by Ann, Natalie
“Not funny, Sebastian,” he heard yelled back. Then Paige appeared. “I’m so sorry for my nephew’s rude comments.”
“Not rude,” he said. “You two sound like me and my siblings growing up.”
“I suppose we are more like siblings,” Paige said. “Even though I’m the adult in the house. Thank you again for coming over.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Do you cook?” Sebastian asked him.
If he thought the question was odd he didn’t show it. “I do. It’s that or eat out all the time. I wouldn’t say I’m a chef—we’ve got one of them in the family and another that thinks he is—but I can hold my own.”
Sebastian and Paige exchanged looks that he had no clue the meaning of. “Who’s the chef?” Paige asked.
“My cousin Aiden is a James Beard Award-winning chef. He runs Fierce, the restaurant, and pub, in Charlotte.”
“Is that part of the Fierce Five beer?” Sebastian asked.
“What do you know about beer?” Paige asked. “You’re going to get me in trouble. We don’t have any beer in our place.”
He laughed. “Yes. My five cousins run the business. The brewery is Mason’s. Brody runs the bar, Aiden is the chef, Cade is the lawyer and does all the marketing and promotions, and Ella handles the rest of the business end of it.”
“Then who is the other cook?” Sebastian asked.
“My cousin Ryder. He lives here in Durham. He likes to cook. Do you like to cook?” he asked wondering where this conversation was going.
Sebastian shrugged his shoulders. “I do better than Paige.”
“Anyone can do better than me,” she said. “Please come on in. Would you like to sit in the kitchen or living room? I’ll get out of your way. I’ve got laundry to do anyway.”
“Wherever you want,” Noah said, enjoying the dynamics of these two. It was like being in his own house. He was right about Sebastian when he thought of potential. He was definitely an outgoing kid if he was comfortable. Now the question was how to get him to feel comfortable in school.
An hour later, the two of them were going through some American History. He missed teaching at times like this and enjoyed being able to talk about something he loved so much.
“Is it still boring?” he asked after he talked about what bad asses he considered our founding fathers to be.
“Not as boring as Mr. Dent makes it out to be.”
“That’s good. I guess you just need to find a way to think of it in more modern lingo.”
“I suppose. It’s just one of those things I’ve got to do to get through.”
“You can think of it that way or you can choose to get involved.”
That’s when Sebastian dropped his head. He definitely hit a nerve there.
Paige appeared in the doorway. He finally got a chance to notice what a nice figure she had on her once she wasn’t covered in scrubs. Instead she had on jeans and a long sleeved cotton shirt that was fitted to her body.
“I just thought I’d see if you’d like a drink. I should have asked earlier, but I’m not used to entertaining. Not that this is entertaining. Anyway, something to drink?”
“I’m good,” he said.
“I’ll take a soda,” Sebastian said.
“You can get up and get it yourself,” Paige said back. “I wasn’t asking you.”
Sebastian laughed and stood up. “Fine. It’s not like I’m used to getting waited on.”
The minute he was out of the room, Paige asked, “He’s not giving you a hard time, is he? I was shocked he was willing to do this.”
“He’s fine. A good kid. Funny.”
“He’s all of that. Funny and a good kid.”
He turned when Sebastian came back in with a bottle of soda in his hand. “Done talking about me?”
“I just asked if you were giving him a hard time,” she said.
“I told her no.”
“Well then,” she said, “I guess I’m not needed. I’ll go back to my room and watch TV while I finish ironing.”
“She irons her scrubs,” Sebastian said. “Then she hangs them up with clips. She’s odd.”
He didn’t think it was so odd since he hated wrinkles too. “We all have our quirks.”
“So why are you doing this?” Sebastian asked him.
“Doing what?”
“Wanting to help me with history? I’m not the only kid failing Mr. Dent’s class. Is it because of those two incidents and you want to make sure I’m not thinking of coming to school and plotting my revenge on kids? I promise you I don’t have any journals with pictures of devils and hatchets in them.”
“No. That never crossed my mind.”
“Then what?”
“I see something in you. I guess you could say I’m from such a big family that it bothers me when I see kids trying not to be noticed when they’ve got so much they could offer.”
“I don’t have anything to offer,” he said. “Nothing more than a vehicle for others to pounce on to make themselves feel better.”
“You’re smart. More mature than many.” Even his vocabulary at times showed his intelligence.
“I haven’t had much time to be a kid.”
“I’m sorry about that,” he said.
“What do you know about it?”
“I know what I can read in the paper. Why don’t you tell me more?”
“How about no?” Sebastian said with a grin.
He didn’t think it’d be that easy. “I’m here if you ever want to talk about it.”
“You want to ask my aunt out, don’t you?”
There was a one eighty he wasn’t expecting. “What?”
“You heard me. I saw you looking at her in the doorway. She’s single. She never dates. She says she doesn’t have time, but I know it’s because of me.”
