“She’s not a goddamn merger, Jess.” I looked at him over my shoulder. “I know how it started and I know why the arrangement exists, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not complicated. You’re not understanding the stakes here.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “I didn’t say she was a merger. All I’m saying is that this marriage is. It’s business. Plain and maybe not so simple, but still true.”
As I snorted and shook my head, he suddenly spoke again. “Does she know?”
“No.”
“Are you planning to keep it that way?”
“For now,” I said tightly.
He sighed. “Alright, well, do you think she’s going to like Miami?”
My eyelids slammed shut, and once again, I almost lost it. I clenched my jaw, my self-control only just barely clinging to nerves that were already stretched way too thin.
“This is herlife, Jesse. I understand that you were put in an impossible position and that you had no control over it. I realize that saying no to Dad is impossible, especially without Alex’s support, but try to remember that she isn’t an asset you can justrelocate.”
He shrugged like that was out of his control too, still not taking any of this seriously enough. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he was looking at all this like we were shifting pieces on a board instead of dealing with a person who had no idea she’d been placed at the center of it.
“Sure, I know all that, but my life is in Miami, dude. What do you want me to do about it?” I just stared at him for a beat, blinking slowly and wondering what it was going to take to get him to pull his head out of his ass. Then he made it worse. “So, what’s mybridedoing today?”
Hearing that word from him hit me like a rubber bullet to the heart. I nearly doubled over from the pain of it, but the worst part was that I couldn’t let him see it. My identical twin, and I had to hide it from him that he was tearing my fucking soul out—all because he wasn’t the one in the wrong here.
I’d fallen in love with the woman he was marrying. She was his bride. It shouldn’t hurt me to hear him say it.
“She’s doing whatever she wants,” I finally replied. “Hopefully, that includes resting.”
There was a brief pause before he frowned. “Resting? Why? Please don’t tell me she’s one of those people who needs a nap after going out for just a couple hours. Those people are the worst and the party was two days ago. You guys didn’t even stay that late.”
“It’s not that,” I said, my tone sharper than I’d meant for it to be. “This has nothing to do with the engagement party. Shit, do you really have to think the worst of her?”
He shrugged. “How would I know what to think at all? I don’t know the chick.”
Exactly. Fuck.
I shoved a hand through my hair and reminded myself that this had always been part of the deal. I was always going to have to tell him what I’d learned about her. To prepare him to spend the rest of his life with the woman I wanted.
“She’s been managing that entire estate by herself for years,” I explained. “They’re on the brink financially and she’s the one who’s been keeping them afloat. There’s at least a dozen different things on her to-do list for every hour of every day and she hasn’t ever even been on a real vacation. The woman never rests until she’s forced to.”
Jesse didn’t interrupt, just watching me as I started pacing again. “She never asks for anything and she doesn’t expect it either. I think that makes it easy for people to assume she doesn’t need those things at all, and that includes help. She works damn hard and she doesn’t ever complain about it. She just does what needs doing and carries on.”
Something flickered across his face. Suspicion, probably. I should’ve stopped as soon as I saw it, but I didn’t. He needed to know these things about her and the sooner I could get them out,the sooner my role would be over, and the sooner I could finally walk away.
It was the last thing that I wanted, but considering that it was inevitable at this point that I would have to, I needed it to happen as soon as possible.
“She notices everything,” I said, the words coming faster now. “She’s the strongest woman I’ve ever met, but she’s also soft, you know? A real romantic. She’s one of those?—”
I cut myself off when Jesse tilted his head slightly, one eyebrow arched as he looked at me like I’d become the most interesting thing in the room. “Wow. That’s a lot of detail.”
“It’s called paying attention.” I held his gaze, unflinching, but he must’ve seen the guilt in my eyes before he shook his head.
“No,” he said slowly. “It’s called something else entirely.”
“No, it’s not.” I scoffed, but it was a beat too late. “I just?—”
“You just have feelings for my fiancée?”
I didn’t react immediately, but I knew in that moment that there was no point denying it. Besides, Kate and Nate already knew because I hadn’t lied to them either. Jesse had seen me with Eliza.
