by Cat Schield
“You’re going if I have to carry you out to my car.”
Convinced he would act on his threat, she picked up her abandoned bowl of melted ice cream and dumped it over her head. She bit her lip to hold back a yelp as the sticky, cold liquid drenched her head and trickled beneath the neckline of her dress. She’d ruined her beautiful new dress, but the shock on Sebastian’s face almost made up for the loss.
“Have you lost your mind?” he demanded.
“I lost it four years ago when I came to work for you.” A hysterical giggle bubbled up, quickly followed by a ragged sob. Only Sebastian brought out such crazy impulses. The years she’d spent tempering her wild nature might never have been for all the control she exhibited around him.
“Go shower and change, I’ll call and let everyone know we’re going to be late.”
She shook her head. Three chocolate drops stained his beautiful suit. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Fine.” His expression hardened to granite. “Just answer one simple question before I go. Is the baby mine?”
A crazy sort of calm settled over her. She felt disconnected from her bedroom and from Sebastian. Chip had turned on her like this. She’d believed he cared about her. She’d trusted him and fifteen years later the pain remained fresh.
But her feelings for Sebastian weren’t a teenage crush. She loved him with everything in her and he’d accused her of something horrible.
“Yes,” she whispered, a hollow shell waiting to be filled with agony. “The baby’s yours. But after this, I’ll never be.”
Eleven
Missy’s pronouncement droned in Sebastian’s ears like a dirge as he drove to his parents’ house. She’d never be his. That’s where she was wrong. If she was pregnant with his child, she was going to find out that mere words would not get him to back off. He just needed a little time to regain control over his emotions.
Finding out that she was pregnant and that she’d intended to keep the truth from him roused every negative attitude he’d ever had about relationships. How many times had Chandra pulled some stunt when she wanted his attention? Too many to count.
But Missy wasn’t his ex-wife. He’d been wrong to paint the two women with the same brush. Missy wouldn’t deceive him into marrying her by passing another man’s child off as his. No, quite the opposite. He wouldn’t put it past her to lie to him in some misguided attempt to make things easier for him.
The child she carried was his. In his gut he’d known the truth before the question had surged out of him. He never should have let past mistakes ruin his future happiness.
Cursing, Sebastian stomped on the brakes and stopped inches from Max’s car parked halfway up his parents’ circular driveway. Distracted driving wasn’t like him. But since that first night in Las Vegas, much of his behavior had become unrecognizable.
A collection of familiar cars were parked all around. The party was under way. He was one of the last to arrive. Sebastian listened to the engine cool, keenly aware of the empty passenger seat. This is not how he’d imagined the evening going.
Inside, his mother was the first to greet him.
“Happy birthday.” He kissed her cheek and slipped her gift into her hand. “Sorry I’m late.”
“Where’s Missy?”
“She’s not coming.”
“Why not?”
Sebastian grimaced. “It’s complicated.”
“There you are.” His father joined them in the foyer. “Where’s your date?”
“Not coming.” Sebastian had been too busy dwelling on his troubles with Missy to concoct a decent excuse for her absence.
“That’s odd. When I spoke to her this afternoon, she was looking forward to it.”
“She changed her mind,” he said, hoping his bland tone would prevent further questions.
“That’s not like Missy,” his mother chimed in.
“Not at all,” Brandon agreed. “What happened?”
“Nothing.” Feeling ganged up on, Sebastian tried to turn the conversation away from him. “Looks like you have a houseful. Am I the last to arrive?”
“We’re still waiting on Trent and Amy,” Susan said, referring to her husband’s brother and sister-in-law. “Come have a glass of champagne and say hello to everyone.”
Sebastian would have followed his mother, but a hand on his arm stopped him. He glanced toward his father.
“Do you want me to call her and see if I can get her to come? Your mother was looking forward to having her here.”
Irrationally irritated, Sebastian glared at his father. “A phone call from you isn’t going to convince Missy to come tonight. She doesn’t want to be here.” With me. The last two words went unsaid, but Sebastian could hear them echoing in the foyer.
“You might be surprised how persuasive I can be. I got her to stay at Case Consolidated Holdings after you let her quit.” Brandon leveled a disappointed look at his son. “I’d hoped if she stuck around long enough you might come to your senses. I can see I overestimated your intelligence.”
“Come to my senses?” Sebastian repeated. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“She’s in love with you. Has been for years.” The older Case nodded knowingly.
His father’s words hit him hard. “What?”
“And at long last, you’re in love with her.” Brandon waved his hand when Sebastian began to speak. “Don’t bother denying it. It was all over your face that morning at the hotel.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But he wasn’t completely convinced he believed that. Something had happened between them that first night. “We were together, sure, but it was one night.”
Brandon’s smile turned sly. “And since?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“You were ornery and distracted when she was visiting her family. And since she’s back, you’ve had a bounce in your step.”
Sebastian couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I don’t bounce.”