Noah didn’t know what to say. Sure, he’d love to spend time with Paige alone, but that wasn’t what this was about. This started with Sebastian and he didn’t want the kid to think he was being used.
“Why do you say that?” he found himself asking.
“Because she wants me to know I come first. Not only that, it’s hard to find a guy who wants to deal with having a teen in the house. If they think I’m her kid, then she would have had me at sixteen, gotten pregnant at fifteen. So she’s judged.”
“But you’re her nephew,” he argued.
“And then guys want to know why she has custody of me and when they find the reason they look at her like she’s going to turn into my mom.”
He never expected to have this conversation with the kid and knew he had to tread carefully. “I don’t think that. And I’m here to help you.”
“But you could help her too. You could take her out and let her know that she can have a life too. My grandfather and she argued about that at Thanksgiving.”
He had a feeling that Paige wouldn’t appreciate Sebastian’s matchmaking plans, but since he wouldn’t mind going on a date with her maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
“I doubt she’d want to go out with me,” he said.
“I doubt she’d say no.”
“And why do you say that?” Then he was wondering why he asked. This felt so immature but he couldn’t stop his lips from flapping either.
“Let’s just say I know her well.”
11
So Embarrassed
“You did what?!” Paige said to Sebastian when Noah had left. He’d stayed about two hours and she’d remained in her room the whole time trying to give them space but checking in often too.
It’s not that she didn’t trust Noah; it was more like she wasn’t sure Sebastian wouldn’t be a complete wiseass back. Especially since they weren’t on school grounds and he knew he couldn’t get in trouble.
“You heard me. I asked why he was doing this.”
“I did hear that part. He told you the same thing he told me. He thinks you’re a good kid and saw potential in you. What I want to know is how him helping you
with history turned into you thinking he should ask me on a date?”
Which of course Noah didn’t so now she was even more embarrassed. Good lord, was her nephew trying to set her up all along and that was why he wanted his principal to come over? She should have questioned this when he agreed so quickly.
Now she probably looked like some loser in the hunky guy’s eyes. Another shot to her already low self-esteem and social life.
“Come on, Paige. You think he’s hot. I can see it when you look at him.”
“What do you know about anything?” she argued and hoped to hell her face wasn’t as red as the heat in her body. Talk about mortification. “You’re just fourteen and you’ve never had a girlfriend. You haven’t, have you?”
She figured she’d know if he did, but he never talked about anyone in school. Boys or girls. And Noah had told her he was a loner.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t look or see what girls do when they think someone is hot.”
“I’m not having this conversation with you. I’m so embarrassed. How could you do that?”
“He wants to ask you out,” Sebastian argued.
“No, he doesn’t. He didn’t. Now if he does it’s going to be because he thinks he has to because you put him up to it.”
“What?”
“Never mind. He didn’t do it and now how am I going to face him again if he wants to help you some more?”
“He’ll ask you. Trust me.”
“I’m not sure I can trust you. I’m mad at you. You can’t do and say these things to people.” She started to pace around the living room, the scent of Noah still lingering in the air and drawing her in. “What makes you think he’ll ask?” she found herself asking when she should have known better.
“Because when I brought it up he said he doubted you’d go out with him.”
She ground her teeth. “I can’t believe you brought it up.”
“He’ll ask you. I’m telling you right now, he will.”
“And I’ll have to say no.”
“Why?” Sebastian looked at her like she was crazy. “Come on. You haven’t been on a date in a long time. You don’t talk about guys at all, you don’t even look at them. But you looked at Noah.” There was a shit-eating grin on his face that most teens had and she wanted to wash it off with soap and water.
“Principal Fierce,” she corrected him, then crossed her arms.
“He said I could call him Noah today.”
“Don’t call him that at school,” she said.
“I won’t.” He crossed his arms mimicking her. “Why won’t you go out with anyone? It’s because of me, isn’t it? I told him that, you know.”
“Grrr. What did you say? Tell me everything now.” This was just getting worse and worse in her eyes.
“I thought you didn’t want to know,” he said, lifting his eyebrow.
“I didn’t say I didn’t want to know, just that I couldn’t believe you did that. What did you tell him about me?”
“I said that it was hard for you to find someone because you were judged because of me. You put me first and want me to know that. And I do know that, but Grandpa is right, you’ve got to have a life too.”
She was going to have to talk to her father about bringing up these topics in front of Sebastian again. “You are my priority. I’m young yet.”
“You’re thirty. That’s old,” he said.
“What?” Now he was insulting her. “I’m hardly old.”
“You’re more than twice my age. I hope when I’m thirty I’m married and have a family or no one will want me.”
This was the first time she’d heard Sebastian bring up anything about a family. Did he miss having that? Did he want it? Was that what this was all about? “Am I not enough for you?” she asked, her eyes starting to fill.
“Of course you are. But you didn’t want this. You didn’t want to be stuck with me.”
“I’m not stuck with you,” she argued. She didn’t want him to ever feel like he was a burden to her. Ever.
