Chapter 7
COLIN
Dinner had been set up at a long table on the upper deck, and when we arrived to discover that Deja had been seated beside me even without our own intervention, I felt like perhaps fate—or my sister—had smiled upon me.
Until I looked up and realized that we were directly across from Alex and Khaled. Yeah, this isn’t a blessing or a gift from Jane. It’s a trap. Likely orchestrated by Alex.
I glanced at Deja, but she appeared completely unconcerned about our nearest table mates.
Instead, she was examining the people around us while tucking a loose strand of dark hair behind one ear.
My heart did that weird, skip-squeeze thing again, but rather than trying to continue the conversation we’d fallen into downstairs, I focused on Alex.
He looked back at me, smirking when my gaze met his. “Why are you so quiet tonight, Colin? I feel like I’ve barely seen you.”
I smirked right back at him. “That’s because I’ve learned that speaking around you becomes expensive fast.”
Khaled laughed, but Alex knew I was serious and he kept smirking anyway, not even trying to hide the truth.
He even confirmed it just a moment later.
“Speaking of capital outlays, have you given any more thought to our discussion? If Basel approves the merger, you’ll be heading up the project, so what do you say?
Are you ready to choose a property and start setting up a perfume manufacturing facility? ”
“Wait,” Deja said slowly, finally looking up from her menu to bring those mind-boggling eyes to mine. “You’re the contact?”
“No, I’m not,” I said quickly, glancing at Jane, who was seated on Alex’s other side. “You’re our CEO. Help me.”
“No.” She waved me away, not sparing me more than a glance. “You’re the money guy. I trust you.”
She turned back to the conversation she was having with Ashanti and Kate, leaving me trapped with her husband and his apparent new sidekick. Alex tipped his head toward her. “See? She agrees with me. This is your baby.”
I considered throwing a bread roll at him, but unfortunately, I was surrounded. Khaled took my comments in stride, explaining more about what they would need in a processing facility instead of expecting an immediate answer.
The more he spoke, the more I started realizing that this was actually completely doable. There would definitely be significant costs involved, but it wasn’t nearly as much of a nightmare as I’d initially thought. Even so, I was barely considering it until Deja entered the conversation.
Until that moment, I hadn’t given any thought whatsoever to the kind of interest she might have in this, but as soon as she started speaking, everything changed.
“We’ve been desperately searching for an American partner for years.
It simply makes sense to manufacture and process locally if we’re going to be using regional botanicals in addition to our traditional ingredients.
It’ll also save us a ton of money in shipping and logistics. ”
I frowned. “We? Us?”
Her eyebrows inched up just a bit, a smile ghosting across her mouth. “You didn’t know? I’m essentially responsible for White Water Lily.”
I just stared at her for a long beat. I honestly hadn’t realized she was the person, the one driving their actual brand.
Suddenly, the conversation and the prospect of this merger became much more interesting, but I had to be sure. “I thought your mother was the CEO?”
A shadow passed behind her eyes, but she blinked it away before I was even sure it’d ever been there at all. “She is, but I do all our sourcing and design. I create the scent combinations and I find the people we get them from.”
My jaw nearly dropped. After Alex and Khaled had first pitched the insane of idea of a merger, I’d done my due diligence.
I might not have been the greatest fan of the idea, but business was business and GlobalStar was a serious player on the international stage.
It would’ve been irresponsible not to check out the company they were currently looking to expand.
Having done my research on White Water Lily, I’d very quickly learned that their scents were insanely expensive, insanely exclusive, and insanely popular. Despite being under the GlobalStar umbrella, the perfumery was a global powerhouse in its own right—and apparently, it was because of Deja.
“That’s all you?” I asked, truly surprised about this turn of events. “Are you serious?”
The smile she flashed me just about took my damn breath away.
“That’s all me,” she said happily. “If my father does approve the merger, I’ll probably be here a lot more often.
It’s going to take some time to get the operation off the ground and to start playing around with the local flora.
I’ll also need to appoint a team, and even once we’re a fully functional perfumery, White Water Lily does not release a scent without my fingerprints all over it. ”
I practically gaped at her, still struggling to process the fact that she was the brains behind all those popular scents. “How does that even work?”
Light sparked to life in her eyes, and the next thing I knew, she launched into an explanation about flowers, scents, and the challenge of working with ingredients that changed every year. I fell into that trance that made me stupid again as I listened, but her passion was captivating.
She described fragrances like artists discussed their favorite paintings and musicians talked about their music.
It was incredible. She launched into the ideas she had for marketing campaigns and packaging concepts for whatever they ended up manufacturing stateside, and I was enthralled.
Usually, none of this would have interested me.
Customer experience and brand identity were not my thing.
