Chapter 46
JACQUELINE
Standing at the edge of a room that glittered like it belonged in someone else’s life, I smoothed my hands down the front of my dress. Chandeliers threw soft golden light over everything, but it all felt distant, like I was watching it through glass.
Part of me still wasn’t sure he was going to want to see me. After everything I’d said and done, I wouldn’t blame him if he was just… over it. But whatever lingering hesitation and fear I’d been feeling about a possible future together had dissolved after the afternoon spent with the wives.
It’d taken me a long time to get to this point, though. Perhaps too long. I wasn’t unaware of how frustrated Jesse must be with me. I also wasn’t blind to all the hurt I’d caused him. It didn’t really matter that I’d hurt myself too.
Stupidity, ignorance, and a blind belief that I knew everything I needed to know about the Westwoods had brought us here. That was my fault. My own stubborn streak had kept me from opening my eyes and ears earlier, but I wasn’t going to let him walk away without a fight.
Not now that I’d finally had the blinders removed from my eyes.
When I finally looked up at the room again, Jesse had already found me. Across the room, surrounded by people, expectations, and everything that’d always made me feel small, he’d found me.
None of that stuff ever touched him. I knew that, but tonight, it didn’t even look like he was aware of it.
His gaze was locked onto mine like he’d known the moment I’d walked into the room.
Everything else blurred into nothingness as our eyes met and held, the laughter and music falling away until there was only him.
My throat tightened, my vision stinging as tears rushed up to press at the backs of my eyes. I wanted to go to him, but I suddenly couldn’t move.
Jesse, however, didn’t hesitate. He started walking straight toward me, not glancing at anyone else or acknowledging the people trying to speak to him. He just cut through the crowd like there was nothing and no one else in the room.
As I watched him, those eyes such a bright, devastating blue even across the distance, my heart slammed so hard against my ribs that it felt like it was about to take off. Jesse closed that distance, the same distance I’d created between us, at an astonishing pace.
Like he already knew that I regretted putting it there and already knew that I didn’t need it anymore. God, I’d been so stupid, thinking I had to push him away to keep myself safe.
He stopped right in front of me, not slowing until we were toe to toe. He was so close that I could feel the heat of him, that familiar pull making everything inside feel too tight and too full.
I didn’t trust my voice, but the way he was looking at me was so intense and searching that I knew he wouldn’t say anything.
He was waiting on me to speak and I owed him the truth.
Jesse had done plenty of talking the last time we’d seen each other.
I knew how he felt. It was time to let him know that it was the same for me.
“I was wrong,” I blurted out, my voice shaking and my hands curling into the fabric of my dress. “I was so wrong, Jesse. I’m sorry. I should’ve listened to you. I just didn’t want to let myself hope.”
Hope meant risk. Risk meant hurt. Hurt had been what I’d tried to avoid, but in the end, we’d both felt it anyway.
His jaw tightened, but his gaze didn’t waver. “Do you accept it now?”
He asked the question quietly, but I heard him loud and clear, surprised that he hadn’t asked do you love me or are you sorry. Rather, he wanted to know if I accepted that we could be together. That this was real. That I was allowed to have it.
While he hadn’t voiced it all, I still knew what he was asking and I didn’t hesitate to respond. “Yes, I do.” I nodded repeatedly, desperate for him to understand. “I do accept it, Jesse. I just didn’t think I was enough. I didn’t think I—”
He didn’t wait for the rest of my apology or explanations. Instead, the next thing I knew, he was kissing me, hard and decisive, until he’d shut me up in that way only way he could.
A soft, startled sound left me and my hands flew up to his jacket, gripping it tight. This room was so damningly public, so wildly inappropriate for a kiss like this, but he didn’t care and I didn’t think I did anymore either.
I kissed him back just as fiercely, and when he finally pulled back, it wasn’t far. One of his hands came up, warm and gentle as he caressed my cheek. His thumb brushed beneath my eye, catching a tear before it could fall.
“I want to marry you,” he said, just like that, without any buildup or hesitation.
My brain tripped over itself. “I… What?”
For a moment, I was convinced I’d misheard, but he repeated the request a second later, his voice as confident as ever. “Marry me.”
My heart felt like it might explode, but his forehead came back down until it was practically brushing mine, his fingers still cradling my face.
“Right now. I don’t care about anyone else, Jacque.
I don’t care who’s watching or what they think.
I just want you. I’ve been wealthy since the day I was born, but I’ve never been as rich as I have since you came into my life,” he said, his voice rough and his eyes locked on mine. “Marry me.”
A fresh wave of tears blurred my vision. I nodded, unable to form words around the feelings lodged in my chest, but everything in me was screaming yes.
“Yes,” I finally managed, though it was barely audible.
His eyes widened. “Really?”
I nodded again, laughing through my tears and feeling like I was coming completely undone. “Yes.”
What I’d forgotten, however, was that Jesse Westwood was completely crazy. A wide, stunned grin spread across his lips and he straightened to his full height and grabbed my hand, lifting it into the air with his like we were victors in some kind of battle.
“I just got engaged!” he announced loudly.
