I giggled when Sebastian rolled his eyes.
“You heard him,” Sebastian said, his voice raspy and breathless. At least he was feeling the same thing I was.
“Yes, I did,” I told him. “I’m not hungry.”
“I am,” Sebastian replied, his eyes sliding to my mouth again. “But not for food.”
“I hope you’re dressed, ’cause I’m comin’ in,” Toby announced from the door, and I jumped off Sebastian, getting to my feet and nearly falling over.
“He’s kidding.” Sebastian sounded sure of himself, but I realized he’d gotten to his feet too, and he had planted his hands on my shoulders, keeping me from falling into the small desk in the corner. “Come on. Let’s eat.”
I nodded. I had no choice.
Once again my voice had disappeared into thin air.
As we walked into the living room, I checked to ensure that my robe was closed while hiding behind Sebastian. Not that I was worried about anyone seeing the shorts and tank top that I was sporting, but I felt a little exposed. That was the reason I used the fluffy cotton robe to cover myself because I certainly wasn’t cold anymore.
Sebastian stepped out of the way and allowed me to take a seat before he did the same. No one said a word, but I heard Toby and Chloe snicker a time or two. I was halfway through one of my pancakes when I asked, “So what the hell’s going on here? Did you stay the night?”
Toby’s eyes widened and his smirk disappeared immediately. I guess he hadn’t expected me to call him to the carpet.
I shot a sideways glance at Sebastian and smiled. At least, for the moment, we were out of the hot seat. After all, it wasn’t like we were sneaking around. He hadn’t stayed the night with me. But I wasn’t so sure that Toby and Chloe hadn’t done the horizontal mambo last night.
“No, he didn’t stay the night,” Chloe said, annoyed.
“No? Then why is he here?”
“Because he likes pancakes.”
“Is that right?” This time Sebastian spoke, eyeing Toby across the table. “Since when?”
“Since right now,” Toby answered quickly, his eyes trained on his pancakes.
“You sure?” Sebastian inquired.
He was waiting for Toby to look at him, but it was clear the man wasn’t going to.
“I take it the two of you are seeing each other?” I asked Chloe when no one said anything else. She seemed just as interested in studying her pancakes as Toby.
“I’d say that’s a yes.” Sebastian looked at me, then lowered his voice and leaned closer. “He hates pancakes.”
“I do not! These are fucking perfect,” Toby growled.
Sebastian and I laughed, Chloe’s face turned beet red, and Toby just watched the three of us.
Then the table erupted in laughter.
“Fine, I hate pancakes.”
“You do?” Chloe asked, her eyes wide.
“Yeah.”
“Then why are you eating them?” she asked.
“Because I don’t think I can say no to you.”
All laughter ceased immediately. My gaze bounced back and forth between Chloe and Toby. Yeah, there was something going on there for sure. I just didn’t know what it was. I wanted to ask her, but I knew now wasn’t the time.
Toby pushed his pancakes away and Sebastian laughed. “Told you.”
Chloe reached over and smacked Toby on the arm. It wasn’t hard, more like a love tap which had me joining Sebastian as we chuckled.
I’m not sure when I’d had that much fun. At least not in a long time.
“So, what’s the plan for the day?” Toby asked, not talking to anyone in particular.
“I’ve got to go see my dad,” I announced.
“You gonna take your boyfriend to meet him?” Toby joked.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I blurted, although there wasn’t any heat behind it. Who said boyfriend these days?
“Based on that look, I’d say you’re wrong,” Chloe commented.
“Whatever.” I didn’t look at Sebastian, but I could feel him looking at me.
Whatever was happening between us… it was hopeful. I could admit that much. The chemistry was off the charts, something I hadn’t experienced with anyone in a long time. But the fact of the matter was, I worked for Mr. Trovato. I needed my job, and I didn’t think it would go over well if he found out I was dating Sebastian. I still didn’t know how they were related, but I knew they were. Too many coincidences and all.
“What about you? What’re your plans for the day?” Toby asked Sebastian directly.
“I’ve got a couple of errands to run. Then… who knows.”
I watched Sebastian speak, but I barely heard the words. He was so incredibly handsome. There was that bad boy vibe that I got, but it belied the way he treated me, which was surprising. I’d always thought that bad boys had a God complex, but Sebastian wasn’t like that. There was an air about him. He had a quick smile, although I could see something raging in his eyes. But he certainly wasn’t the cocky, arrogant type. Not all the time anyway. He had a magnetic pull on me. And likely plenty of other women, but when I was with him, I saw something else. Something deeper.
Wow. And now I was acting like I actually knew him. We still hadn’t hashed out any of our personal histories and I’d only met him a week ago, yet here I was acting as though this might actually go somewhere.
I really needed to get a grip. I had too much going on at the moment and getting involved with someone who clearly could make me lose focus wasn’t a good thing.
Since I wasn’t the type of girl to sleep with a guy just because my hormones thought it was a good idea, I wasn’t even sure whether this would continue anyway. When Sebastian looked at me, I saw heat in his gaze. And it was burning me alive. But I knew I couldn’t give in to it. Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
“Okay, well…” I pushed my plate away, trying to play it cool. “I’ve got to take a shower. I’ve got things to do.”