“Well, you sure won’t be if you let that girl get away. Smart, beautiful, funny. Good at getting things done. The office ran more smoothly once she came aboard. And she knew how to handle you.” Brandon nodded, his expression self-satisfied. “I knew a week after she took the job that she was the best thing that ever happened to you.”
And deep down, Sebastian knew it, too.
He rocked onto his toes, thrown off balance as his father clapped him on the back.
“That’s my boy. Now, why don’t you go fetch her? Give your mom a birthday present that’ll really make her happy.”
Sebastian thought about his child growing inside Missy and muttered, “I think I already have.”
The drive from Missy’s house to his parents’ house had taken thirty minutes. The return trip seemed to take an eternity. While he negotiated Houston’s traffic, he prepared a convincing argument for why she needed to forgive him. He parked in front of her condo and immediately saw her car was missing from her parking spot.
When she didn’t answer her doorbell or respond when he knocked, he knew in the time it had taken him to come to his senses, she’d left. Next he tried her cell phone, but she wasn’t picking up. Only one place made sense for her to have gone. Home.
And that’s where he intended to follow.
The day after her big fight with Sebastian, Missy pulled into her father’s driveway around ten in the morning. After he’d left, she’d been too upset to sit in her condo and rehash the mess she’d made of things. Instead, she’d taken a shower and headed for Crusade.
Three hours out of Houston, she’d decided to stop for the night. Her family wasn’t expecting her until the next day, and when she’d fled Houston, she hadn’t considered that her six-hour drive would put her at her father’s house around one in the morning. Besides, after exhausting herself with anxiety and recriminations, she wasn’t in any shape to drive that far in the middle of the day, much less at night.
Heart
thumping too fast, she stared at the car parked in her father’s driveway. Sebastian’s Mercedes stuck out like a couture gown at a country dance. What was he doing here? She opened her door as family members poured out of the house. Sebastian led the way.
“Where have you been?” He jerked the car door from her hand, opening it wide, and dragged her from the seat. His hands explored her face, arms and shoulders. His gaze traced her forehead, cheeks and nose as if to reassure himself she was okay. “I left you a dozen messages. Why didn’t you call?”
“Because I turned off my cell. A dozen messages?” Her traitorous heart danced for joy at his concern, but she pulled away from his touch. “What are you doing here?”
“When you didn’t show up or call we all thought something had happened to you,” Sebastian explained, cupping her face in his hands. “Where have you been?”
“I was tired so I stopped at a motel and slept.” His somber, worried expression was beginning to blur the reasons why she’d left him in the first place. “How did you know I was coming here?”
“When I went back to your house last night and found you gone, I figured you’d head home.”
“But why are you here?”
“I came to apologize.”
“You’re apologizing?” That didn’t sound like Sebastian. What was the catch? “What if I’m not accepting?”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
She looked around the tall man blocking her view of the group clustered in front of her car and spied her father standing behind him, a wide grin on his face. Her brothers and sisters-in-law were all standing too close for her to have this conversation with Sebastian.
“If you don’t know, then there’s no use in telling you.” Missy reached into the car and pulled out a duffel filled with clothes. To her annoyance, Sebastian plucked the bag from her hands and grasped her by the elbow.
“You obviously have something to get off your chest. Let’s go inside and talk.”
“No.” She twisted her arm free. “No more talking. Look around you, Sebastian. This is where I’m from. My family doesn’t have money or power. We have love. We have trust. We have each other’s backs. And that’s enough.”
“I don’t get what you mean.”
“I don’t care about your money or your fancy friends. Love. Trust. Commitment. That’s what I want in a relationship.”
Missy snagged her bag and strode into the house. She didn’t realize that she’d left everyone outside until she reached the stairs to the second floor and the silence pressed in on her.
Turning, she peered through the front picture window and spotted Sebastian getting into David’s truck. Where was he going with her brother? Her father entered the house.
“What is the matter with you?” he demanded. “That boy drove all night to get here and he’s been fretting like a dog with fleas when you didn’t show. Why are you acting like he’s the enemy?”
For a second Missy didn’t know how to react. Her father never scolded her. That had been her mother’s job, and after the stroke stole her voice, her brothers’ responsibility.
“I don’t know why he came.”
“He came because he loves you.”
Her heart jerked. “Did he say that?”
“Not in so many words.”
Not in any words.
“He’s not in love with me,” she said, flinching away from the stab of disappointment.
“Then why does he want to marry you?”
“He doesn’t.” A loud thump rang out as she sat down on the worn wood stairs. “What gave you a crazy idea like that?”
“He asked my permission.”
Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. “He did?” Who did that anymore? The traditional gesture was so sweet and so unlike Sebastian that Missy couldn’t wrap her head around it. “Or is it just what you hope he’ll do?”
“I’m not so addled that I don’t know when a man’s asking for my only daughter’s hand in marriage.” Her father sat beside her and took her hands in his, rubbing them to restore warmth. He smelled like soap and barbeque sauce. “In case you’re wondering, I told him yes.”
“I wish you wouldn’t have done that.”
