Chapter 49
JANE
Alex drove with one hand on the wheel and the other resting loosely on my knee.
Late afternoon light slanted in golden streaks across the familiar streets.
The airport waited at the other end of this drive, along with his jet, which was fueled and ready, and a honeymoon I still couldn’t quite believe I’d agreed to.
Before that, though, there was one more thing we had to do. Alex turned the final corner and my mother’s house came into view, some lights already on inside and spilling out onto the snow through the windows.
I waited for that knot of tension to form in my stomach or for my muscles to brace for what came next, but it didn’t happen. This was new, the lack of stress in my body when I saw their house, but Mom and I had made peace and Wyatt was finally talking to me again.
Our visit today wasn’t about fixing anything.
Alex had simply asked if I’d like to pop in to say goodbye before we left, and I’d said yes.
I’d promised Wyatt I’d be more open with him from now on, and taking off for a week abroad without telling him or saying goodbye felt like breaking that promise.
I leaned my head back against the seat and let my mind drift to the conversations that had brought us here.
With Mom, it had happened quietly one evening a couple weeks ago.
She’d come over to our house and asked if we could talk.
I’d made us some tea, and we’d sat around the kitchen table for so long, Alex had eventually invited her to sleep in one of the guest rooms.
“I never wanted to take anything from you,” she’d said, her voice small in a way I hadn’t heard since we’d first found out my father might go to prison. “I just thought I was protecting you. All of you.”
She’d stared down at her hands, fidgeting with her fingers in her lap. “I grew up believing my job was to marry well. That love came after, if it came at all. I thought ambition was something women endured, not pursued, and look where that got me.”
She’d laughed then, a little broken and more than a little self-aware, but that had been the turning point.
When she’d finally understood that Thayer wasn’t just a company to me.
It was proof. Proof that I was capable. That I was worthy.
That I could take something poisoned by my father and make it clean again.
She’d also admitted that she’d been afraid of what might happen to me if I’d tried and failed. Then we’d cried together and she’d apologized again but not in the half-formed, defensive way she had before.
She’d apologized fully. For voting the way she had. For leaning on me for so long without realizing the cost. For being so absent not only after Dad had gone to prison, but before.
We hadn’t fixed everything that night, but we’d reset the foundation and we were both working toward being better.
Wyatt had been harder, but we’d also talked, and finally, I’d wrapped my arms around him the way I used to when nightmares had chased him into my room, and I’d promised that he wasn’t losing me.
He’d gone quiet, then murmured, “Alex makes you happy.”
“Yes,” I’d said without any hesitation. “He’s a good guy.”
“That’s good enough for me,” he’d said. “I’m sorry I was a jerk.”
I smiled at the memory as Alex slowed the car in front of the house and glanced at me. His head cocked as his gaze swept across my face. “What’s that smile all about?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I was just thinking about Wyatt finally coming around.”
“Yeah, that was a good day.” He grinned and switched off the engine, squeezing my leg once before letting go.
“He’s a smart kid, Killer. It just took him a minute to catch up to everything that was happening around him.
Pretty much his entire life has been a state of upheaval.
You can’t blame him for lashing out at the person closest to him when the only stability he’s ever known felt threatened. ”
“Uh-huh.” I turned my head against the seat to arch my eyebrows at him. “Where was all this wisdom of yours before we made up?”
He chuckled. “It was in there, but the kid needed to realize it all for himself. All that matters now is that you’re okay and he’s happy I’m part of the family.”
“Family,” I repeated softly after him, nodding as I watched him open the door. “Is it still weird to you that we are that now, family?”
He shrugged. “Nah, you’re not just my family, Jane. You’re my everything.”
While my heart melted into a puddle of goo, he winked and climbed out of the car, rounding it and opening my door before extending his hand to me. I took it happily, threading our fingers together, and we walked into the house together.
Nora hugged me for longer than usual when Alex and I walked into the kitchen, and Wyatt hugged Alex in an awkward, one-armed way that made me hide a smile.
After making a quick cup of tea and filling them in on our travel plans, Mom shot me a teasing look. “Don’t forget us little people when you’re off being glamorous.”
