“But—”
“Boston was too far. Whether you think it’s about me or not, it is on some level. You do what you have to do, but I’mdone.”
When she didn’t move, I took her hand, flipped her palm face up, and put the leash in it. The sleeve engulfed her hand. I couldn’t bring myself to ask for my jacketback.
“Sebastian,please.”
I had to turn away from the tears streaming down her face. She was scared, and I was fuckingdonetrying to get through to her. I walked away with her words ringing in myears.
“It’s deeper. I know it’s scary, but you can’t heal until you faceit.”
Heal? My mother’s death, her home, was the one place in me that would never heal. There’d always be a dark hole in my heart when it came to Boston, and if Georgina insisted on living there, then so fucking beit.
I wasn’t going tofollow.
But she’d knownthat.
26
Sebastian
Justin idledat the curb in a convertible with the top down despite the fact that it was cold as fuck. I tossed my TUMI leather duffel in the back, and Opal leaped in the moment I got the door open. I rarely even had to put a leash on her, she was the most loyal fuckingdog.
I hesitated before officially trapping myself in a car with Justin for the next few hours. “Somehow, you managed to convince me to go to the beach in December,” I said, “but I’m sure as hell not riding all the way through Long Island likethis.”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Justin said. “I’ll put the top up. All you had to do was askpolitely.”
“That so? Let me try.” I straightened my shoulders as I pulled off my gloves. “Please, may I skip thisweekend?”
Justin glanced up at me as he raised the top. “No, but I really appreciate you doing this for me, brother. Women like this don’t come along everyday.”
It was always about a woman—in this case, a Swiss foreign exchange student whose time at NYU was almost over had invited him to a winter wonderland party in theHamptons.
I shook my head at Opal as I removed my coat, sat in the passenger’s seat, and blasted the heater. “Winter wonderland my ass,” I muttered. “I could be sitting in the sauna at Equinox rightnow.”
“That’s no way to spend a Saturday,” he said, plugging in his iPhone before searching Spotify. “Nice to have a rental car for a change, isn’t it? Not at the mercy of the Uber driver’splaylist.”
“Let’s get on the road,” I said, trying to take the cell from him. “I can playDJ.”
“Are you kidding? You’ll never lay a hand on my phone again after you dunk-tanked it last month. Thank Jobs for waterproofelectronics.”
I sat back in my seat as Ace of Base came through the speakers. It wasn’t unusual for Georgina to pop into my mind on the regular, but this time, she was deliciously naked in the shower, scrubbing shampoo in her auburn hair as she shimmied to “TheSign.”
I looked over at Justin. “What thefuck?”
He shrugged. “I’ve had this album stuck in my head ever since Georgina brought itup.”
Bullshit. He just liked to torment me. I looked out the window. It’d been weeks since I’d walked away from the vet, butIstill had Georgina stuck in my head. Not just visions of her showering, but also the way she’d hugged me tightly on the curb, taking solace in my neck as she’d sobbed. I’d thought it was all for Bruno, but as I played the night over and over in my head, I wondered if I’d had it wrong. Maybe she reallyhadwanted that job but had known what my answer to Boston would be. Maybe she’d cried knowing she’d been trapped. That I wouldn’t be able to come with her and face my past to start afuture.
That I wasn’tableor wasn’tstrongenough?
I’d been asking myself that since I’d left. Why did Georgina think my inability to sell the house ran deeper than saying goodbye to my mom? What could possibly be deeper thanthat?
We were still at the curb, Ace of Base on the stereo. The road opened ahead of us, Opal panted at my back, and the day was sunny if not wintry. Depressing, if you asked me. A perfect day was just a reminder that I wasn’t spending it withGeorgina.
Justin had stopped using his phone to watchme.
“Well?” I raised my eyebrows. “What’s the holdup?”
