9. Sebastian
NINE
SEBASTIAN
A peace offering, huh? I stared down at the plate of warm cookies in my hand. The rich scent of melted chocolate made my mouth water, which I resented. Did she think I was so simple-minded that a few treats would win me over?
The ceiling creaked overhead with the sound of Charlie’s footsteps. I picked up one of the homemade sweets and sniffed it again. Did cyanide have a smell? Nah. Charlie Washington Reeves, Esquire may have been a lot of things, but murderer wasn’t one of them. No matter how badly she wanted to save the theater. So I took a bite. A burst of rich buttery goodness excited my tongue. A perfect golden crisp on the outside but soft and chewy in the middle.
“Oh, my god,” I managed with a mouthful, closing my eyes, and savoring the irresistible baked bliss. I moseyed back to my bedroom with the plate in hand. At least I’d have something other than my email to share my bed with tonight. I glanced up at the towel covering our shared hole. It was looking pretty crispy too.
I took another bite and licked my lips. “These cookies are really good,” I called up to my friendly neighborhood shrew.
“Yes, they are,” she said as if the compliment annoyed her. Humility wasn’t her strong suit. How could I judge? It wasn’t mine either.
But if she wanted to try to kiss my ass, all I could do was beat her at her own game. I forced friendliness into my voice. “Nice to see you have a sweet side.” The floor creaked again but she said nothing. “You know, I’m not all bad either.”
That earned me a snort. “Oh, yeah, you’re a real model citizen.”
I chuckled with a mouth full of chewy golden dough. A few crumbs hit the back of my throat, and I coughed. Not wanting to lose a morsel, I swallowed hard, but it only set me on a coughing fit.
“You okay?” Charlie’s face appeared in the hole above my head. Red-faced and watery-eyed, I gave her a thumbs-up as I caught my breath. The concern in her eyes turned flat. “You said no one ever made you cookies, not that you’ve never eaten one.”
There was that crispy outside of hers again. Fully recovered, I sent her a snide smile to match her words. I shouldn’t have said anything at all. “Do you always serve cookies with a side of derision?” I knew Charlie brought me these cookies to butter me up, taking a different approach to get me out of this town since her original tactic was fruitless. But she was really bad at faking nice.
Charlie made a sour face like she had another biting comment locked and loaded, but she swallowed it back. “No. But you have a crumb on your lip.”
Keeping my eyes on hers, I resisted the urge to eat what was left of the cookie and flicked it off instead. They were really freaking good. “Where’d you learn to bake like that?”
“You know, my family,” she said, her gaze shifting to the side.
“Your family must be really proud.”
“And what about you? Your grandmother wasn’t the cookie-making type?”
“You mean Lydia Radcliffe? No, not exactly.” My grandmother had enough money that she didn’t have to lift a finger. She wasn’t the warm, affectionate type. While she never served up a plate of cookies, she made sure to supply me with plenty of books. Not epic adventures or creepy mysteries like most kids read, but nonfiction topics like how to build wealth in real estate and other financial literacy books like Posh Pop Pauper Pop . She was judgmental and exacting, and she liked having things her way. After my mom and I left New Elwood, I thought we were finally free of her controlling influence. Little did I know she’d reach back from beyond the grave and drag me right back.
Charlie rolled her eyes. “That’s right, I forgot. You’re the heir to the town.”
I would be as long as I could manage to live in this shack for the next twenty-eight days. I could deal with four weeks in this shithole, even if Charlie Reeves lived above me the whole time.
With the plate of cookies in hand, I hopped in bed and kicked my feet up, meeting Charlie’s gaze through the hole. “So Charlie, how long have you lived in this apartment?”
“A very long time.”
I took a bite of my third cookie of the night and nodded. “So you’re probably ready for change. Something a little more modern with reinforced flooring.”
“I know what you’re doing, but it’s not going to work. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You sure about that? I noticed your shoes today. They were very stylish. A stylish woman deserves a stylish home, don’t you think?” Why in the world would a woman like Charlie, even a history-loving one, want to live in a place like this, especially after last night?
“Let me guess. You live in some swanky apartment in the city?”
“Yes. I’ve got a nice place in Arlington, right on the river across from DC. You can see the Washington Monument from my bedroom. You’d love it,” I said with a wink and a mouth full of chocolate chips.
“Oh, you think so?” Charlie said.
“Of course. The city’s got your name, Charlie Washington. But seriously, wouldn’t it be nice to have central air?”
