Chapter 42
RAQUEL
Ispent the first twenty minutes waiting at the airport convincing myself I wasn’t insane for flying halfway across the country because of a snap decision. Who buys a last-minute plane ticket and flies to Chicago without a plan?
The girl I was before I’d met Theo would’ve been horrified. She hadn’t trusted men at all, and the idea of chasing one this far without even knowing where he lived would’ve appalled her.
Deep down, I knew that I could try to convince myself all I wanted, but this truly had been insane. I was sitting on a suitcase outside the arrivals terminal of a massive airport, trying not to throw up from nerves.
Chicago was freezing cold and my most trusty jacket from home wasn’t even close to cutting it in this biting wind.
The part of the city skyline I could see from my perch was intimidating as hell, sprawling out in every direction as far as the eye could see.
Honestly, I had no clue what I was going to do if Theo didn’t get here soon.
I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
There were too many cars, too many people, and too many things happening at all times.
When a luxury SUV pulled up in front of the pickup area, I ignored it completely. A Rolls Royce Cullinan would never have anything to do with me. I did sneak a few glimpses at the car through my hair, though.
That thing was a real beauty and it looked brand new, too. I’d give my front teeth just to sit in a car like that, let alone drive it.
When the driver’s door opened, I immediately averted my gaze, not wanting the owner to think I was a weirdo for staring lustily at their ride. The next thing I knew though, the sound of my name being called emanated from that direction and I looked up again.
The driver who’d emerged was a beautiful, strawberry-blonde woman, on the shorter side, but elegant and effortlessly put together in a peacoat and leather boots on her feet. She managed to make even expensive clothes like hers look comfortable.
She scanned the crowd before her eyes landed on me. She called my name again. “Raquel? Is that you? From Arizona?”
I blinked a few times in rapid succession. “Yes?”
Two little girls peered through the back window of the SUV as the woman strode toward me with a smile that looked genuine. She stopped right in front of me and extended her hand. “Hi, I’m Adeline. I’m here to pick you up?”
My stomach dropped, crashing violently to the floor as a terrible thought occurred to me. Is this Theo’s family? Are they his wife and his children? Is this what else he was hiding? Why he had to come home so badly?
I lifted my gaze to the girls in the back seat. The bigger one waved, but the smaller one just stared at me so intently that it was a little disconcerting. Finally, I looked back at Adeline and stood up, slowly extending my hand. “Raquel from Arizona. It’s nice to meet you.”
“God, I’m relieved we found you.” She shook with me, then grabbed my bag without hesitating and started back toward the dirty-dream vehicle. “Theo threatened to feed the kids sugar every night for the rest of their childhoods if we didn’t come get you right away.”
Ice spread through my veins as I followed her, sort of obliged to since she had my bag, which contained my only possessions in this massive city. As I watched her carefully slide my bag into the back, I honestly wasn’t sure what to say.
My legs and my tongue suddenly seemed to be made of lead. My head swam at the thought that this stunning, elegant creature could be his wife. She spun to face me once she’d shut the trunk. Still smiling, she waved me to the passenger side of the car.
“Come on, we’ll take you home,” she said happily, pulling her phone out of her coat pocket and firing off a quick text.
Once we were in the car, I was trying not to touch anything or drool visibly, but Adeline buckled up without skipping a beat, chatting as if we’d known each other for years.
“You must be frozen. Theo should’ve warned you that we were in a cold snap.
For heaven’s sake, I don’t understand the way men think sometimes. It’s insanity.”
She reached for a button, and the next thing I knew, blissful heat started pouring through the air vents, and the seat itself began heating my buns deliciously. Meanwhile, Adeline waved toward the girls in the back. “This is Jennifer and Lauren.”
“Lu,” the little one immediately insisted. “I’m just Lu.”
“Okay, Just Lu. I’m Raquel,” I said, twisting in my seat to offer both of them my hand. “Hi, Jennifer. It’s lovely to meet both of you.”
Jennifer returned the sentiment, but Lu just kept staring, very obviously judging me.
Adeline laughed, drawing my attention back to her.
“Be nice, Lu. Raquel has been through enough today. Uncle Theo only called after she landed, which means she’s been waiting in the cold for ages. Give her a break.”
