Chapter 40
STERLING
T he next morning, I watched Laney at my family’s breakfast table. Apparently, Vincent had gone home last night, so it was just us. Strangely, she fit in like she’d always been here.
Jameson and Callum sat across the table from us, both looking a little worse for wear.
Callum had been up with me until at least three.
I’d spoken to him minutes before Laney had woken up.
I still didn’t know what the fuck was going on with Jameson, but his lighter brown hair was disheveled and he had that I-don’t-give-a-fuck face on, trying too hard to look like nothing was bothering him.
Mom and Dad were at the heads of the table, with Mom engaging in conversation while Dad just ate like he was in a hurry to go somewhere. Callum pointed his fork at Mom and laughed. “Don’t lie. You know Dad has kids all over. We’re just the lucky ones he claimed.”
I groaned and glanced at my dad. Nothing ground his gears quite like that joke, which was why Callum had been making it every chance he got for so many years.
The only one of us who was either brave or stupid enough to go toe to toe with our father more often than he got along with him, he dug his teeth into anything he could that would annoy the old man.
Callum had always been the wild card between us, though. Jameson rolled his eyes at him and shook his head. “This meal was going so well. You just had to go and fuck it up, didn’t you?”
“Language, Jamie,” Mom said, but it wasn’t an admonishment so much as a reminder. “We have a guest.”
“She’s not a guest,” he argued, grinning at Laney before he turned his gaze back to Mom. “She’s my sister, right? She’s family. That means she’ll have to get used to cussing at the breakfast table.”
Laney tucked her hair behind her ears and smiled, poking at her eggs Benedict with her fork. “My dad is a cop. He regularly takes work calls while we’re eating. Trust me, I grew up used to cussing at the breakfast table.”
I reached for her leg under the table, sliding my hand across her thigh and giving it a light squeeze. “She’s not easily offended. That’s one of the reasons I married her.”
Laney’s cheeks flushed and she ducked her head to hide a smile while Mom laughed, Jameson leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, all smug like he’d won something, and Callum grinned at Laney. “I knew you’d fit right in.”
He started asking her what sports she’d played at school, telling her all about his wrestling and football days. Dad finished eating and tilted his head when he met my gaze. I sighed, knowing that meant he wanted to meet me in his study.
After he excused himself, I finished eating and leaned over to speak against her ear, “I’ll be right back. Duty calls.”
She nodded, her gray eyes happy and relaxed even if her shoulders were still carrying the tension of yesterday. I hated to leave her here alone, but I also knew that my brothers and Mom would be kind. Kinder than Dad, anyway.
“What’s up?” I asked as I shut the door to his study behind me. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep this short. My wife is waiting and she needs me right now.”
Dad sat behind his desk, elbows on it and fingers steepled like he was praying, but his eyes were wide open and staring intently at me. “You handled this situation like a dream. When I woke up this morning, it had all but blown over. Well done.”
“Thank you.” I frowned, leaning my shoulder against the door and not moving further into the office. “Is that it?”
“No.” Sitting back, he motioned for me to join him at the desk. I sighed but took a seat across from him. “You did a good job of making this go away. The company needed it handled quickly and quietly, and you managed to do that. Our reputation seems to be intact.”
“Okay, but I didn’t do it for the company,” I said. “I did it for Laney. That store is her life and a big part of her mom’s legacy. I couldn’t let Cassandra fucking Saxon destroy it on a whim.”
Dad seemed to have expected that, but I was grumpy and uneasy, knowing Laney was going through it and pretty eager to get back to her. “Just say what you really want to say, Dad. I already know you didn’t call me in here to give me a pat on the head.”
He stared back at me wordlessly before he nodded. “You’re right. I didn’t ask you here for that, but it had to be said. You might not have done it for the company, but your efforts worked out well for us. Our name was a part of that disaster and you really stepped up.”
I kept quiet, knowing the other shoe was about to drop and simply waiting for it to happen.
“Do you love her, Sterling?”
My eyes widened. I rarely gave any indication of being caught off guard, but I couldn’t help it. I also couldn’t answer. I wanted to. I was pretty sure that what I’d been feeling recently was exactly that. God, everything had changed for me since I’d met her.
As it was, she took up all the space in my mind, and really, all I wanted to do was put her in my car and take her back to Napa, where it had only been us. It had been so dang easy there.
When I didn’t respond, my dad sighed and leaned back in his chair again. “Whatever you do, keep Westwood and Sons at the front of your mind. If you don’t love her, don’t mix business with pleasure. You know better.”
“Laney is my wife,” I growled, the only defense I could come up with despite it being incredibly thin.
