CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“Could you watch Harper tomorrow?”
Sebastian pinched the phone between his ear and his shoulder and kept fiddling with the bouquet he was working on.
“Sure,” he told his sister. “Anything in particular going on?”
“Just work stuff. There’s rumors that Jayco will be visiting soon and the higher-ups want everyone there in person.”
Jayco? he thought, momentarily perplexed. Oh, JCAHO. The joint commission that evaluated hospitals’ safety and performance standards and ultimately gave them accreditation was something that always seemed to stress out Brie’s bosses and, thus, Brie every time they rolled around.
Their visits were supposed to be unannounced, but someone always seemed to get a heads-up about it. For a few days, everyone would be on high alert and doing their best to make sure everything appeared perfect.
“Yeah, I should be able to watch Harper tomorrow,” Sebastian said. “She has PT in the afternoon, right?”
They had a shared calendar that he tried to stay on top of.
“Yes. That would be great,” Brie said with a relieved sigh. “I really appreciate it. Could I ask for one more thing though?”
“Sure. I’ll probably even say yes,” Sebastian teased. “What’s up?”
“Krista invited me out for a dinner and drinks tomorrow evening. Could you keep Harper until I get back from that?”
“Uhh, how late?” Sebastian asked, wincing. “I had plans.”
“Let me guess?” Brie said drily. “You have a hookup planned.”
“No!” Sebastian protested. “I mean, probably we’ll have sex, yeah, but Luke and I—”
“Luke, huh?” he could hear the disbelief in her voice.
“Yeah. It’s …” Sebastian sighed. Whoops. This wasn’t how he’d planned to tell Brie. “He and I are well, we’re … dating now.”
“The fuck?” Brie said. “When did that happen?”
“It’s been slowly evolving,” Sebastian admitted.
“Ha! I knew there had to be more to it when he volunteered to fix my kitchen!”
“He can’t just be a nice guy?”
Brie hooted. “Since when have you ever thought Luke Crawford was nice?”
“Well, that’s evolving too.”
“Apparently.” Brie’s voice softened, turning worried. “What about Nicky?”
“I have plans to tell him,” Sebastian said firmly. “I’m taking a trip to New York soon anyway, so we’re going to meet up while I’m there.”
Sebastian’s New York shops seemed to be humming along fine, but he still felt like he needed to drop by every so often and check on them in person. He figured he might as well kill two birds with one stone and all that. Even if it made his stomach twist with anxiety every time he thought about it.
“Good luck with that.” Brie’s tone was dubious. “Anyway, my lunchtime is winding down. So can you watch Harper tomorrow evening or not? If you can’t, that’s fine. I just want to let Krista know. You’re right, she seems great.”
“Uhh,” Sebastian said slowly. “Yeah, Luke will probably be willing to reschedule. What time were you thinking you’d get back?”
“Nine? Nine-thirty at the very latest.”
“Ugh. Okay.”
“Look, you don’t have to,” Brie protested.
“You deserve to have a life too. You don’t always have to drop everything to help us out.
I just know you’ve been hoping I’d make some more mom friends and you keep pushing me toward making friends with people from the Harriers and, well Krista really does seem nice and … ”
“No, no I’ll make it work,” Sebastian assured her. “Maybe I’ll see if Luke is up for babysitting with me if you’re cool with that.”
Brie was—understandably—cautious about who she allowed around her daughter.
“Yeah, that’s fine. As long as you’re there the whole time, I’m okay with it.”
“Of course,” Sebastian assured her.
“I am sure Harper would be thrilled to see him.”
“Yes,” Sebastian agreed with a laugh. “I’m a little miffed that I’ve been replaced as Harper’s favorite, but whether Luke can come or not, I’ll watch her tomorrow. I am sure he’ll understand if I have to reschedule.”
“I’m planning to head straight from work to meet up with Krista but I’ll throw something in the slow cooker in the morning for you guys to have for dinner,” Brie said. “White chicken chili, okay?”
Sebastian considered it. It was one of his favorites. Chicken, beans, salsa verde, corn … yeah that should fit well enough with Luke’s nutrition plan too. “Sounds great.”
“Okay, gotta go,” Brie said, her tone turning brisk. “Keep me updated.”
“I will,” Sebastian promised. “Hey! Just one thing, don’t say anything to Krista about me dating Luke. He isn’t out to the team yet.”
“Is he going to come out?” Brie’s tone was pointed.
“Uhh, yeah, at some point. We haven’t discussed specifics yet.”
“Mmm,” Brie said, which meant she was skeptical but didn’t want to get into it at the moment.
