Chapter 49
WILL
Chicago in late fall was as cold, gray, and wet as ever.
I stepped out of the car and into a fine, persistent drizzle that immediately found its way down the back of my collar.
If I hadn’t grown up here, I wasn’t sure if I would have been able to adjust to life in England as easily as I had, but as things were, it had been a pretty smooth process.
The tropical honeymoon we’d just gotten back from hadn’t hurt either.
Eliza and I had finally had a break together and it had been the perfect idea to go someplace hot and humid before we faced down a long winter.
Although I wasn’t opposed to spending every night curled up in front of the fire with her, buried under blankets and—
Nope. Don’t go there. Not right now.
Since I was making my way into W&S HQ for the first time since I’d essentially disappeared to go live in a castle, this didn’t feel like the right time to be thinking about all the things I wanted to do to my wife.
Instead, I focused on the building. A place where I’d taken some of my first steps and had never been away from for as long as it’d been this time. It was still familiar in a way I suspected it always would be. I didn’t miss it as much as I’d thought I might.
My old office door was half open and I paused for a second before pushing it the rest of the way. Jesse’s things were all over. His organizational system looked suspiciously like chaos, with files and papers spread everywhere. A jacket was slung over the back of the chair that used to be mine.
Strangely, I felt no itch to take it back or any sudden urges to reclaim the space. I just leaned against the doorframe, smiling as I realized that in retrospect, it’d never felt quite right that this office was mine.
Being at the castle, however, did feel right.
Between the estate, Eliza, the ongoing projects she’d been managing alone for years that I was now into up to my elbows, and the fact that apparently living in a historic building came with a never-ending list of things that needed attention, I wasn’t exactly bored in the English countryside.
More than that, it felt like I was building something of my own there instead of just being a cog in a corporate machine that could take me or leave me.
Sure, the estate itself was centuries old, but Eliza and I were always brainstorming new ways to make it better, more profitable, and to turn it into a legacy our kids could one day be proud of.
I was snapped out of my thoughts by Jesse speaking up from behind me. “Breaking and entering?”
“Visiting.” I glanced back at him, pushing away from the doorframe and finally walking into the office.
He stepped inside after me, grinning. He shut the door and strode around my desk—his desk—to sit down behind it. “It’s kind of weird seeing you back here.”
“It’s kind of weird being back here,” I replied, going over to the floor-to-ceiling windows instead of taking the chair across from the desk. “Even weirder that this view used to be my life.”
He chuckled. “Are you having buyer’s remorse already?”
“No way. I like it there. I was actually just thinking about how I thought I’d miss this place more, but I just don’t.”
“How are things?” he asked. “It sounds like it’s going well if you don’t even miss us.”
I laughed. “I didn’t say I didn’t miss you all. I said I didn’t miss this place. There’s a difference. Things really are good, though.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He studied me for a second, like he was checking for cracks in my story. “England is treating you well, then?”
“Yep. It turns out I enjoy rain a lot more when it’s attached to a castle.”
He huffed out a quiet laugh. “That’s good to know. I’ve been wondering if you were going to change your mind now that winter is coming.”
“Well, it’s not Game of Thrones. We’ll be fine. So you can tick that off of your list of things to worry about. How about you?” I asked. “Enjoying your new life as me?”
“It’s terrifying,” he said. “I don’t know how you did this every day.”
I shrugged. “Get your coffee from the place down the street instead of the breakroom and you should survive.”
“Thanks for the tip.”
“No problem.” A brief, comfortable silence settled between us before I turned to face him again. “How are you doing with all of it, though? Are you having buyer’s remorse yet?”
“Nah. I’ve still got a lot to learn and it’s going to take a while, but I’m getting there. At least, I think I am.”
I nodded. “I’m sure you’re right.”
He glanced at me with one eyebrow arched. “You sound very confident about that.”
“I am,” I said simply. “It’s not like anyone just walks in here and automatically knows what they’re doing. It took Alex ages to figure it out. Nate was a wreck for months. I was still kind of finding my feet even when I left, if I’m being honest.”
“Seriously?”
I nodded. “Yeah, man. It’s a multi-billion-dollar, multi-national company that we’re only one division of. Just the organogram used to give me nightmares.”
“What the fuck is an organogram?” my twin asked, nose wrinkling.
