Chapter 24 Sebastian
Sebastian
Weddings didn’t typically make me cry, but from the moment Wyatt shook Jackson’s hand and brought him in for a hug before Maeve wrapped her arms around her brother, squeezing him tightly, I was a goner.
Jane’s flower girl routine hadn’t lasted more than ten steps before she made a beeline for her daddy, and Charlie had to scoop her up, making all of the guests laugh.
Sheila cradled Veda, and instead of having sides for the bride and groom, Maeve’s mother, Josie, sat beside them, entertaining the girls whenever they started to get noisy.
The vows were beautiful, and the kiss was as obscene as Wyatt could get away with.
Overall, it was a great ceremony, and I was happy to see Wyatt up there, completely smitten with his wife.
But throughout the entire thing, my gaze kept shooting over to Lydia, catching her eye and sending her a subtle wink.
During the happy hour, when the guests could drink and socialize and the wedding party was off taking pictures, the hall was transformed into a reception room.
The DJ was killing it with dance hit after dance hit.
Dinner was delicious. I would have taken food off Lydia’s plate beside me if I didn’t think she’d stab me with her fork.
She was out on the dance floor now with Maeve and a group of women from town. She spun around, shimmying her hips as she moved to the music.
“What’s up with you and Luke?” Wyatt asked. We were standing together near the bar, Wyatt, Wes, Reid, Claire, and me. Luke and Scarlett were having a dance party of their own, Luke wrapping his arms around her from behind and holding up her heavy eight-month-pregnant belly.
“Hmm?” I peeled my eyes away from Lydia to glance at Wyatt. “Oh, nothing,” I said, my gaze immediately homing in on Lydia again.
“Okay, what’s up with you and Lydia, then?”
Shit. These guys had been my lifelong friends.
It didn’t seem like a wedding was the time or place to blow that up.
But I didn’t want to lie to them either.
I knew Lydia’s standpoint on it. She wanted to tell her entire family weeks ago, but after my blowout with Luke, I was more hesitant to shout it from the rooftop.
I turned my attention back to the group. Everyone’s eyes were on me, waiting for my response. “We’re, um…”
“You can’t take your eyes off her, man,” Reid said.
“So, I’m not very subtle, is that what you’re saying?”
“You’re really fucking not,” Wes said in his deep, rumbling voice.
I swallowed back my trepidation and scratched at my stubbled jaw. “We’re kind of… together. We have been for a few weeks now.”
My eyes bounced between all of them, gauging their reaction.
Wyatt nodded slowly, but a slight smirk tugged at his mouth.
Reid and Claire both looked at each other, having a silent conversation that I was pretty was meant someone owed someone money.
Wes’s impassive face gave nothing away. But at least none of them were jumping down my throat.
“Are you fucking serious? None of you have a problem with Seb fucking around with Lydia? You’re all okay with this?” Aaand, here we go again. Luke decided now was the perfect time to rejoin the group, leaving Scarlett on the dance floor with Lydia and Maeve.
“First of all,” Wyatt said, throwing his hand up to stop Luke’s tirade, “who Lydia dates is none of my business. As long as he’s treating her right,” he added, his brows raised at me. I nodded my assent.
I would never hurt Lydia. I had done that once when she thought I used her to score some juvenile points in a dare. It killed me to think that she went years thinking that I thought it was meaningless, when in reality, it meant everything to me. Never again would she doubt how I felt about her.
Reid stepped in, confusion furrowing his brows. “Second of all, Seb’s a good guy. Why wouldn’t we be good with this?”
“What’s this really about?” Wes asked. As a private investigator, Wes knew when to dig for more information.
“She’s just getting out of a shitty relationship. I don’t know all the details, but it wasn’t good. She should be healing from whatever the last asshole did to her. And when she was alone and vulnerable, Seb decided to set his charms on her. He’s taking advantage of her.”
My head snapped to him, a rush of rage pumping through me. “That’s not what this is.” I seethed. “I know about her ex. The shit she went through. She knows about my history, my financial struggles right now. No one is going into this blind. And I would never take advantage of her.”
“Like you did when she was eighteen?” Luke challenged.
I closed my eyes and scrubbed my hand down my face, a deep, resigned sigh pushing from my lungs.
Shit, shit, shit. Lydia must have said something to him.
I knew I sure as shit hadn’t. And there was no way he could have found out from anyone else since no one else knew.
What did she tell him, exactly? That it started as a stupid fucking dare?
That she was a virgin until that night? Until me.
I opened my eyes to find everyone’s eyes on me.
“Yeah, she told me,” he said, accurately guessing my thoughts. “Did you guys know that? That Seb hooked up with Lydia when she was only eighteen, and he’s the reason she left.”
Wyatt pulled himself up to his full height, his arms crossed over his chest. Reid scowled at me over Claire’s shoulder, looking like he wanted to rip my head off.
Wes, standing beside me, put his drink down on the table behind us.
Did he feel like he needed his hands free for any particular reason?
I wasn’t a small guy by any stretch of imagination.
I felt good about my odds against any of the Wilder men…
but all of them, plus Wes, yeah, not so much.
