh is unexpected, a sound of genuine amusement. “I’m not suggesting anything, mon cher. I’m stating what is painfully obvious to anyone with functioning eyes. The three of you are in love.”
Waverly’s sharp intake of breath is the only sound in the room.
“I—we—” Braxton stammers before clarity hits him. “You knew. You’re not shocked by any of this.”
“Please.” Grand-mère waves dismissively. “I wasn’t born yesterday. The way you look at her, the way she looks at both of you, the way you two orbit with her as the center... It’s as clear as the wrinkles on my face. I saw it that first night.”
I feel Waverly’s hand find mine, then reach for Braxton’s with her other. She holds us both, not denying it but embracing it. Showing her that she wants this. Us.
“We didn’t plan for this to happen,” she says simply.
“Does anyone ever plan to fall in love?” Grand-mère asks. “Especially with two people at once? I should think not.”
“Are you... not shocked? Or… upset?” I ask carefully.
Grand-mère's eyes twinkle with mischief. “My dear boy, I lived in Paris during the ’60s. You think your arrangement is shocking? I could tell you stories that would make your hair curl. But there is more here. You said your relationship was fake. Explain this to me.”
I don’t have it in me to lie. “I love Waverly, and so does Braxton, and she loves both of us.”
“Yes, but why are you all upset? Is there fighting between you over her?” she questions.
“No. There is no fighting between us,” I confirm.
Brax moves in closer to Waverly. “We’re upset about Tristan leaving us to move to Paris.”
“I see. And do you love each other too?” She wiggles a finger back and forth between Braxton and me, and I shake my head.
“Why did you lie to us, boy? What is this about a fake relationship when you’re clearly in love?”
I hang my head in shame. “I didn’t want to be set up, and I didn’t want to be married off to the highest bidder like before.
I made Waverly, who admittedly didn’t care for me very much because I wasn’t the nicest of bosses, a deal she couldn’t refuse in exchange for coming here and playing the part of my girlfriend. That’s how this began.”
She folds her arms and leans against the entryway to the penthouse for support. “I see. So you came here and lied to us, but it wasn’t quite a lie.”
“Waverly wasn’t my girlfriend when we first arrived. She wasn’t Braxton’s either. What’s happened between us began here and grew quickly.”
“Hmm.” She takes the three of us in with new eyes. “Love does not often come on this quickly.”
“No,” Brax agrees. “I’ve loved Waverly for two years. I just never acted on it until we got here.”
I sigh and drag a hand across my jaw and adjust my bow tie at my neck. “Same with me. I knew moving back here would eventually become my life, and I didn’t want to start something and get hurt or hurt Waverly.”
“But you’re hurting now. All of you.”
“I told them I was moving here.”
“What’s all this?” My mother comes over, her emerald gown sweeping the floor as she walks, only for her to come to a screeching halt when she notes the visible tension and miserable expressions. She shifts from confusion to concern. “Is everything all right? Alain, come here.”
Great. Now the party can really start.
My father comes over and notes our interlocking hands. “What’s going on?”
I glance at Brax and Waverly before I turn back to my parents.
The words come easier than I expected, tumbling out in a rush of relief and fear.
I explain how what began as a convenient arrangement with Waverly posing as my girlfriend to thwart marriage-hungry women evolved into something more.
Something real. I explain how Braxton and I both fell in love with her and how she, remarkably, loves us both in return.
How the prospect of separation has been destroying me.
My mother’s face cycles through shock, confusion, and something unreadable. My father stands rigidly, arms crossed.
“So this has all been a lie?” my father finally asks.
“Not all of it,” Waverly answers. “The feelings are real. The connection between us is real. The only lie was pretending it was conventional and that Braxton was only my boss and nothing more.”
“You want to be with them in Boston,” my mother states. “Even though you told us today that you were going to be moving here.”
“Oui. Yes. I want to be with them in Boston. But it’s my role in this family, as the single heir, to step up and take over Ouest Hotels, and I can run OuestHicks along with Braxton from here, especially now that we have a Paris company.
And truth be told, I don’t want anyone else to run Ouest Hotels but me. ”
My mother shakes her head. “I don’t understand. How can you… be together with her? What about marriage and children?”
“We’re not exactly there yet,” Brax answers. “And I’m not sure it’ll matter since Tristan is moving here, and Waverly and I will be together in Boston.”
“So you ended it with her… with them,” my father cuts in.
“Yes,” I confirm. “I told you I was moving here.”
“Sounds like a tricky situation,” Grand-mère comments. “Love can be that way.”
“Not so tricky anymore,” I tell them. “Just painful. Love can be that way too.”
“By moving here and taking over Ouest Hotels, you’re leaving Waverly and Braxton and your happiness with them.”
It’s not a question, but I answer my mother all the same. “Yes.”
