I frowned. “That seems a little harsh.”
“Harsh?” he repeated incredulously. “You’re talking about marrying the daughter of the mayor of New York City like you’re picking a tie. Who the hell are you kidding?”
“She’s a socialite from a great family,” I pointed out. “Isn’t that what you want for me? For any of us?”
Alex scoffed down a humorless laugh, scraping a palm across his jaw before he started shaking his head slowly from one side to the other. “You have no intention of settling down with anyone. Why waste everyone’s time?”
My eyebrows shot up. This honestly wasn’t the conversation I thought we’d be having. “You’ve been hounding everyone else, including Zach, who’s younger than me, by the way, for months.”
“Yes, but Zach isn’t you.”
I stared at him, mouth open. “So you’re saying I’m off the hook to marry someone like the rest of you did?”
“I’m saying any marriage of yours is destined to end in scandal, which is the exact opposite of what we want.” Alex sighed, inhaling a deep breath through his nose before he lifted his gaze back to mine. “I thought you’d be thrilled to hear it. You’ve always said you didn’t want to get married.”
I felt like he’d punched the air right out of my lungs. “Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m not worthy of marrying someone. And for the record, if I ever did settle down with someone, I would never cheat on them.”
“Until you get bored,” he said.
“You were just as wild as me before you got hitched,” I said, shaking my head. “And you’re throwing a lot of accusations my way about things I haven’t actually done.”
He rolled his eyes. “Am I wrong to assume you won’t be able to settle with a good girl and be satisfied with just her?”
“Yes,” I said firmly. “Youarewrong, you prick. If I ever decide to commit, I’ll commit.”
“Our family doesn’t entertain affairs, Jesse. Period. It’s practically written in blood at this point.”
“I’m aware of how our family works,” I snapped, irritation flaring hot and fast. “I grew up in the same house you did.”
“Did you?” he shot back. “Be as offended as you like, but the fact is that you’d be bored of marriage before the ink was even dry on the wedding certificate and you know it.”
The words hurt and still he wasn’t done, completely leveling me even though I’d thought he’d long since lost the ability to actually leave a mark.
He held my gaze, pausing before he delivered the final blow. “I’m carrying the weight as the patriarch of our side of the family now and I have a new generation of Westwoods to think about. I think you’ll find I’m not fucking around when it comes to them.”
I exhaled slowly, my jaw tightening. “That’s dramatic. They’re babies and it was one party. How many pictures are there ofyouat parties back in the day, before Jane, with different women on your arm?”
“Yet there’s not a single one since I committed to her, nor will there be,” he said crisply. “Let me put this in a way you mightunderstand. How would you feel if your behavior negatively impacted your nephew Bennett’s future?”
“It’s Little J,” I corrected without even really thinking about it. “I’m Big J.”
Alex shook his head at me. “Take this seriously, Jesse. Just think about it for a second.”
Although I didn’t consciously decide to do it, I could picture it so easily that I did what he’d said anyway. Little J toddling across that polished floor, laughing at nothing, completely unaware of anything beyond the next moment. The Future Earl. Unaware, perhaps, but important and untouchable nonetheless. Unless someone like me made him otherwise.
I dragged a hand over my jaw, exhaling slowly as I looked away. “I’ve been holding my own as COO. I’ve been as respectable as you’ve asked me to be. If that’s not enough to prove I’m not the family screw-up, nothing will ever be good enough for you.”
“There are kids involved now,” Alex said, the fight seemingly having drained out of him now as well. “This isn’t about you anymore, Jesse. It’s not about me, or Nate, or Will. It’s about Cameron, and Emma, and Little J.They’rewho we’re protecting.”
“So that’s it?” I said. “Your solution is for me to just continue my social life in secret like that somehow makes it better?”
His answer came fast and easy. “Yes. Stay out of the spotlight. Easy peasy.”
Alex didn’t trust me. My own brother and he didn’t trust me with someone else’s life. What was worse was that he wasn’t totally wrong. I wasn’t the marrying type and I had been quite vocal about it over the years. I’d stayed away from the family when it suited me, built my own thing, and lived my own life. I’d slept with half of Miami and then some, acting like consequences were optional and reputations were disposable.
Still, I had been trying to prove that I’d grown up. It was grossly unfair that he would box me out of his marriage plans like there was no chance I would ever change my ways.
“Jane expects you at dinner tonight,” he said abruptly, like he was done with the conversation whether it was finished or not. “Don’t be late.”
