“Ice-cream parlor, it is,” he said, and that sounded like a good idea to me.
This guy would be getting a hell of a tip.
CHAPTER 13
NATE
Iwalked back into the conference room to find a wall of expectant faces waiting for me. Alex stood at the head of the table, his hands braced against the polished surface like he was conducting a boardroom orchestra.
Our father sat to his right, composed and watchful. Pete Vanderhaul leaned slightly forward, fingers steepled and his expression contemplative. Courtney sat beside him, her smile strained enough that anyone paying attention would notice.
Every eye landed on me when I crashed through the door. Alex’s gaze met mine and he cleared his throat. “Did you make Kate aware of the situation?”
A dark chuckle slid out of me before I could stop it and I dragged a hand over my jaw, trying to scrub the image of her armor cracking out of my mind, but it didn’t work. Her eyes had been so fucking wide, her breaths coming out in sharp, pained-sounding pants, and her shoulders trembling as she’d fled my office.
“Yeah,” I said roughly, my disdain palpable. “I told her about thesituation.”
Relief so intense that it was visible registered on my brother’s face. He exhaled a long, slow breath and turned back to the table.“Alright. That’s good news. Then we can move forward with the details.”
My molars ground together, but he just kept going on. That was Alex, though. Always already thinking about the next step. It wasn’t because he didn’t care. For all his faults, that wasn’t one of them. If anything, he cared a little too deeply.
Especially about our family and doing whatever it took to keep building. To keep expanding. To keep doing bigger things. Better things.
“Dad and I were thinking that we keep the prenup airtight, but generous. Obviously.” He glanced at Pete and Courtney as he said it. “We’ll have it drafted to protect both companies, but we should also discuss the timeline.”
He looked at me, and although he’d been informed of this before I had, I knew he understood what I was going through right now, which meant he didn’t expect me to speak, knowing I was still very much digesting all this. If he piled anything else on me, I might run for the hills like Kate had.
“If Hinds wants confirmation quickly,” he said. “We’ll need to consider engagement announcements, possible wedding dates, and think about how we’re going to manage public optics.”
Public optics.
My hands curled into fists at my sides. I’d spoken to my cousins when they had gone through similar situations. I’d been right there next to Alex when we’d been going through these very same motions with him and Jane.
None of it was new to me. It was just a hell of a lot more infuriating now that we were talking about me. About my fucking wedding and what the damn public would think about it. Worse than all that, I had never expected my future wife to look so upset at the prospect of marrying me. The security footage ofher fleeing the building in horror wouldnotbe going into the wedding video.
Our father nodded thoughtfully. “A summer wedding would give us enough time to align the legal and financial transitions. Plus the weather is nicer.”
Pete hummed in agreement. “That might also stabilize market perception.”
Courtney shifted in her chair, her smile thinning further, but she didn’t interject. Meanwhile, the more they kept planning, the more I felt like someone had poured concrete into my ribs.
“She hasn’t agreed yet,” I said suddenly, the words cutting clean across the room.
Alex glanced up at me like he was surprised, but also like I’d simply mentioned an irrelevant little detail. “She will.”
Something inside me snapped taut and my voice dropped into a tone that was edged with steel. “That’s up to Kate. She needs to be a part of this conversation.”
Alex straightened slowly. “It’s her choice, and we’ve already established?—”
“No,” I interrupted, louder this time. “You’veestablished. You, Dad, Abram, and Pete, butKatehasn’t actually said yes to jack shit.”
A heavy silence slammed down around the table and Alex’s chest rose on a deep breath before he nodded. “This acquisition doesn’t survive if she says no.”
My pulse thundered, but my voice was frighteningly calm. “Then it doesn’t survive. I won’t pressure her into this.”
Pete’s brows mashed together, his spine stiffening and his head jerking like he’d been slapped. “Let’s not be dramatic.”
I turned toward him, letting the restraint I was clinging to with absolutely fucking everything I had harden me. “Let’s get one thing straight.Ifshe agrees, you hand over the account to her. Fully. She runs it herself.”
