Chapter 4
Will
“First date was at the Italian place down on the Harbor.” I leaned against the wall of Evelyn’s living room, twisting the unfamiliar wedding band on my finger.
My brain was not ready for any of this—for the welcome home party, the late night, or the quiz.
“You ordered the gnocchi, and I had the spaghetti carbonara. We split tiramisu for dessert.”
“Correct.” Ashley took a sip of her wine. “And our honeymoon?”
“Two weeks in…” Where was it? An island somewhere. Europe. Mediterranean? We’d just reviewed it this afternoon.
My brain circled, drifting to the visit with my mother. I’d learned eight months ago that she and my father knew I’d slept with Brie. Like earlier today, it was in a moment she’d confused me for my father. She’d brought it up twice since the first time.
Three times in a year.
And the fourth today, with Brie sitting right there.
We didn’t talk about it in the car. Didn’t talk about it when I dropped her off to grab her car and head home. Just like we hadn’t talked about it in the ten years since it had happened.
“Will?” Ashley prompted.
“Sorry.” I snapped back to the moment. “Greece? Two weeks in Santorini and Crete.”
“Remember when I had to smush up against the wall on the donkey track?” Ashley tapped my chest as she giggled. She was playing up the story, rehearsing the rapport we should have had.
But honestly? I had no idea what she was talking about. “Donkey track?”
“The switchback up the…” Her fake laugh stopped, her shoulders dropping. “I thought they picked Santorini because you’d been there?”
“No.”
“Didn’t you study the undercover dossier?”
“I did.” I tried to stifle a yawn behind my glass. “But it’s been a long day.”
She frowned.
Why did I agree to this? I was tech support. I’d told Evelyn exactly that, at least ten times since she announced I’d be going undercover with Ashley. I’d reminded her I didn’t do undercover work. Sure, I was on-site for plenty of jobs, but working behind the scenes was different.
Front-of-the-house work was not one of my skills.
“Screw the official plan.” She took another sip from her glass. “How about we change it to… We only got married a few weeks ago. What if we say the data center job offers came in right before the wedding, and we didn’t want to pass them up?”
“So we rescheduled the honeymoon?”
“We’ll be in the Bahamas. We can say we thought it could be half work, half play?”
“If it means I can skip memorizing everything about Santorini, I’m all for it.”
The living room hummed with conversation and laughter. The catering staff moved efficiently between clusters of guests, offering drinks and appetizers on sleek platters. The air smelled of overpriced food and the subtle scent of whatever candles Evelyn had burning—something woodsy and expensive.
Declan and Zac stood near the fireplace, deep in conversation with our pilot, Brian. Three of our IT staff were by the window, laughing over something on one of their phones. Pockets of employees gathered, everyone showing up to welcome me home.
Scarlett and Malcolm hadn’t arrived yet. Nor had Brie.
The front door opened and closed, and my heart did the same little jump as every other time. But it was Jenn who appeared around the corner from the foyer, her smile lighting up when she spotted me. “Will!”
Emmett followed a step behind her, looking amused at his girlfriend’s enthusiasm. She was one of Scarlett’s best friends since they were young, almost as long as Brie and I had been joined at the hip. She was a few years older than me, but we’d all practically grown up together.
“Jenn,” I said, pushing off the wall to receive her hug. “Good to see you.”
“Scarlett said you were back, but I couldn’t believe it until I saw you myself.” She stepped back, studying my face. “You look tired.”
“We flew out from London early this morning.” The reminder made my eyes itch even more, and no amount of blinking would fix that problem.
My plan after seeing Mum had been to head home and grab a couple of hours’ sleep before coming to Evelyn’s.
But my brain was buzzing after everything Mum said, and sleep had evaded me.
“Actually, I think it was last night, if you account for the time zones.”
She put her hands on her hips, giving me a blatant once-over. “Something’s different.”
“He’s been working out,” Emmett added, clapping my shoulder. “Must have found a decent gym in Oxshott.”
“Not much else to do between looking after my mother and the crazy work hours your mother forced me into,” I said with a laugh that turned into another yawn.
It hadn’t been a gym. I’d spent almost every hour in the converted loft above my mother’s maisonette.
How could I leave her alone? Instead, I’d made my own little gym and used it every day. “How’s the restoration work going?”
“Aunt Penny’s got me cleaning a hundred-year-old maritime painting that reeks like hundred-year-old tobacco.” Jenn wrinkled her nose. “But it’s fascinating work—you should stop by the conservation studio sometime.”
The front door opened again, the familiar click of Scarlett’s stilettos preceding her. She appeared, then Malcolm.
And finally, the woman I’d been waiting for.
Something inside me stopped, and my mother’s words floated through my brain again. ‘They said they’d fallen asleep working.’
Good god, Mum.
She’d worn her usual jeans and a hoodie that evening ten years ago, her hair in a loose ponytail.
The same as tonight.
She smiled at something Scarlett said, then laughed, the sound carrying across the room like it was all mine. She moved to greet Declan and Zac, not looking into the living room.
“Will?”
“Sorry, what?” I said, realizing Jenn had asked me a question.
“I asked how your mother’s doing. Is she settling in okay?”
“It’s an adjustment.” The awkward tightening in my stomach continued, just as it had from the moment I’d walked into Northwind with Mum.
My sister said it was the right choice. Evelyn was even covering the bill.
So why did I feel like such a bad son? It’s not abandonment.
“The place is excellent, though. Evelyn found it.”
“Did she really?” said Emmett. “Must be posh if she picked it.”
“It’s perfect.” My gaze drifted back to Brie, who was now chatting with the IT group. She hadn’t glanced my way yet, too focused on the moment in front of her to notice the world around her.
