Chapter 25
WILL
When I walked into Alex’s office the next morning, he didn’t even bother looking up from the file in front of him. “Close the door.”
“Learn some manners,” I said.
He sighed. “Just close it.”
I did, quietly clicking it shut behind me before I crossed the expansive space and sat down in the chair across from his desk. When he finally looked up, he seemed resigned about something and a rock formed in my stomach.
“Dad is hosting a garden party this weekend,” he said. “In honor of Jesse and Eliza’s engagement.”
The rock grew larger. “A garden party. Are you sure hats and tiny sandwiches are called for before we even know if we’ve really got a groom?”
“Hats and tiny sandwiches are perfect,” he said, though he didn’t look convinced. “Although, with the weather supposed to be acting up, it’ll probably have to be inside. At least Eliza should feel more at home, right?”
“Right.” I leaned back in the chair and sighed. “This is all happening really fucking fast.”
Alex folded his hands on the desk. “I know, but we’re not trying to overwhelm anyone. Dad promised to keep it small. Just an intimate gathering to celebrate their impending nuptials.”
“That means he’s inviting three hundred guests, isn’t he?”
He shrugged. “Maybe he would’ve, but like I said, the weather is supposed to be terrible. He’ll have to take that into consideration.”
“Chicago is going into the early fall, man,” I said. “Isn’t it just shocking that we can’t rely on good weather for a garden party?”
He pursed his lips at me. “Sarcasm isn’t helping anyone right now, Will.”
“Really? That’s funny. I thought you wanted me to be channeling Jesse and that’s all I’m doing.”
He rolled his eyes. “The point is that Eliza needs to be there.”
“Only Eliza?” I arched an eyebrow at him. “Tell me, is Jesse going to be making an appearance as himself, or am I standing in for him again?”
“You sound tired.”
I scoffed. “I am tired, Alex. I’m tired of putting my entire life on hold for this charade.”
His green eyes swept across my features slowly, and he sighed. “You volunteered for it, and besides, it’s almost over.”
“I did not volunteer.”
“Okay, but you showed up.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Alex smiled. “You’ve been very convincing as him. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell you apart.”
My eyes narrowed. “Wonderful. That just makes everything better, doesn’t it? That I’ve been able to fool the whole world outside of our father and our brothers.”
“Exactly.”
I leaned forward, my eyes locked on his. “You still haven’t answered my question. Am I going to have to be Jesse at the party this weekend?”
Finally, Alex shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. The real Jesse should be here by then.”
Relief washed through me, but it was followed quickly by the realization that my brother would be here soon, and that when he arrived, it was over for me. “Okay. Well, good. Are you sure, though?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“You think so?”
“Look, he said he was flying in this week and the party is on the weekend, so he should be here. We came to an agreement, remember? It’s done.”
“Yes, but Jesse’s version of an agreement is always open to creative interpretation.”
Alex ran a hand through his hair. “He’ll be there, Will. I’m confident.”
“That makes one of us.”
He shrugged a shoulder, already straightening up and glancing at the papers on his desk again, signaling that this meeting was just about done. “Don’t worry so much. It’ll be fine.”
“That’s easy for you to say.” I stood up. “I’ll make sure she’s there. Tell Jesse he has forty-eight hours to show up before I start making decisions for the both of us.”
Alex chuckled. “I’ll pass along the message, but he’s your twin. Why don’t you just tell him yourself?”
Why, indeed. Honestly, I didn’t have an answer for that right now.
When I got back to the townhouse after work, Eliza was waiting near the front door with a suspicious amount of enthusiasm brimming in her eyes. “You’re back!”
“Yeah? That’s usually how it works after hours.” I cocked my head at her. “What’s going on?”
She grabbed her coat. “We’re going for a walk.”
“We are?”
“Yes.” She flashed me a smile I couldn’t resist, her light blue eyes shimmering with joy. “Go get changed. I want to go exploring and you’re going to be my tour guide.”
“Great,” I said, unable to summon much enthusiasm at all, but despite all that, she still dragged me out of the house, and ten minutes later, we were wandering through the neighborhood.
What started as a short stroll quickly turned into a long walk, with Eliza stopping to admire trees, shop windows, and every building she deemed interesting, also chatting to every neighbor we encountered along the way.
