The dryer clicked as the heat cycle shifted, warm air brushing against my scalp. I swallowed, unsure whether her words comforted me or made everything more complicated.
She studied me for another moment in the mirror before she nodded. “You might not know him very well yet, but he’s a great guy. He always has been.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “You say that like you’ve known him since childhood.”
“Pretty much,” she said with a small shrug. “To be honest, I didn’t know them personally before all this. Before my father’s arrest, my family snubbed theirs, and after, obviously, we’d fallen so far from grace that they probably forgot we existed, but I grew up in Chicago and even though it feels like I spent most of my life away at college, you don’t live around here without knowing at least a little bit about them.”
“And?”
“And trust me, if we’re ranking the Westwood boys as potential husbands, Nate is objectively the best, safest bet.”
I snorted before I could stop myself, not sounding nearly as elegant as she had. “They should put that as a tagline on the brochure.”
She laughed softly. “I’m serious. While Alex is absolutely the love of my life, I probably would’ve been happy settling with Nate, too.”
My gut kicked and rebelled, and it didn’t take me more than a second to recognize what I was feeling right now as jealousy, which was absurd, so I just kept quiet. God forbid she or anyone else found out how weirdly protective and possessive I’d occasionally started feeling about my future husband.
“He’s the kindest of the bunch,” she said, happily oblivious to the jealous rage simmering deep within me. “He’s steady and thoughtful. He’s probably the only one of them who actually listens instead of just waiting for his turn to talk. He’s the best. Really.”
I shifted under the dryer, heat brushing against my scalp as discomfort prickled along my spine. “Are you just trying to sell me on this?”
Jane shrugged, entirely unapologetic. “Maybe, but I’m not lying. I know that it’s terrifying. It feels like you’re being shoved off a cliff without checking for rocks first. I get that, but it’s going to be okay. The Westwood men make shockingly good husbands. I promise.”
I stared at her, unsure whether I wanted to laugh, cry, or crawl out of the chair and sprint into traffic. But a question fell out of me before I’d even thought about asking it, let alone thought about stopping it from coming out.
“Do you know Nate’s girlfriend?”
Her eyebrows tugged together instantly. “Hiswhat?”
“His girlfriend,” I repeated. “I’m honestly worried about it.”
“Kate,” she said slowly, like she was trying to translate a complicated phrase in a forgotten language. “What are you talking about?”
I swallowed, my fingers tightening in the fabric of the salon cape. “I’m worried for him. If he is as loyal, kind, and thoughtfulas you think he is, then he’s going to give her up for this. For me. Because he’ll feel like he has to.”
Jane’s confusion deepened into something bordering on astonishment. “Okay, yeah. If he had a girlfriend, I’m sure he would’ve broken up with her now that he’s getting married, but Nate is chronically single.”
“What?”
“Yeah. I’m serious. No one has even seen himtalkto a woman in years. Not regularly anyway.”
The dryer hummed, suddenly seeming louder as it filled the startled silence between us. When I eventually managed to speak again, my voice came out thin. “That can’t be right.”
Jane turned fully toward me now. “Nate’s entire existence has basically been about pressure to get married. If he had a girlfriend, it would be headline news at every dinner.”
I stared at my reflection, my brain scrambling to rearrange my recent memories. “He told me…”
Jane waited as I trailed off, but I finally just shook my head. “I must have misheard him. Or misunderstood what he was saying or something.”
But even as I said it, the memory of that conversation flickered clearly through my mind, his admission that he was seeing someone.Why would he keep it a secret that he has a girlfriend?
Clearly, however, his family didn’t know. I assumed that if he’d told anyone, it would’ve been Alex. Those two seemed to speak privately several times a day, and from what I’d both heard and witnessed, they kept each other updated constantly.
If Nate had told Alex, I was sure Alex would’ve told Jane, but her stylist had reappeared and she looked completely satisfied with the explanation that I must’ve misunderstood. Like there was absolutely no way Nate could be seeing someone.
This is so weird. If Nate does have a woman in his life, why don’t they know, and more importantly, why the heck isn’t he just marryingher?
CHAPTER 17
