Chapter 33
SEBASTIAN
The meeting with the Miratoan police had gone better than expected—which was to say, I wasn’t in jail.
I didn’t have to worry about dropping the soap or getting a prison tattoo on my virgin skin.
Briggs had worked his legal magic. Rico had been exposed as having multiple complaints against him on previous productions, and I’d walked away with a hefty fine and a stern warning.
But the real reckoning was coming. If I wasn’t on an island with no escape, I might have bailed. Anything to avoid the bullshit lecture that was coming my way. When my brothers summoned me to Adrian’s bungalow, I knew I was in trouble.
I was a grown-ass man and I was going to have to sit there while they lectured me like a child. It sucked. It was embarrassing and beyond irritating, but they all knew I was a risk and they all expected me to fuck it up.
Congratulations. They were going to get to hold it over my head for the rest of our lives. I would forever be labeled the screw-up. There was no way they were going to give me another chance to prove myself. One and done.
I walked to Adrian’s bungalow like a man walking to the electric chair. My feet dragged. My shoulders slumped. I was the picture of bummed. I didn’t bother knocking.
All three of them were sitting in the small living room. Elizabeth was sitting at the small table eating a sandwich. I could smell pickles. It was hard to say what kind of concoction she had put together. She gave me a sad look. She was going to be the witness to my execution.
Adrian looked at me with that disappointed parent look.
Briggs had a stylus in hand and was tapping away on his iPad.
The lawyer checking off all the guilty charges they were about to level at me.
And Dash sprawled in the chair to Adrian’s right, looking like he was settling in for a good show.
He was just glad it wasn’t him. I could see it in that small smirk on his lips.
He owed me. My screw-up made him look good.
“Where’s Mom?” I asked.
“Sit,” Adrian said, gesturing to the empty chair facing them.
I sat.
“She’s taking a walk on the beach,” Dash informed me. “I don’t think she wanted to be here for this.”
Mom always tried to be Switzerland in our arguments. She always said we needed to work it out on our own. It would have been nice to have her support, but whatever.
“Get on with it,” I said. “I know you’re chomping at the bit to do your big brother thing. Lay it on me.”
Adrian did not look amused. “We should have been here with you,” Adrian started. He was being way too calm, which somehow made it worse. “To help out. Support you. This was too much responsibility to put on you alone.”
“Things were going great,” I protested. “The shoot went perfectly. The campaign is amazing. I don’t need you to tell me how to run a shoot. It’s good. Everyone has said so.”
“And then you got into a fistfight with a crew member and nearly got us shut down by the Miratoan government,” Briggs interrupted.
“Breaking the law can be grounds for the insurance company to revoke our policy. Which would mean canceling the runway show. Do you understand what that means? Millions of dollars. Elizabeth’s launch. The entire campaign.”
“Sounds like our lawyer should have negotiated a better deal,” I shot back.
Briggs bristled. “I negotiated an excellent deal. What I didn’t account for was you deciding to play white knight and assault someone in front of witnesses.”
“He was harassing her. And he assaulted me first.”
“I know what he was doing,” Briggs cut me off. “I’ve interviewed everyone. Rico was being inappropriate. You were defending Bernadette. That doesn’t change the fact that you used violence instead of words, which created a legal nightmare I’ve spent all morning cleaning up.”
Dash leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Dude, you fucked up.”
The bluntness of it—so Dash—made me laugh despite myself. “Yeah. I know.”
“Do you?” Adrian’s voice had an edge now. That vein on his head was running its own drum line. “Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you let personal feelings compromise the entire production. Which is exactly what we were worried about.”
“My feelings are just fine.”
“And why is the insurance representative now a model in our campaign? You didn’t think to run that by us? By anyone?”
“Elizabeth liked the idea.”
Briggs snorted a laugh. Actually snorted. Adrian turned to him, frowning. “What’s so funny?”
“It’s worse than you know,” Briggs said, looking at me with something like sympathy. “Sebastian didn’t just mess up. The idiot went and fell in love.”
Silence fell over the room. Then all three of them started talking at once.
I glanced over at Elizabeth, who was trying to smile around what I could now see was a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Adrian should consider buying a pickle company. His wife was going to own stock in Vlasic.
“You what?” Adrian said. He looked from me to Briggs. “He did what?”
“With the insurance lady?” Dash asked.
“No one falls in love in a week,” I said.
That was a lie, but I wasn’t ready to admit that to them.
“You can start falling that fast,” Adrian said quietly. We all looked at him. He had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. “Elizabeth and I… it didn’t take long. When you know, you know.”
Elizabeth nodded as she chewed. “Yep.” The word came out around a mouthful of her sandwich.
“He doesn’t know,” Dash said dismissively. “He was just chasing tail like always. Got distracted by a challenge. The buttoned-up ice queen who wouldn’t fall at his feet. Of course he got obsessed. It’s natural to want what you can’t have.”
“I wasn’t chasing tail.”
“When don’t you chase tail?” Dash countered.
“I didn’t. Not this time. It wasn’t like that.”