With that, I pushed to my feet and looked at the three of them.
I was just about to walk away, proud of myself for putting a little distance between me and Sebastian when he looked up and smirked. “Need help with that?”
Yes. No. Damn it. The answer was no.
“No. Thanks for the offer though,” I answered, my voice choppy.
Yep, it was safe to say that I was in no way equipped to deal with a guy like Sebastian. It didn’t even matter how much I tried to talk myself out of it, I knew if he continued to work his way into my life, I was going to give in.
And that was the last thing we all needed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Payton
“Hey, kiddo!” my father greeted when I walked into Fowler Body and Frame an hour later. Several heads turned to look my way, a couple of waves followed.
“Good morning, Amy.” I smiled at my father’s receptionist who was sitting at a small desk near the front door.
“Mornin,' Payton,” Amy replied, not looking up from her computer screen. “How’s the new job?”
“Great.” I didn’t bother to stop and address her directly. Truth was, Amy didn’t like me all that much. I knew her pleasantries were for my father’s sake. Not that there was any love lost on my part. I didn’t particularly care for Amy either. I thought she was a manipulative, vindictive bitch. And an attention whore.
“Hi, Daddy.” My smile intensified as I approached my father.
“What’re you doing here?” he asked, his surprise to see me written across his handsome, aging face.
My father was in his late fifties, but working in the body shop industry had aged him. He looked quite a bit older than that. He kept his dark hair clipped short, mainly because he was balding, and he had plenty of laugh lines around his eyes and mouth. But no matter what, he was still one of the most handsome men I’d ever know.
So I might have fibbed a little earlier when I told Sebastian that I had to go see my father. It had been the first t
hing that I thought of, but I knew I needed to have a plan for the day. The last thing I needed was for Sebastian to think I had been planning to sit around my apartment and hope he would call. Yeah, so, coming to see Harold Fowler wasn’t really a scheduled thing, but I figured since I had told Sebastian that I had to stop in and see him, I probably should. That or my spur of the moment comment would have been a lie.
When my father wrapped his arms around me, I hugged him back. “Just wanted to stop by.”
Sitting around waiting for a guy didn’t really work for me. I was supposed to pretend to be only partially interested in Sebastian. Anything else would make me look desperate.
I was a little desperate.
Especially when I thought about the way he kissed me, the hard planes and angles of his body beneath my hands. I wanted to throw caution to the wind and jump him.
I was thankful for the little bit of common sense I had left.
I knew that until Sebastian opened up and told me some things about himself, I wasn’t going to give in. So his inability to share about himself was my only saving grace.
“Want something to drink?” my dad offered after he released me, rubbing the top of my head like I was five.
“Sure,” I replied, trying to smooth my hair back into place.
I followed my father into the small break room at the back of the building, passing two other employees who merely offered a brief wave before burying their noses in their computer screens once again.
I didn’t go to my father’s body shop often. Fowler Body and Frame was one of those places that made me feel out of place. The people were nice, but I knew what they saw when they looked at me. After all, even though my father had wanted me to, I never gave in to working there full time. It wasn’t for me.
I enjoyed the time I spent with my parents, namely my father who had toted me around to hockey or baseball games and car shows as a kid. There was no doubt about it, I was definitely a daddy’s girl. But even though I loved spending time with him, I didn’t want to work for him. Aside from the few times I had filled in when Amy needed to take time off, or my stint as my father’s assistant during my senior year of high school, I didn’t spend a lot of time there.
Sure, I knew about cars. More so than I cared to, really. I could change my oil, fix a flat tire, and even identify certain engines based on the set up under the hood. But other than that, being at the body shop wasn’t high on my list of favorite things to do.
“How’re you, kiddo?” Harold, better known as Hal, asked after retrieving two cans of soda from the small, secondhand refrigerator that stood in one corner of the break room next to the sink and a long counter complete with a used microwave. On the other end of the room was a flat screen television mounted on the wall and one of those water jug machines.
“Good,” I answered, pulling out one of the metal chairs and sliding down into it while I glanced around the room. “Did you paint in here?” I asked, noticing something was different.
My father surveyed the room briefly before meeting my eyes again. “Yeah.” He pointed to a spot in the ceiling. “We had a water leak, ended up having to paint the whole room after they fixed it.”
“I like it,” I told him, unable to think of anything else to say.
“Did you watch the Stars beat the Predators the other night?” He grinned widely.
“I did. Good game.”
“It was. One of these days we’ll have to go see the Stars play again.”
We hadn’t been to a hockey game in at least two years. Mainly because of my father’s busy schedule. “I’d like that.”
“So, how’s work? Did you meet Mr. Trovato?”
I smiled, leaning back in my chair and wrapping my fingers around the cold soda can. “It’s good.”
My father cocked an eyebrow, obviously waiting for me to answer the other question.
“And, yes, I met him.” I laughed. “I’m his assistant.”
He nodded as though he was contemplating my answer. “Have you met a lot of people?”