“I married into the Westwoods,” I said dryly. “Glamour is now legally required.”
Alex laughed. “She’s already negotiating her next deal in her head. There’s nothing glamorous about that, but I’m going to do my best to drown her in margaritas until she finally relaxes.”
Nora shook her head with a fond twinkle in her eyes as she looked at me again. “You chose well, Jane. Both of you did.”
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “Please don’t get all sentimental on us. They’ll be gone for a week, not a year.”
I hugged him anyway. “I’ll call.”
“You’d better,” he said, then murmured quietly against my hair, “Have fun.”
After we parted, I finished my tea and took Alex’s hand again. We said our goodbyes, promised lots of gifts, and went back to his car.
By the time we pulled away from my mother’s house, the sun had started sinking lower, turning the tops of the snowbanks along the road into glitter. Alex drove with quiet focus, one hand back on my knee with his thumb absently stroking from side to side.
I watched the city thin out as we headed toward the private hangar, my chest buzzing with a mix of nerves and disbelief.
I’d stared down many boardrooms full of men who underestimated me and faced classrooms with hundreds of students who’d thought I was a cheap imitation of a real teacher, and yet, this felt enormous in a way none of that had.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Alex said as he turned onto a long, flat road and glanced at me.
“I’m trying not to freak out,” I admitted. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on any plane whatsoever, let alone a private jet.”
He smiled. “Good luck with that, but, uh, freaking out is allowed. It’s encouraged, even. Stroke a guy’s ego every now and then, would ya?”
I laughed, but then the hangar rose out of the flat gray landscape, sleek, private, and guarded. Alex rolled through security with the kind of ease that still startled me, flashing credentials and exchanging nods with military-personnel-lookalikes like they worked for him personally.
I didn’t think it would ever cease to amaze me how the world bent around him without resistance. The Westwood name opened doors and carried weight that even I hadn’t seen coming, and now, it was mine too.
Mind? Blown. Totally.
I was still reeling when Alex pulled up to a jet that was already waiting, beautiful in a way I hadn’t expected. It was all clean lines, glossy white, and had the Westwood emblem subtly placed near the door.
Strangely, it managed not to be flashy. Just assured. Like everything else in Alex’s life, including the man himself.
“This is yours?” I asked when he parked beside it, even though I already knew the answer.
“Ours,” he corrected easily, grinning at me before leaving the car when someone opened the door for him. “Feel free to freak out now.”
I swallowed hard and followed him onto the perfect swathe of tarmac, taking his arm when he offered it. My father had owned a jet once, back when Thayer money had flowed freely and before everything had gone to hell, but his had always been about function.
Business trips. Lawyers. Deals made in hushed tones while I sat quietly with a book, trying not to touch anything or get yelled at.
Although I wasn’t even inside it yet, this felt different already. Friendlier, somehow, like it was a ticket to adventure and freedom instead of simply a means to get from one meeting to the next without letting something silly like distance get in the way.
Alex watched my face as we climbed the steps, his expression soft and almost reverent, like he was seeing it all through my eyes. The door closed behind us with a muted thud, sealing off the world as I’d known it until just hours ago, when I’d found out that my husband owned a freaking jet.
The cabin opened up in warm wood and cream leather, plush and understated. Sunlight poured through wide windows, catching on the polished surfaces of the small sitting area, champagne already chilling at a table set for two.
There was space to stand in here, to breathe. I turned slowly, taking it all in. “Oh my god. This is incredible. Alex, how did I only find out about it today?”
Alex laughed. “I was hoping you’d react like that.”
“I feel like I should take my shoes off,” I said. “Or at least apologize to for wearing them.”
He stepped closer, his hands sliding to my waist. “The plane has survived Trent a few times over the last couple years whenever there’s been too much of a rush to wait for his. That guy carries dust and bits of ranch with him wherever he goes. You’ll be fine.”
I chuckled, reaching up and letting my fingers curl into his coat. I looked up into those brilliant green eyes that still made me go weak in the knees. “Does it have a bed?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” Heat flickered in his gaze as he inclined his chin toward the back. “It does, but we’ll have to be seated for takeoff and I’ve had them prepare an early dinner.”