“Then explain what it was like,” Adrian said.
“They’ve been sleeping together,” Briggs declared.
Adrian’s head whipped around. Dash laughed. Briggs shrugged. Elizabeth gave me a thumbs-up.
“What the hell?” Adrian snapped.
“Wow. I was kind of joking.” Dash was genuinely amused now.
I didn’t know what to say. They all had their opinions on what had happened. Was Dash right? Had I just been chasing the one woman who didn’t immediately want me? Or was Adrian right and I had started the whole falling in love process?
“It doesn’t matter,” I said finally. “Because I fucked it all up. Like I fuck everything up. She’s not going to want anything to do with me after last night and that’s fine.
That’s normal. It’s what I deserve. I’m clearly not supposed to have a serious girlfriend. Guys like me don’t get to fall in love.
“Sebastian, you don’t know that,” Adrian said.
But I didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want their sympathy or their disappointment or their well-meaning advice.
Elizabeth jumped to her feet, hands on her hips, fire in her eyes. And a smidge of peanut butter in the corner of her mouth. “Okay, that’s enough. All of you need to stop.”
“Baby—” Adrian began.
She offered her husband a smile. “I love you, but zip it. You all need to shut up and listen to me.”
She walked into the center of the room, positioning herself between me and my brothers like a protective barrier.
“Sebastian has done an amazing job this week,” she said.
“The campaign is incredible. The previews we’ve been posting on social media are getting insane responses.
There’s a ton of buzz for the runway show.
He stepped up, took responsibility, and executed a vision that’s going to launch my line beautifully.
I have personally approved of everything he’s done. Even last night.”
“No one’s disputing he hasn’t done a good job on the campaign, but it’s not just about taking pictures,” Briggs said.
“And,” Elizabeth shot him a dirty look. “I’ve seen him with Bernadette. Watched them work together. Watched the way they look at each other. Sebastian wasn’t just chasing tail. I know the real thing when I see it. I just went through it with your brother, remember?” She looked at Adrian pointedly.
“That’s different,” Dash muttered.
“Why? Because Adrian’s the responsible one? Because Sebastian’s the playboy? People change. People grow. And maybe—just maybe—you should give your brother some credit instead of immediately assuming the worst.” She turned to me. “So lay off my little brother.”
“I’m older than you,” I pointed out.
“Not in spirit.” She grinned, then looked back at my brothers.
“Snack buddies stick together. And I’m telling you, Sebastian’s been doing great.
One mistake doesn’t erase a week of excellent work.
And honestly, Adrian, if that had been me Rico was pawing, it would have taken twice as many men to pull you off. ”
Adrian sighed, running a hand through his hair. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Sebastian. We’re not trying to pile on. We’re just concerned. This is a big deal for the company. There were concerns going into the project and you kind of made them happen.”
“Trust me, the campaign is just fine,” I said. I, on the other hand, am not.
“Okay, well,” Adrian said, standing. “Sebastian, you need to figure things out with Bernadette. One way or another. Talk to her. Be honest. And for God’s sake, don’t punch anyone else.”
I stood as well. Elizabeth gave me a quick hug.
“Thanks for the backup,” I said.
“You’ve got this. Talk to her. I like her. I could totally see her being my sister and my baby’s aunt.”
“You might want to slow down,” Adrian said.
My first instinct was to agree with him and deny there was any chance that could happen, but honestly, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
I left the bungalow and felt adrift. I didn’t have a shoot to prepare for. I didn’t have people that needed to be told what to do. I ended up on the beach, walking along the shore and considering my options.
All I could think about was Bernadette. I couldn’t get my head around the idea I had fallen for someone so fast. It took me less than two weeks to lose my heart to her. We went from hating each other to whatever this was. Love? Obsession? A combination of both?
Things had clicked hard between us. There was nothing gradual about it. One second I hated her and the next I couldn’t get her naked fast enough.
But it wasn’t just about getting her naked. Although that was a lot of fun.
Could someone fall in love this fast? Especially someone like me, who’d spent years being a heartless fuckboy, keeping things light and never letting anyone too close?
Or was it just fear? Fear of admitting I was completely, utterly mad about her. Fear of what came next, when these two weeks ended and she went back to her life. Fear that I’d discovered something real and had no idea how to hold on to it.
Would it fade like a dream once we left the island? Would I go back to my old life and forget what it felt like to have someone challenge me and support me at the same time? Would I ever find another woman who would see past the charm to the person underneath?
Or would it forever feel like my soul was missing a part of itself?
And the practical question I couldn’t avoid: could I really trade a nearly limitless supply of casual hookups for one woman?
Said woman might not even want me anymore, by the way.
I put my hand in my pocket and felt the familiar crinkle of a candy bar wrapper. Cookie’s emergency stash that I’d pocketed earlier. I pulled it out and took a bite. The chocolate melted on my tongue as I stared out at the ocean.
Shit, I thought. I might actually be in love with Bernadette.
Not might. Was. Definitely, completely, terrifyingly in love with her.