Alex considered it for maybe half a second before he shrugged. “Okay, so then don’t promise her one. Let them figure it out later.”
My eyes narrowed. “That’syour solution? Don’t promise her one.”
“Yes.”
“Brilliant.” I scoffed.
He smirked at me. “Yeah, I know, but thank you. I’ll be here all week.”
I stared at him as he shoved a hand through his hair and stared right back at me, finally leaning forward slightly and folding his hands on the desk. “Will, I need to get Jesse onboard. That’s my priority right now.”
“I thought you were working on it.”
“I am, but…” He trailed off, sighing before he brought his gaze back to mine. “At this rate, you might just have to marry her.”
My heart did something strange and dangerous that felt like an actual flip-flop. “Don’t joke about that.”
“I’m not joking.”
“Yes, you are.” My teeth ground, but what he’d said had planted a seed deep in my chest and I couldn’t just let it go. Not if there was a chance. A beat of silence passed between us before I finally just asked. “Is that actually a possibility?”
Alex didn’t answer immediately, his expression completely serious. He inhaled a slow, measured breath. Tension tightened his jaw and his posture locked as he gave his head a firm shake. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Which means he’s absolutely thought about it.I tried to listen to him and not get ahead of myself, but fuck. He’d just said there was a possibility thatIcould marry her, and there was no way I could just sit there and keep calm if that was true.
The next thing I knew, I was on my feet and my phone was in my hand. “I’m calling Jesse. Let’s find out where he really stands on all this.”
“Please do.”
Praying to every deity available once again, I dialed my brother, hoping he’d actually pick up this time. The last time we’d talked had been when he’d hung up on me, and before that, he hadn’t been taking my calls for weeks.
But today, he answered on the third ring and my heart lurched all the way to the top of my throat. “What?”
“Hello to you too, little brother.”
“I’m busy,” he grumbled. “What do you want?”
“Well, you’re about to be busier, because what I want is to talk to you. Not tomorrow or next week, but today. Right now.”
He paused. “What does that mean?”
“It means you need to tell me if you’re going through with this marriage. Because if you are, you need to get on a plane and get over here, and if you’re not, I need to know. No more games, man.”
Jesse groaned. “Really? You too?”
“Yeah, me too, asshole,” I said without hesitation. “Your time’s up. I want an answer, Jess. Right now. Are you in or are you out?”
There was another long pause on his end of the line. He finally let out a long, loud breath. “I’ll fly out there later this week. Tell Alex I accept the offer he made last night. He’s got a deal.”
That tiny seed of hope in my chest exploded, spattering my insides all over my ribcage and making me feel like I’d just lost something vital. Because I had.
“Yeah. Okay. I’ll tell him. See you later this week.”
Alex grinned as I lowered the phone away from my ear and ended the call. “Fucking finally. I guess this means you’re off the hook, Will. Congratulations.”
“Yeah.” Without anything more than that, I turned around and went to my own floor of the building, collapsing behind my desk and just staring out of my window instead of making myself economically productive.
I should’ve been happy that this was over. Instead, by the time I finally got back to the townhouse that night, I felt like I’d been run over by a train. Several trains. Simultaneously. All ofwhich had then backed up and run over me again, nice and slow to make sure there’d be absolutely nothing left by the time they were done.
