Chapter 23
WILL
After breakfast, I dropped Eliza back at the house. As she climbed out of the car, I swiped my tongue across my lips. Now that we were back, my mind tried to remember things were going to have to be different between us.
“You’re sure you’ll be alright?” I asked, knowing Jesse would’ve just taken her at her word earlier that she would be just fine instead of asking again. “I can—”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, looking at me like I’d just asked her if she knew how to breathe. “I ran a whole estate on my own for years.”
I sighed. “Fair point.”
“I think I can survive a few hours alone in a townhouse.” She ducked back into the car and blew me a kiss. “Go do your mysterious job and don’t worry about me.”
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed, wishing that fucking kiss had been for me. “It’s not mysterious, though, but I guess I’ll see you later?”
“See you.” She hesitated for a beat. “If I happen to reorganize your brother’s kitchen cabinets while you’re gone, will you let him know that it comes from a place of love?”
I groaned. “I knew staying here with you was going to be a mistake. Will is pretty particular about his stuff. I mean, it’s not like his spices are alphabetized, but there is a system in place. Or so he’s told me.”
She laughed and finally disappeared inside, and I stayed in the driveway for just another beat before I took off. Being back was already hard. The estate, the castle, and the entire United Kingdom had felt like a different world. A different life.
Here, I was constantly reminded that my time with her was running out and that very soon I would be handing her over to my brother. I couldn’t actually imagine going through with it, but the reminders were everywhere, including that conversation we’d had over breakfast.
Ten minutes later, I walked into our offices and found Alex exactly where I’d expected him to be, behind his desk looking like he’d already ruined three people’s mornings even though it wasn’t even nine a.m. yet.
He glanced up when I walked in. Grinning, he stood and spread his arms open wide. “Will! You’re alive.”
“Barely.”
“How was jolly old England?”
“Jolly and old,” I said. “Foggy. Damp. Gray. In other words, it was pretty good.”
“How’s Eliza?” He shook my hand, sinking back into his chair after he let go. “We’re still on track, right?”
I sat down across from him and dragged a hand over my face. “Eliza is fantastic.”
He was frowning when I looked at him again. “That sounded complicated.”
“It is.”
Alex leaned back in his chair, but his green eyes were boring into mine. “Why is it complicated, Will? What’s going on?”
I exhaled slowly, deciding to start with the easier stuff. “Housing.”
“Housing?”
“Yes, like where are we going to live?”
“That’s the crisis?” He blew out a heavy breath and smiled. “Fuck. You almost just gave me a heart attack. Housing isn’t a crisis, man. Choose a house and buy it. Problem solved.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” I said. “While we were having breakfast this morning, I realized something.”
Alex gestured vaguely. “Yeah, okay? I’m listening.”
“Everything I say and do now has to align with what Jesse would want.” My jaw tightened. “As of right now, Jesse doesn’t have a house in Chicago. We don’t even know if he’s actually going to move here, so for now, Eliza and I are staying at my place.”
“Okay. I’m still not seeing the problem.”
“The problem is that I can’t just choose a house and buy it, Alex,” I snapped. “Jesse has to do it. Eliza knows we’re staying at my brother’s place, for now, but that meant having to talk to her about where she’d like to live eventually.”
“And?”
“And Jesse won’t live in a sprawling manor in the countryside.”
Alex snorted, probably before he could stop himself. “No. He definitely won’t.”
“That means I can’t promise Eliza a sprawling manor in the countryside, but that’s what she wants. Well, she wants the countryside. With or without a sprawling manor, but I think you get the point.”
Alex considered it for maybe half a second before he shrugged. “Okay, so then don’t promise her one. Let them figure it out later.”
My eyes narrowed. “That’s your solution? Don’t promise her one.”
“Yes.”
“Brilliant.” I scoffed.
He smirked at me. “Yeah, I know, but thank you. I’ll be here all week.”
I stared at him as he shoved a hand through his hair and stared right back at me, finally leaning forward slightly and folding his hands on the desk. “Will, I need to get Jesse onboard. That’s my priority right now.”
“I thought you were working on it.”
“I am, but…” He trailed off, sighing before he brought his gaze back to mine. “At this rate, you might just have to marry her.”
My heart did something strange and dangerous that felt like an actual flip-flop. “Don’t joke about that.”
“I’m not joking.”
