45. Caleb
Chapter forty-five
Having Lex join the weekly Heart family dinner has only proved to me just how much she belongs in my life.
My mother and Beth immediately swept her up in conversation.
My eyes wandered over to them every time I would hear them laugh.
Around the dinner table, she joined the conversation or listened with intent.
Lex offered up any information my siblings or parents would ask.
She would look at me every time Grams or Mum would compliment the way we were together, particularly the way I was around her.
Or the ways I’ve changed since she’s come into my life. More settled, more relaxed.
Apart from those first few weeks after meeting Lex, and not understanding my want for her, now that we’ve settled into a rhythm of being partners, I’m actually working better.
I’m focused and excited for work, I have this new zest for life, and I’m not spending all my time in the office because I know I have a beautiful woman waiting at home for me, or keeping my seat vacant at the club until I can sit with her while she works.
Because yes, I’m an obsessed fucker who watches his girlfriend work.
Ugh, girlfriend. Doesn’t have the same effect as wife .
Oop, there goes my cock twitching in my pants again.
I shift in my seat, willing the semi to go away until I can get Lex back home .
“I’m so glad we finally have another woman around.” Beth sighs. “Thank God I encouraged your little workplace fling.”
“You encouraged it?” Gage scoffs.
“You force two people who are attracted to each other together, and sparks are bound to catch fire.” Grams nods, sipping at her pear cider.
We’re almost in February, right in the thick of Heart City summer, when the nights are still warm.
Barbecues in the garden and crisp, cold ciders are just as comforting as the way Lex is snuggled against me right now.
Tucked under my arm after she shifted her chair right up against mine once we were all done eating.
“That’s what happened with you and Grandpa, right, Grams?” Mason asks.
“Indeed, my dear. It was quite exciting.” Grams looks at Grandpa with a smile, which he matches with a wink, and throws his arm over her shoulder.
“Working together?” my mother asks.
“No! Sneaking around.”
Lex gasps and smothers a giggle into my chest.
“What do you mean, sneaking around?” I ask.
“I was newly working at H&H Mining. Henrietta is seven years older and worked very hard to prove that a woman could run things. The first task I was appointed to was being the representative on a big commercial project we were sponsoring, which Grandpa’s company was also an investor in.
I was attracted to him the second I saw him at that first meeting.
But could you imagine the headlines if it were found out we were dating?
I didn’t want to tarnish the reputation my sister had built as a woman in a male-dominated field. ” She tuts, shaking her head.
“I pushed back, tried to hide my feelings, but your Grandpa just loved to push my buttons.”
“I would never.” Grandpa shakes his head, purposely stirring Grams up .
“Eventually, the sexual tension just burst,” she says, smiling over at him.
He picks up her hand and kisses the inside of her palm.
Lex nuzzles further into my body, and my chest feels like fireworks are exploding.
“We were working late one night, and I finally decided I couldn’t take it anymore.
I kissed him in the way I’d been dying to, and with that came the realisation: Who says I can’t have it all?
I’m the daughter of a millionaire. I’ll have my business and my happiness.
I don’t have to pick one or the other. We snuck around until the project was finished, and the day after, we were married. ”
“Hell yes, Grams, making the first move.” Beth punches a fist in the air, making us all laugh.
“Weren’t you worried it would blow up in your face? Mixing your business life with your personal one? What if you cost you, your family, everything?” Gage asks.
She laughs. “No, my boy. I was more worried that I’d never feel the way your grandfather made me feel with anyone else.
It just made me want to hold on tighter.
Besides”—she pauses to take a sip from her glass, and it feels as though we’re all waiting with bated breath for her next words—“what harm could it really do to my business?” She shrugs.
“Certainly nothing a queen like me couldn’t fix. ”
Beth claps her hands. “You are a queen, Grams.”
Grams rests a palm against Beth’s cheek. “So are you, my dear. And don’t you let anyone ever tell you otherwise.”
