At this rate, he was going to start getting hate mail from strangers, and there was the risk of aggravating the investors. I glanced up, watching his eyebrows furrow deeper and deeper. He looked up at me, gaze hardened. “Marry me, and I’ll fly Tess and the bridal party to Paris for the bachelorette party. All expenses paid. You can meet them for the weekend. It’s not the holiday you envisioned or the party you planned, but it’ll be more than she could have ever dreamed.”
A gasp got lodged in my throat. Between the guilt I felt brewing over Narissa and my real desire for the job opportunity he was offering and now the promise of an amazing experience for Tess, I knew there was really only one option.
“Okay, fine,” I said, holding his gaze. A huge part of me still screamed this was crazy. Marrying my boss? Uncertainty and regret and guilt swirled inside me. Could I really hang him out to dry when I was part of the reason this was going so badly for him? And could I really turn down all that he was offering?
One last time, I told myself. Just this one last time, I’d fall into line and fix things for Weston, the way I always did. And then I’d take him up on his offer and seize the means to chase my own dreams. “I’ll marry you.”
5
WESTON
“That’s all you’re bringing?” I said as I stepped out of the SUV to greet Lena on the sidewalk in front of her condo. She was dressed in a white sundress with tiny blue flowers embroidered into the skirt. Her dark hair was curled slightly where it rested beneath her shoulder blades. I cocked my head as I took her in. Sheneverwore her hair down. It was always pulled back at work.
Tidy. Efficient. Borderline stern.
Like this, there was something softer about her, and it intrigued me so much that I couldn’t help staring. It was like I’d stumbled upon some rare species, and I had to take in as much as I could before it spooked.
“You said we’d be gone a week,” she said, hands falling to her hips. She leveled me with a look—that no-nonsense, arched eyebrow and pursed lips. Ah, yes,therewas my assistant.
“I think I actually said a week or so,” I clarified.
“Well, there’s a week or so worth of clothes in there.” She shoved her suitcase toward the vehicle. “Why do you look confused?”
“I just assumed all women overpacked.” Narissa certainly had. There’d been bags for shoes and bags for makeup and outfits on hangers that needed to lay perfectly flat lest they get wrinkled. A weekend getaway came with enough bags to fill the trunk of my car to overflowing.
“Well,thisbride packs as efficiently as she manages your calendar,” Lena muttered. I admired the line of her neck and the curve of her collarbone as she flipped her hair off her shoulder and lifted her bag off the curb. “Why are you staring at me?”
“I just…” I gestured awkwardly to her. “I almost didn’t recognize you without the bun and the blazer.”
She tilted her head. “Oh.”
“You look different outside the office,” I said. “Nice.” What I actually wanted to say wasbeautiful, because she was.
Lena bristled. “Oh.”
I played my words back in my head, wincing a bit. I’d intended to compliment her, but looking back, I could see how I might have insinuated that she looked terrible at the office. Which wasn’t the case. “I meant?—”
“Maybe a girl wants to look special on her wedding day,” she said coolly, cutting me off before brushing by me to climb into the back seat of the SUV.
My driver, Nic, came around the back of the vehicle to handle the bag, so I joined Lena in the back seat.
“Did you get the waiver?” I asked as she flipped through emails on her phone.
“The judge signed it late last night,” she said. “No seventy-two-hour waiting period for you. Guess it’s all about who you know.”
“Sometimes it is.”
“I still don’t know how you get the courthouse to openthisearly for you.”
“You agree to spend a lot of money backing the mayor’s next campaign run,” I said.
“He’s giving you the VIP treatment, huh?”
“Even said he’d come to witness if I wanted.”
She snorted at that, amused in spite of herself.
We pulled up in front of the blocky stone building and climbed out of the SUV. For a moment, Lena hesitated on the steps.
