Chapter 2 #2
Investing heavily, however, enough to wedge one of us onto their board and to stabilize them, redirect them, and quietly acquire the whole damn thing over time?
That was doable.
“Call Colin,” I told Zach, rising from the table once I was done with my steak. “Get a dinner together.”
Zach nodded like he’d been waiting for permission to breathe. “I’ll get it done.”
“Let me know when you have,” I said, then left the dining room and headed down the hallway toward my father’s study, the place where every uncomfortable conversation in my life had taken place.
I didn’t have to wait long for him to arrive. Douglas Westwood had a way of materializing silently, like a ghost who paid taxes and owned seven thousand-dollar pairs of shoes. He closed the door behind him, his head cocked with curiosity.
“Are you in here because you actually wanted to speak to me or did you just need someplace to think about everything Zachary brought to the table tonight?”
“Both,” I said. “While we’re here, we might as well get on with it, though. I know you were going to drag me in here at some point tonight anyway, so let’s just get to it.”
“Get to what?” he asked as he sat down behind his desk, blue eyes much too blank for my liking. It was unnerving. “I did want to pull you aside for a minute, but you beat me to it, so why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind?”
“Who exactly is it you want me to marry? An Astor? A Kennedy cousin? Some obscure European princess looking to upgrade? Just tell me when and where to sign. I’m bored of waiting.”
Douglas blinked rapidly. “I didn’t think you’d bend so easily.”
“I’m not bending. I’m trying to get ahead of the migraine.”
He stood up and started pacing, his hands behind his back, thinking deeply in a way that made me suspicious. When Dad thought like this, it almost always led to more paperwork for me.
“Speaking of the Thayers,” he finally said, still not really looking at me. “I knew Court well. Unfortunately.”
I frowned. “What does Court Thayer have to do with you finding me a wife?”
“He’s got a bunch of kids. I believe he has a daughter, if I’m remembering correctly. But if my memory serves, they’re all young. Teenagers, I think.”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “Great. So this has got absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. Who is it actually going to be, Dad?”
My father waved me off like he didn’t have time for this right now, but these last few months, before his sudden silence on the matter, marrying us off had been the only thing on his mind.
“Forget about that. Tell Zach to host the dinner with the Thayer boy here. I haven’t seen the family in years. Court was the reason for that.”
He didn’t elaborate, but he also didn’t really have to.
There was always history with the old-money set—alliances, betrayals, favors, or debt.
Douglas didn’t easily forget about either side of any ledger, but when he didn’t say anything else, I left him to brood and headed back to the foyer to grab my coat.
Nate was already shrugging into his, a scarf wrapped carelessly around his neck. He shot me a worried glance as I strode toward him. “Did he set you up?”
“No.” I pushed open the heavy front doors. “He’s being weird about it, which is new. I expected him to harass me all through the holidays.”
We stepped out into the winter storm, snowflakes swirling under the streetlights down the long drive. A taxi splashed by, and the sight made me think of the woman from earlier. She’d yelled at that driver like she’d been appointed judge, jury, and executioner of Chicago traffic violations.
Weirdly, I found myself smiling without even meaning to. “I met the craziest woman today.”
We started walking toward his place. Nate glanced at me, his chin tucked into his coat. “Craziest, huh? Like she wore her shoes as a hat?”
I chuckled. “She screamed at a cab driver trying to bully his way into traffic and probably made him cry. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
He nodded appreciatively. “You get a name? Or a date?”
“Nope.”
Nate snorted. “You should’ve asked. She probably would’ve made you the perfect wife. Fiery enough that you wouldn’t have gotten bored for at least a month.”
I laughed. “What makes you think I didn’t ask for her name? She just wouldn’t tell me.”
When we reached his building, I hung back at the curb, waving down a cab to take me back to my place. Nate’s eyebrows hiked up before he chuckled. “Well, that’s very on-brand for you. You finally meet a woman who intrigues you and immediately let her slip away.”
The cab slowed to a stop beside me. I flipped Nate off and slid into the backseat. Once I was alone again, I couldn’t stop seeing her, furious and fearless. A human firecracker ready to detonate at anyone dumb enough to test her patience.
She’d made something in my blood spark for the first time in a very long time, and now that dinner was over with, I felt a pinch of disappointment that I’d let her get lost in the sea of people in Chicago, another face I’d forget in a few weeks.
But damn, I’d never forget watching her tear into that driver like he’d killed a kitten in front of her. Honestly, it had kind of turned me on.
The cab pulled away from Nate’s and I dropped my head back against the seat, watching the lights blur past the window and silently cursing myself for letting her slip away—to quote my brother.
She really had intrigued me. It was just too fucking bad that the odds of ever running into her again in a city the size of this one were practically zero.