“On that note.” Sterling stood up, clearing his throat and raising his glass like he was about to make a royal decree. He turned those piercing blue eyes on Callum and me, and my heart rate suddenly skyrocketed, my palms going clammy. “As an engagement gift, I’m flying the entire family, and that includes your family, Maisie, to my estate in Scotland.”
I blinked, the movement far too slow and hard to be natural. Laney glanced up at him, her jaw slack and her eyebrows high. “You have an estate in Scotland?”
“Nope,” he said, winking at her. “Wehave an estate in Scotland.”
She slammed back against her chair, clearly as surprised and swept away as I was, but he wasn’t done yet. He inclined his chin toward CC. “What’s more is that our darling mother, who had nothing to do with this at all, is already planning a cozy, intimate wedding for you there.”
I nearly dropped my fork, my ears suddenly ringing and my heart going crazy in my chest. Cheers and whoops rang out around the table, with Sadie immediately turning to Brody to tell him all about Scotland and how much he was going to love it there.
Meanwhile, I turned to face Callum. “Did you know about this?”
“Nope.” He glanced at his mother, who was grinning like the cat who had gotten all the cream, and then he chuckled before bringing that gaze back to mine. It was so soft and loving that I almost forgot about the bombshell his brother had just dropped. Almost, but not quite. “I wish I could say that I was surprised, but I’m not really. Mom seriously wasn’t happy when I told her what we were planning.”
I blinked again. “Are you serious? We’re actually going to be getting married in Scotland? Soon?”
“I guess so.” His hand slid onto my thigh under the table, the laughter fading from his eyes as they held mine. “You can absolutely tell him to go fuck himself if you don’t want to do this. King Sterling’s castle is beautiful. You’d love it there, but this is your day, Mais. Our day.”
“King Sterling’s Castle?” I repeated, completely dazed. “Your brotherownsacastle?”
Callum shrugged. “Technically, it’s not classified as a castle, but you’ll see. Besides, it’s not such a big deal over there. Castles are a dime a dozen.”
All I could do was laugh, dizzy from the sheer insanity of it all. I’d become caught up in a current I couldn’t fight, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
“Welcome to the family,” Sadie said, pumping her eyebrows at me, then exchanging a wicked grin with Laney, who still seemed almost as dazed as I was.
Sadie had grown up more like the Westwoods than Laney or me, though. Her parents were filthy rich themselves, and while she was painfully generous, to the point where she’d almost been disinherited because of it, her brother-in-law owning a castle in Scotland just wouldn’t seem as bizarre to her, I supposed.
To me, however, it was unbelievable. Brody was raving about getting to go on an airplane and almost fell out of his chair when Harlan told him it was a private jet. I groaned, covering my face with my hands as the table burst into laughter again.
Yet, underneath all the excitement, the disbelief, and even the joy I was surprised to feel, the truth sat like a hot coal between my ribs. I had to tell Callum and I knew it, but these people owned castles and private planes.
Legal fees wouldn’t even be a drop in the ocean to them and they’d already welcomed Brody into the fold as if he was one of their own. What would they do if they found out that he was, and would they still want to fly me away to Scotland?
CHAPTER 35
CALLUM
My meeting wrapped up right on schedule and I didn’t linger once it was over. The last few days had been a blur of prep work to get my team ready for the time I would be away.
A week in Scotland.
For mywedding.
If anyone had told me a couple months ago that I’d be excited to be flying across the pond for my fucking wedding, I would have laughed them out of the building. When I’d placed that ad, I’d really thought this would all be simple.
Courthouse. Signatures. Some chick I would learn to get to know over the next few years.
This was not that.
I strode to the elevator and took it up to Sterling’s floor, my head spinning. Maisie had gone along with my family’s surprise plans, turning this week so far into a whirlwind of planning and preparation. Sterling was insufferably pleased that he could surprise Laney with a trip to their estate for this, but strangely, I’d somehow found myself looking forward to it, too.
Not necessarily the castle or the trip but the actual nuptials. Making it official. Making it real.
The elevator doors slid open in front of me with a low, digital ding and I shook myself out of it, stepping onto the executive floor determined not to look like a lovesick fool. Up here, our offices were always buzzing with a different kind of energy than mine, controlled execution rather than creative chaos.
It always made me feel like I had to be more serious when I visited. Obviously, I had never actually followed through on the urge but still. The last thing I wanted was for these people to think that their marketing director was some idiot with his head stuck in the clouds.
I might never be their commander in chief, but I was a Westwood. An executive in this company. I’d never taken that quite as seriously as I probably should have, but I wanted to try. To be a man Brody could be proud of and look up to.
