Adeline slowed in front of a truly impressive set of gates, then shocked me when she turned in and waited for them to open. They swung inward like they were granting entry to a castle, but as the house she lived in came into view, I realized my first impression hadn’t been inaccurate.
The placewasa damn castle.
“Welcome to Westwood Manor,” Adeline said as she drove up a long driveway toward the house. “This is their family home. Zach and I bought it earlier this year, but it’s still their base of operations for anything not work related.”
As she parked in front of a garage that could probably fit a dozen cars, my heart skipped when I saw Theo’s bike standing off to one side.Oh my God. This is real. This is the place he came home to after we fixed Martha.
“Alright, girlies. Be nice to Uncle Theo’s friend. She’s going to be staying with us for a while.” Adeline opened the back door to let the girls out, then turned to me. “I’d expect the rest of the family to come sniffing around soon. Jesse and Jacque are already on their way and I have zero doubt that the others will be hot on their heels.”
“Are you really Uncle Theo’s friend?” Lu asked once we were out of the car, hands on her hips and her expression completely serious. “You’re not lying?”
“No.” I managed a nervous smile. “I really am his friend.”
“We’ll show you around,” Jennifer offered immediately, a wide grin on her lips. She marched me up the stairs that led to a wide, double front door that was carved out of some kind of polished wood.
Before the next hour was out, I’d learned that Theo’s nieces were absolutely obsessed with him—and that Theo’s family home was a legitimate fucking mansion. It was enormous, more like some kind of luxury hotel than a house.
I couldn’t believe he’d grown up here, in a place like this. When he’d said they were wealthy and Avery had asked if I knew who the Westwoods even were, I hadn’t gotten anywhere close to understanding the level of wealth and affluence they were talking about.
The differences between us suddenly felt impossible to ignore as I stumbled through hallways that always seemed to open up to three more. Every room felt larger than my entire house, and when I was shown a library, a game room, and a theater room, I realized that Quartz Pass could never compare to this.
Maybe Avery wasn’t just being an asshole when he asked if I seriously thought Theo was going to choose me over what he had here.But then again, he was in Arizona right now, apparently sorting things out.Just trust him, Raquel. Trust. Him.
“Oh, Uncle Jesse’s here,” Jennifer suddenly screamed from the window she’d been peering out of. Grabbing my hand, she rushed me toward the door. “Let’s go say hi. You’re going to love him and Jacque. They’re so cool.”
I swallowed hard, my entire being turning into a giant bundle of nerves, but I followed her back to the cavernous foyer and waited for more Westwoods to walk in. Adeline was nice, but surely, they couldn’t all be. I hadn’t met her husband yet, but he was apparently on his way home too.
Surely, at some point tonight, someone was going to ask why a mechanic was wandering around their opulent home, but as soon as I met Jesse and Jacque, I realized it wouldn’t be them. The brother, Jesse, looked a lot like Theo, though his hair was darker and his eyes were different, but their bone structure was very similar.
Like Adeline, Jacqueline was an absolute stunner too, and she had an accent. I liked her, though. Mostly because she took one look at me, then linked her arm through mine. “I know. It’s a lot. This house is ridiculous. Let’s go get you some booze. I’ll drink vicariously through you.”
She patted her heavily swollen belly and led me to something called a drawing room, where she immediately poured an entire tumbler filled with alcohol. A few minutes later, another beautiful woman walked in.
Jesus, what is it with the Westwood boys’ wives?
“I’m Kate,” she said, smiling as she shook my hand. Her gaze dropped to my whiskey and the politeness melted away from her smile, turning it into a real grin instead. “Thank God. We’re drinking tonight.”
She broke away from me to pour her own drink, chatting to Jacqueline about another Westwood brother, Will, who apparently lived in England with his family. Then she introduced me to her husband, Nate.
He was quieter than Jesse, but he also had the striking, heaven-blessed features of his brothers.The gene fairy sure loved these guys.
We settled in a sitting room, but I chose a seat slightly to one side, only to be drawn closer immediately by Jacqueline and Kate, who planted me between them like they were my self-appointed bodyguards. I kept waiting for someone to say something nasty about my grease-stained fingernails or to question my presence here at all, but nobody did.
Zach arrived next, laying a hard, passionate kiss on his wife before he came to introduce himself to me. As soon as that was done, he poured himself a drink and looked around the room. “Alex is on his way. He’ll be here soon.”
Silence fell for a long beat, but Jesse filled it with stories about his adventures in the past. It sounded like he’d been quite the wild one. There was a lot of laughter and banter, but then the front doors opened again and another Westwood strode in.
This must be Alex.
While he looked so much like Theo that it was immediately obvious they were related, there was something remarkably different about his presence. It was heavier somehow, darker, and a lot more serious.
Oh, God. This is the one to be afraid of.
He smiled when he was introduced to me, which made him only marginally less intimidating, but then Jesse appeared beside him and smacked him on the shoulder. “Fabulous. You’re finally here. Now I can spill the beans.”
“The beans?” Alex asked, seeming weary as he turned to his younger brother. “What is this about, Jess? You can’t just text us a 911 without any explanation and then seem all jovial about it. Where’s Theo?”
“Well, see, that’s the thing,” Jesse said, smirking just a little. “Theo took my jet to Arizona.”
