“Westwood and Sons is now the owner of Thayer Steelworks,” she announced. “You did it. It was a unanimous vote.”
I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until it came out of me in a broken rush. My vision blurred instantly, tears springing up faster than I could blink them away. Colin let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. He pulled me into a crushing hug.
We’d done it. We’d actually fucking done it. No,he’ddone it.
The Thayer lawyers came streaming out of the room next, already talking about next steps, timelines, and public announcements as they passed us. Some stopped to shakeAlex’s hand while Sterling clapped him on the shoulder, saying something about drinks later that I didn’t quite catch because Colin was still holding on to me like if he let go, it might all vanish.
When he finally released me, I pressed my face briefly into Alex’s chest, breathing him in and grounding myself in the solid strength of him.Oh, my God. He actually did it. We’re not losing Thayer. Or our jobs. I get to rebuild our name without Andrew or anyone else calling the shots.
It was almost too good to be true, but then Alex leaned down, his mouth brushing my temple. “We should celebrate.”
I huffed out a wet, half-laugh and lifted my head to look up at him, his face blurry through the tears I only now realized had welled in my eyes. “All I want is to go home.”
He pulled back just enough for his gaze to meet mine. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I said, my voice hushed with disbelief, awe, and the startling realization that he’d actually saved the company. “Let’s go home and watch our shows in our pajamas. With food that didn’t come from a catered pastry tray.”
His mouth curved into that soft, private smile he saved just for me. Then he caught my lips in a gentle, lingering kiss that was completely unconcerned with the fact that half a dozen people could see us right now.
“I guess that’s what people do for fun when they’ve been married for seventy-five years, huh?” he murmured against my lips.
I laughed, the sound bubbling up through the exhaustion and relief. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Perfect,” he replied quietly. “I’ll order in whatever you want. Even if it’s from that place with the weird noodles you like so much.”
“They’re not weird,” I protested. “They’re authentic.”
“They’re deeply weird.” He pumped his eyebrows once, then turned to let Nate and Colin know we were leaving.
My mom was already gone, and for the briefest moment, I wished she’d still been there so that I could thank her, but ultimately, I supposed we both needed space and time to process everything that had happened. So I just took Alex’s hand and we walked away from the boardroom together, neither of us looking back.
As we climbed into his car, it hit me all at once that we were finally safe. The company was safe. My job was safe. My place in the world, something I’d fought for with everything I had, was finally, truly secure.
And somehow, impossibly, so was this, the marriage we’d entered into as an arrangement. Ironically, in the end, the votes Alex had procured through the deal hadn’t been what had saved the company.
What had done it was me letting someone stand beside me, sayI’ve got you,and actually mean it. Alex Westwood had done it all his way, and simply by trusting him enough to do it, we’d not only made sure Thayer would remain standing, but we’d found love in the last place I would’ve gone looking for it—a business deal.
A deal that had changed every aspect of my life for the better, even if I was still waiting for my youngest brother to come around to the idea.Teenagers, man.
CHAPTER 48
ALEX
Afew weeks later, I was walking too fast down Michigan Avenue with a paper bag digging into my fingers and my phone wedged between my shoulder and ear, the Chicago wind doing its level best to flatten me.
“Repeat that,” I said as I turned the corner. “Just talk slower. I could’ve sworn I just heard you say the wordsthree hundred millionin one sentence.”
Trent laughed on the other end of the line, the sound warm and relaxed. The air on the ranch tended to do that to him, but when he was here, I rarely heard it. “I already invested the twenty-five. That part you know.”
“Yep. I’ll never forget the choking sound my sister made when I told her.”
“She still brings it up,” Trent said with a laugh. “We’re still not sure whether you were trying to give her a heart attack or if the palpitations were just a coincidence, but anyway, Dad wants in too.”
I stopped short, narrowly avoiding plowing into a man with a briefcase and, evidently, a death wish. “Your dad wants in?”
“Well, look at that. You heard me just fine this time,” he said. “He’s looking at just shy of three hundred million.”
I stared down at the street and the snow starting to dust the edges of the sidewalks like powdered sugar. “You’re kidding.”
