Chapter 29
WILL
Iabsolutely should not have done that.
The thought kept circling around my head all day long. It would’ve probably been there last night too, except for the fact that I’d been so out of my mind that I hadn’t been thinking at all.
To be fair, she’d baited me into it like a pro, but I’d taken that bait hook, line, and sinker, and not because I hadn’t known what she was doing, but because I hadn’t wanted to. Eliza Roderick had me wrapped around her little finger and she had officially managed to rob me of my sanity.
If this had been our engagement party for real, I would’ve been the happiest crazy guy in the world. But it wasn’t.
My father’s house was already full when we arrived.
The music from the string quartet in the corner was low and too many voices already echoed through the halls.
These were people who’d known us all our lives, who had watched Jesse charm his way through every room he’d ever walked into.
People who knew him, which was bound to be a problem, but my father seemed to have forgotten about that little technicality.
I walked in with my hand in the small of her back, needing to touch her. Even if just like this. Just for these last couple hours before my brother and I would have to switch.
If Jesse showed up, that was. He wasn’t here yet. I knew that as soon as I walked in, but it was early. He might still surprise me, but honestly, I was kind of hoping he would just stay gone.
Meanwhile, Eliza glanced up at me with something flickering in her eyes that hadn’t been there before last night. Intimacy. Trust. The way a person only looked at someone else when that final frontier had been crossed and they knew they were on their way to forever.
It fucking broke me, but I kept moving forward, doing my best not to think about it.
The first few minutes were easy enough. I knew how to move through a room like this, who to greet first, who expected attention, and who could be acknowledged from a distance without causing offense. Today, I just had to do it as him.
“Jesse,” someone called and I turned instinctively, a smile already in place. “It’s about time you two showed up. Congratulations.”
“Thanks, Davie,” I replied smoothly, even though he’d always been David to me.
I shook his hand, clapping him on the shoulder before moving on, falling into a rhythm I’d spent years observing. Jesse never stayed still during events like this. He was always on the move and I mimicked that, hating every second of dragging Eliza from group to group.
She stayed beside me, offering polite smiles when introduced, but otherwise, she was quiet. Her hand brushed mine occasionally though, the touches light and fleeting, but enough to keep me aware of her at all times.
Not that I needed the reminder.
“Will!” I didn’t flinch when I heard my name, turning to meet the gaze of an older man we’d known so long, I had a picture of him holding me in the hospital just after my birth. “How are you, my boy?”
“Jesse,” I corrected easily. “I’m good, though. Have you met Eliza yet?”
“I…” Martin trailed off, confusion furrowing his features as he looked at me intently. “Of course. Sorry. I just… Jesse?”
“Yeah, man. Don’t sweat it. It’s good to see you.”
He blinked a few times but I moved on before the conversation could really get uncomfortable, guiding Eliza with me. I kept our momentum going, but it happened again and again.
Callum, my cousin from California, audibly snorted when I tried correcting him, clearly not buying it at all. He flashed me a look that said we’d talk later, but then he fell into an easy conversation with Eliza, fighting a smile every time he said Jesse’s name.
An old family friend who probably hadn’t seen Jesse for years, but knew me well enough to feel that something was off, came up to us next. One of Dad’s golf buddies whose company I did business with often took over after that.
Each time I corrected them, they hesitated. I tried smoothing it over, but by the time Eliza and I got separated by Kate dragging her away, I was exhausted. But that steady awareness of her was still humming under my skin.
It didn’t matter where she was in the room, I could feel the exact moment her attention shifted back to me.
Every time it happened and I looked over, she was already watching me.
I spoke to a few more guests, but I barely registered their words.
When her eyes found mine again, the look in them wasn’t soft or uncertain.
It was heated. Wanting. Making me hard—at the party to celebrate her engagement to my fucking brother.
“Jesse?”
With no small amount of effort, I dragged my attention away from her to refocus on the man in front of me. “I’m sorry. You were saying?”
He continued, unaware of the fact that I’d completely lost track of the conversation, still acutely conscious of the exact point in the room where she stood.
This was a problem. A significant one.
