My eyes flicked over him as they so often did. I couldn’t help myself. After seven years, it was second nature to assess him, to anticipate what he needed, to figure out how I couldfixthings. There was tension in his shoulders that wasn’t usually there along with dark circles under his eyes and stress in the set of his jaw.
Another pang of guilt seized me around the middle. IknewWeston Kincaid, and I could tell the weight he was carrying wasn’t just about Narissa. His grandfather’s death had rocked him. Weston wasn’t exactly the type to talk about his feelings, but he’d walked out of key negotiations for a multimillion-dollar deal a few years ago without so much as a backward glance when I’d told him Pete was in the hospital.
Back then, it had been a minor injury after a hunting accident, but all Weston had cared about was that Pete was hurt. Nothing had mattered more to him than that. I knew what his grandad meant to him, and I knew how difficult it must have been to lose him. The heart attack had been quick, which was a blessing in some ways—but it left Weston with no chance to say goodbye.
Honestly, the last thing he needed right now was a mess with Narissa dumped in his lap.
I cleared my throat. “Finished?”
He nodded, laying his fork down. “It wasn’t horrible.”
I rolled my eyes, reaching for his dishes. “Don’t even start complaining. You’d literally live off of black coffee and gummy bears if I let you.”
“I’m just saying, I think I pay you enough to afford seasoning.”
“Not anymore,” I muttered, taking the dishes to the sink. I could feel his eyes boring into my back, and I fought off the flush that inched across my chest. “Did PR contact you about the posts?” I asked, in desperate need of a distraction.
“They’re trying to figure out how to spin the story, which was why I had to push off heading to Braeburn this afternoon.”
“No, you pushed that off because you still aren’t married.”
He frowned.
“What did PR say?”
“The usual,” Weston said, shrugging. “We can spin this as her being a jealous, unhinged ex acting out because sheisa jealous, unhinged ex acting out. But Pete’s funeral?—”
“Takes priority,” I said.
He nodded. “I need to be there ASAP. The mess with Narissa will have to wait until I get back.”
A mess I helped create. That guilt settled deeper in my chest.
Weston sighed heavily. “I have no idea why Pete would pull this stunt with the marriage requirement, but I’m not going to let Lochbrae go. It means too much to me, because frankly, it meant a hell of a lot to him, and I’m not going to let that legacy die out the way it would in Jasper’s hands. And that means Ihaveto get married.” He caught my eye. “A task you’ve made much harder by priming all women with an internet connection against me.”
“Technically, you sabotaged yourself first byassumingI wanted to marry you,” I said. “You followed that up by giving me one of the most insulting proposals in the history of humankind.”
He scoffed. “It wasn’tthatbad.”
I barked a humorless laugh. “Your definition of insulting and mine are vastly different.”
“Fine,” he said. “Maybe I should have asked you differently. Better.”
“Askedbeing the operative word, instead of told. Better how?” Did he even understand what had upset me so much about the things he’d said?
“With better terms,” he amended, and I rolled my eyes. Nope, he totally didn’t get it. “I need to fulfill the terms of the will,” he continued. “So how can I make it worth your while to marry me?”
I huffed, already exhausted by the thought of him trying to negotiate with me again.
“I know you’ve been eyeing up the energy policy advisor role,” he said.
I crossed my arms, leaning my hip against the counter.Hold on a second…
“Don’t try to deny it. I see how invested you get when you sit in on the strategy meetings on subsidies and legislation.” He stood, walking over to me. “Hell, you’re already ghostwriting half the emails we send out to the representatives to get them on board.”
I tried not to let my interest show. Frankly, I was shocked he’d noticed that in the first place. Yeah, I did have my sights set onbeing more than Weston’s PA for the rest of my life, and that happened to be a role that really interested me.
“You’d be great at it,” he said, eyes bright. “But we both know you need to level up your education.”
