I leaned my head back against the seat and let my mind drift to the conversations that had brought us here. With Mom, it had happened quietly one evening a couple weeks ago. She’d come over to our house and asked if we could talk. I’d made us some tea, and we’d sat around the kitchen table for so long, Alex had eventually invited her to sleep in one of the guest rooms.
“I never wanted to take anything from you,” she’d said, her voice small in a way I hadn’t heard since we’d first found out my father might go to prison. “I just thought I was protecting you. All of you.”
She’d stared down at her hands, fidgeting with her fingers in her lap. “I grew up believing my job was to marry well. That love came after, if it came at all. I thought ambition was something women endured, not pursued, and look where that got me.”
She’d laughed then, a little broken and more than a little self-aware, but that had been the turning point. When she’d finally understood that Thayer wasn’t just a company to me. It was proof. Proof that I was capable. That I was worthy. That I could take something poisoned by my father and make it clean again.
She’d also admitted that she’d been afraid of what might happen to me if I’d tried and failed. Then we’d cried together and she’d apologized again but not in the half-formed, defensive way she had before.
She’d apologized fully. For voting the way she had. For leaning on me for so long without realizing the cost. For being so absent not only after Dad had gone to prison, but before.
We hadn’t fixed everything that night, but we’d reset the foundation and we were both working toward being better. Wyatt had been harder, but we’d also talked, and finally, I’d wrapped my arms around him the way I used to when nightmares had chased him into my room, and I’d promised that he wasn’t losing me. He’d gone quiet, then murmured, “Alex makes you happy.”
“Yes,” I’d said without any hesitation. “He’s a good guy.”
“That’s good enough for me,” he’d said. “I’m sorry I was a jerk.”
I smiled at the memory as Alex slowed the car in front of the house and glanced at me. His head cocked as his gaze swept across my face. “What’s that smile all about?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I was just thinking about Wyatt finally coming around.”
“Yeah, that was a good day.” He grinned and switched off the engine, squeezing my leg once before letting go. “He’s a smart kid, Killer. It just took him a minute to catch up to everything that was happening around him. Pretty much his entire life has been a state of upheaval. You can’t blame him for lashing out at the person closest to him when the only stability he’s ever known felt threatened.”
“Uh-huh.” I turned my head against the seat to arch my eyebrows at him. “Where was all this wisdom of yours before we made up?”
He chuckled. “It was in there, but the kid needed to realize it all for himself. All that matters now is that you’re okay and he’s happy I’m part of the family.”
“Family,” I repeated softly after him, nodding as I watched him open the door. “Is it still weird to you that wearethat now, family?”
He shrugged. “Nah, you’re not just my family, Jane. You’re my everything.”
While my heart melted into a puddle of goo, he winked and climbed out of the car, rounding it and opening my door before extending his hand to me. I took it happily, threading our fingers together, and we walked into the house together.
Nora hugged me for longer than usual when Alex and I walked into the kitchen, and Wyatt hugged Alex in an awkward, one-armed way that made me hide a smile.
After making a quick cup of tea and filling them in on our travel plans, Mom shot me a teasing look. “Don’t forget us little people when you’re off being glamorous.”
“I married into the Westwoods,” I said dryly. “Glamour is now legally required.”
Alex laughed. “She’s already negotiating her next deal in her head. There’s nothing glamorous about that, but I’m going to do my best to drown her in margaritas until she finally relaxes.”
Nora shook her head with a fond twinkle in her eyes as she looked at me again. “You chose well, Jane. Both of you did.”
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “Please don’t get all sentimental on us. They’ll be gone for a week, not a year.”
I hugged him anyway. “I’ll call.”
“You’d better,” he said, then murmured quietly against my hair, “Have fun.”
After we parted, I finished my tea and took Alex’s hand again. We said our goodbyes, promised lots of gifts, and went back to his car.
By the time we pulled away from my mother’s house, the sun had started sinking lower, turning the tops of the snowbanks along the road into glitter. Alex drove with quiet focus, one hand back on my knee with his thumb absently stroking from side to side.
I watched the city thin out as we headed toward the private hangar, my chest buzzing with a mix of nerves and disbelief. I’d stared down many boardrooms full of men who underestimated me and faced classrooms with hundreds of students who’d thought I was a cheap imitation of a real teacher, and yet, this felt enormous in a way none of that had.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Alex said as he turned onto a long, flat road and glanced at me.
“I’m trying not to freak out,” I admitted. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on any plane whatsoever, let alone a private jet.”