As I watched her, it was like I could both feel the tension of the day bleeding out and a new, even worse tension mounting. There was officially a clock on the time I had left with her, and every passing minute was a minute closer to when I’d somehow have to let her go.
“I feel like we’ve crossed state lines,” I muttered after what felt like hours. “Are you about ready to go back yet?”
“You’re exaggerating.” She glanced up at me, the genuine happiness in her eyes nearly blinding.
Her cheeks were pink from the cool air and she kept looking around like absolutely everything was fascinating.
“Why would we go back so soon? Have you seen the city you live in, Jesse? It’s marvelous. Truly.”
“Alright,” I said, sliding my hands into my pockets and falling into step beside her again. “We’re going to have to start heading back in about twenty minutes, though.”
“Why?”
“I have a surprise for you tonight.”
She turned so fast, I was afraid she might fall over. “A surprise? Have you been holding out on me, Jesse Westwood?”
God, I’m hating hearing my brother’s name on her lips more and more by the second. “I haven’t been holding out on you. I’ve had this planned since before we got back, but again, it’s a surprise.”
Her entire face transformed, her eyes widening and lighting up. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.” I looked at her and changed my mind about heading back home first. “You know what? It’s not that far. Do you want to walk?”
“Yes, please,” she said without hesitating for a moment.
We turned toward the waterfront, but Eliza only realized where we were going when Chicago’s harbor was eventually stretching out ahead of us, the lights reflecting off the darkening water. She slowed, turning to face me with her jaw slack.
“Are we going on a boat?”
“Nope. It’s not a boat.” I led her instead to a dock where a medium-sized yacht waited for us. Soft lights glowed along the deck and candles flickered on a round table set for dinner. “See, it’s not really a boat. It’s a bit more than that.”
She stood on the dock beside me for a long moment, just gawking with her eyes sliding from bow to stern and back again. “Oh my God. Is this for us?”
I nodded, sweeping a hand out toward it. “After you.”
She stepped carefully onto the deck, looking around with wide eyes. The crew untied the ropes once I’d followed her on. “Bloody hell, Jesse. This is incredible. It’s beautiful.”
We drifted slowly away from the dock. A crew member waved us over to the table. As we sat down, Chicago’s skyline glittered around us and Eliza stared out at it, so openly awed that I couldn’t give a shit about the view.
As far as I was concerned, my view of her was the best in the house. Finally, after a few long minutes of just staring and blinking, she turned back to me. “I feel like I’m in a movie.”
“That’s good,” I said. “It’s kind of what I was aiming for.”
Somewhere deep in my chest, however, I already knew that if this was the closest I’d ever get to having a life with her, I was going to make every second of it unforgettable. Unfortunately, that meant that for me, the cruise was a terrible idea.
A spectacular, beautiful, deeply romantic, terrible idea.
I couldn’t stop staring at her, noticing the way her golden hair drifted on the breeze and how she kept letting out these dreamy little sighs.
Dinner was served as we cruised around the harbor, the crew coming and going with quiet efficiency.
Eliza looked more and more enchanted by the second, which made the situation significantly worse for my self-control. All I wanted to do was pull her into my arms, and I knew I fucking shouldn’t.
“This is absurd,” she said softly after turning back to me again. “The absolute best kind of insanity. I had no idea it was possible to do something like this right here in the city. Do you do it often?”
“Take women on candlelit yacht dinners?”
She chuckled. “Well, yes, but also not only that. Do you take these kinds of cruises often, you know, just for the experience?”
“No to both.”
She arched an eyebrow at me. “You hesitated.”
“I was considering the phrasing.”
“That sounds suspicious.” She folded her arms on the table and looked directly at me. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”
“Those are pretty dangerous words.”
“Why?”
I smirked. “Because they encourage me.”
She smiled, which kind of sucked because that had been more like something Jesse would say than me. Ordinarily, anyway, but then she glanced back toward the city lights and I forgot all about my brother again.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she murmured. “It’s beautiful.”
I kept looking right at her, cliched as it might’ve been. “It really is.”
She finally twisted in her chair and looked at me again. “You’re being terribly quiet tonight.”
I inclined my chin toward the various plates of food on the table. “I’m eating.”
