With Nate here, it didn’t feel so much like the building was swaying or was about to just crumble to dust. I finally pulled in a deep breath and looked up at him, my temple still resting on my knee.
“This marriage doesn’t have to mean anything,” he said quietly. “You can keep seeing your boyfriend, Kate. In a couple of years, once the Hinds account is fully settled and running like a well-oiled machine, we can divorce. Until then, I have no expectations of you.”
My eyebrows shot up, but for a long minute, I was completely speechless. “Is that what you want?”
“No. I just want—” He exhaled sharply, cutting himself off before he raked a hand through his hair and spoke again. “I need you to trust me. Just a little. I’m not going to fuck you over. I’m not going to make you miserable if I can help it.”
He looked earnest, completely, terrifyingly sincere. His jaw was tight, his shoulders rigid under the damp fabric clinging to his chest, but his eyes were locked on mine with an intensity that made something inside me fracture into thin, sharp slices.
“I do trust you,” I whispered. Surprise flickered across his expression and eased some of the tension out of his features. “That’s the worst part of this. I feel sick that it’s happening to you, too. That you’re stuck in this position because of me. Because of my family.”
His throat bobbed as he swallowed, and for a second, he looked almost vulnerable. Right now, he didn’t look like the immovable, frustratingly composed man who always argued with me. He looked like exactly what he was—trapped, human, and terrified.
“I liked it better when we hated each other,” I admitted, my voice small against the roar of the wind.
His mouth twitched in a half-smile as he nodded slowly. “Yeah, it was easier then.”
He leaned back and got comfortable, looking around the apartment like he’d never been in here before. I realized that sitting beside him didn’t feel like standing on a battlefield right now. It felt like standing in the uneasy calm between lightning strikes, knowing another one was coming but grateful for every breath in between.
CHAPTER 19
NATE
Friday rolled in with a strange, buoyant calm sitting in my chest, like I’d reached the crest of a roller coaster and could finally see the track laid out ahead of me.
Tonight was the night. For real this time.Third time lucky, right?
I was going to meet Emma face to face, and while this wasn’t the first time we’d had these kinds of plans, I was confident it was actually going to happen. The thought eased the restlessness that had been buzzing right beneath my skin for the last couple weeks.
If I could just see her, talk to her, and lay everything out, we’d be able to find a path through this mess. A solution that didn’t destroy anyone.
Me. Emma. Kate. Her boyfriend…
There had to be a version of this that didn’t leave any casualties behind. Emma, Kate, and I were all smart, mature people. It stood to reason her boyfriend was as well. Surely, between the four of us, we had to be able to come up with a way to keep moving forward.
As always, however, life threw a monkey wrench into my plans before I’d even finished my second cup of coffee. News ofa possible merger between us, Kate’s firm, and Hinds detonated across every financial outlet before nine a.m.
By ten, our stock was climbing so aggressively, our analysts were scrambling to keep projections updated. I tried to focus on the numbers in front of me, but Alex’s voice carried through the partially open conference room door across the hall.
“If the government steps in, we’re going to have to adjust, but we can’t lose momentum.”
“Federal oversight will slow us down, Alex. You know that,” Will shot back. “Hinds’ portfolio touches too many sectors. It runs too deep. They’re going to crawl through every ledger we own and that’s going to take time.”
Their argument cut off as the door slammed shut, but I barely registered it. Oversight. Regulations. Government involvement. All important. All things I normally would’ve been knee deep into myself.
Instead, I found myself scrolling through the media coverage. The press had latched onto something a lot more entertaining than the logistics surrounding the actual merger.
Headlines screamed about a so-called rivalry between the Westwoods and the Vanderhaul family, painting decades of routine business competition like it was a blood feud. Analysts speculated on every channel, practically feverish with the thought that we were now working together.
Commentators dramatized our relationship with the Vanderhauls, half the articles reading like soap operas disguised as financial journalism. I snorted under my breath. Pete and my father had gone head-to-head on contracts plenty of times, but it was business. That was it.
There were no vendettas. No war between our families. In fact, until recently, Dad hadn’t even met the man face to face and Uncle Harlan and Pete were supposedly pretty friendly.
I’d never really followed thecelebritygossip involving my family. My brothers and my cousins out in California lived under a spotlight, but I’d always avoided it like the plague. We weren’t actors, or top athletes, or whatever other kinds of professions made people obsessed.
We were a normal family who ran a normal business that just so happened to be pretty damn successful. We were good at what we did and we did it diligently. That shouldn’t have warranted this kind of media attention.
Yeah. That’s enough of the circus for one day.I closed my laptop and raked my hands through my hair. My head needed to be clear for tonight.