Dad shrugged, obviously trying to egg me on, but for what? Did he want another admission that he’d been right about this arranged marriage thing or was it something deeper? Something I didn’t understand?
Before I could snap at him to just come right out with it, my phone started buzzing in my pocket and I pulled it out. I intended on silencing it until I realized this was the call I’d been waiting for all morning.
“Laney and I are going home now.” I stood up and turned, swiping my thumb across the screen to take the call.
By the time I was done, Laney, my brothers, and my mom had retired to the sunroom.
She looked up when I walked in and immediately drained the last of her lemonade.
“Thank you so much for having us last night, CC. It was such a relief to know we were somewhere safe, away from prying eyes and surrounded by people who support us.”
Mom glanced at me and inclined her chin, obviously seeing the same thing Laney had. My sunglasses were hanging from the V of my shirt and my car keys were in my hand. “Anytime, darling. As Jameson so helpfully reminded us this morning, you’re family now.”
She pulled Laney into a quick hug, and when they released each other, my brothers pissed me off by embracing my wife like she was their long lost best friend. Jameson hung onto her for much too long and I felt something inside me snap as I watched him tighten his grip on her.
“That’s enough. Let go, Jamie.”
He smirked at me over her shoulder but took a big step back and held up his hands. “What? I was just saying goodbye.”
A deep sigh came out of me, but there was laughter in Laney’s eyes as she walked over to me and held out her hand. “Let’s go before you punch your brother.”
“If I do, it’s because he has it coming,” I grumbled, but that deep unease settled when she wrapped her fingers around mine.
Our things had already been loaded into the car and I drove her back to the penthouse, sensing her tension ratcheting up the closer we got to the city. She became quiet again, her spine straightening and her gaze scanning the streets as if she was looking for signs of a riot.
When we walked into our place, she immediately curled up on my bed—which I liked more than I was willing to admit—and watched me get ready to go to work. I smirked at her as I slid my cufflinks into place.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I might not go do all the things I need to do.”
She giggled. Her strawberry hair was fanned out across my stark white bedding and her legs stretched out ahead of her, crossed at the ankles. “What? I’m fully dressed and it’s not like I’m lying here, giving you a come hither look.”
“Oh, but you are,” I teased. “Any look you give me is a come hither look as far as I’m concerned.”
It was true, too. She just seemed to be getting comfortable in the master bedroom of a penthouse she’d been calling home for weeks.
She should’ve been in here with me all along, but I hadn’t even offered before because I didn’t think she’d want to sleep in my bed.
It was good to see her there, making herself at home.
On the top floor of the penthouse, my bedroom had three glass walls.
The en-suite bathroom and walk-in closet had views too.
I’d never bothered bringing any color or life into the space, happy with the heavy, dark wood headboard and furniture as well as the white bedding that had been delivered after I’d told my personal shopper I really didn’t care what they sent.
Now, however, I was kind of starting to feel like it needed something more—and what it needed was her. “Why don’t you move your stuff in here today? Or, if you want, I’ll help you later when I get back?”
Surprise flickered across her features. “Really? Are you sure?”
“Yep.” I grabbed my jacket and slid it on. “Of course, I’m sure. I want you in our bed, Laney. I’ve wanted you there all along.”
Her head cocked, a light playfulness sparking in her eyes. “Is that so? How badly have you wanted me here?”
“Badly enough that you better hope those sheets have been washed,” I joked, sort of, and then strode over to press a kiss to her forehead. “Stay here today, okay? Stay off your phone too. Just relax and I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
Exasperation tightened the corners of her eyes, but she sighed and then nodded. “The store is closed and probably still under siege. I’ve got nowhere else to go, I guess.”
“It’ll all be over soon,” I promised as I straightened up, my gaze on hers for just a moment longer before I turned and marched my uncharacteristically uncertain ass out the door.
I wished I could’ve said the words I so desperately wanted to, but something about that weird conversation with my dad was holding me back.
I had to put it out of my head for now, though. All the way to the precinct where Vincent was waiting for me, I wrestled with myself, knowing I had to focus on what lay ahead but unable to stop thinking about what my dad might not have said.
In the end, the organized chaos of the police station grounded me, serving as a welcome reminder of what was important right now. When I walked into Vincent’s office, showing myself there this time, he looked up at me from behind his cluttered desk.
“Are you sure you want to do this with me?” I asked without any prelude.
He nodded and rose from his threadbare chair. “No one messes with my Laney. Not on my watch.”
As my gaze held his, it was like I could feel whatever had been broken between my father-in-law and me healing. The old saying went, nothing unites like a common enemy , and that had never felt truer.
Vincent and I would be okay. Partially because of this. Laney and me? Well, at least once the deed was done, I’d hopefully, finally have some time to figure that out.