Chapter 11
A fter an hour-long phone call with his mother—he really needed to call her more often—Seb looked forward to some peace so he could focus on work.
He had a to-do list a mile long, and he’d been interrupted enough for one morning.
Talking to her had been a good break, though, even if she hit the phone call running with questions about his dating life.
“I’m busy, Mom.”
“I realize that, dear, but you need to learn to delegate more. Then you’d have time to pursue a girlfriend.”
Nothing better than being forty years old and talking about his nonexistent love life with his mother. “I don’t need a girlfriend.” He needed a new printing press. More employees. More advertisers. More circulation. More—
“Don’t you want one?”
“Sure,” he said absently, shifting another pile of papers around on his desk.
“You don’t sound like it.”
Their whole conversation wasn’t about dating, thank goodness.
But considering his talks with her and Evelyn Margot, along with Jade showing back up in his life, he was finding it hard to get the dating/girlfriend thing out of his mind.
He hadn’t pondered his future much outside The Times , and it was uneasy territory.
Owning the newspaper had consumed him, and he’d been fine with that.
Dating while keeping the paper afloat would have added more complications to his life. Ones he didn’t need.
But there was one thought he couldn’t kick out of his mind. What if he and Jade had worked out? What if they’d gotten married and had a family? What if... ?
He shouldn’t care. He didn’t care. He was still single and hadn’t come close to having a serious relationship in the past ten years.
He dated a few people here and there, but he hadn’t met someone he was really interested in or worth risking his heart for.
And yeah, he had to admit there were times when he was lonely, when it was hard to be single while everyone around was matched up.
Except for his sister and Bo. Bo was taken now, and there was a possibility Evelyn and Haskell would get together. And then there was one...
But he had no regrets. Seb wasn’t the love ’em and leave ’em type, and running a newspaper had taken up so much of his focus, he didn’t have time for a relationship. Just because Jade had boomeranged herself back into his life temporarily didn’t mean his feelings had changed on the subject.
A knock sounded on the door. “Come in,” he said, expecting it to be Tyler or Isaiah.
Instead, Flora entered, a big grin on her face.
His mood immediately lifted at the sight of her. He got up from his chair and gave her a big hug. “It’s good to see you,” he said.
“Same here.” She squeezed him tight and let him go, then looked up at him. “Everything all right?”
“Oh yeah. Perfectly fine.”
She put one hand on her hip. “And I’m Halle Berry’s prettier twin.”
Seb chuckled and gestured to his chair. He always gave up his seat for her, starting back when he bought the paper from Buford. “Things are fair to middling, but they could be worse. What do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”
Flora sat down and folded her hands on the desk, her grin slipping into a slight frown. “Retirement isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.”
“You’ve been retired for what, a week?” He sat across from her. “Give it time.”
She paused, staring at his messy desk before looking at him again. “You need me, Seb.”
“Of course I do.”
“I want to come back.”
His gut clenched. He’d always been honest with her, and while it was embarrassing to him as a businessman, he admitted, “I’d love nothing more, but I can’t afford you. We both know that.”
Flora leaned toward him. “I thought I’d enjoy retirement.
Having the time to travel with Carl, work in my garden, play cards with Mama.
Things I put off when I was working. Turns out Carl prefers to fish, and I’m fine with that since he’s been catching some really good trout lately.
He’s got a secret fishing hole he won’t tell anyone about. ”
“Sounds like Carl.”
“And Mama is busy with her own social life. She meets with the seniors once a week at the community center in Bixby, and then with her friends from church to do other activities. She’s busier than I am.
Turns out I don’t have a green thumb either.
Already killed five plants and I have no idea how.
But the bigger reason I want to come back is that I miss The Times . More than I ever thought I would.”
Her words were gratifying and drove the point home that his small-town paper wasn’t important only to him.
“With that said, I have a proposition for you. I’d like to come back to work on a volunteer basis for two days a week.”
He could hardly believe his ears. “Really?”
“Yes, really.” Her smile returned.
A lightness released from his shoulders at knowing Flora was back. She couldn’t make money appear out of thin air, but she was an excellent bookkeeper and willing to do a job he really, really didn’t want to do.