“You know, I would’ve imagined that Lydia Radcliffe’s grandson would have a little more regard for the history of this town. She loved New Elwood.”
“You knew her?” I tried to keep the tension from my voice. The old woman was beloved in this town. She only showed her ugly side to the people she was supposed to love.
“The rumor was that no one really knew her. But yeah, I met her a few times. She was sharp, and she gave a lot to this place. Maybe you should consider following in her footsteps.”
“Oh, I plan to,” I said, looking her straight in the eye. I’d burn bridges and turn my back on the people I was supposed to call my own, just like Grandma.
A crack of thunder rolled overhead, startling us both. She looked up at her roof as droplets began to pelt the windows from outside. Springtime showers of Virginia. Maybe the one thing our two different worlds had in common.
“On that note, I should get back to work,” Charlie said, moving away from our passthrough.
“Yeah, I sent you a few proposals about the new project.”
“I saw that. You got something against trees?” she grumbled, and I rolled my eyes. Those trees were digging into the building’s foundations and causing problems for half the block. I was more than prepared for her to veto everything, but we’d see how far it would get her in the end. The woman loved to tell me no. Shut me down. But she had no idea who she was going up against.
Then I heard a drop of water. The kind you hear from a leaky faucet that keeps you up all night. “What was that?”
“What was what?” Charlie returned to the hole. I set my cookies to the side and walked over to the desk that was still sitting beneath the open hole. A few tiny water specks were splattered on the varnished wood surface. I glanced up as another water droplet fell past Charlie’s red hair cascading down from above and smacked me in the face.
“Is that a leak? Is the roof leaking?”
“Calm down, it’s a slow leak.” Charlie disappeared from view then returned with a flimsy blue bucket. “Here, take this.”
“Are you telling me you’ve been living with this leak?” I asked with my hands on my hips, glaring at the bucket. The high of the cookies was wearing off, and my patience for this living situation was wearing thin.
It was all well and good to dance around each other with this push-and-pull routine. But this house was falling apart, and Charlie didn’t seem to even see it.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” she said.
“It’s not a big deal until it rots the floor and someone falls through.” This place was a death trap and she knew it. I sure as hell knew it; I’d grown up in a place just like this, and look how that had turned out. I knew just how quickly a place like this could turn dangerous. It was all fun and games when a naked lady fell through the ceiling. But now that the thrill of wielding a pair of tweezers had worn off, all I could think about was the fact that we were risking our lives every minute we stayed in this place.
Why couldn’t she see that?
Charlie pursed her lips. “Relax, okay? Albert’s going to patch up the floor tomorrow morning.”
“Who’s Albert?”
“Albert on the first floor. He does the maintenance for the apartments.”
Well, Albert was doing a pretty shitty job if you asked me. “Is he going to fix the roof tomorrow too?” Not that it really mattered. Soon enough that mansard roof would be nothing but a pile of rubble and dust on the ground.
Charlie furrowed her brow. “Sure, boss. Now do you want this bucket or not?” I grabbed the cheap bin and set it on the desk with a thump. Charlie’s gaze circled my face, and I figured she could tell how annoyed I was with this whole situation when she said, “You know, if you hate it here so much you could just go back to Arlington. No one’s stopping you.”
No one except my grandmother’s will. Reality settled in as I looked around the room. It would be nice to be back in my beautiful high-rise, with its insulation and 180-degree view of the city. But it would be even better to close this deal with Sinclair and get the capital I needed to buy The Bach Company. And it wasn’t all about making a fortune for myself. It was also about making sure my mother got what she rightfully deserved. I might not have given a shit about this town, but I did care about the people I loved.
“Sorry, Reeves. You won’t get rid of me that easily.” I looked up into her narrowed blue eyes, and she let out a sharp sigh through her pretty pink lips. My own gaze matched her hostility as we glared at each other through the hole. She might have had legs that killed in six-inch heels and a temper that got me hot, but I was here for reasons bigger than a woman. Bigger than her.
Another droplet fell, this time landing in the bucket. I looked at it, then at her.
“Goodnight, Mr. Anderson,” Charlie clipped and walked away, not bothering to cover the hole with her towel this time.
I settled back in bed and grabbed my laptop. Then, thunder tumbled outside, this time sounding close. The lights flickered and the room went dark with the exception of the bright light from my screen. I gritted my teeth. “I hate New Elwood.”