“Uncle Theo?” I asked, intense relief spiraling through me. “He told me had a bunch of nieces and nephews.”
“Does he ever.” Adeline smiled. “At this rate, I’m starting to think we might as well just form a Westwood football team. I’m Zach’s wife.”
“Zach?”
“Theo’s brother,” she said slowly, then quirked an eyebrow at me. “He really has left you in the dark, hasn’t he?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I guess he has. I know all about you. I just, uh, he was fairly vague about names and details.”
“Right.” She sighed. “Well, don’t worry. I’ll take care of you and we’re going straight home, so don’t worry about freezing anymore either.”
I nodded, even though I still had no idea where home was, but I turned toward the window, realizing in that moment that being in Chicago was going to be incredibly overwhelming. Not only because of the fancy car and fancy people, but the airport alone was bigger than Quartz Pass’s Main Street area.
Buildings stretched endlessly into the sky as Adeline navigated more traffic than I’d ever seen like she didn’t even notice it. Cars filled every lane and lights flashed everywhere.
When she glanced at me again, she seemed to notice my awe. “It’s a little different from Arizona, huh?”
“Yeah.” We drove for a little while with her pointing out landmarks and acting as my unofficial tour guide, but when we turned into a quieter, more residential-looking neighborhood and she fell silent, I eventually asked the question that had been bugging me since she’d shown up at the airport instead of him.
This wasn’t how grand romantic gestures were supposed to go.
“So, uh, where’s Theo? Is he still working or something? ”
Adeline paused for a beat, then started laughing. “Oh, Lord. Did that man not tell you anything? I’m going to wring his neck the next time I see him. He’s in Arizona.”
“What?” For a moment, I genuinely thought I’d misheard. “Arizona? What on earth is he doing there?”
She glanced at me. “Honestly? I have absolutely no idea, but we have a room made up for you at the house and he said to wait here for him while he sorts things out in Quartz Pass.”
My brain stalled as I tried to comprehend that while I’d flown to Chicago, he’d been on his way back to Arizona. We’d missed each other by two thousand miles.
Adeline slowed in front of a truly impressive set of gates, then shocked me when she turned in and waited for them to open. They swung inward like they were granting entry to a castle, but as the house she lived in came into view, I realized my first impression hadn’t been inaccurate.
The place was a damn castle.
“Welcome to Westwood Manor,” Adeline said as she drove up a long driveway toward the house. “This is their family home. Zach and I bought it earlier this year, but it’s still their base of operations for anything not work related.”
As she parked in front of a garage that could probably fit a dozen cars, my heart skipped when I saw Theo’s bike standing off to one side. Oh my God. This is real. This is the place he came home to after we fixed Martha.
“Alright, girlies. Be nice to Uncle Theo’s friend.
She’s going to be staying with us for a while.
” Adeline opened the back door to let the girls out, then turned to me.
“I’d expect the rest of the family to come sniffing around soon.
Jesse and Jacque are already on their way and I have zero doubt that the others will be hot on their heels. ”
“Are you really Uncle Theo’s friend?” Lu asked once we were out of the car, hands on her hips and her expression completely serious. “You’re not lying?”
“No.” I managed a nervous smile. “I really am his friend.”
“We’ll show you around,” Jennifer offered immediately, a wide grin on her lips. She marched me up the stairs that led to a wide, double front door that was carved out of some kind of polished wood.
Before the next hour was out, I’d learned that Theo’s nieces were absolutely obsessed with him—and that Theo’s family home was a legitimate fucking mansion. It was enormous, more like some kind of luxury hotel than a house.
I couldn’t believe he’d grown up here, in a place like this. When he’d said they were wealthy and Avery had asked if I knew who the Westwoods even were, I hadn’t gotten anywhere close to understanding the level of wealth and affluence they were talking about.
The differences between us suddenly felt impossible to ignore as I stumbled through hallways that always seemed to open up to three more.
Every room felt larger than my entire house, and when I was shown a library, a game room, and a theater room, I realized that Quartz Pass could never compare to this.
Maybe Avery wasn’t just being an asshole when he asked if I seriously thought Theo was going to choose me over what he had here. But then again, he was in Arizona right now, apparently sorting things out. Just trust him, Raquel. Trust. Him.
