Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Sebastian
I wiped the sweat off my brow, annoyed that it was so muggy in my small mudroom, when it had been cold a couple of days prior. That was fall in Colorado, you never knew what the weather was going to be. I paused in my thinking, bending down to pick up my paintbrush. Honestly, that was every season in Colorado.
Sweat continued to pour as I worked on the trim, grateful I was nearly done with this part. I preferred rolling to trim, but someone had to get it done. Of course, my family who did construction were a thousand times faster and better than I was. They weren’t offering to help, though. I set the paintbrush back down, and then stripped off my shirt, wiping the sweat from my face completely.
I hated weekends like this. I should be working, I should be going over portfolios, drawings, and even doing actual tattoos. I had clients that I could meet with this weekend, but the way things had worked out, today it had been better for me to stay at home for the afternoon and get household things done that I couldn’t really do well when I had Nora.
I held back a sigh.
Because Nora wasn’t here. I had dropped her off at her grandparents’ that morning, had done my best not to snarl at the way Marley’s parents glared at me, and then watched my little girl roll her shoulders forward, and look defeated as she went to the people who I knew loved her but didn’t understand her.
They had been the same way with Marley. They’d loved their daughter. Loved her to the point that they were breaking what they had with Nora.
I missed my kid.
I had never once thought that I would be a father this young. In fact, I thought I wouldn’t be a parent until I was in my thirties or something, much like a lot of my uncles. But no, I’d been a teenage dad, and I had only made it work because of my family.
I hated the fact that my kid wasn’t here.
So here I was, repainting my mudroom in the back of my house because we had let it go a little bit. The place was owned by my family, the entire Montgomery realty section of our conglomerate. I snorted at that, considering our conglomerate was just a small grouping of companies that we happened to own. We weren’t ruling the world, much to the surprise of everyone around who knew us.
And so, while I didn’t need to do my own maintenance, I knew how. My cousins in the construction arm of the family were better at it, but I could paint a mudroom.
Eventually I would have to redo the laundry room that was connected to this room, but I wasn’t in the mood to move all the appliances around, so I would do that later. Or maybe I would do it tonight when I couldn’t sleep because I missed my kid, and it wasn’t like I had a nightlife. My cousins and brother wanted me to go out, even my twin was trying to force me out of the house, but I just didn’t want to today. I wanted to wallow in my own guilt and shame.
“Knock knock.”
I turned, paint roller in hand, to see Raven walking up to the house. She met my gaze, then her gaze went a little lower, and she blushed and tripped. I cursed and moved towards her, the door already open so I wouldn’t touch anything with the paint roller.
“Sorry, there was a tree root or a hole. Or just my own feet. I trip a lot.”
My lips threatened to twitch into a smile. “I hope you don’t do that when you are around ovens.”
She winced, looked down at her arms. “Well, I do have a few burns from pans, but that’s just the life of a baker. I’m pretty sure I permanently have flour in my hair.”
I looked up, shook my head. “Don’t see any.”
“I did just shower, so thanks.”
Images of Raven taking a shower filled my brain and I quickly pushed those from my mind. What was wrong with me? I did not think about Raven this way.
“Well.” She looked me up and down, and I willed my cock not to react. Because it was a slow perusal, and damn it, it was a perusal. “You used to be scrawny.”
I snorted, grateful for the humor. She wasn’t hitting on me, not like some women did, she was just being her old Raven self. And that’s what I needed. Not whatever this attraction between us was that sometimes seemed to rise up.
“I lift things,” I said deadpan. “It’s fun.”
She raised a single brow, and I was kind of jealous she could do that. “And all the ink? That’s new.”
I did have more ink than a lot of my cousins. I worked in a tattoo shop, and my family was really damn good at it. I also happened to like the art, so I just shrugged, knowing one day I might run out of space. But I didn’t think so. I had a few pieces on my chest, down my arms and back, but I still had a lot of space.
“I’m a tattoo artist.”
“And so that means you like tattoos?”
“I would hope so. I like ink, piercings, too.”
She looked up at my eyebrow ring, and then lower for an instant, before she blushed and turned away.
I wasn’t going to tell her that yes, my dick was pierced, because I didn’t really know how to bring that up in a conversation. As it was, my cock was trying to get up all on its own.
“I still need one.”
“A piercing?” I asked, willing myself not to look down at her breasts, or at her clit. I did not need those images for my mind, but they were there. And all I wanted to do was see if she was pierced. Or pierce her myself, or lick at those piercings, just to see if they could make her come.
What the hell was wrong with me?
This was Raven. I didn’t have an attraction to Raven. She was my friend from childhood. Nothing more. Now she was my fucking neighbor.
“Uh…I mean, a tattoo?” I blurted.
