I sat, holding his gaze even though it felt like it might slice straight through me. “Yes, she is. If all goes well, but I’m sure it will. In fact, I expect her final decision within the week.”
Without wavering, I pulled out the folder I’d brought with me from under my arm and slid it across his desk. “I’ve already had the paperwork drawn up. It’s all there, the prenup and all the contracts that provide protections for her and for Brody. That’s her son’s name. Brody. I’ve added a few additional clauses in there to make sure he’s properly looked after no matter what.”
Dad flipped the folder open, skimming the neat lines of legal text with the ease of a man who’d spent his life making and breaking lives with the contracts he entered into. On the other hand, he was Harlan Westwood. He didn’t just have the ease of a man like that. He was exactly that man.
He didn’t say anything as he paged through the folder. Then he finally set the papers down and leaned back. His gaze came up to mine, piercing and serious. “Are you sure you’re ready for this? You’d be becoming a boy’s stepfather, Callum. That’s not something to enter into lightly.”
His voice was low and deliberate, those trademark Westwood blue eyes that were so like mine and Sterling’s loaded with worry. “You haven’t been shy about letting us know that you don’t want to get married. You’ve also been known for saying you never want kids. And then, there have been those incessant jokes about how you probably already have a few running around that you don’t know about.”
I stiffened, the words striking harder than they should have. “That was a joke.”
His brow arched. “Was it? Because it seems to me that marrying this woman would be agreeing to everything that you’ve sworn up and down is the exact opposite of what you want.”
Something hot flared in my chest, a protective urge so intense that it surprised me. “I’m not walking into this blind, Dad. Maisie isn’t just anyone. Not to me, and Brody is a great kid. I’m ready to be there for him. For both of them.”
Harlan studied me in silence, the weight of his stare pressing down until I thought I might choke on his disbelief and perhaps even mild disapproval. Disapproval I knew wasn’t aimed at Maisie, but at me. He didn’t believe I could do this, or maybe it was more that he didn’t think I knew what I was getting into, but after a few long seconds, he finally nodded.
“Okay, Callum.” He snapped the folder shut. “If these are your terms, I’ll accept them. You seem to have made adequate provisions for the girl and the child. Let me know if anything changes, but you have my blessing.”
Relief loosened something in me, but of course, Dad’s gaze hardened again. “I want to meet them both before this marriage takes place, obviously.”
I swallowed hard, but I wasn’t surprised. It also wasn’t like I would have been able to live out the rest of my life married to herbut without my family ever meeting them. “Fair enough. I’ll set it up.”
Deep down, however, I still felt that strange, protective heat burning in my chest. I was feeling defensive of them for some reason. Possessive, even.
Maisie and Brody hadn’t even agreed to join my crazy, loud family yet, but somehow, it really felt like they were already mine. No matter what my dad thought, I was ready for this. In so many ways that I wasn’t sure evenIunderstood them all just yet.
CHAPTER 16
MAISIE
The hallway bustled with kids shuffling toward their next class. Lockers slammed and voices bounced off the walls, the week well underway now that Monday was behind us and Tuesday had finally come.
I was halfway to the science wing when I spotted him.Callum? What the hell?
Tall, broad-shouldered, and impossibly out of place in a school hallway filled with gangly middle schoolers, it was definitely him. He moved through the tightly packed crowd with easy confidence, his dark hair somehow gleaming even inside a building during the middle of the day. Artfully mussed, it had been styled to hang just so over his forehead.
The second those shockingly blue eyes found mine, something in my chest tripped. I frowned, still wondering if I was hallucinating when suddenly he was right in front of me. “Hey. I hope it’s okay that I’m here.”
I blinked hard, completely stunned and at least thirty percent certain that he wasn’t even real. “That depends. What are you doing at a school?”
“Looking for you,” he said without skipping a beat. His tone was steady and businesslike, but there was something else in itthat made my pulse jump. “I should have called, right? I thought I might surprise you, but I’m realizing now that might not have been the best move.”
A vague flicker of something that looked a lot like vulnerability in his eyes was what finally made me accept that this was actually happening. In my wildest dreams, I would never have thought he was capable of being uncertain of himself, which meant I definitely wasn’t hallucinating.
I glanced at the clock.Exactly three minutes before my next class.
Without thinking, I grabbed his sleeve and tugged him into the nearest empty classroom, shutting the door behind us and spinning to face him. The noise of the hallway was muffled now, making it a lot easier to think.
He produced a thin file from a satchel hanging at his hip. “Do you have a minute?”
“Pretty much exactly that,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“This is the prenup,” he said, holding the folder out toward me. “You asked me to send over the contracts, but I wanted to bring them to you myself.”
“Why? I really wouldn’t have been offended by an email.”
Those full, impossibly kissable lips curved into a slight smirk. “That’s good to know, but I wanted to look you in the eye when I told you that there’s nothing in there that’s not negotiable. Except the part where we actually have to get married. My lawyers drafted all this, and if you want, I can have them send someone to walk you through it. Someone to help you negotiate anything you’re not comfortable with.”
