When he searched the rest of his office and came up empty, a sick feeling hit him, along with the realization that he shouldn’t have been so careless. Could it be at the house? Or in his car?
A knock sounded at the door. “Come in,” he said, doing another quick search in case he missed something.
The door opened and Jade walked in.
* * *
Still numb from her conversation with Logan about Lydia, Jade entered Sebastian’s office and stopped a few feet from the door. She didn’t want to talk business, but she had a job to do—one that she was bungling badly. Much like her conversation with Logan. She hadn’t changed her mind about seeing her mother, but she could have handled it better. As she drove back to Clementine, the distance between her and Logan felt like a chasm, and she hated it. Just when she had another chance for a family, it was taken away from her.Thanks, Lydia.
“Jade?”
Sebastian’s deep, soothing voice reached through her tumbling thoughts. He was behind his messy desk, a folder in his hand, looking directly at her with concern, and a flash of something else. Something gentle. Kind. So Sebastian.
Something I don’t deserve.
Her back straightened and she sat down in front of him, uninvited. “I’m here to talk business.” She barely recognized her stony tone. Before he could push back, she said, “My company is prepared to offer you a deal—”
“Are you okay? Scratch that, you’re not.”
She flinched.
He set down the folder. “You talked to Logan.”
How had he picked up on her mood so quickly? She was doing everything she could to be stoic. To pretend her brother wasn’t trying to betray her.
Harrington. They had to talk about Harrington. Then she could go back to Atlanta and forget about Arkansas. She did it once, she could do it again. “I...” She looked at her hands. They were shaking uncontrollably.
Sebastian got up from his chair and went to her, then held out his hand.
She looked at it. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to help you.”
Her gaze lifted to his, and all she saw was the Sebastian she used to know. The wonderful man she dated, the one who had been her rock for a short blissful time. The one she didn’t have the strength to resist. She slipped her hand in his and stood. He immediately let her go, but for the split second that she felt his strong hand in hers, she felt a little grounded again.
They left the building and went to his vehicle that was parked in the front space she’d taken yesterday. She suddenly recognized it. “You’re driving the same car?”
“Yep. It’s been good to me. Just ignore the mess inside.”
She looked at the clutter in the back seat. The disaster was so Sebastian too. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Twenty minutes later, he turned into the Cherry Hill Car Wash—a grand opening banner stretched over the front of its three self-serve wash bays. She hadn’t seen this one in the phone book this morning, but she had planned at some point to visit the wash she’d found in Westin since Clementine didn’t have one.
“You remembered,” she said, amazed.
He headed for the auto wash. “Of course I did.”
“Because it’s weird that I love them.”
He shook his head. “I never said it was weird.”
That was true. Another point in his favor. “You didn’t have to do this for me.”
“My car needed a wash.” He paid for the service.
“I’ll pay you back.”