That was so her.
Zac appeared at Ashley’s side, sliding an arm around her waist. With a grin, he said, “Mind if I steal my girlfriend from her husband?”
“All yours,” I replied, returning his smile. “For now.”
Ashley tipped her glass to me, and Zac led her away, leaving me with Emmett and Jenn.
Declan approached with a glass of scotch in hand and a woman on his arm. “Will, meet Leigh Barton. She’s been looking forward to thanking you in person.”
“Nice to finally meet you,” I said, extending my hand.
Leigh shook my hand. “I’ve been dying to talk to you about how you got the information off the Eisenhart vault in Rome.”
“Leigh’s working on her PhD in Material Engineering,” Declan said, his chest puffing slightly. “Specializing in metal foams for high-security applications.”
If I weren’t so tired, I’d probably remember someone telling me about it. “For vault design?”
“That’s the plan.” Leigh came from a family of engineers who built safes, vaults, and other specialty cases for precious items. It was no surprise Declan—our safecracker and resident safe designer—fell in love with her.
“Are you focused on thermal conductivity issues or more on structural integrity?”
“Both, actually,” Leigh began, her expression brightening. She was a kindred spirit. “I’m developing a composite that maintains strength while reducing weight and heat transfer. But my question first—about the Eisenhart?”
I could use her help with so many of my designs. And if she were working in a lab, maybe I could get her help on a new phone case I’d been working on for the Reynolds team. “Well, I—”
Brie turned, and her big brown eyes locked with mine. She smiled, a weak smile. But before I had time to smile back, she excused herself from her conversation and disappeared into the heart of Evelyn’s house. Toward the kitchen?
Bloody hell.
“Sorry, Leigh,” I said. “I’m half-asleep and need to check something with Brie.”
She nodded, already turning toward Ashley, who’d returned.
I made my way toward the kitchen, passing Scarlett, who gave me a side-hug as I went by.
The kitchen bustled with activity as catering staff moved in and out, preparing trays, delivering them to the dining room and living room where guests enjoyed them, returning for more when they were empty. There must have been forty guests.
Only one mattered.
Brie stood near the island, chatting with a server about the appetizers.
“Hey,” I said, reaching for a bacon-wrapped something.
“Hi,” Brie said, covering her mouth as she spoke around a mouthful of food. “Try the crab puffs. They’re amazing.”
The server nodded politely and continued her circuit with the food.
“Ashley changed our cover story.” That’s not what you wanted to talk about, Will.
“You’re going to do great, you know.” Brie was simply building me up for this, no doubt aware of how nervous I was. “All you need to do is pretend you’re a network specialist. Carry some cables around while Ashley does most of the snooping.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re going to stay home in your cushy little chair.”
“Damn straight! There’s no way I could handle that pressure. Interfacing with strangers? Lie to them? Convince them I wasn’t hacking into their systems?” She rolled her eyes dramatically, then grabbed a napkin and a couple of morsels from the counter.
“I think I’m—” Another yawn. I was going to need a ride home at this rate.
Brie pivoted to lean against the island. “You didn’t get your nap, did you?”
“No time,” I said. “Too much to do.”
“Moving home is—”
“Stressful.” I joined her against the island, so my arm touched hers. We had a perfect view through the crowd in the dining room and into the living room.
“A trip to the Bahamas is precisely the thing you need.” She nudged me with a hip.
“We’ll be underground.”
“Most of the time.”
“True.” The Mnemis employee handbook mentioned a staff-exclusive island that was accessible from the data center’s residences. Since the nine-hour shifts were spent exclusively in artificial light, it was mandatory to spend time above ground to keep the staff healthy.
“So don’t forget your bathing suit.”
Several of us were flying to Grand Bahama on the company jet tomorrow afternoon. The day after that, Ashley and I would take a boat to Blue Haven Cay, Gideon Tremaine’s private resort island. Team members posing as guests would fly in on charters. But staff? We went by sea.
“I haven’t unpacked from London yet.” A few boxes had come with me on the jet, but the rest of my things would be arriving tomorrow at the office—mostly equipment.
“You should have come home earlier.” She snagged another bite of something from a passing tray. “Do you need a hand packing?”
“No, but thank you.”
We stood in silence for a few minutes. She fidgeted with her napkin, folding it into smaller and smaller squares, while I fought the desire to find a bedroom and crash for the night.
You’re here to talk to her. Courage, Will. I finally blurted, “About my mum today—”
“You warned me about it,” Brie interjected almost as quickly, her tone light but deliberate. “Hearing about it and seeing it are two very different things.”
“We’re good, right?” I asked, unable to ask the real question: Are you upset my mother knows we had sex?
“Of course we are.” Brie let out one of her nervous giggles. Not the response I was hoping for. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
Evelyn swept into the room, saving me from the conversation. She took one look at me and cocked her eyebrow. “You look dead on your feet.”
Brie snorted a laugh, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I feel it.”
Evelyn let out a faux-exasperated sigh and shook her head at me. “William, darling, thank you for making an appearance, but go home.”
Thank god.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, playing up a sheepish smile.
She came closer, taking me by the arms and kissing my cheek like she’d been doing since I was a kid. “We need you rested up for tomorrow.”
I returned the kiss, gave Brie a too-brief hug, and said my goodbyes. I did need sleep.
But the entire drive back to my place, my mother’s words played on an endless loop: ‘They said they’d fallen asleep working, but we knew better.’
The problem was, after ten years of pretending that night never happened, my year in London had left me wondering if pretending had been the real mistake all along.