“Oh, Uncle Jesse’s here,” Jennifer suddenly screamed from the window she’d been peering out of. Grabbing my hand, she rushed me toward the door. “Let’s go say hi. You’re going to love him and Jacque. They’re so cool.”
I swallowed hard, my entire being turning into a giant bundle of nerves, but I followed her back to the cavernous foyer and waited for more Westwoods to walk in. Adeline was nice, but surely, they couldn’t all be. I hadn’t met her husband yet, but he was apparently on his way home too.
Surely, at some point tonight, someone was going to ask why a mechanic was wandering around their opulent home, but as soon as I met Jesse and Jacque, I realized it wouldn’t be them.
The brother, Jesse, looked a lot like Theo, though his hair was darker and his eyes were different, but their bone structure was very similar.
Like Adeline, Jacqueline was an absolute stunner too, and she had an accent. I liked her, though. Mostly because she took one look at me, then linked her arm through mine. “I know. It’s a lot. This house is ridiculous. Let’s go get you some booze. I’ll drink vicariously through you.”
She patted her heavily swollen belly and led me to something called a drawing room, where she immediately poured an entire tumbler filled with alcohol. A few minutes later, another beautiful woman walked in.
Jesus, what is it with the Westwood boys’ wives?
“I’m Kate,” she said, smiling as she shook my hand. Her gaze dropped to my whiskey and the politeness melted away from her smile, turning it into a real grin instead. “Thank God. We’re drinking tonight.”
She broke away from me to pour her own drink, chatting to Jacqueline about another Westwood brother, Will, who apparently lived in England with his family. Then she introduced me to her husband, Nate.
He was quieter than Jesse, but he also had the striking, heaven-blessed features of his brothers. The gene fairy sure loved these guys.
We settled in a sitting room, but I chose a seat slightly to one side, only to be drawn closer immediately by Jacqueline and Kate, who planted me between them like they were my self-appointed bodyguards.
I kept waiting for someone to say something nasty about my grease-stained fingernails or to question my presence here at all, but nobody did.
Zach arrived next, laying a hard, passionate kiss on his wife before he came to introduce himself to me. As soon as that was done, he poured himself a drink and looked around the room. “Alex is on his way. He’ll be here soon.”
Silence fell for a long beat, but Jesse filled it with stories about his adventures in the past. It sounded like he’d been quite the wild one. There was a lot of laughter and banter, but then the front doors opened again and another Westwood strode in.
This must be Alex.
While he looked so much like Theo that it was immediately obvious they were related, there was something remarkably different about his presence. It was heavier somehow, darker, and a lot more serious.
Oh, God. This is the one to be afraid of.
He smiled when he was introduced to me, which made him only marginally less intimidating, but then Jesse appeared beside him and smacked him on the shoulder. “Fabulous. You’re finally here. Now I can spill the beans.”
“The beans?” Alex asked, seeming weary as he turned to his younger brother. “What is this about, Jess? You can’t just text us a 911 without any explanation and then seem all jovial about it. Where’s Theo?”
“Well, see, that’s the thing,” Jesse said, smirking just a little. “Theo took my jet to Arizona.”
Alex cursed under his breath. “What the fuck has he gone back there for?”
Jesse tilted his head toward me. “Our baby brother is hopelessly in love with her and she lives there, but evidently, he didn’t tell her he was flying to Arizona and she didn’t tell him she was coming to Chicago, so here we are.
Oh, and he’s going to hash things out with her brother while he’s there.
And also, he’s moving there. To be with her.
He tried to leave her, but he can’t. He loves her. ”
Alex just stared at him for a long moment, then slowly turned toward me. He didn’t say anything, though, just staring at me as I practically saw the pieces clicking together in his mind. Finally, he nodded, strong jaw tightening.
“Oh.” He turned away from me and looked at each of his brothers in turn. “Nate. Zach. Jesse. With me.”
Without another word, he spun and marched out of the room, the others following after him until they disappeared into the depths of the house. My head spun, nausea rising up from deep within.
I had a feeling that this was the Westwood version of complete chaos, and I knew I was responsible for it. At least partially. But on the other hand, Theo was in Arizona talking to Avery—and the Thompson version of chaos wasn’t nearly as polite as the Westwoods’.