“So? You can eat and talk.”
“Maybe, but I prefer one activity at a time.”
She shook her head at me. “You’re deflecting.”
“I’m concentrating on my pasta.”
“Jesse.” She let out a soft sigh. “Please tell me what’s going on in your head.”
Too much. Way, way too much, that’s what.
In a few days, this would all be over. Jesse would arrive and the lie would collapse. Eliza would belong to someone else. Technically she already did, which made everything I was doing tonight profoundly irresponsible.
“It’s nothing,” I said finally. “Just a long day at work. I’m sorry I’m not better company.”
She shook her head again but smiled. “Fine. I’ll talk then. You know, I’ve really been enjoying this. More than I expected I would, actually.”
“The cruise? Why didn’t you think you’d like it?”
Her voice softened. “The break, Jesse. I’m enjoying the break. I don’t think I realized how much I needed it until you forced me to take one.”
“I prefer the word encouraging. Can we use that instead?”
She laughed. “You left me a mountain of money, had me taken to a spa, insisted I go shopping, and kidnapped me onto a boat.”
“Okay, so my encouragement comes with a bit of flair.”
She laughed again, and just like every other time she had, hearing it made the ache in my chest worse. I should’ve been pulling away. Creating some distance from her.
Instead, I kept doing the exact opposite. By the time the yacht returned to the dock, I felt like I’d spent two hours walking directly toward a cliff with no intention of stopping. I hailed a cab, not saying much after I gave the driver my address.
Once I shut the door behind us, Eliza slipped out of her coat and hung it on the rack near the door. I did the same, but I paused halfway through the movement when I realized she was staring at me.
As soon as my eyes met hers, she drew in a deep breath. “Can I ask you something?”
Fuck.
My heart started hammering. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“How difficult the question is.”
She crossed her arms lightly over her chest. “It’s not hard. I just want to know if everything is alright, Jesse.”
“I’m fine,” I lied, even forcing a small smile. “Just tired, is all.”
“No, it’s not that. You’ve been different since we got back to Chicago.” She slowly released her arms and took a small step closer to me. “I don’t know why, but I keep getting the feeling that I’m missing something.”
Oh, come on. Come. The fuck. On. Why does she have to be so goddamn observant?
I looked away briefly, trying to figure out how to navigate this without detonating the entire situation. “Things are just busy here. Life is different, so I’m different, I guess. When we were at the estate, there was a lot less for me to focus on.”
She took another step closer, still looking directly into my eyes. “That’s not it.”
“No?”
“No.”
My instincts were screaming at me to say something safe. Something neutral. Something Jesse would say as naturally and as easily as breathing.
Instead, as I stood there staring into those crystal clear blue eyes, the exact color of the sky at the estate on the rare occasion the sun broke through, something else came out entirely. “I didn’t anticipate falling for you.”
Eliza eyebrows shot up and she blinked hard. “What?”
I rubbed both hands over my face and groaned. “I didn’t plan for this to happen, Eliza.”
A confused furrow appeared on her brow. “Jesse—”
“I know I shouldn’t want it. I know it’s not something I can have, but here I am, wanting it anyway. Wanting it more than I’ve ever wanted anything before.”
Her breath caught slightly. “Want what?”
“You.” My heart was pounding now, my pulse slamming under my jaw while a cold sweat broke out along my spine.
Eliza stared at me, clearly trying to process what I’d just said, which was fair. I barely understood it myself, but now that the truth had slipped out, my self-control was hanging by a thread.
“This isn’t supposed to happen,” I said roughly.
She took yet another small step closer. “I’m not sure I understand.”
My body moved without conscious command, closing the distance between us in just one long stride. I caught her face in my hands and kissed her, apparently having decided that good decisions were optional tonight.
Stepping into her space, I crowded her until her back met the wall. I leaned into her, bracing one hand beside her shoulder and deepening the kiss. I could feel every soft inch of her against me, the heat of her body radiating despite the chill of the outside air on her skin.
Everything I’d been trying not to feel finally broke loose, and somewhere in the back of my mind, a quiet voice warned that this was a spectacularly fucking bad idea. Unfortunately, even though I knew that voice was right, I couldn’t seem to stop.