The table is silent while everyone takes in Grams’s words. My parents smile at each other with practised love, and Grandpa continues to look at my grandmother like she hung the moon and answered all his prayers while she was at it.
Lex looks up at me, breaking the silence. “I need to tell my brother about us.”
“Whenever you’re ready, Siren,” I say, placing a kiss against her forehead.
She pulls her phone out of her back pocket .
“Oh shit, you mean right now?”
“I just want to hold on tighter,” she says, repeating Grams’s words from before.
I wrap an arm around her stomach and lean my chin on her shoulder as she brings up her brother’s contact info and starts up a video chat. She angles the camera so I’m slightly out of the way at first.
“Hey, Guppy.” Dylan smiles, but he’s not looking directly at the screen. It looks like he’s in his office at the tavern. I recognise it from our first meeting all those months ago.
“Hey, Dyl. Have you got a sec?”
That makes his eyes snap to the phone. He picks it up, bringing it closer to his face.
“What’s wrong? You good?”
“Yes, I’m good. Great, really.” Lex chews on her lip and takes a breath. “I just wanted to tell you something.”
“Okay.”
“It’s about the guy I told you I was talking to.”
Dylan’s eyes darken. “Do I need to hurt someone?”
“What? No.” Lex laughs, and I see his shoulders relax, his body slumping a little further into his seat.
“Good. So, what do you need to tell me?”
Lex says nothing, just shifts the phone so I come into view, still resting my chin over her shoulder.
“Oh. Um. Hi, Dylan.” I have conducted business meetings where billions of dollars were on the line, but this is the conversation that makes me nervous.
“Caleb Heart. A bit late at night for you to be meeting with my sister, isn’t it?”
I literally have nothing. Thankfully, Lex takes over.
“We’ve been spending more time together. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry about it interfering with Legacy Malt. Not until I was sure of my feelings for Caleb. Of his feelings for me. ”
I squeeze my arm tighter against her, and she burrows into me.
“And what are your feelings for him?” Dylan asks hesitantly.
“Very real ones.”
He nods, then looks at me. “And you?”
“Equally real. And very serious.”
Dylan taps a finger against his lip. I guess he’s trying to consider his feelings before expressing them, which I appreciate since Lex has been so worried about his reaction. I don’t want him upsetting her.
“Thank God. I was getting tired of pretending I didn’t know.”
“What?” Lex shrieks.
“Guppy, he drove all the way down to Killara Bay the day after Christmas. If that wasn’t suss enough, the way he looked at you the whole time he was here made it completely obvious.”
Lex looks at me as if to say, I told you so .
“Sorry, not sorry,” I say with a quick kiss on her pursed lips.
“Absolutely not. If that’s where this call is going, I’ll hang up now,” Dylan says, as if he’s offended, but you can hear the slight amusement under the words.
“Wait!” Lex laughs, looking back at her brother. “Are you okay with this?”
He shrugs. “Just like I told you that morning. If he’s making you smile like that, then I’m good. Legacy Malt has nothing to do with you guys as a couple. Right?”
“Absolutely. I’ve told Lex I’ll always take care of her. Whether we’re together or not.” I flat out reject any scenario where we won’t be together, but I’ll just focus on telling Dylan what he needs to hear for the moment.
“I believe you.” Dylan nods. “Also because I saw a photo of you guys from some ball you went to a few weeks ago. You looked good together.”
“Why didn’t you say anything? ”
“I figured you’d tell me when you were ready. I always trust you, Guppy.”
“Thanks,” Lex whispers, thick with relief.
“Love you, sis. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Love you too,” she smiles.
“Look after my sister, Heart.”
“Always,” I say, and Lex melts into my side before she hangs up with her brother.
When I return my attention to my family, they’re all watching us.
Grams and Grandpa still have their hands linked, and Grams has a proud smile on her face as she looks at me and nods. It’s then that I realise it’s not only what I do for Heart Assets that makes her proud, it’s what I do for myself.