Her eyes widened. “I have my ears pierced, that’s it. And no tattoos. Virgin skin and all that.” She blushed again, harder. She was so pretty in pink. “I mean, my skin doesn’t have ink on it. I don’t need to mention virgins.”
I held back a groan, what the hell was wrong with us?
“Well, that sounds like a challenge.” I paused, as we both burst out laughing. “I meant a tattoo if you wanted it. Not anything else. I’m going to change the subject now.”
She grinned. “I just finished my walk after a long day at the café, and saw the door was open.” She looked around. “Where’s Nora? I assumed she’d be running out here to ask a thousand questions.”
Immediately my mood dimmed, and I shrugged. “She’s with her grandparents for the weekend.”
Raven winced. “Ouch. I’m sorry.”
Confused, I frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
“I know her grandparents, Seb. I know about the court case. And I know that this weekend probably sucks, hence why you’re shirtless and painting and even talking to me out here.”
I gritted my teeth, hating the fact that she knew all of that. I tried not to let it show because I didn’t want Raven to feel like anything was wrong.
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not, and I’m sorry.”
I sighed, knowing it was the truth. “It’s not fine.” I set down the paint roller, rolling my shoulders back. “Why did you leave?”
“What do you mean? I had to work this morning, and Greer’s closing the shop today. I close tomorrow.”
I shook my head. “No, Raven. You left .”
I hadn’t meant to say any of that, to bring it up. But it had been on my mind since we were eighteen, and I’d never asked. First, because I’d been so into Marley that I’d had my head up my ass and hadn’t wanted to ask the big questions, then because it had gotten too difficult.
She pressed her lips together, then let out a breath. “Yes. I left for college to learn how to run a business. You and Marley stayed.” She flinched. “I’m sorry I keep saying her name.”
I shook my head, that ache at hearing Marley’s name a familiar one. It had dulled a bit, wasn’t so sharp, but it was still an ache. I didn’t think it would ever go away, not that I wanted it to. I wanted to remember Marley. It wasn’t fair not to. “If I don’t say her name, it hurts Nora. So I do.”
Raven studied my face for so long I wasn’t sure what she was going to say, or if it was better for her to just leave.
“And it hurts you.”
“I get over it.” I turned then, needing a moment to collect myself, as I went back to painting. She could go or she could stay, I couldn’t care less. Okay, that was a lie, but I didn’t want to care. I didn’t know what was happening, didn’t like these feelings, and I didn’t like change. I just wanted things to stay the damn same. Why couldn’t things just do that?
Raven moved closer, and I could feel the heat of her.
“You don’t get over it, Seb. And that’s fine.”
Why did she keep calling me Seb? As if we had a shared history. We did, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it. I just wanted her to go away. But I wanted her to stay.
“Why did you come back?” I asked, far more harshly than I intended.
Raven picked up a paintbrush, working on the corners even though I hadn’t asked her to. I didn’t want her to. This was my project. For my house with my daughter. Why was Raven here?
She shouldn’t be here.
Marley should be here, but she was gone, and I was over that. As much as you could be over someone dying. I mourned, I grieved, but it wasn’t all-encompassing anymore.
But every time that my kid went to her grandparents, it hit me, and now Raven was here and that just made it all worse.
“I wanted a new life, that’s why I left before.” There was something in her tone, something I should ask about, but I didn’t. “But now I realize that my life was here all along. My family’s here. My friends. So I’m starting over, a new business, a new part of me. I didn’t realize that you’d be so close for all parts of it.”
I swallowed hard and looked down at her, doing my best not to think about her. Hard to do when all I could do was smell her, even over the scent of paint. She was so damn beautiful, had always been. I had never thought about her that way before. It would’ve been unfair to Marley, a betrayal. But I had known that Raven was beautiful and kind. We’d been friends for a reason, because we meshed.
And now, everything ached.
I didn’t know what it meant.
She was so damn close to me, her body sweat-slick from her walk, just like mine was from the heat of this room. We were close enough that all I had to do was lean down ever so slightly, and brush my lips against hers. But I wouldn’t.
Because that would be the most insane thing I could have ever done.
“Your life is here. It never made sense for you to leave.”
Once again she was quiet for so long, I didn’t know what I had said wrong.
“It made sense at the time.”
“Sebastian, where are you?” a familiar voice echoed from the front of the house, and I whirled, Raven doing the same so we crashed into each other. I dropped the roller and gripped her arm, grateful that we both didn’t tumble into the paint pan.
And that’s when my parents, both of my sisters, and my brother walked in, looking at me standing next to Raven—me shirtless, covered in paint, with Raven standing wide-eyed and looking between us.
My mother grinned, my father raised a brow, and each of my siblings had a look that I didn’t trust.
I held back a curse and pushed away from Raven, grateful that she could stand on her own.
Because the matchmaking Montgomerys knew no bounds, and this was a damn mistake.
In more ways than one.