“Nate,” I said when we reached them. “Have you met Eliza?”
“Jesse,” he replied evenly, mercifully in the loop about what was going on.
Eliza glanced between us, polite and curious. “Hi.”
“Eliza,” I said, glancing at her before motioning at them. “This is Nathaniel, my brother and CFO, and Kate, his wife.”
Kate stepped forward, all smiles and sweetness that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Eliza.”
I almost flinched when she glanced at me as she said it, her tone conveying a message that was definitely for me.I am going to ruin your life in about thirty seconds.
Eliza, however, lit up with a bright smile aimed at my sister-in-law. “It’s lovely to meet you as well. I was wondering when I would get to meet the family.”
Nate cleared his throat. “Actually, I was just about to head upstairs. Would you like to see the next floor, Eliza? It’s marginally less boring.”
He tilted his head slightly toward Kate in warning.Bless him.
I nodded immediately. “Yeah. You should go. You wanted to see the place, right?”
She hesitated, glancing at me. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Go. Be amazed by more offices.”
She laughed but let Nate lead her away, only glancing back at me once before disappearing into the elevator with him.
The second the doors closed, Kate turned on me. “You’re a dumbass.”
I exhaled a harsh breath. “Good morning to you too, Katie. Yeah, it’s great to see you. I missed you too.”
“No, seriously,” she snapped, planting her hands on her hips. “Adumbass, Will. What thehellare you doing?”
“Keeping my family from imploding,” I said.
“By lying to that girl’s face?” she shot back. “For weeks?”
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s not,” she said fiercely. “It’s stupid. How could you agree to this?”
“Jesse ran back to Florida, but Alex already had a plan and my father won’t let this go until it’s done.” I paused, sighing before I added just one last thing. “I thought I could handle it, so I stepped up when Alex asked me to.”
“Youthoughtyou could handle it? What does that mean?”
“It means that I can’t, but I’m in too deep to climb out now.”
Her expression softened just a fraction. “Yeah. No kidding.”
“It was supposed to be temporary. I was just going to be a placeholder for a day or two until Jesse got his head out of his ass.”
“But that still hasn’t happened.”
I sighed. “Apparently, he’ll be here soon.”
“And when he gets here, where does that leave you?”
“I think…” I trailed off, staring at nothing in the distance until I finally just admitted it. “I think it’s going to break me when Jesse takes over.”
Kate’s eyes widened. “It’s that bad?”
