13. Sebastian
THIRTEEN
SEBASTIAN
I didn’t have proof, but something told me the woman in the red skirt knocked over my wine on purpose. But why would she? I hadn’t been here long enough to have any real enemies. Well, any more than one. I watched her walk away and thought of Charlie. She definitely would have doused me in wine, given the chance. Maybe the women here were all cut from the same cloth. That’d be the first good thing I’d found in this town.
Rex and I settled back at the bar while he ate his hamburger and fries but offered me the pickle just like when we were kids.
“Still don’t like pickles, huh?”
Rex puckered his mouth. “Uh, too sour.”
I snapped a bite of the fermented spear. “So you’re the fire marshal now, huh?”
“Yep. A volunteer firefighter too,” he said with a proud smile on his face.
“I had no idea,” I said, suspecting his reasons for going into that line of work.
“Why would you? We haven’t talked in thirty years.”
“True.” My parents moved our family out of New Elwood when I was in sixth grade, after the fire. Once we were gone, coming back to visit old friends had never been a priority.
“Yeah, after your house bur—” Rex started, but I cleared my throat to interrupt.
“We don’t have to talk about it. I get it. You’re saving lives.” I didn’t want to go there any more than I wanted to be here. Again. The whole memory left me uneasy. I’d been able to move on from what happened, but being back in this town was making it all a little too real.
There was a reason I wasn’t a fan of old buildings.
“Well, what about you? You’re some big real estate developer now?”
“No surprise there, huh?” I said and finished off the pickle.
“Nope,” he said, then he leaned in. “So what’s going on with you and Charlie? Things between you two seemed a little tense.”
A little. He didn’t know the half of it. “Right. Her. Yeah, she’s my pain-in-the-ass neighbor who’s making my life hell.”
“I could see that. Charlie’s a ballbuster for sure. But she’s only getting under your skin because you two are so similar.” Rex chuckled and sipped his tea.
I had to laugh. “Similar. No. Reeves and I are complete opposites, and it’s making my work here that much more…difficult.” I didn’t want to admit to him that half the time I couldn’t stand that woman and the other half I was mesmerized by her lips.
“Well, it sounds like you need to find some common ground if you’ve got to work together.”
Common ground? All I wanted was to break ground. Why did she have to make that feel so impossible? The woman drove me absolutely crazy. And some twisted part of me loved that about her. There’d been a moment earlier, when we were alone in that theater, when I’d felt…something. Her notes were perfectly organized, her ideas were sound, and I could respect the effort she’d put into planning the restoration already. At one point, if I squinted just right, I could almost picture what she saw when she looked at that old theater. The woman believed in something. That was rare.
But this was bigger than her. Bigger than me. Getting the approval for this hotel was more important than anything else, no matter how pretty she looked when the sun made her eyes glitter. I pushed her out of my mind and asked Rex what he’d been up to for the past two decades. We ate together, parted ways, and I got back to work.
The sun was just beginning to set when I returned to the apartment. A forty-foot ladder leaned against the roof, and Albert waved to me from atop the shingles.
“I’m almost finished up here,” he yelled down.
I saluted the man for his efforts, not wanting to inform him that any repairs would be torn down as soon as I got the approval on my demolition permits. If the blonde in Sullivan’s was any indication, people around town were already growing hostile toward me. I needed to get out of here ASAP.
Back in my apartment, it was quiet with only the damp stench from last night’s rain to greet me. The ceiling in my bedroom had new drywall and just needed a fresh coat of spackle and a bit of paint, not that I would bother. I stared up at it for a while, wondering what would have happened if Reeves never fell through the ceiling in the first place.
I’d never have seen her naked, for one. Wouldn’t have got to feel the softness of her skin under my palm. Wouldn’t have had the pleasure of seeing that mortified flush on her cheeks. These days, the only time she flushed was when she wanted to pop my head off like a champagne cork.
I grinned, then my smile slipped. I glanced at the patch of drywall again.
Was she at risk of falling again? The desk was still under the hole. She could break her neck.
The woman drove me crazy, but I didn’t want to see her hurt.
I poured myself a glass of water at the kitchen sink, and her plate sat there, still littered with cookie crumbs. What were the chances she’d make me cookies again? For a second, I wondered how it would feel for her to smile at me the way she’d greeted Rex. As much as I enjoyed our bickering, I knew there were facets of her she’d kept hidden from me. I saw hints of it in how diligently she worked and how fiercely the townspeople defended her. How would it feel for her to look at me like an ally?
