Page 83 of Imperfect Arrangement
“Ray,” Alex snaps me out of my thoughts. “You’re still grinning like that and it’s starting to scare me.”
“She might be hot, but like you said, she’s the nanny and my fake fiancée. It’s already too complicated and temporary.” I try for casual, try to ignore the way my chest tightens at the thought.
“Not for long.” Alex raises an eyebrow like he knows exactly where my thoughts are headed. “Once the project is done, this charade will be over and you can start something real.”
His words hit like ice water down my back. Yes, she’s supposed to leave. In fact, I was the one who proposed an end date to this partnership in La Bella Vita, but now, a vision of my home without Willow steals the breath from my lungs. No more hearing her laughter spill from Quill’s room. No stolen moments in the pergola where I catch her off guard. No more teasing her until she’s breathless in the kitchen or making her lose herself in the bedroom.
And damn it, I want all of those things again. Every single one of them.
But does she too? Or would she really leave? Just pack up and walk out of Quill’s life? Out of my life? It seems almost impossible to imagine my home without Willow in it.
“Stop that.” Alex stands abruptly, his sneakers scraping against the concrete, and plants himself right in front of me, cutting off my view of the boys and the cake.
“Stop what?” I ask, leaning forward slightly, trying to escape his laser-beam stare.
“All those negative thoughts swirling around in your thick skull,” he says, gesturing with a hand like he’s shooing away imaginary clouds. “You’re acting like a guy who doesn’t realize he’s winning. The important thing is that she makes you happy.”
“Really?” I cock an eyebrow, reaching for sarcasm to defend myself. “I thought she—or, you know, whatever this is—was making me distracted.”
Alex’s lips curve into a knowing smirk. “Of course, your attention span is laughable right now, but you’re also happy and so is Quill. So, what’s the problem?”
I blow out a long breath, trying to exhale my frustrations, but I just end up inhaling them again. “The problem is, Willow doesn’t want the same thing I do. So when she’s out of my house, she might be…gone from our lives.”
Alex’s forehead creases. The shocked look he gives me is so dramatic it pulls an annoyed groan out of me.
“God, your face right now is doing wonders for my ego.”
He scoffs before clearing his throat. “I’m not surprised because I think you’re some divine catch or gift to womankind. I just thought Willow was into you.”
“Maybe she is,” I admit, the confession dragging out of me. “But not in the way I want. I don’t do casual, and for some reason, Willow Pershing is terrified of anything serious.”
Understanding dawns on his face, softening his usually sharp edges. “Wow,” he says, nodding like he’s pieced together a mystery. “I didn’t know you felt that way about her.”
“Believe me, it’s a revelation for me too,” I admit, dragging a hand through my hair. “Since Quill came into my life, I never thought there’d be anyone else I’d bring into our home. But…Willow fits. She fits in my house, in my life, like she was all we needed to finally be happy. To be complete. She’s like the last piece of the damn puzzle.”
The words tumble out of me like a dam breaking, raw and unfiltered. When I glance at Alex, his expression—somewhere between shock and disbelief—would be almost comical, if I wasn’t dying of embarrassment. I brace myself for a smug punchline, some kind of teasing jab, but nothing hits me. Instead, he clears his throat, his face uncharacteristically serious.
“If you, Quill, and Willow are that perfect together, and it’s just her fear holding her back, are you really not going to do anything to change that?” He puts everything out in simple words. But making Willow see this will be anything but simple.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. It’s not like I have experience in going after girls.”
“Okay, then let me ask you something you know very well. What happened with the Pershing land, Ray? Her cousin doesn’t seem to be causing any problems. In fact, if anything, that guy seems to just be…gone.”
Yeah, I’m not surprised. I was waiting for one of my cousins to bring this up. There’s no point in evading the question. It’s not like Alex can’t find out the truth if he wanted. There’s official paperwork and a sale agreement, after all.
“I bought the land from him.”
“And you were saying you don’t have experience.” His smug grin says it all, and I look away, suddenly feeling like I’ve said too much.
“For someone who’s sworn off romance, you sure have a lot of unsolicited advice.”
Alex doesn’t flinch, but his lips press into a thin line, the same way they always do when the topic of his dating life comes up.
“I heard Chloe was spotted with Vincent Belmont at Paris Fashion Week,” I say casually, testing the waters with a little bait of my own.
His jaw clenches so tight I half expect him to crack a tooth. But I know this isn’t news to him. He would never admit it out loud, but we all know he has his own security detail on Chloe.
For all his calm-and-collected demeanor, Alexander Teager’s personal kryptonite is Chloe Hawthorne.
