A few days after the ball, I sat in my office at W&S. The building was nearly empty, but even when the place slowed for the holidays, it still had this energy about it. It was quiet but festive and not at all dead.
There were some stragglers still working on closing deals before they packed it in for the year, a few assistants still fielding calls and processing paperwork. A part of me wondered if I should’ve been among their ranks for a different reason, but today, I wasn’t there for work.
Wedding venues in New York City were notoriously difficult to come by and booking one on such short notice was going to require some finesse.Thatwas why I was here, to work my connections trying to pull off the impossible—finding a wedding venue in Manhattan with availability on Christmas Eve.
Two weeks’ notice for a venue in that city was a laughable notion, but if anyone was going to make it happen, it was me. I would move mountains for Aurelia. Sending emails and making phone calls was nothing in comparison.
Halfway through drafting an email to a woman I knew who operated a boutique hotel in the West Village, I heard footstepsapproaching my door and I looked up, surprised to see Jameson walking into my office.
His arms were full of files, but he was wearing jeans and an old college hoodie instead of a suit, his eyebrows high as he looked at me. “This is a surprise. What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” I leaned back in my chair. “What’s all that for? I thought you weren’t working over the holidays this year.”
“I’m not. Sterling is.” He crossed the space to my desk and sat down in one of the chairs opposite me, dropping the stack of files on the chair beside him. “He’s been up all night with Claire so Laney can get some rest and he asked me to grab a few things from his office. Staying busy will keep him from losing his mind at home, I think.”
“Right.” I chuckled. “There’s nothing like paperwork to soothe a fussy newborn.”
He shrugged. “Hey man, whatever it takes. I’ve been sneaking stuff home for weeks so I can stay busy while I’m at home keeping an eye on Sadie in the final stretch. I’ll bet everything I’ve got on you doing the same thing once your turn comes, which brings me back to my original question. What are you doing here when our offices are basically closed and you have a gorgeous fiancée waiting for you at home?”
I huffed out a breath. “I told you, it’s just business between us.”
Jameson’s hazel eyes lit with that annoying knowing fire as his eyebrows shot up and a smirk ghosted across his lips. “Uh-huh. Just business. Of course. Isthatwhy you’re here? To distract yourself from the blue balls?”
I snorted. “No. I’m looking for a wedding venue, actually. I figured I had a better shot if the inquiries came from my official W&S account and I don’t have access to all our connections from home.”
“Right.” He folded his hands over his flat stomach and kicked an ankle up on his knee. “What are the plans? Maybe I can help.”
I shrugged, trying for casual, but my pulse was definitely thudding all of a sudden. “The plans are to get married Christmas Eve morning in New York. We’ll keep it small, so we don’t need a huge venue, but I’ll settle foranyvenue right about now. Do you think Mom knows someone who might be able to help?”
“Oh, I’m sure she does.” Jameson studied me a little too closely, then let out a long, slow breath. “She’s not going to help you, though. Not with this.”
“What?” My heart stammered in my chest. “Why the hell not? CC Westwood lives for this shit.”
“Yeah, but she’s not exactly thrilled about your impending nuptials.” He sighed. “It doesn’t sound like she’s said much to Dad about it, but Sadie told me that Mom is upset. Like, very upset.”
“What? Why?” A cold ripple ran through me, but I masked it with a laugh. “Of course, she’s not fucking onboard with this. Why would she be? It’s me.”
My jaw tightened. I could take pushback from anyone, but after all these years of treating me like the one who would always have to prove himself before he had the right to make any decisions, this felt like another slap in the face from my mother.
Jameson didn’t look away. His gaze was steady and measured, and I could tell it was because he was trying to decide how much to tell me. “If it helps, Sadie has gone to bat for Aurelia. More than once. She’s stressed that a Van Alen is a perfect match for you and all that stuff, but Mom won’t hear it. She still doesn’t want this wedding to happen, so I really wouldn’t count on her help if I were you.”
I froze. “What about Dad?”
Jameson grimaced, looking like he wasn’t particularly happy about being the one who had to deliver the blow. “Well, uh, that’s where this gets weird. Mom normally sides with Dad, right? But Dadisthrilled about this. He talks about Aurelia like she walks on water, which I think is why Mom isn’t really talking to him about it.”
I blinked hard. “Has that ever happened?”
He shook his head slowly. “This is something we haven’t dealt with as a family before.”
Shock rolled through me, but it was followed by the sharp bite of anger rising up from deep within. “Why does Mom feel this way? Do you know?”
“No.” Jameson lifted one of his shoulders. “Honestly, to me, it sounds like she’s grasping at straws for a reason. She doesn’t like the timing. She thinks you’re rushing into it. That Aurelia’s not the right fit.”
“Not the rightfit?” I repeated, the words bitter on my tongue. “Who the fuck is going to be a better fit than her?”
“I’m just telling you what I’ve heard, not what I think.” He spread his hands out to his sides. “Mom hasn’t exactly laid it out to anyone, least of all me. All I know is that she’s dug in. Sadie says it’s like talking to a brick wall.”
That was enough for me. My pulse hammered, my hands curling into fists under the desk. If my mother wanted to stand in the way of this, if she thought she could dictate my life any longer, she was about to learn how wrong she was.