“Yes, you are.” My teeth ground, but what he’d said had planted a seed deep in my chest and I couldn’t just let it go. Not if there was a chance. A beat of silence passed between us before I finally just asked. “Is that actually a possibility?”
Alex didn’t answer immediately, his expression completely serious. He inhaled a slow, measured breath. Tension tightened his jaw and his posture locked as he gave his head a firm shake. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Which means he’s absolutely thought about it. I tried to listen to him and not get ahead of myself, but fuck. He’d just said there was a possibility that I could marry her, and there was no way I could just sit there and keep calm if that was true.
The next thing I knew, I was on my feet and my phone was in my hand. “I’m calling Jesse. Let’s find out where he really stands on all this.”
“Please do.”
Praying to every deity available once again, I dialed my brother, hoping he’d actually pick up this time. The last time we’d talked had been when he’d hung up on me, and before that, he hadn’t been taking my calls for weeks.
But today, he answered on the third ring and my heart lurched all the way to the top of my throat. “What?”
“Hello to you too, little brother.”
“I’m busy,” he grumbled. “What do you want?”
“Well, you’re about to be busier, because what I want is to talk to you. Not tomorrow or next week, but today. Right now.”
He paused. “What does that mean?”
“It means you need to tell me if you’re going through with this marriage. Because if you are, you need to get on a plane and get over here, and if you’re not, I need to know. No more games, man.”
Jesse groaned. “Really? You too?”
“Yeah, me too, asshole,” I said without hesitation. “Your time’s up. I want an answer, Jess. Right now. Are you in or are you out?”
There was another long pause on his end of the line. He finally let out a long, loud breath. “I’ll fly out there later this week. Tell Alex I accept the offer he made last night. He’s got a deal.”
That tiny seed of hope in my chest exploded, spattering my insides all over my ribcage and making me feel like I’d just lost something vital. Because I had.
“Yeah. Okay. I’ll tell him. See you later this week.”
Alex grinned as I lowered the phone away from my ear and ended the call. “Fucking finally. I guess this means you’re off the hook, Will. Congratulations.”
“Yeah.” Without anything more than that, I turned around and went to my own floor of the building, collapsing behind my desk and just staring out of my window instead of making myself economically productive.
I should’ve been happy that this was over.
Instead, by the time I finally got back to the townhouse that night, I felt like I’d been run over by a train.
Several trains. Simultaneously. All of which had then backed up and run over me again, nice and slow to make sure there’d be absolutely nothing left by the time they were done.
Shrugging out of my jacket, I hung it and my tie on the coat rack next to the front door and headed to the living room.
I felt at least half-dead, but I still slammed to an abrupt halt in the doorway when I saw Eliza sprawled across my couch, blissfully comfortable in silky pajamas with her bare feet tucked underneath her.
The coffee table was covered with an impressive spread of freshly ordered Chinese food. Noodles. Dumplings. Egg rolls.
She’d thought of everything.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cried, but I almost burst into tears at the sight of her in those goddamn navy blue pajamas, lounging on my couch like she’d been waiting for me to get home. With food, no less.
She finally looked up as if she’d sensed me there, and I swore, the smile she gave me actually made my eyes burn. “Oh good. You’re back.”
“Yeah.” I finally managed to convince my feet to move and blinked hard, doing my best to appear entirely unaffected. “Are we expecting someone? You ordered enough food to feed a village.”
Her cheeks flushed, those blue eyes slightly brighter than usual. “Yes, well, about that. I panicked.”
“You panicked? About what?”
She fidgeted with her fingers in her lap for a beat. “The menu.”
I laughed, but as I stood there watching her, so relaxed, happy, and completely at home in my house, that same dangerous thought creeped back in. This is a future I could get used to.
But it wasn’t me she had been waiting for after work. It wasn’t me she would be ordering for by this time next week.
It was Jesse. This was all for him, but maybe, just for tonight, I would let myself have it. I could let myself savor every moment and pretend she was mine.
“I should start leaving you alone more often if this is the result,” I said, striding to the other end of her couch and sitting down. “Seriously, you did well.”
“Don’t you dare leave me alone just for food,” she joked, poking at my leg with the chopsticks she’d just opened. “I’ve had Chinese before, of course, but I’ve never actually ordered it.”
I leaned forward and opened one of the containers. “You could’ve waited for me.”