Chapter 19
Ruby
“WELL, I DESERVE THAT,” I mumbled, pushing my second morning coffee cup away from me.
Sebastian looked up from scrolling something on his tablet on my couch. The man had every device size possible. “Deserve what?”
“What happens when I try to avoid my mom. She’s coming. Didn’t ask. Just announced. They want to see the renovations and ‘help’.” I rolled my eyes.
He grinned, that annoyingly smug grin that said he thought this was adorable. “Aww. That’s so sweet.”
“Mm-hm.” I let it hang a second longer, then mirrored his smug grin before adding, “She told your parents. They’re coming too.”
His grin faltered. “I’m sorry, what?”
I walked over and patted his arm sweetly. “Both sets of parents. And Alan. Here. Today.”
“I told them I’d come home to visit. What the f ...” he mumbled more to himself than to me. “Maybe it will be a quick visit.”
I laughed on my way to change, thinking about the state I’d left him to stew over this in the living room. “Did I mention they’re bringing food? Because I told them the Bar & Grill was still closed, so they insisted.”
“Of course they are,” he muttered, but I caught the way he pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was already preparing for impact.
They arrived in a cheerful clump, hugging us both, gushing over the sight of cement sacks, dumpsters, wood-filled barrels, workers, and scaffolding, like we were building the pyramids.
“They work weekends?” my mom asked, gesturing toward Dave and his team.
“I pay them extra for that. I need this place done before the holidays.”
“Your Aunt Amy should have come,” she said about her ex sister-in-law. “She’s the reason you’ve got this place in the first place.”
“I keep her updated,” I said, biting back a smile.
Yeah, that was all I needed, my chain-smoking aunt here with her signature mix of bossiness and nosiness.
Dave would run for the hills. He hadn’t run from my own special mix—not yet—but throw Aunt Amy into the equation and we’d be testing his limits.
Alan smiled. “Amy probably feels better knowing it’s in good hands,” he said, ever the peacekeeper.
“I’ll visit her in Riviera View,” I added, mostly to appease my mom—the living reminder that I was capable of driving just about anyone away.
“You should,” my mom said. “She did well, handing it over to you fresh out of college after your brother passed on it.”
“And I thank her for that.” She had let me manage it when it was on the verge of collapsing.
A run-down, half-functioning place that hadn’t gotten love and hardly any guests in two years because the managers she’d hired were worthless.
After I’d brought it back to life, she signed it over to me completely.
It was the first time I’d been trusted with something real, and I clung to it with all my heart.
That kind of trust didn’t usually land in my lap.
We began touring the main building, then the cabins. I explained what had caused the damage, how the process with the contractors went, and Sebastian chimed in with details about the technical plan and current progress.
His mom and Alan quietly complimented us, the work, and the place, greeted the workers and my few staff we passed by, and asked a question here and there.
But my mom and his dad seemed to have joined forces to pester us.
“Oh, look at them,” my mom said as she and Sebastian’s dad trailed behind us on the path to the cabins. “Such a great team. I hope you’re handling the workers, Sebastian. She can get ... a bit much.”
“She knows how to deal with them better than anyone,” Sebastian said, calm as ever.
His dad chimed in with, “Sebastian always did like a good project. But clearly this one’s special.”
“Of course it’s special. It’s not space-related,” Sebastian’s mom replied innocently, probably unaware of the wink her husband gave their son at the word “special.”
“What cabin are you staying in, Sebastian?” my mom asked.
I could already see where this was headed. The gleam in her eyes said trouble. I shot Sebastian a warning look.
He just raised his brows and gave me a slow, infuriating smirk before replying, “Your daughter was kind enough to give me the best cabin on the property.”
“That’s hers,” my mom said.
“No, Mom. Mine’s a cottage. Sebastian is here, in Sea Glass,” I pointed just as we passed by it on the way to the ones under renovation.
By lunch time, we took them to the new deck at the Bar & Grill. I’d arranged for a table to be set for us there under an umbrella. The ocean view made up for the fact that the place was closed, and there was still construction gear scattered nearby.