I thought back to what Rex said about finding common ground. Maybe if we could find some, she’d see things my way and forgo her resistance to every single proposal I brought her. So I soaped the sponge and scrubbed the orange plate with the white daisy pattern. I rinsed the suds away and turned off the faucet. Then, the ceiling creaked and the sound of her front door shut. She was home.
I walked up to her apartment and knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” she called.
“Your favorite neighbor.”
“Albert?”
I huffed. “Try again.”
“The worm?”
I had to laugh. She couldn’t make anything easy, could she?
The door swung open, and she stood there dressed in the same tight skirt and tall heels that got my attention this morning. “I thought that was you.”
I handed her the clean plate. “Here you go. Freshly washed.”
She examined the plate, then scratched a couple of spots and nodded. “A solid B-plus.”
I laughed. Cracking her open wouldn’t be easy. But hadn’t I always liked a challenge?
Her scrutiny finally turned to me. “What happened to you? Did you get into a fight with Barney?”
I looked down at my wine-stained clothes. “Something like that. Know a good dry cleaner?”
She walked into her apartment but left the door open like she wanted me to follow her inside. I did and shut the door behind me.
“I know everyone. And everyone knows me. That’s why I’ll convince the councilmembers to keep the theater intact.” She glanced over her shoulder and shot me a look. It was less a glare and more playful, so I crossed my arms and let my lips curl into a grin.
“Is that right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“How are you going to compete with the promise of safety and prosperity? You really think something like heritage and history can measure up?”
“What if I do?”
“Then I might be tempted to call you delusional,” I answered, but my lips curled up even more.
“Not the worst thing you’ve called me,” she said, mirroring my grin.
“I beg your pardon. You’re the one who keeps name-calling. I’ve been nothing but polite.”
“Polite,” she repeated.
“Should I get you a dictionary?”
One eyebrow lifted, and she gave me that sassy look that made me feel all fizzy inside. “Let’s rewind what you just said, and you can tell me how polite it was.”
I laughed. “Fair. Listen, I’m trying, all right?”
“The better to stab me in the back,” she answered.
“You really think that little of me?” I meant to keep the tone light, but the question came out quiet.
Charlie bit her lip. “I…” She sighed. “I don’t know.”
“I’m not trying to wreck this town,” I told her. “I’m just trying to do what I think is best.”
She searched my gaze like she’d be able to read the truth there. I wasn’t even sure what the truth was anymore. The theater was a dump, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. This house, her apartment…there was charm here that I hadn’t seen before.
It wasn’t enough to make me change my mind. Wasn’t enough to get me to throw my future away. But I could see it, what made these spaces special to her.
And there was her. A woman so determined, so strong. She was a human bulldozer. Couldn’t be intimidated. Couldn’t be pushed around. Couldn’t be cowed.
I stepped up to her and gazed down at those blue eyes, blushed cheeks, and pouty pink mouth. For a second, I forgot what I was there for—to get her to come over to my side of the argument, or just to get her to come to me.
I was on the cusp of the biggest business deal of my life, and all I could think about was the shape of her lips. I wanted her to run me over, have her way with me. I wanted to forget about all the bitterness and logical, commercial reasons that had brought me to this town, because she was unlike any woman I’d met before.
Her gaze drew slowly up my face, and her chest rose and fell with every breath. I could feel her white flag rising. She was getting tired of fighting me. And I was getting tired of fighting the urge to swallow every last drop of her.
Because that’s what had been happening. Every time she threw me a glare or bit off some sharp word and flung it in my direction, it made me want to find out why her shell was so thick. A nonsensical, ridiculous part of me wanted to be the man she’d let behind her walls.
Maybe I wanted to open the gates and invite her behind my own.
She tilted her chin and bit her lip. Would she let me bite it too? I leaned in and felt my heart race as the gap between us closed. Her breath gusted out of her, gaze rising to meet mine. Her lips parted with permission, and I stopped fighting temptation. I slid my hand around her waist, pulling her close. She fit like she was made for me. Prickly, difficult woman. Figured.
I let my other hand slide over her jaw, reveling in the softness of her skin. Then I dipped my head to finally, finally taste that mouth of hers.