25. Crossed A Line
CROSSED A LINE
“It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Carolina Westerly.”
“Spencer Jensen,” he said, reaching for London’s mother’s hand. “It’s a pleasure.”
“The same,” Carolina said warmly. “I’m just thrilled to have my daughters home again. I’ve missed them, but I knew eventually they’d fly the coop. Thankfully, I’ve still got one chick left.”
“Thanks, Mom. Hi, I’m Raleigh.”
The youngest of nine. Twenty-two, freshly graduated, and bright-eyed, looking similar to her older sisters, but not as tall, nor as... mature. He didn’t know much more than that. It wasn’t like he and London had gotten into deep family history.
Not yet.
But after this, maybe that was coming.
Something had shifted. They’d crossed a line, one he wasn’t pretending didn’t exist anymore. He knew she felt the same.
He just didn’t know where that line would lead or when they were finally going to talk about it.
Not tonight. Not even this trip.
But when they got home tomorrow, or this weekend, when she’d said she wanted to spend it with him?
Yeah, it’d be then.
“Hi, Dad,” she said, stepping into her father’s arms. Austin Westerly was tall, lean, and carried himself like a man used to being the sharpest one in any room. Spencer knew the name. Westerly Law in Orlando. Not as massive as the firm he’d left behind, but respected as hell.
But regardless of all of that, this was the father of the woman he was slowly losing everything to.
“Good to meet you,” Austin said, giving him a firm handshake after hugging Paris. “It’s damn good seeing my girls. But I know they’re in excellent hands where they are. There are plenty of cousins watching out for them.”
“We don’t need anyone watching out for us,” she said. “Paris and I are pretty tough.”
Tough didn’t begin to cover it.
His fingers itched to slide an arm around her waist and silently agree that he’d be one more person on that list.
But this was supposed to be a secret.
So he did the only safe thing. He pulled out his chair and planted himself for dinner, pretending he wasn’t vibrating with the urge to touch her.
It was one hell of a strange place to be. To be sitting across from the woman who’d blindsided him in the best possible way, knowing he’d found someone who fit him too damn well and having to act like none of it existed.
Dinner kicked off with easy conversation, stories flying between the sisters, their parents laughing, Raleigh chiming in with commentary that made Paris roll her eyes and London nudge her under the table.
“Now for the big announcement,” Austin said. “I’ve finally got one of my kids following in my footsteps.”
London’s eyes shifted to Raleigh grinning next to her father. “Don’t say it.”
“I knew it,” Paris said. “I told London a few years ago it was going to happen.’’
“I didn’t even know,” Raleigh said. “No one knew I even applied. I think if I didn’t get into law school, I would have just moved on. Maybe I was afraid I wouldn’t.”
“Nonsense,” she said. “You’re smart like the rest of us. Good for you. Dad, you’ve got to be thrilled. Unless Raleigh doesn’t want to work with you. You know, you babied her the most.”
“Which Dad and I will have to work out in time,” Raleigh said firmly.
“I’ll keep him in line,” Carolina said.
Spencer tried to blend in, nodding, listening, answering when spoken to. But every time London’s knee brushed his, every time her laugh lifted, every time she glanced his way like she couldn’t quite help it, he felt it like a spark in his gut ready to light the table on fire.
“So, Spencer,” Carolina said, cutting into her salmon, “how are the girls adjusting to the new place? You’ve been working closely with them, they said?”
“We are sitting right here, Mom. We can answer,” she said. “We are adjusting just fine, right, Paris?”
“I had no doubt,” Austin said. “But maybe we’d like to hear from someone else.”
He knew when he was being put on the spot. “They seem to be adjusting fine, but I don’t know them any other way than who I’ve seen in the past few weeks.”
Paris snorted. “We’ll take that compliment with the hesitancy it came with.”
She smirked. “Translation. He thought we were maniacs the first week.”
He squinted at her. “Not Paris.”
Everyone at the table laughed. “See, Mom and Dad. Nothing has changed,” she said.
“I wouldn’t call her a maniac. More like, what was the word Braylon used? Ahh, intense. She’s not afraid to speak her mind.”
“Gets that from me,” Carolina said. “I think it’s a great trait to have.”
“I agree,” he said.
She lifted her water glass to her lips, her eyes sparkling with mischief she probably thought no one else could read.
But he read it.
He always did.
Austin leaned back, studying him. “You worked for the firm West mentioned he didn’t like doing business with.”
“I did,” he said. Though he hadn’t known when he interviewed West didn’t care for his boss or some of the others. Just another thing that made him wonder if he had been hired as some spite.
But someone as powerful as West Carlisle wouldn’t do something like that. He’d have no need to.
“You don’t strike me as a guy who likes being told how to walk. Or where he has to and when. I’m surprised you stayed as long as you had.”
London’s gaze flicked to him like she’d been waiting to see how he’d answer.
“I probably did overstay my welcome since I don’t particularly like working seven days a week fifty-two weeks a year,” he said. “I like being able to make my own decisions and now I can.”
Her foot brushed his ankle under the table. Not accidental.
Not even close.
He kept his face neutral, but it took everything he had. It was as if she knew that too.
Baiting him. Challenging like she loved to do.
“Are you from New York?” Carolina asked.
He cleared his throat and tried to ignore London’s presence making his pulse pick up. “I’m originally from Philly. My sister is a dentist on Amore Island.”
“Spencer’s sister is married to Coy Bond, who is brother-in-law to Charlotte’s sister,” she said. There was no reason to hide that from the people here.
It was as if the conversation got more comfortable after they’d heard that.
As if Austin wasn’t interrogating him, suspecting there could be more than a working relationship between London and him.
“That’s wonderful,” Carolina said. “Charlotte talked so fondly of the island that I told Austin we’d have to take a trip there.”
“I’ve been a lot. Coy and I are best friends. We met in college our freshman year. I was in law school when he was in dental school, so we had six years together.”
“Sounds as if he was almost like a brother to you. And now he is by marriage,” Carolina said, her smile growing.
“It feels that way.”
“We love when families expand that way. Almost like fate. Maybe one day you’ll bring someone home like your sister did,” Carolina said.
London coughed. Paris choked on a piece of bread.
He fought the instinct to look directly at London.
He lost.
He glanced.
She was staring at him with wide eyes and cheeks flushed as if they had been caught lying about sneaking out after curfew.
“Maybe,” he said carefully. “When the time is right.”
Austin let out a short laugh. “That’s a hell of a diplomatic answer.”
“He’s great at lawyer speak,” she said. “Just like you, Dad.”
The table laughed.
London didn’t.
She kept her eyes on him, unreadable but intense like she heard everything he wasn’t saying.
When dessert came, she leaned close enough that no one else could hear and murmured, “Stop being so damn perfect. You’re making this torture.”
He grinned without meaning to. “Right back at you. I’m the outsider here, not you.”
“No one here is thinking that. Trust me.” She turned her head as if she was stretching it and no one could read her lips. “My mother might figure it out.”
“Sounds like a you problem,” he said, grinning.
The frown on her face didn’t make him feel any better though.
Just one more thing they’d have to talk about.