“You know what I mean,” he said.
“No, I don’t. Sit down and talk to me,” she said, walking to the couch and sitting, then patting the spot next to her.
He walked to the chair and sat opposite of her. Good enough. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Why this is coming up now. Do you wish you had more of a family? You don’t talk much about what it was like with your mother.”
“And I don’t want to,” he said firmly.
She knew that. She’d tried to get him into counseling, but he didn’t talk there either. She had no idea the kind of life he had when he was alone with his mother. Not completely. She suspected it was pretty shitty with the mood swings and voices in Cora’s head. Who knew what things came out of her mouth half the time and Sebastian would never say.
“We won’t,” she said. “But answer me this. Why do you think I should date? Do you want a man you can do things with? Are there things you want I can’t give you or don’t do with you?”
“It’s not that,” he said. “It’s what I told you. Why can’t you have a life outside of me? Why does it all have to be about me? I don’t want to be a burden on you.”
“You’re not,” she said, getting up and sitting on the arm of the chair. She put her hand on his shoulder and he let her when normally he didn’t. Maybe they were getting somewhere finally. Maybe having Noah here was the right thing and it opened up a tiny window.
She didn’t have to be happy at the way the events turned out, but if it helped Sebastian in any way, shape, or form she could be thankful.
“But I feel it. For me. Will you please go out on a date if he asks you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. But he isn’t going to ask. I know he isn’t. I’m not his type. You heard him, his family owns that big brewery and restaurant. He’s way out of my league.”
“I don’t picture Noah the type of guy who cares about those things though.”
“You only know what he told you today. You probably put him on the spot and he wasn’t going to say anything bad about me.”
“You just love to argue, don’t you?” he asked.
“Must be we rub off on each other,” she said back. “You know I love you, right, Sebastian?”
“Yeah, I know. You say it enough.”
But she didn’t. Maybe once a month if that. Should she say it more? “I want you to know you mean everything to me. I want you to know you come first.”
“I don’t want to come first,” he said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because in four years I’m going to college and then you’ll be all alone. I don’t want that either. If you put me first and I’m gone then what do you have left?”
It was the first time he’d talked about going to college too. “What do you want to do in college?”
“Don’t change the subject on me. I don’t want to stay around here. I want to start over somewhere else someday.”
She should have figured that had more to do with it. “Then when the time comes, I’ll worry about it. Until then you’ll have to be first and get used to it.”
And when Sebastian was in his room watching TV for the night, her phone went off with a text. It was Noah asking if they could talk. Just wonderful.
She walked down the hall to make sure the TV was loud in Sebastian’s room, then went into her own room and turned the TV on and shut the door. She didn’t want to take a chance Sebastian would come out and hear her on the phone.
Then she hit the button to dial him and hoped her voice didn’t crack when she apologized for Sebastian’s behavior.
“Hey,” he said on the first ring. “It’s not a bad time, is it?”
“No. And I just want to say I’m sorry for Sebastian’s behavior today. He told me about the conversation you two had in regards to my personal life.”
“About that,” he said. “I was calling to see if you wanted to get lunch tomorrow. Just the two of us. I figu
red you wouldn’t want to leave Sebastian home alone at night, but lunch might work.”
“Ahhh, I know he put you up to this,” she said. If she wasn’t told about the conversation the two of them had earlier she would have said yes faster than bridesmaids knocking each other down to get the tossed bouquet.
“He didn’t. I guess you could say he sort of read my mind and maybe gave me the push. I figured you’d say no, and he said he didn’t think you would. So I thought, why not put it out there and see what your answer was.”
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”
“Why?” he asked. “Because you think it was his idea and not mine? Or you truly don’t want to?”
“The first,” she said.
He laughed. “Then say yes and we’ll talk it out.”
She thought of the conversation she’d had with Sebastian hours ago. That he didn’t want the burden of knowing he was first. That he wanted her to have a life too.
The funny thing was, she wanted that life again too.
“Yes.”
12
Mood Killer
Last night might have been the closest he’d ever gotten to begging a woman for a date.
After he’d left he’d thought about what he and Sebastian had talked about and he worried if Paige found out, she’d think Noah was only asking for that reason.
He could have waited it out but decided it would be better to jump on that horse now and steer it to the barn he wanted.
If it wasn’t so funny, he’d call and tell Drake about his date since he wanted to share it with someone. Then he decided that was crazy. It was one date that might flop. One date that was pushed on him by a fourteen-year-old on top of it.
Well, not completely. He’d wanted to ask Paige out from the first moment he’d seen her but hadn’t been able to figure out a way to do it.
Helping Sebastian with a history lesson was a little gateway to see Paige again and get a read on her.
At this stage of the game, he’d take any advantage he could, even in the form of a meddling teen. At least he was in your face about it, unlike what his Aunt Jolene and Uncle Gavin did to their five kids. Thankfully his parents weren’t following suit.