“Listen. That was a long time ago. She was going off to New York City regardless. I wasn’t the reason she left. There was a misunderstanding that went unresolved for a long time…”
Wyatt cut me off, a quiet fury building behind his eyes. “What kind of misunderstanding?”
“Nobody misunderstood consent. That wasn’t the issue,” I said.
“You didn’t answer his question,” Luke said.
“Christ. It’s a wedding. Your wedding,” I said, pointing at Wyatt. “Why don’t we all agree to have this conversation another time. Like I said, that was all a long time ago.”
Wyatt’s gaze found Maeve on the dance floor, Veda in her arms while she bounced to the DJ’s hit tracks with Sheila and Jane.
His face softened instantly as he watched his family enjoying the party.
Then he turned back to me. “Just answer me this. Are you going to hurt her? Because I like you, Seb. You’re like family to me. But Lydia…”
“I’m not going to hurt her. I’m serious about her. All in, white picket fence kind of serious. I get it, you have to see it to believe it. I don’t exactly have the track record to back it up, but it’s the truth.”
“What’s going on here?” Lydia stepped up to the group, her eyes darting around from person to person before landing on me.
With a tick of her brow, she seemed to get that this conversation was about her.
About us. She stepped into my side, and my arm cradled her close to me on instinct.
She tilted her face up to me, a challenge in her eyes.
A dare for me to claim her right here in front of her family.
I lowered my mouth to hers, tasting the salty sweat from her dancing, and I wanted so much more. Instead, I pulled myself back after a chaste kiss. Already, I felt calmer, more steady, with her in my arms. I didn’t even realize I was staring at her until a voice caught my attention.
“Oh, yay! This is exciting. Are you two together now?” Maeve beamed at Lydia and me, nestling into Wyatt’s chest much like Lydia was nestling into mine.
Luke huffed and stomped away.
I let out a heavy breath. “I’ll be right back,” I said to Lydia, placing a kiss to the top of her head.
“He’ll come around,” Reid said. “He’s afraid that any wrong move is going to send Lydia packing, but if you are serious and this is a thing, then he’ll get over his issues. He’ll have to.”
“Yeah. We’ll see,” I said.
Luke was sitting at the head dining table with Scarlett and Charlie. I sat beside him while he pointedly ignored me.
“You all seem like you need to talk,” Charlie said, moving to get up from the table.
“You can stay, Charlie. It’s about Lydia,” I said.
He chuckled softly under his breath. “And Luke here doesn’t like that he can’t control other people’s lives?”
Luke shot his father a side-eyed glare.
“He has every right to be concerned. My history with women doesn’t lend itself to trusting me with someone as special as Lydia.
But that’s just it. I know how special she is,” I told him, resting my arms on the table to look around Luke and Scarlett to Charlie.
“Truth be told, I’ve known that for a very long time. ”
“You’re a good man, Sebastian. I never knew what happened between you and Lydia back in the day that made her turn on you whenever she was in town…”
I opened my mouth, but I had no idea how I should respond to that.
Charlie was cool; he was never “Mr. Wilder,” even growing up.
He ran a wild house with wild kids that he struggled to keep out of trouble.
But that didn’t mean he needed to hear about the details of his kid’s sex lives, even if it was eleven years ago.
“And I don’t want to know,” he said, raising his hand in front of him to stop me from talking.
Good call. “She’s a strong, independent person who knows what she wants.
She always has. If she’s happy, I’m happy.
And I have to say, she’s been a lot happier lately than she was when she got back to Calla Bay. ”
“I do my best,” I told him. The chair creaked under my weight as I sat back, silently waiting for Luke to say something.
Luke dropped his fork to his plate, turning to glare at me. “If you’re just fucking with her Seb, I swear to God…”
“I’m not. I’ve never felt like this, Luke. She does something to me. I can’t explain it.”
“Does she make your heart beat faster just by looking at you?” Scarlett asked. She rubbed circles around her ginormous belly as Luke leaned back and draped his arm over her shoulder.
“Yes.”
“Do you feel like you need to touch her, even in the smallest way, every time she’s near?”
My gaze shot to where Luke was brushing his fingers over Scarlett’s arm.
“Yes.”
“Do you think about her randomly throughout the day? Wondering what’s she doing or wanting to share something that happened with her?”
“Always,” I answered.
Luke glared at Scarlett, and she grinned right back at him, placing a small kiss to the corner of his lips. “Let them be, Luke. They’ll be just fine,” she said to him.
“I just don’t want to lose her again,” Luke confessed.
“I don’t either, man. Trust me.”
He chuckled softly. “That’s fair.” He picked up his fork again and continued to eat.
“So, we’re good?”
“Yeah, we’re good. But maybe keep the PDA to a minimum when I’m around.”
I grinned at him, shooting Scarlett a quick wink. “Nah, you’ll get used to us being a couple faster if it’s in your face all the time.”
Luke went off about not wanting to see his sister making out with anyone, let alone his best friend. I let him rant with a smile on my face, just happy that I had my friend back. And I didn’t have to hide my feelings for Lydia.
Well, I’d have to tamp them down a bit longer. We were together and were both giving this thing between us a real shot. That was going to have to be good enough for now. Once Lydia was ready to hear it, then I’d tell how I really felt. For now, I was just happy to be able to call her mine.