Huh? What did he mean by that?
“Logan can give you the address to the cabin.” He turned on his heel and walked away.
She almost chased after him again, wanting an explanation for his cryptic comment. But as he went back to the parking lot, she realized she didn’t need one. She unceremoniously dumped him and never gave him a good reason why. At the time a clean, uncomplicated break seemed necessary, and when she went to Atlanta, she poured her time and attention into her job and trying to adopt Logan. Other than the occasional feeling of guilt, she had closed that chapter of her life.
Now she was back in Arkansas, and the past surrounded her. Not just with Sebastian, but with Logan too.
She walked to the back entrance of the inn and inserted her key into the door, walked to her room, and washed her hands five times, then once more for good measure. Afterward she sank down on the edge of her bed, exhausted, her head falling into her hands.
It was too early to call Logan, but she would do that as soon as she could. She had asked Sebastian to hear her out—she had to give her brother the same courtesy. Even though Sebastian hadn’t agreed to meet with her again, she would stop by his office this afternoon anyway. If she was lucky, he would be there. If she was luckier, her briefcase would show up before then.
She opened the top drawer of the bedside table and took out the phone book. She opened it to the Yellow Pages. There had to be a car wash somewhere around here.
Chapter 10
Midmorning, Seb entered his office and sat down on his chair. After he finished his route and returned toThe Timesbuilding, he checked in with Tyler to see how things went with their new hire.
“She’s great, Mr. H.” Tyler grinned, his eyes bright and even more excited than usual, and that said a lot. “As long as she can get here on time, she’s going to work out.”
He hoped Tyler’s assessment was unbiased and he wasn’t letting his little crush on the California girl influence his judgment, but Seb would take his opinion at face value until further notice.
He then spoke with Isaiah, who was working in the office today. He, Tyler, and Seb were covering the hoedown at Bo’s tomorrow. Seb then spent some time chatting with Cletus and Paul, who had come in to make some repairs on Ol’ Bessie, then headed up to his office. Evelyn Margot was off-site today. She left a voicemail around seven this morning that she was going to be working from home again—
“Good morning,olderbrother!” Evelyn sailed into his office, holding the pictures once again.
Someday he was going to find her stash of his photos and throwthem away. He wasn’t thrilled with the picture idea in the first place when she had instigated it three years ago, but she’d insisted that his staff needed advanced warning of his grumpy days. Unfortunately those had been more frequent lately.
She held up a photo and glanced at him. “Let’s see, who is Sebastian Percival Hudson going to be today?”
He rolled his eyes at her use of his full name.
She slid the photo back in the stack and chose another one. “There, this one will work. You actually look a little cheery this morning. Emphasis onlittle.”
“I thought you were working from home.”
She walked back to the door. “I was, but I decided I wanted to come in. A female reserves the right to change her mind.”
Jade sure did...
Seb grimaced. After his encounter with Jade by the dumpster, he managed to put her out of his mind as he finished his route. Considering how much work he had on his plate, it was fairly easy. But one statement from Evelyn had him thinking about her again.
He didn’t believe the story about the bracelet, mostly because she wasn’t wearing one yesterday. A piece of jewelry worth crawling around in a dumpster for had to be important, so why not wear it every day?
He played along, though, hoping she’d reveal the real reason she was there. Too bad she didn’t. He was glad to hear that the briefcase had been found, so that wasn’t what she was actually looking for. Hmm...
Evelyn plopped herself on the chair in front of him. “So who’s Ms. Smith?”
Seb paused, then busied himself moving papers on his disaster of a desk. “I know lots of Smiths,” he said, not looking at her.
“I’m talking about the Ms. Smith that was in your office yesterday.”
“Oh. Her.” He tried to wrangle a pile of papers into a neat stack. Like Jade used to keep her paperwork. The documents slipped from his hands.
“Yes.” She leaned forward. “Her.”
“Former coworker. Just here for a visit.” He grabbed a plain sheet of paper and rolled it into his typewriter.
“A friendly visit?”
