“No clue.” He nipped at my skin and let out a groan as he kissed the slight sting away. “It doesn’t really matter. We’re not getting out of this bed anytime soon, unless you’ve finally changed your mind about wanting breakfast?”
Those eyes came up to meet mine and I slowly shook my head. “Nah. We’ll see what we can rustle up later. I’m happy exactly where I am for now.”
And strangely, it was so, so true. Being married to Alex Westwood was actually making me happy. Happier than I’d been in a really long time. I knew it was unlikely to last forever, but for now, I really was positively ecstatic right exactly where I was.
CHAPTER 28
ALEX
Ipaced in front of the tall living-room window with my phone pressed to my ear, watching the snow finally start to ease its grip on the world outside. The storm had started petering out. The roads were plowed just enough to be passable but still dangerous.
Mercifully, the power was back on and the wind no longer howled like it had a vendetta. Sterling’s calm and familiar voice was on the other end of the line, and I wondered how he always managed to sound that way even when he was constantly juggling ten things at once.
“Zach tells me you’ve got an unexpected board seat opening up over at Thayer,” he was saying. “It sounds like things are really heating up with that deal.”
I stopped pacing, my reflection staring back at me in the glass. “Zach talks too much.”
Sterling laughed. “Zach talks strategically. There’s a difference.”
“There are now two seats,” I said. “We only needed one for the majority, but another one of the board members jumped ship.”
“That’s what concerns me,” Sterling replied. I could hear movement on his end, one of his kids, probably. He was always in motion these days. “You know I don’t mind a calculated risk, but Thayer Steelworks isn’t exactly trending upward. Manufacturing is brutal right now. Investors hear ‘family legacy company’ and think ‘slow bleed.’”
“I’ve seen the numbers,” I said. “So has Jane.”
There was a pause on his end, not long but telling. Then he continued, sounding a little more careful now. “Okay, but Jane is your wife and a Thayer. That’s the variable here.”
“She’s not a variable,” I snapped, then exhaled and reined it back in. “She’s the reason that company is even still standing. She knows it inside out, Sterling. Their current leadership is the problem, not the product.”
“That’s what Zach said,” Sterling replied. “He also said the board looked like they were going to pass out when you walked into the room.”
“That’s not inaccurate.”
He hummed an amused sound, then sighed. “Look, I’m not saying no. I’m just saying I want to understand what I’m buying into. I’ve got a family now, Alex. I can’t just throw money at a ‘failing’ manufacturing company without seeing the upside.”
“The upside?” I said immediately. “Contracts. Infrastructure. Federal work. Jane has projections that?—”
“I’m sure she does, but I want to see them,” he cut in. “In person.”
My gaze slid toward the kitchen, where Jane had been for what felt like hours. Music drifted faintly down the hall, something upbeat that made the whole house feel alive. I’d paid a delivery guy close to five hundred dollars to brave the elements and bring her very specific grocery order, and she’d disappeared like she was on a mission once it had arrived.
“Come to Chicago,” I said finally. “Soon.”
“I was going to suggest that,” he replied. “I’ll bring Laney. We’ll make it a whole thing.”
“Good,” I said. “We’ll talk more when you get here, but it’s not a failing company, man. It’s a fucking goldmine under shitty leadership.”
He chuckled. “We’ll see about that, but Alex?”
“Yeah.”
“Zach said this wasn’t just business for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Zach should really learn when to stop talking.”
Sterling laughed again. “I’ll call you when I land, and, uh, congratulations. Who thought that one day, we’d both happily cave to the whole arranged marriage thing?”
I sighed and raked a hand through my hair. “Who thought it? We both did, my dear cousin. I suspect we simply thought we’d only do it when we were eighty.”
