“It’s the check for your commission, as well as our prenup.”
For just a moment, she went completely still, her finger not even moving under the flap of the envelope any longer. Then she set it down and reached for her wine instead. As she picked up the glass, she sat down across from me at the island, those blue eyes landing directly on mine.
“So it’s time, then.” Her eyes were lined with coal that didn’t look like she’d touched it up in hours, a thin, almost nonexistent layer of mascara on her naturally long lashes.
She wasn’t racing to go freshen up and she was barefoot in her kitchen with me. I’d never had such an easy relationship with a woman before, but especially not one as gorgeous as her. It made me feel damn lucky that she was wearing my ring—around her neck, if not on her finger, but still.
I realized then that romantic or not, our relationship, our friendship, had come to mean something to me. I frowned as I held her gaze. “Time for what?”
“The ‘are we really doing this’ conversation,” she said, her eyes never once leaving mine. That golden blonde hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, but tendrils had escaped during the day, framing her face as she rested her chin in an open palm, her elbow propped on the counter between us. “You know, for a minute back there, I was actually wondering if you were calling it off.”
I felt my frown deepen, my eyes narrowing. “What?”
While I didn’t ask if that was why it’d looked like she’d been about to burst into tears, I definitely felt a surge of something sweeping through me at the possibility. Something smug and proud, possessive and greedy.
She cracked a tiny smile. “Yeah, you looked so serious when I got here that I thought you might’ve changed your mind.”
“No, I didn’t.” I said it without any hesitation whatsoever. “It’s just been an eventful few days. There’s lots going on. Stuff I need to talk to you about.”
Her eyebrows crept up. “To me? Why?”
“Because it might affect you. Unless you’ve changed your mind, that is?” Somehow, I knew she hadn’t, but I still wanted to look into her eyes when she actually said yes, making the sober and fully informed decision to be with me when we weren’t swept up in post-victory adrenaline. “Do you still want to marry me?”
“Yes.”
Fuck, I love it when she says that.
I felt a slow grin tug at the corners of my lips. “Good. I still want to marry you, too.”
“You know, you’re the last person I expected I would marry. It was unlikely we would even ever become friends, but this? It really is insane.”
My grin came out fully this time, practically splitting my face in half as I nodded. “That’s the only reason either of us is doing it. It would’ve been boring if it wasn’t insane.”
“So you keep saying.” She glanced at the envelope again, but she still hadn’t opened it. When her eyes came back to mine, they narrowed a little, like she was trying to puzzle something out. “What happened, Harrison? You said the last few days have been eventful, but why? It really didn’t look like you were okay when I first walked in.”
“My dad is retiring,” I said, admitting it out loud for the first time. “It’s likely Sterling is going to put me in charge of acquisitions at W&S. They know I’ve always wanted it and they’ve all been grooming me to take it over eventually.”
“Wow. That’s huge.” Her head tilted slowly and she paused for a beat. “Is it still what you want? Because I’ll be honest, it really doesn’t look like it.”
Unlike when I’d been in the room with my brothers, I told her the truth. “What I want is to work with you.” The words tumbled out, raw and unpolished. “I don’t think I can, uh, shit,I don’t think I can work without you now. We’re great together. And if you don’t come work with me at W&S, then we’ll start our own thing. Because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at a new account again without wondering how you’d handle it.”
For a heartbeat, she just stared at me. No teasing retort. No sharp, dismissive laughter. Just a long silence that made me wonder if I’d said too much, but then, finally, she smiled.
It was small and quiet, almost grateful, which was off. “That’s the first time anyone has ever acknowledged that I’m good at this.”
She said the words softly, almost like she was savoring them, and my chest tightened practically to the point of pain.How has no one in her family seen it? How has no one said it?
She was brilliant. Ruthless in the best possible way. Sharp as hell, and yet she thought no one had noticed? I wanted to tell her she was extraordinary and I’d known it ever since that very first day, but the words stuck in my throat. It was too much, too soon.
“Is this what’s been bothering you?” she asked, her voice quiet and careful, but steady. “I could tell something has been off, but was this it or is there more?”
I took a sip of wine, swallowed, and shook my head. “It’s this, but it’s also everything else. My place in my family. In the business. I mean, I’ve told you before that it’s always weighed on me, but things have been coming to a head and I honestly don’t know what to do about it.”
The admission felt like it cost me something, but there was a strange relief in saying it to her out loud. For a beat, she said nothing, but then she reached for the envelope and my pulse jumped when she tore it open.
Her gaze skimmed over the pages quickly before she uncapped a pen she plucked out of a drawer and signed at the bottom in one clean stroke. I blinked hard. “Was that our prenup? You’re not even going to have a lawyer look at it?”
“I don’t need to. The terms are fair,” she said simply, setting the pen down. “I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.”