“Not really, no. I’m kinda isolated at the moment. I did have to go to Mr. Trovato’s house last week though.”
My father’s eyes narrowed on me.
Oops. That probably didn’t sound right, especially when I blurted it out.
“He left his cell phone at home and his wife couldn’t bring it to him.”
“That’s a strange thing for a receptionist to be doing,” he said simply.
“I’m not a receptionist, Dad. I’m an administrative assistant.”
“Same thing.”
I smiled. No, they weren’t the same. At least not in a company the size of Trovato, Inc., but I wasn’t going to argue with my dad.
“How’re you?” I asked, not really wanting to talk about me.
“Good. Busy.”
“Yeah?” I was a little surprised by his hurried response. There hadn’t been any cars in the parking lot when I arrived. Since it was Saturday, I kind of expected them to be busier.
I also knew that things had slowed down quite a bit for my father in recent months. My mother had mentioned it one day, and I’d heard something in her tone that I hadn’t heard before. Concern.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I offered, sipping my soda.
My dad chuckled. “We’re good. You should be enjoying your day off, kiddo.”
I knew I should. But that meant sitting around my apartment thinking about Sebastian and that was something I wasn’t comfortable with. It was bad enough that I’d woken up that morning and the first thing that had crossed my mind had been him. I didn’t want to be that girl. I was twenty-three, not seventeen. I had things to do and places to go.
Liar.
Okay, so I had nothing to do on a Saturday. Shopping was out of the question because I was trying to save money. Hanging out with Chloe wasn’t an option because, shortly after I mentioned needing to go see my father, I found out she had planned to spend the day with Toby. I still intended to bombard her with questions where they were concerned, but I couldn’t do that until she was home. Alone.
“How’s Aaron? And Chloe?” my father asked, his gaze darting out the door.
I twisted to see someone standing there, clearly waiting to talk to my dad.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” he told the guy before turning his attention back to me.
“They’re good,” I told him. “Aaron’s spending most of his time with his new boyfriend. And Chloe’s busy with work.”
“Boyfriend, huh? I assume he’s a good guy?”
My parents loved Aaron, always had. Considering we’d spent so much time together, he was practically a member of the family. In fact, my parents had helped Aaron when he had concerns over talking to his own parents about being gay.
“He’s nice,” I told my father honestly. “I kinda think they’re spending too much time together, but I’m not a relationship expert, so what do I know.”
“Have they been together long?”
“A few months.”
My father nodded and, as I was looking at him, a question flitted through my head and before I knew it, I was speaking it aloud. “Do you know if Mr. Trovato has any kids?”
My dad’s brows turned down and I could see that I’d taken him off guard with the question.
Explaining my reasons for wanting to know the answer to something like that would have probably been a good thing, but I kept my mouth closed. Well, actually, I pretended to take a drink of my soda until he finally answered.
“He’s got a daughter, I know,” my father explained hesitantly. “There’d been a rumor a while back that he had a son as well, but that had died quickly. I think he’s got a nephew that lives with him.”
My soda nearly came out of my nose. A son? Was Sebastian Conrad’s son? It made sense. They did kind of look alike. But…
Nooo. No way was Sebastian Conrad’s son. He couldn’t be.
I thought back to the pictures in Conrad’s office. There we
re several of Aaliyah growing up, including several of her in recent years. He had pictures of his wife, Lauren, on the bookshelves that lined the far wall. But other than that, he didn’t have any other pictures. Certainly none of Sebastian.
Why would Conrad keep that a secret?
He wouldn’t, that’s all there was to it.
“Nephew, huh?” I asked when my coughing fit settled.
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” I shrugged, placing my can on the table. “Look, I know you’re busy and I’ve got… something to do.”
My father stood when I did, concern etched on the hard lines of his face.
“Tell Mom I said hi,” I told him as I hugged him quickly and then turned toward the door.
“Payton.”
Ahh, crap.
I stopped walking and turned to face my father.
“Is something going on?” he asked quietly, his voice low.
“Nope. Not a thing. I just have to run. Talk to you later, Dad.”
I couldn’t wait around for him to dig deeper. I wouldn’t be able to keep my thoughts to myself.
And until I heard the words from Sebastian’s mouth, I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.
Although, I was pretty sure I already had.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Payton
Two hours later I was pacing the floor in my living room, staring at my cell phone on the coffee table. I was disappointed that Sebastian hadn’t texted or called. Granted, he thought I was busy with my father. It still bothered me that I hadn’t heard from him at all.
Should I text him? Should I leave him alone? Should I pretend he doesn’t exist?
Wow. The last question drew me up short.
My thoughts deviated to the conversation I’d had with my father earlier. Was it really possible that Conrad Trovato was Sebastian’s father? If it were true, why didn’t Sebastian just say so? And why didn’t Conrad have any pictures of Sebastian in his office?
“What the hell? Who could do that to their kid?” I spoke aloud although no one was home to hear me.
The guttural roar of an engine jump-started my heart. I darted to the window, scanning the parking lot below for the car and there it was.
Unhinged (Unhinged #1) Page 14