While the parents unpacked the food they had brought, Sebastian joined me to get a cooled wine and a bottle opener from my house.
“You didn’t have to come with me,” I said on the way.
“And stay alone with the vultures? No, thanks.”
As soon as my door closed behind us, he kissed me. Rough.
And goddamn him, every nerve in me ignited at once. I kissed him like I’d been starving for him.
“The best structure on the property,” he smirked against my lips, slipping his fingers under the waistband of my jeans and panties. “So wet already,” he half-whispered, his voice gravelly.
I bit his lower lip. “Stop talking,” I said instead of just ‘stop.’
He began rubbing his fingers on me. “I think it’s one of those times when you like me talking.”
Fuck him, he always knew when and what I needed.
“You see, I know you. You don’t stop me because you get off thinking no one knows what you and I are doing.”
“No, I don’t. Everyone knows,” I gasped.
“Yeah? Think everyone knows I’m touching you like that? How wet you are for me?” He pressed his chest to mine, his fingers tighter on me inside my panties, his mouth hovering over mine, our breaths intermixing.
I tried not to moan. The sensation was so acute. And he was right, his words added to my arousal. A whimper escaped my lips.
“You wanna come?” he rasped into my ear.
I nodded.
“How bad do you want it?”
“Bad,” I barely managed to utter.
“Think you can do it quietly? The acoustic here is shite.” He smirked, his lips close to mine.
“Mm-hm,” I pretty much moaned.
“Atta’ girl,” he said, rubbing faster, harder, tighter, exactly right, until I clenched all over, and he had to cover my mouth with his to muffle me.
I stood there, my forehead on his shoulder, the aftershocks exploding through my body, glad for the door behind me and his chest in front of me, because my knees turned to rubber.
His shirt smelled of him, his deodorant, his skin, and the guests’ free detergent. I inhaled him, lightheaded.
Only when he figured I could stand did Sebastian step back a bit. He then bent his head, and we kissed a long, deep kiss that sent a quiet wave of warmth all over my sated body.
He went to wash his hands and give his erection a chance to subside, while I took out the bottle and opener we came there to get, patting my disheveled curls.
“You look flushed, dear. Get under the umbrella,” Sebastian’s mom said, waving at me, when we returned.
I smiled and fanned a hand over my face. Oh, God. I’m depraved.
Soon after, we sat down to eat, the breeze in our hair, gulls circling far above.
“It’s like a postcard,” Sebastian’s mother sighed appreciatively.
My mom leaned in her chair toward Trudy Sawyer. “It must be nice to have Sebastian here. Much closer to home than Houston.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Did subtlety just skip her generation entirely?
I kicked Sebastian under the table. He just smirked.
After lunch, my mom found me by the restaurant’s back door as I was tossing out trash.
“You should keep him around. It’s about time you settled down. Honey, you won’t always be this young or turn heads the way you do now. I remember days when you weren’t so ... Never mind. And remember that men like women who know when to hold their tongue. I just don’t want you to miss your chance.”
“Mom.” I held her gaze. “I’m happy as I am. I don’t need to keep a man around. I don’t want a relationship. I’m not looking for a relationship. Don’t interfere with how I live my life.” Even if I did want one, I’d still tell her to shove it. She was on my last nerve.
“See, it’s that kind of mouth—”
A noise from behind us made us turn around.
She never finished the sentence, but she didn’t have to.
It had been said in a dozen ways over the years, loud and quiet.
I was “too much, no wonder he couldn’t stand to stay,” no wonder she still needed “to warn me not to start,” as if that was still relevant.
I wasn’t in contact with my dad anymore.
He’d fallen off the radar, just as she’d predicted, and that was probably my fault too, in her mind.
I smiled automatically, trash bag still clutched in my hand, my throat tight with the effort to stay civil.
Sebastian and his dad were there, examining the deck’s attachment to the frame.
“Hi. You two ready for dessert?” My mom asked cheerfully. “I brought a bundt cake, because with the state of this place, I figured Ruby wouldn’t have something sweet for us here.”
“My mom’s version of ‘help,’” I whispered to Sebastian as she and I joined him and his dad.