Last night had changed something. Before, I’d been able to compartmentalize my awareness of her, ignore it when I had to, but now, distance felt irrelevant. She was so completely under my skin that I could feel her even when she wasn’t touching me.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” my father’s said, his voice drifting across the crowd. “If I could have your attention please. Jesse, Elizabeth. Where are you? Will you both join me?”
Conversations tapered off almost immediately into a low hum before they quieted altogether.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I murmured to the guy I’d been talking to, heading across the room to her before we made our way to my father together.
He stood near the center of the room with a glass of champagne in his hand. When we reached him, he nodded and turned back to the crowd. “First, I would like to welcome you all to our home. Thank you for joining us for this momentous occasion.”
He paused for a moment to smile at Eliza and me.
“Tonight, it gives us great pleasure to be able to celebrate the engagement of Jesse to Lady Elizabeth Roderick.” He turned slightly toward her.
“Eliza, you’ve already proven yourself to be an extraordinary addition to our family, capable, poised, and much more patient than my son deserves. ”
A ripple of laughter moved through the crowd. I inclined my head just enough to acknowledge it, the appropriate response, but it wasn’t me he was referring to. It was Jesse.
Beside me, however, Eliza didn’t know that. She just smiled, as polite and composed as ever.
Well, except for last night. She sure wasn’t composed then. Fuck. Do not think about that right now, Will. You’re just making it worse for yourself.
“Jesse,” my father said, shifting his attention back to me, but I saw the glimmer of recognition in his eyes. He knew he was speaking to the wrong son. “It’s not often that we’ve seen you make decisions that carry this much weight, but we’re proud of you, son. Let’s hope you don’t ruin it.”
More laughter rang out and I smiled on cue, but if the real Jesse was here, it was possible my dad had just pissed him off so much that he’d just leave.
When Dad finally lifted his glass to conclude, I was almost optimistic that maybe he’d even somehow done that for me.
That maybe he’d wanted to piss Jesse off so he wouldn’t go through with it after all.
“Together,” he said. “You represent something special. Not just a partnership, but a lasting commitment to your families and the future.”
Internally, I groaned, and if Jesse had heard him, I knew it would be the same for him. Because that had been the clincher, that casual but barbed expectation neatly packaged and handed to us in front of an audience.
“To Jesse and Eliza.”
“To Jesse and Eliza,” the room echoed.
Glasses clinked in a soft, collective chime and then, of course, all eyes shifted to us. I turned to her slowly, prepared this time, at least. I reached for her without thinking now, my hand finding her waist like it was second nature.
Her breathing hitched just slightly and a smile spread on my lips as I held her gaze. “Are you ready?”
She searched my gaze for a beat. Then some hooligan in the crowd shouted, “Don’t keep us waiting, Jess. Jeez.”
I almost snapped out a sarcastic response, but instead, I did what my brother would’ve done, tugging her to me and sealing my mouth over hers. When James had made his toast, it had been early days yet, but this kiss was more deliberate. Slower, with much more meaning behind it.
Eliza didn’t hesitate this time either, which was real fucking problem, because she leaned into me like this wasn’t complicated at all. Like it was a real celebration of us. My thumb shifted slightly against her side, a small, unconscious movement as I lost myself in her, but she felt it.
I knew she did by the way her breathing changed and how her hand caught lightly on my sleeve, holding on to me.
The room disappeared, or maybe I just stopped paying attention to it, but for one more crazy, reckless moment, I thought that maybe I could get away with this for just a little bit longer.
By the time I finally lifted my head away from hers, I was still clinging to that hope—until I looked up and my gaze suddenly landed on him. Leaning casually against the bar like he hadn’t just detonated every fragile thread holding this together was Jesse.
Late as always, he watched us with a glass of scotch in his hand, smiling when his eyes met mine. It was a slow and knowing smirk, his glass lifting in a silent toast meant only for me.
Every muscle in my body locked. I was about to walk across the room, drag him outside, and tell him in no uncertain terms that this had become so much more than just me covering for him. But before I could act on it, he was disappearing into the crowd, gone like he’d never even been there at all.