“And don’t you dare say no. I know you’re tempted.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not.” He bounced to his feet and went to his desk. “I’ll give you the ledger right now.”
“I can only imagine the state it’s in,” she said, half joking as she got up from his antique chair.
“I haven’t touched it,” he said. Which was true, since he’d only read some of it over before getting demoralized.
He never thought he’d appreciate his avoidant side, but in this case, it worked out and he was more than happy to transfer the bookkeeping back to her.
He searched his desk and scooted the paperwork around on one side.
“Huh,” he said. Then he checked the other side.
The ledger wasn’t there either. “I could have sworn I stuffed it in here somewhere.”
Flora laughed. “It’s just as likely you stuffed it someplace else.” She got up from the chair and put her purse over her shoulder. “I’ll come in after Memorial Day. That’ll give you plenty of time to find it.”
He rubbed his neck, frowning. Where was the book? Maybe this was his wakeup call to organize the office and stick with it. “I can’t thank you enough for helping me out again.”
“My pleasure.” She patted his arm and headed for the door. “Don’t feel bad, Seb. We all can’t be good at everything. See you at the hoedown.”
“Give Ms. Florine a kiss for me.”
“Sure will.”
He did another look-through of his desktop, then sat down again, puzzled.
Perhaps he took the ledger to his car when he left for the Clementine Inn yesterday.
But that didn’t make sense. He did everything he could not to deal with the accounting, and he couldn’t imagine why he would have brought it along to Mabel’s interview.
When he searched the rest of his office and came up empty, a sick feeling hit him, along with the realization that he shouldn’t have been so careless. Could it be at the house? Or in his car?
A knock sounded at the door. “Come in,” he said, doing another quick search in case he missed something.
The door opened and Jade walked in.
* * *
Still numb from her conversation with Logan about Lydia, Jade entered Sebastian’s office and stopped a few feet from the door.
She didn’t want to talk business, but she had a job to do—one that she was bungling badly.
Much like her conversation with Logan. She hadn’t changed her mind about seeing her mother, but she could have handled it better.
As she drove back to Clementine, the distance between her and Logan felt like a chasm, and she hated it.
Just when she had another chance for a family, it was taken away from her. Thanks, Lydia.
“Jade?”
Sebastian’s deep, soothing voice reached through her tumbling thoughts. He was behind his messy desk, a folder in his hand, looking directly at her with concern, and a flash of something else. Something gentle. Kind. So Sebastian.
Something I don’t deserve.
Her back straightened and she sat down in front of him, uninvited. “I’m here to talk business.” She barely recognized her stony tone. Before he could push back, she said, “My company is prepared to offer you a deal—”
“Are you okay? Scratch that, you’re not.”
She flinched.
He set down the folder. “You talked to Logan.”
How had he picked up on her mood so quickly? She was doing everything she could to be stoic. To pretend her brother wasn’t trying to betray her.
Harrington. They had to talk about Harrington. Then she could go back to Atlanta and forget about Arkansas. She did it once, she could do it again. “I...” She looked at her hands. They were shaking uncontrollably.
Sebastian got up from his chair and went to her, then held out his hand.
She looked at it. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to help you.”
Her gaze lifted to his, and all she saw was the Sebastian she used to know.
The wonderful man she dated, the one who had been her rock for a short blissful time.
The one she didn’t have the strength to resist. She slipped her hand in his and stood.
He immediately let her go, but for the split second that she felt his strong hand in hers, she felt a little grounded again.
They left the building and went to his vehicle that was parked in the front space she’d taken yesterday. She suddenly recognized it. “You’re driving the same car?”
“Yep. It’s been good to me. Just ignore the mess inside.”
She looked at the clutter in the back seat. The disaster was so Sebastian too. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Twenty minutes later, he turned into the Cherry Hill Car Wash—a grand opening banner stretched over the front of its three self-serve wash bays.
She hadn’t seen this one in the phone book this morning, but she had planned at some point to visit the wash she’d found in Westin since Clementine didn’t have one.
“You remembered,” she said, amazed.
He headed for the auto wash. “Of course I did.”
“Because it’s weird that I love them.”
He shook his head. “I never said it was weird.”