A trembling hand meets her lips, and she looks at my father. “What do we do?”
“How do you mean?”
“I don’t want my son to be unhappy. Not again. We already did that to him once, and I’ve felt nothing but guilt for it since. Yes, I wanted him to find a woman and settle down, preferably here in Paris, but not like this.”
“Our son is involved in a relationship with two people. How are we supposed to explain that?”
“By supporting them.” Grand-mère all but rolls her eyes.
“If we approve and normalize it within our family, who can argue, though there will always be people who try. I loved your père with all my heart. I had fifty wonderful years with him. Years I wouldn’t trade for anything.
You have Francine. What is her love to you?
Love is worth more than money, more than empires. But there are ways to have both.”
My father starts to pace. “They lied to us. Waverly was never his girlfriend.”
“What does that matter now anyway if they love each other?” my mother argues, touching my father’s arm, stopping him. “Do you want your son in another loveless marriage out of obligation?”
“He already told us Waverly won’t move here, and if Braxton is involved… This is messy. How will it look? How will we explain it?”
“You won’t have to,” I say, stepping forward and glancing back at Waverly and Braxton. “I will.” My heart picks up speed, and my hands tingle as I squeeze Waverly’s hand and hold it tightly in mine. “If Waverly wants both of us and is willing to weather that storm, then I’ll weather it with her.”
“So will I,” Braxton asserts.
“Wait.” Waverly releases my hand so she can touch my jaw. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. You’ll be here, and we’ll be there.”
“I can’t do it. I can’t go the rest of my life without you.
If you thought I was insufferable before.
” My lips bounce. “I want this week to be every week. I tried to do the right thing. I tried to be the good, dutiful Ouest. But my heart won’t comply.
It’s the three of us as one, even if Brax and I are simply sharing you. ”
“Tristan, what are you saying?” my father asks, and I turn back to him.
“I can’t move back here, Dad. Not permanently. If you want me to run Ouest Hotels, it has to be a hybrid between here and Boston. That’s my best offer to you. I will give it my all as I do with everything, but I’ve been miserable and lonely for two years, and it’s because Waverly wasn’t mine.”
He stares me down, absorbing this.
“Yes, you’ll have to come to Paris a lot more frequently than you do now,” Grand-mère agrees. “But I don’t see that as a downside. I’m old. It’s required that you visit the elderly.”
I snicker, but the thought of that is filling me with a delicious sort of hope.
“This is your decision then?” my father asks.
I nod. “It is.”
“Wow.” My mother sighs. “Then you do it. I won’t have you here and miserable, and I’ll love and support you and your decisions no matter what. Marry her, Tristan. Make babies with her. But don’t ever sacrifice your heart. Not again.”
My father nods. “We were wrong to make you do so the first time. I saw the life drain from your eyes with Dianna, and it’s been that way since. Until you brought Waverly home. And if your happiness is connected to Braxton as part of this, then okay. We’ll learn to understand and support that.”
I can’t help but be winded as I exchange glances with Waverly and Braxton, both as shocked as I am. “Not everyone will agree.”
“No,” he acknowledges. “People love to impose judgments, especially with something that’s different or they don’t understand.”
“But love is love, and it’s universal,” my mother picks up. “It’s certainly not worth sacrificing at the altar of someone else’s feet.”
“And frankly, whatever happens in your home is no one else’s fucking business.
A laugh bursts from me, and I take my grandmother in my arms and kiss her cheeks.
“Merci. Je t’aime.” I do the same with both of my parents, hugging and kissing them.
I was expecting a fight. I was expecting none of them to understand.
But I was willing to go after it anyway.
It was like the moment we crossed the threshold of my parents’ flat, I felt the clang of a jail cell, and I couldn’t take it.
My days are meant to be with them. Not here alone.
“Je t’aime aussi, mon fils.” My dad hugs me fiercely. “Vis ta vie dans la liberté et l'amour.”
They leave us here, and I turn back to Braxton and Waverly, my heart pounding.
“Holy shit. That all just happened. Are you willing to be public with this?” I ask.
“Because I am. It’ll mean long hours. It’ll mean lots of traveling back and forth to Paris, especially at first. It’ll mean public scrutiny and likely loss of investors and clients.
But you’re both worth the risk, and I don’t want this life if I can’t have you with me. ”
Brax laughs. “You know me. I’ve been in this from the start. I don’t think it’ll impact OuestHicks, as antibiotics are antibiotics. As for Ouest Hotels, well, you’re French. Didn’t you invent the term?”
My lips twitch. “Oui. We did.”
He shrugs.
“I’m fine,” Waverly says. “If it means I have both of you, I’ll weather any storm.”
I kiss her lips, and when I pull away, Brax takes over and kisses her. I smile. It’s Christmas, and I’ve just been given the best present of all. Them.