Chapter 48
KATE
After a carefully laid out PR firestorm handled by W&S East Coast with the help of Callum on the West Coast, Nate’s name and reputation were cleared. All was finally well.
Busy but well.
The story had burned hot and fast. Then it had fizzled out the way scandals always did when richer, louder ones came along. The truth had been packaged neatly, with Callum preparing a statement explaining that it’d been nothing more than a misunderstanding.
He’d kept it short and sweet, highlighting that it had been an anonymous friendship and a case of mistaken identity. Swiftly delivering it through the right channels with the right tone, Callum had ensured that the statement was apologetic where we needed it to be but firm where it counted.
It was impressive how good the Westwoods were at this kind of thing. They’d closed ranks with surprising efficiency and precision, absolutely no one speaking out of turn or making a comment that could be misconstrued.
Trusting Callum to captain the ship, they’d all stuck to his plan, and by the time the dust had settled, Nate wasn’t a cheater. He was just either unlucky or a hopeless romantic—depending on which outlet you read—and just about every comment online was about how sweet of a story it was.
Either way, the contract was safe, our families were happy, and life was marching on at a pace that made my head spin.
I’d briefly met Callum, Maisie, and their kids—who were too freaking adorable for words, although Brody would probably take offense at being thought of as adorable—and I was happier than ever to be part of their family.
They really were as close as all the rumors I’d grown up hearing had suggested, and after growing up as an only child, I was loving being part of such a truly massive extended family. And I really was part of the family now.
I’d even been given my own office at Westwood and Sons, which felt faintly ridiculous considering I was still splitting my time between my father’s firm and covering some of Nate’s old responsibilities while he handled the business as a whole.
But my name was already on the door in professional, block lettering, even if most days I barely used the space.
I still preferred to sit in Nate’s office instead, and since he didn’t seem to mind having me there, I stayed. Sitting on the corner of his desk, I swung one foot idly while scrolling through emails on my phone.
He finally looked up from his laptop with a long-suffering sigh. “Do you have work to do?”
“Yes.”
“Is it being done?”
“Emotionally? Yes.”
He leaned back slowly in his chair. “Katie, I love you. You know I do, but we need to liaise with the—”
“I am working,” I protested lightly. “As a matter of fact, I just finished sending the email liaising with Aurelia.”
“So what you’re really doing is chatting to your cousin-in-law and eating my snacks.”
“They’re our snacks now,” I corrected. “We’re married.”
He sighed. “That doesn’t entitle you to all the good granola bars.”
“It absolutely does.” I smiled sweetly and took another bite. “What? You literally just said you love me. No backsies.”
He didn’t even hesitate. “Unfortunately.”
I pumped my eyebrows at me and he shook his head, going back to his laptop, but I could see the corner of his mouth twitching. Nate liked pretending I was a nuisance, but he never actually told me to leave.
If anything, he seemed calmer when I was here, like some part of him had finally unclenched now that everything was out in the open. Two weeks ago, we’d been fighting for our reputations and our marriage at the same time. Now, we were arguing over granola bars.
Progress.
A few minutes later, a knock sounded at the door and Nate groaned but looked up.
“Come on in, but I swear, this better be important.” Colin Thayer appeared when the door swung open and Nate cut himself off, suddenly grinning and looking happy about the interruption.
“Hey, man. I didn’t know you were coming by today. ”
“Westwood,” Colin said by way of greeting, holding a hand out to Nate. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Nate stood up and they shook hands, all firm grips and a thin veneer of professionalism. I stayed exactly where I was on the desk, watching their interaction with a slight degree of fascination.
Colin glanced at me and smiled. “Kate.”
“I could be Westwood now too,” I responded, trying and failing to keep a straight face. “How are you doing, Colin?”
He shrugged. “I’ll be better when Jane is cleared to come back to work, but I’m hanging in there.”
As he sat down, his focus shifted back to Nate. “I just came from legal. Everything looks clean on our end. Production is keeping up with the increased demand and Troy signed the extension.”
I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, but Nate obviously did. He looked genuinely relieved when he nodded. “Good. That’s great, actually. Those referrals he mentioned?”
“Metaphorically lining up around the block to sign on.”
Nate exhaled a sigh that sounded like pure relief, and I realized then that whatever this was about, it was both important and was probably going to take a while. So I just sank back against my palm, not leaving but staying out of it.
The Thayers fascinated me in the way all old-money families did. There was a sort of quiet polish to them, even now, after everything they’d been through.
The Thayers’ fall from grace had been more spectacular than ours. Having the big man in charge wind up in prison had a way of doing that to a family, I supposed, but there was still a sense of legacy clinging to them like expensive cologne.
I hadn’t met the rest of the brood yet, only Colin and Jane, but if their brothers were anything like them, their family was the embodiment of resilience. I admired that.
Finally, Colin seemed to have concluded whatever update he’d been giving. He leaned back in his chair, neatly smoothing his already smooth tie. “You look a lot less miserable than you did the last time I saw you.”
Nate chuckled. “I had a lot going on the last time you saw me, not the least of which being that my brother and your sister dropped us right in the deep end from a dizzy fucking height.”
Colin shrugged. “Fair enough, but it still counts. Seriously, you actually look happy for a change.”
