48. Nora
CHAPTER 48
NORA
“He offered me money to not marry you,” I say.
West’s face turns carefully blank. “Not here,” he says, and takes my hand in his. He looks at the tables around us and the people chatting, drinking. Laughing.
He grabs a chair and turns it around so it faces the ocean. Away from the others around us. He sinks onto the chair and pulls me closer.
“You want me to sit in your lap again.”
“Yes. We’re good at it.”
“I’m annoyed with you.”
“I know you are. I can tell.” He holds out his arms to me. “Can you be annoyed with me and let me hold you?”
I hesitate for another second before sitting on his lap in front of all these people, under a bright spring sun. I drape my arm around his shoulders and sit sideways so I can still see his face. We came here to play bait for the stalker, and we’ll keep doing that.
“So you’re in the market for a wife.”
His expression doesn’t change, but his eyes slide to mine, whiskey-colored and cautious. “No. I am not.”
“Oh? I could have sworn I heard something about a marriage clause, Fairhaven and you turning thirty.” I tilt my head. “Your cousin offered me triple what you’re allegedly paying me to not go through with it. Let me guess. He gets the house if you don’t?”
West blows out a breath. “Of course he did.”
“Is it true?” I slide my hand into his hair and look at him like I’m deeply, deeply in love. “You can lose Fairhaven.”
“It’s true.”
“Oh.” The word is simple and short, but it’s like a puzzle piece finally completing an image. And then there’s the hurt. “Why wouldn’t you tell me that?”
He doesn’t look away from me, but his eyes narrow. “Because I didn’t want to complicate things.”
“Complicate things,” I repeat slowly. It doesn’t add up. None of it adds up. Why would he want his mother to stop setting him up with women if he needed marriage? Why would he agree to pretend to date me?
It doesn’t make sense.
I tilt my head. “Are people watching us right now?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’m only watching you,” he says.
“And if the stalker is watching… if we want him to lose control and make a mistake… then I should look at you like we have the hottest sex known to man every single night.”
West’s eyes are a brighter shade than usual beneath the sun. They’re also cautious. He can hear the tone in my voice. “Where are you going with this?”
“You’ve been showing me off to your family. Your friends. At your party, in town, out at restaurants. We’ve been photographed together and written about. All of that to send a message to the stalker… but doesn’t that make it harder for you to find a wife?”
His hand on my thigh tightens. “I don’t want to find a wife that way.”
“But you need one. And your family knows.” Irritation flares in my chest. “Your mom being so insistent, setting you up with women. That’s why, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you want her help? Don’t you want to keep Fairhaven?”
“Yes. My lawyers have been working on a solution.” His jaw works, and there’s nothing but grim acceptance on his face.
“When did you find out about it?”
“Two years ago. After my father died.”
“And you haven’t found a solution yet,” I whisper.
“No. We’ve tried, but the trust is… ironclad.” He’s stone beneath me, sharp and still, like he’s not enjoying this conversation. But he’s here. He’s answering my questions. “We have a prenup drafted. If there’s no other way, I planned to marry. But it would only be a legal marriage. And I won’t give my mother the giant society wedding she craves.”
Jealousy rips through me, like the sailing boats through the salty waves. “Would she live at Fairhaven?”
“No. It would be a sheet of paper, not a real relationship.” His eyes are on mine. “You’re angry.”
“Yes,” I say. “Funny, isn’t it? You’re the one who taught me how to be angry. Maybe you regret that now.”
“No. I will always welcome your fire, Nora. Burn me with it when I deserve it.”
I take a deep breath. “We’re arguing for real this time.”
“It would seem so, trouble.”
“Why wouldn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was handling it.”
I trace the edge of his jaw, the role I’m meant to play slipping from my mind. “What kind of trust is this, even? Is it legal?”
“Unfortunately,” he says. “I have to be married by thirty or the estate goes to the next married male Calloway heir.” He takes a deep breath. “Which is Dave.”
I blink at him. “That’s barbaric .”
“Yes. It’s archaic, an offense to my sister and, quite frankly, an offense to the entire family. Dad thought he had changed the trust, or so Mom says. It was meant to ensure Fairhaven isn’t split apart. Divided up by an ever-growing pool of descendants. It can only be passed down to one Calloway—and one that is married and set to produce heirs of their own.”
“Dave,” I murmur. “He was at that party…”
“Yes. You’ve seen him gamble.” West’s eyes glitter with irritation. “He would gamble away the estate on the day his name appeared on the deed. Sell it to the highest bidder.”
“West,” I say. “ Why didn’t you tell me?”
West sighs, his expression unreadable. “Because I was handling it. I’m still handling it.”
“That’s not a real answer. If you want my honesty, I want yours.”
He takes a deep breath. “I didn’t want you to worry. The clause doesn’t mean our lessons have to stop, and I didn’t want you to think that you’d only be under my protection until a certain date. If the stalker hasn’t been caught by then…” He pauses, his voice dropping. “You would have been welcome with me forever.”
“Forever?” I echo. “Even if you don’t want one now, you’ll want a real wife one day.”
He leans his head back against the chair. “No. I won’t.”
It hurts. It shouldn’t, but it does, the insistence that he doesn’t want the kind of relationship that I do. The real kind of love that I’ve always wanted to experience one day. The kind of love that’s been growing inside me, for him , now feels like it might choke me.
“I guess we both have our deadlines, then,” I say.
His expression darkens. “It’s not the same thing.”
“Isn’t it?” I counter. “You have to be married before you turn thirty. I don’t want to be a virgin after I turn twenty-five. We have a few months left.”
His jaw tightens. “Those two are not comparable.”
I shrug, like this is nothing at all, like my heart isn’t aching. “No, it’s true. Yours is much more serious.”
“I should have told you.” West’s free hand tilts my head back to meet his gaze. “I never wanted you to think that this was a possibility.”
“But it is,” I tell him. “You’re not the kind of man who loses.”
“Nora,” he says.
“It won’t be one of the women your mother wants you to marry,” I guess. “It won’t be a big wedding. Maybe it’ll be an assistant of yours, someone you work with. Someone you pay. A quid-pro-quo agreement. But you won’t lose Fairhaven.”
“Nothing has to change,” he tells me. “ Nothing. Do you hear me? You and I, nothing has to change.”
“Everything changes,” I say. “It’s the only certainty in life.”
His fingers dig into my waist, tighten until I can feel the pads of them. “I won’t be controlled. Not by my mother, and not by a trust written by a man who’s been dead for almost a century.”
“And yet,” I say, tracing my nail along the scruff at his jaw, “you are in the market for a wife, and that’s entirely his doing.”
West’s teeth grind together like he hates that fact. I bet he does.
I’ve never felt this way before. The anger, the want, the frustration. It all coalesces around him . And Fairhaven. He can’t lose it. Of course he can’t.
I don’t want to lose it, either.
“Sir.” It’s Madison again. She nods at West and then at me. “Sorry to interrupt. But we apprehended someone taking pictures of you two. Michael is interrogating him now.”
West’s face hardens. “Take me to him.”