“You’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He inhaled a deep breath through his nostrils, but at least some of the tension was easing from his features. He refocused on me. “So what are you really doing here? I doubt you came all the way to Chicago just to check in with me.”
“Mostly, I’m here because I had some loose ends to tie up, but there is also something else I wanted to tell you. In person.”
His eyebrows lifted slightly. “That sounds ominous.”
“It’s not,” I said. “Well, actually, it might be. It depends on how you feel about babies.”
His face contorted in confusion “Babies? Are you opening up a foster care center or something, because I’m not qualified to—”
I couldn’t stop the smile that crept onto my lips. “Relax, dude. I’m not about to ask you to open up the townhouse to a charity. Eliza’s pregnant.”
For a long second, he just stared at me. Then he broke into a giant grin. “No way.”
“Way.”
He laughed, immediately getting up and coming over to give me a hug. “That was fast.”
“Neither of us wanted to wait,” I confessed as he thudded me on the back. “Part of it was that they need an heir, but we’re also both just ready, you know? We wanted to start trying and—”
“I don’t need the details, bro. I know how babies are made.” He laughed. “Just, I mean, wow. Do you know what it is yet? I know there’s some pressure on Eliza for a boy.”
“No, not yet,” I said. “It’s too early.”
“But you’re—”
“Thrilled,” I said without hesitation. “Completely, overwhelmingly thrilled. Whatever it is, I’ll be happy.”
He gave me one last thump before he let go, still grinning. “Congratulations, man. Really.”
“Thanks.” I paused for a beat, finally going to sit down when he went back to his chair. “I just wanted to say thank you. I’m not sure where we would’ve been if you hadn’t stepped aside and checked that contract again.”
He looked back at me, that same steady gaze I’d caught from him before now fixed on me once again. “You did me a favor, man. Lots of favors, actually. I just happen to be good at reading the fine print.”
“Either way, thank you. From the bottom of my heart.”
He smiled. “Any time, man. Any time.”
We sat there for another few minutes, catching up before I sighed when I caught the time on the clock above the door. “Shit, I need to get going. I have a meeting with the lawyers.”
“Some things never change,” he said dryly. “Try not to sign anything life altering this time without having me look it over, okay?”
I chuckled. “No promises, but I ripped them a new one for missing it. I doubt they’re going to be making any more mistakes like that anytime soon.”
He smirked. “We’ll see.”
Both of us stood up and headed for the door, but when we reached it, I paused to glance back at the office just one more time. I used to think this life was everything, but it was so easy to leave it behind again when I left after saying goodbye that I knew deep down I’d made the right decision.
Jesse seemed to be settling in well. According to Nate, the transition from me to him had been relatively painless. All things considered, it really felt like this was the way things were always meant to play out.
My meeting with the lawyers took longer than I’d wanted it to, but on my way back to the hotel where I was staying, I still made one more stop. Alex and Jane had invited me to stay with them when he’d found out I was coming, but I’d declined.
They were new parents. It had just felt like I would be intruding, but I did have the code for his penthouse since he’d sent it to me just in case.
I let myself in, immediately registering the faint scent of coffee and something vaguely baby-related in the air.
Powder, maybe? But I wasn’t an expert. Yet.
“Hello?” I called, still somehow managing to keep my voice muted just in case the baby was sleeping. I didn’t even know if it was necessary. My voice had just kind of done it of its own accord.
God, I have a lot to learn.
“In here,” Alex’s replied from the living room, his own voice completely normal.
I sighed and kept walking, stopping short as soon as they came into view. Alex was sitting on the couch with one arm carefully supporting baby Cameron, making it look so easy, it was like he’d been doing this his entire life.
“This feels illegal,” I said quietly. “Is he supposed to be that tiny?”
Alex looked up and smiled. “Why on God’s green earth would it feel illegal?”
I eyed my nephew like he might explode. “He’s tiny. It just kind of feels like there should be a grownup in the room with us.”
“Tiny is generally how babies start,” he said, fighting a laugh. “Makes it easier on the mother. And I hate to break it to you, but we are the grownups in the room.”
I crouched when I reached them, peering at Cameron who blinked up at me with the vague confusion of someone who hadn’t asked for it but had somehow been dropped into the chaos of being a Westwood anyway.