Nate huffed faintly, but Colin was undeterred, his gaze drifting between the two of us with something thoughtful flickering behind his eyes.
“Jane is happy too. Well, I mean, not so much right now, but in general. She and Alex have got a hell of a good life. A great marriage. They’re a real power couple. ”
“Yeah,” Nate agreed, obviously shaking off the faux offense he’d taken to Colin implying that he hadn’t been happy before. “They really are good together. I wondered about it on the day they got married—I won’t deny that—but there’s always been something there.”
“I agree.” Colin nodded slowly. “You know, it might honestly be easier if I just did what you people do and arranged my own marriage.”
I was so surprised that I almost toppled off the desk, but Nate just raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Colin gave me a pointed glance before looking back at Nate. “It worked out for you.”
“That’s debatable.”
“Hey.” I nudged Nate’s shoulder with my knee. “I’m right here.”
He winked, sliding a hand along my calf and just letting it rest there. “Yeah. Okay. Maybe it did, but it came very close to being an absolute disaster.”
Colin chuckled quietly. “Still. It’s an efficient solution that solves a few problems at once.”
Something about the way he said it was odd. He wasn’t joking exactly, but he wasn’t entirely serious either. It was more like he was just thoughtful, turning the idea over in his mind like he was unsure what to do with it.
Finally, he tapped a rhythm out on his thigh and stood, grinning again. “Anyway, I should get going. I just came to check in with you.”
We said our goodbyes, and after he left, the door hadn’t even clicked fully shut yet before Nate leaned back in his chair, rubbing a hand over his jaw like he was already mentally moving on to the next thing.
“Do you think he was serious about that?” I asked before he could forget that Colin had even said it. “The arranging his own marriage thing.”
“Nah. He was joking.”
I shook my head. “No way. He was not joking.”
Nate glanced up at me. “We’re not getting involved.”
“Come on, you can’t tell me you didn’t notice that he was almost serious about it,” I said. “Plus, he brought Jane and Alex into it too. It wasn’t just because he was here with us.”
He sighed, the kind that suggested he thought I was being dramatic, which, fine, maybe I was, but I wasn’t wrong.
“He was trying to drop hints that he wants in on this too. It worked for his sister. It worked for you, his friend, so why not him? Did you really miss that? He was asking for your help.”
Nate frowned as I slid off the desk and started pacing. Then he let out a quiet laugh. “No, he wasn’t. He was definitely not.”
“Yes, he was,” I argued mildly. “He wants you to help him arrange a marriage of his own.”
“He was making a joke, Katie.”
“He was not,” I insisted. “That was a calculated conversational pivot.”
Nate stared at me for a long moment like he was trying to decide whether I was serious. He shook his head finally. “You’re reading too much into it.”
“I am not.”
“You are.”
I pursed my lips. “He practically asked you to set him up.”
“He did nothing of the sort, baby.” Nate shook his head slowly, like this was somehow exhausting for him. “Even if he was, I’m not the matchmaker in this family. He’ll have to talk to Alex about it. He’s much better at that.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but then I paused because he wasn’t wrong. Having recently met Trent and Charlotte, I really couldn’t argue the point. Alex did seem to have a knack for it. Which was slightly alarming, considering how dramatically he’d rearranged multiple lives in one go.
Still, Colin hadn’t been joking. I was certain of it. I perched on the edge of Nate’s desk again when he went back to typing like this conversation had been settled. It hadn’t, but I let it go for now.
“Is Alex making moves yet to come back to work?” I asked after a moment.
He glanced up at me. “I’m not sure. Why?”
I leaned forward slowly, resting my hands on the desk and bringing my head a little closer to his. His eyes narrowed slightly when I got so close that my lips were only inches from his mouth.
“Kate, what are you doing?”
“I’m dying to go back to the lake house again,” I whispered. “Just walk around naked all day.”
His expression changed instantly, like a switch inside had been flipped. That calm, composed CEO demeanor vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by something much hotter. I tilted my head slightly and flashed him a coy smile. “Doesn’t that sound nice?”
He stared at me for exactly one second before, very evenly, he suddenly said, “Close the blinds and lock the door.”
I smiled, pushing off the desk to do exactly that. I lowered the blinds one by one until the bright afternoon light was completely blocked out. I locked the door with a soft click. When I turned back around, he was watching me.
I crossed the room slowly, like I had all the time in the world. He started forward to meet me halfway, and I laughed. As soon as I was in reaching distance, his hands settled at my waist and my arms looped around his neck.
Without hesitating, he brought his lips to mine and kissed me, hot and hungry in a way that told me he wasn’t going to be getting back to work anytime soon. I smiled against his lips. “I might’ve missed a few pills with everything that was going on.”
The effect of those words was immediate, the heat in his eyes went completely off the charts, so sharp and focused that it made my stomach flip. “Are you sure?”
I laughed softly. “Of course, I’m sure. It’s been a stressful few weeks.”
For just a moment, he looked at me like he was mentally trying to calculate something—and failing completely. But he grinned when he refocused on me. “You know what? I think I’ll take my chances.”
I laughed again, leaning into him as I stroked my fingers through his hair. “Yeah, I think you should too.”