I lived in a world of budgets, forecasts, and balance sheets.
The creative side of business rarely crossed my desk, but listening to her talk about it, it felt so vibrant and alive.
Like it was already there, already real.
I just had to sign a few papers to make it happen.
“The main thing for us is remaining true to Egypt while incorporating the US scents,” she said. “It’s going to be a fantastic challenge.”
I nodded along wordlessly, suddenly not thinking about the facilities we’d lose in terms of manufacturing or even the cost of outfitting them. The only thing I could think about was the possibilities.
“Just tell me what you need once you’re up and running,” I said as if it was already a foregone conclusion that Basel would sign off on this deal.
“Between the Westwoods and the Thayers, we have a labyrinth of contacts. We should be able to get you squared away with anything from social media to local labor.”
“Thank you,” she said, sounding genuinely excited. “I can’t believe this is actually happening and that you’re the contact Khaled mentioned. I thought for sure it was Alex.”
“Well, he is the puppet master,” I said. “Thayer has a lot of manufacturing plants, though. Westwood and Sons don’t really need those, so he doesn’t have any facilities to convert. That’s where we come in.”
“This is going to be a complete gamechanger for us,” she gushed. “Khaled and I visited a local flower market this morning and I’m so inspired. I can’t wait to start working with some of those scents.”
A mental image popped up of the haphazard bouquet Khaled had given Gabrielle, and I felt a smile spread on my lips as understanding dawned. “The flowers you brought home, are those the ones that inspired you?”
“Absolutely right,” she said. Her hands moved rapidly as she told me about the combinations she was toying with.
By the time dessert arrived, I was very much in favor of White Water Lily opening a facility in Chicago. In fact, I was downright giddy about it.
Across the table, Alex and Khaled had largely retreated into their own discussion, occasionally glancing in our direction, but then losing interest when they realized Deja was still at it. I never lost interest, though.
Not for so much as a minute.
A fork tapping lightly against a wine glass finally managed to snap my attention away from her, and when I looked in the direction from which the sound had emanated, I saw Alex had stood. Apparently, it was that time of the night.
Several of his brothers groaned in affectionate discontent about his affinity for these impromptu speeches, but he didn’t skip a beat. “I’ll keep this brief.”
“That’s a blatant lie, in case anyone was wondering,” Jesse said, and I lifted my glass toward him to signal my agreement.
He pumped his eyebrows at me, but Alex just winked at him and continued. “I want to thank you all for being here. We’re so pleased to be able to honor both old friendships and new connections this evening.”
His gaze had drifted to Jane and Ashanti when he’d mentioned the old friendships, but when he spoke about the new connections, his eyes landed directly on me, one of his eyebrows arching ever so slightly.
It hit me in the chest like a physical thing then, the truth about what was going on here. Holy fuck, I should’ve seen it coming days ago.
I slowly turned my head to look at her, but Deja wasn’t looking at me. She was focused on Alex’s toast like everyone else, unaware of the plans that were being made behind the scenes.
When I looked across the table at Khaled next, he was looking at me, smiling in a way that confirmed every suspicion I’d just formed.
It all clicked together in my mind at a dizzying speed after that, the dinner, golf, the processing facility, and the sudden interest in a merger that had died years ago. It all made complete sense. Because I finally had the last piece of the puzzle.
Holy fuck. It’s not just business and it never was.
Deja was the woman Alex had decided was destined to become the first Thayer wife since my mother had married into the family decades ago. He was working on a lot more than just another merger between three families, and most of it involved my direct and very personal future.
Fuck.
I’d asked him a year ago if I could get in on the Westwood arranged marriage tradition.
He’d been happy about it, having discovered he had a knack for pairing people up.
When I’d left their house that night, he’d told me not to worry and that he couldn’t say how long it would take but that he’d find the right one.
Oh, and he found her, alright. I just don’t know what she’s going to think about it.
I rubbed a hand across my jaw, genuinely unable to believe that this was happening. As luck would have it, just when my head spinning reached maximum velocity, she finally glanced over at me. “Did you eat bad scallop or something? Or am I going to make you sneeze again?”
“I’m fine.” Immediately, I dropped my hand and forced a smile, despite the sense of dread blossoming deep inside me.
Neither Deja or I would have a choice in this matter, but in the marrow of my bones, I knew she didn’t know about it yet. Deja had no idea about the conversations that had been happening behind closed doors and without our involvement.
Alex finally finished his toast and sat back down, immediately leaning forward. “There will be a meeting on your schedule in two weeks. It’s mandatory.”
Naturally.
“With whom?” I asked discreetly, but I suspected I already knew the answer. The amused expression on Khaled’s face told me that the patriarch of the Saad family was about to pay me a little visit—and that it might be the most important meeting of my life.