Missy rested her head on his shoulder like she’d done as a child. Her father had always been her comfort zone when having four older brothers got to be too much for her to handle. Or when her mother tried to mold her into the polite, refined young lady a pastor and his wife could be proud of.
“It’s done. Can’t be undone. Is there a reason you don’t want to marry him?”
She took a moment before answering. Sebastian’s accusation had hurt. He’d shaken her trust in him and that wasn’t something that could be repaired overnight. Besides, the original reason for avoiding a relationship with him hadn’t changed.
“I don’t fit into his world. He has money and lots of well-connected friends. I’m just a small-town girl who’s been working as his assistant for four years. There’s nothing sophisticated or interesting about me.”
“So, you’re afraid.”
Her father had been counseling engaged couples for years. He’d probably seen it all. No use trying to deny the truth.
“Terrified.”
“I don’t know him well, but unlike that young man you dated in high school, Sebastian doesn’t strike me as the sort who’d feed you to the wolves.”
“No,” Missy agreed. “You don’t know him well. He’s not marrying me because he loves me.” She puffed her breath out in a huge sigh. “I’m pregnant.”
Her father sat in silence for a long moment. When he spoke, a deep sadness filled his voice. “Tim’s?”
“No.” She shook her head, the burn of tears blurring her vision. “Sebastian’s. That’s why he wants to marry me. It’s why he married his first wife. He’s honorable.”
“Do you love him?”
“Yes. But I’m not going to let him make the same mistake twice.”
“I don’t think he views marrying you as a mistake.”
She twisted her hands in her father’s grasp until she held him. She squeezed gently, thinking of all the people he’d touched both physically—with a gentle hug, a comforting hand on the shoulder during a moment of grief—and with his wise sermons and thoughtful counsel.
“He can be rather thick-headed that way.”
Laugh lines deepened at the corners of her father’s dark-brown eyes. “I can see he’s going to have a tough time convincing you to marry him.”
“Tougher than you know. He’s terrible at negotiating.”
The front door opened and Matt’s wife, Helen, entered, followed by David’s very pregnant wife, Abigail. They carried bowls and trays.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s Memorial Day weekend,” Helen explained. “We’re barbecuing.”
Missy got to her feet. “Do you want some help?”
“We’ve got it covered.”
Abigail winked at Helen. “We wouldn’t want you killing Sebastian with your cooking.”
Of all the household tasks Missy had mastered after her mother’s stroke, cooking was not one of them. And it wasn’t as if she got much time to practice. Sebastian kept her working until seven most nights. She usually grabbed take-out on the way home.
She headed upstairs to drop off her duffel bag. Passing David’s old room, she spied Sebastian’s suitcase in the corner. He was staying here? In the room next to hers? How was she expected to get any sleep knowing he was on the other side of the wall?
Emotions churning, she sat on the window seat that overlooked the garden in the backyard. Her mother had planned and lovingly maintained each and every bed from the vegetables to the roses. After she’d had her stroke, Missy tended the garden while her mother looked on. At first Missy had resented the weeds that seemed to sprout overnight. The task of keeping the numerous beds in perfect order had pained her with its tedium.
Eventually, however, she began to find the repetitious chore soothed her restless n
ature. She’d read up on the various types of plants and dreamed that when she moved into her own house, she’d spend many free hours creating colorful plantings around her property.
“We’re heading over to bring the boys some lunch. Want to come?”
Helen and Abigail hovered in the hallway.
“Sure.” She snatched up the battered Stetson she wore only when in town and followed her sisters-in-law downstairs. “What are they doing today?”
“Repairs on the Taggets’ roof,” Helen said. “Last week’s thunderstorm did quite a bit of damage to a dozen homes. It’s been tough getting to everyone who needs help.”
“Nice of your boss to pitch in,” Abigail added. “Or should I call him your boyfriend?”
Missy pretended as if she hadn’t heard the sly question. “Sebastian’s working with them?” Is that why he’d been dressed in a T-shirt and jeans earlier? She’d been too agitated by his presence in Crusade to notice how he was dressed, but now that she thought about it, she remembered he’d looked damned sexy in a snug cotton shirt that stretched across his chest and scarcely contained his biceps. “I didn’t realize he was handy.”
“Apparently he worked construction during college,” Helen said.
How had she not known that? She’d worked for the man four years. And yet, how much had she discovered about him in the past couple of months? As much as he’d learned about her? Or had her determination to keep him at bay prevented him from getting to know her in turn?
Missy’s pulse fluttered as Helen’s SUV stopped in front of a storm-battered house. More than just the roof had suffered from the high winds. Half the front porch was missing and a pile of wood stacked next to a gaping hole in the front yard hinted at a tree that was no more.
A dozen men swarmed the roof and yard. Missy had little trouble spotting Sebastian’s tall form as he jumped off a ladder and headed her way. She snatched her gaze from the worn denim riding his narrow hips and wrapping his powerful thighs. She’d never seen him in jeans before and found the view disconcerting.