“We’ll figure it out,” Sebastian told her firmly. “Now go. I’ll take care of tomorrow.”
“Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Just a brother who loves you and Harper,” he reminded her.
He ended the call, then shot off a quick text to Luke. Wanna babysit Harper with me tomorrow?
“Mr. Luke! Mr. Luke!”
The following evening, Luke glanced up to see Harper moving as quickly as she could toward him. Luke had been parked in front of Brie and Harper’s place, leaning against his car and dicking around on his phone while he waited for Sebastian and Harper to arrive after PT.
They must have been stuck in traffic or something.
“Hey, kid,” Luke said, straightening. He tucked his phone in his pocket as she got closer.
“Up!” Harper said, holding her arms out to him.
“How about you ask nicely,” Sebastian said in a dry tone as he followed her.
“Pick me up please, Mr. Luke,” she said with a big, cheesy grin.
He chuckled and picked her up, popping her onto his hip. “Did you have a fun day at the shop?”
“Yes! I got to make flowers, and Rose-lee taught me how to make a crown.” She touched the circle of flowers on top of her head. They looked a little wilted.
“That’s Rosaleen,” Sebastian corrected.
“It looks very pretty,” Luke assured her.
“And we had grilled cheese and tomato soup and I took a nap, and then Uncle Sebby took me to PT.”
“Sounds like a very busy day.”
“It was.” She played with the collar of his jacket. “What did you do?”
“I went to practice and then I ran to the store.”
Her eyes lit up. “What did you get at the store? Is it a present for me?”
Luke chuckled.
“Harper …” Sebastian said, although he was laughing a little. “That’s kind of rude. Hi, by the way.”
The second part he said to Luke as he stepped closer, brushing his fingers across Luke’s upper arms.
Luke used his free hand to skim it across Sebastian’s side. “Hey,” he replied.
Luke turned back to look at Harper. “It’s sort of a present for you and your mom.”
Still holding Harper, he bent down to grab the new faucet and a few other supplies. “I’m going to finish your kitchen today.”
“Luke …” Sebastian said, sounding an awful lot like his sister. “You’ve already done so much.”
“It’s no big deal,” he said gruffly.
Over the past few weeks, Luke had replaced the drywall, taped and mudded it, then replaced the flooring with new peel and stick tiles, plus installed a new cabinet sink.
He’d had to get a little creative about the last part, because Brie both refused to let him pay for it and didn’t have a big budget, but he’d found a resale place that had a short run of unpainted lower cabinets and a slab of butcher block to use for the countertop.
The tile flooring Brie had picked out at the home improvement store was a blue and white pattern, so he’d painted that section of cabinets in a matching shade of blue, then hauled them over to Brie’s place on a trailer and installed them with Sebastian’s help.
Well, he’d discovered that Sebastian was fairly useless when it came to home remodeling, but he’d helped lift and hold stuff while Luke used an impact driver to secure it in place, so it had worked out okay.
All Luke needed to do now was add the toe kick and replace the faucet.
The old one was technically still functional, but the sprayer had stopped retracting, and Luke hadn’t been able to fix it.
He’d picked up a new one from the resale place today.
The package had been opened but it still looked brand-new, like someone had gotten it home, realized it didn’t fit their sink, then donated it.
“Can I help?” Harper asked, tugging at his collar.
“Uhh, sure,” Luke said, mentally running through things he could have her do. “Let’s get inside and get to work. Sebastian? Could you grab the board there?”
Sebastian nodded, carrying it toward the house as he sifted through his keys to find the one for Brie’s front door.
In the house, Luke plopped Harper down on the countertop. “You can watch from there while I get the old faucet undone. You can hold the new one in place while I get everything tightened, but this part I need to do by myself.”
“Okay,” she said with a sigh.
“Gotta get a few more tools from my car first,” he said.
When he came back, Harper was still sitting on the counter, playing with the plumbing supplies he’d bought.
“I’ll just be over here working on my business plan,” Sebastian said from the kitchen table. “Tell me if you need help with anything.”
“Will do,” Luke said.
“Hey, Harper,” Sebastian said. “Why don’t you tell Mr. Luke about what the bunny at the PT office did. If that’s okay with him.”
“Oh!” Harper said, lighting up. “Yes. Okay. Do you wanna hear the story, Mr. Luke?”
Luke nodded, stripping off his coat and tossing it on the counter near the slow cooker. Whatever was in there smelled delicious. “What did the bunny do?” he asked.
“It was sooo funny. It did this thing where it raced around and around in a circle and then flopped over like it was dead. But he was fine!” Harper clapped.
Luke chuckled. “They are pretty funny when they do that.”