My eyelids went haywire and there was a split second of collective confusion around us before reactions started rippling outward. Some people clapped, a few soft ohhs and awws floating through the air.
Others looked around, clearly unsure if this was part of the evening’s program or if the Westwood family had finally lost their minds entirely. Meanwhile, I stared at Jesse, half horrified and half breathless but entirely in love.
God, he’s insane.
I wasn’t even sure if he’d noticed people’s confusion over the break in decorum. He was already turning back to me, those eyes twinkling with joy. It didn’t look like he was struggling at all to process the fact that we’d gone from broken up to engaged in the space of only a few heartbeats.
I am engaged. To Jesse Westwood.
A laugh bubbled up from someplace deep inside me, coming out breathless and a little hysterical, but then his attention sharpened again, focused entirely on me like announcing our engagement to an entire ballroom full of Chicago’s elite was just a minor aside.
“When you pictured your wedding, did you want people throwing rice in your face like assault is okay as long as it’s festive?”
“What?” I asked dumbly. “No, I don’t think so. Why?”
He tilted his head slightly, a grin tugging at his mouth that was softer than usual but still dangerous. “So you didn’t want the whole, walking down the aisle, overpriced flowers and long speeches after kind of deal?”
I laughed again, completely startled by the question. “No. No, I really didn’t, but again, why?”
“That’s great news for me,” he said, as happy as if I’d just handed him the best possible outcome.
Before I could even ask why—again—he turned once more and addressed the room in that same loud, excited voice he’d used to make his prior announcement. “Is anyone here legally able to marry us? Right here. Right now.”
Oh my God.
“Jesse,” I hissed under my breath, trying not to smile and failing spectacularly. “What are you doing?”
My hand tightened instinctively around his to get his attention, but he wasn’t looking at me.
Instead, his gaze was skimming across the crowd like he was fully expecting someone to step forward.
I followed where he was looking, my pulse still racing and my head spinning, but I supposed he wasn’t wrong.
The city’s who’s who were in attendance tonight. Surely, that included a few judges or whoever else could officiate such a ceremony in America.
As I tried to see if someone would step forward, I suddenly spotted Alex and Jane and my heart stammered. They were only a few feet away from us. Alex’s expression was caught between confusion and disbelief, but Jane was the exact opposite, beaming beside him.
Her hands were clasped together under her chin for just a second before she started clapping and cheering along with everyone else. I let out a small, incredulous laugh, wrapped my arms around Jesse’s neck, and looked back up again.
“We wouldn’t even be legally married,” I said. “There’s paperwork to complete and—”
“That sounds like a Monday problem.” That handsome face was absolutely alive with joy. “I’ve never wasted a Saturday night in my life and I’m not about to start now.”
I shouldn’t have laughed, but I did. This was so him, chaotic, certain, and completely unwilling to wait for something just because it made more sense on paper, and for some reason, I wasn’t terrified. I was excited.
Especially since it didn’t look like one of the Westwoods was going to come charging forward to prevent him from going through with it. A man I didn’t recognize raised his hand then, stepping forward slightly and clearing his throat.
“I’m licensed,” he offered, looking like he was trying very hard not to grin. “If you’re serious, that is.”
I glanced back up at Jesse to find him already looking at me like this had all gone exactly according to plan. As soon as our eyes met, everything slowed down again. I smiled, pushing my hands into the hair at the back of his head.
“This isn’t how things are done in your family,” I said quietly, my heart fluttering like the wings of a butterfly. “I’m not saying no, but we don’t have to do it right this second.”
Although I’d been wrong about a lot of things, I knew for an absolute fact that the Westwoods understood the weight of tradition and valued the way things were supposed to look. This wasn’t that. It was messy and impulsive, but Jesse just shrugged.
“We’ll make our own traditions from now on,” he said. “This is about us. If it’s what you want, it’s what we’ll do. So what do you say, will you be my bride?”
The question was so simple and so enormous all at once, but I didn’t even have to think about my response.
I’d been so afraid to reach for something that had felt too big, too good, and too fragile to trust. I’d been so certain that I didn’t belong at events like this on the arm of a man like him, but he’d just upended an entire gala without a second thought.
All because he didn’t want to wait another minute to choose me.
“If you’ll be my groom,” I said softly.
A wide, bright, and unstoppable smile broke out across his face. “Let’s do it.”
It was a miracle I was already wearing a white gown, but perhaps it hadn’t been a miracle so much as Jane. I smiled at her as Jesse took my hand again, stepping toward the unassuming man who was apparently about to marry us.
She smiled back at me, leaning into Alex with her hands wrapped around his arm, and somehow, I had a feeling that he was proud. He wasn’t looking at me, but I saw the way his chest swelled when Jesse clapped the officiant on the shoulder.
All along, I’d thought this was an impossible dream because of these people, the almighty Westwoods, but they weren’t just a last name to me anymore.
They were Alex and Jane, Nate and Kate, Will and Eliza, Zach, and so many more, and unless I was very much mistaken, all of those people actually approved of what their crazy brother was doing right now.
I tightened my grip on his hand. That crazy brother was the love of my life, and somehow, he was about to become my husband.