“Wow.” I moved my plate away, adjusted the blanket over my lap, and hugged my knees to my chest. “She soundsresilient.”
“She had to be. When she arrived in Boston, she worked as acleaner.”
I tried not to show my surprise. For a while now, he’d been hinting at a past that didn’t line up with what I’d read about him. Judging by Vance’s offer, Sebastian did very well for himself, and I’d uncovered that his sister owned a successful clothing store in Chestnut Hill. “Untilwhen?”
“That was all Mom ever did, under-the-table jobs. Cleaning for fast food restaurants when I was really young, then a higher-end department store. She eventually worked her way up to five-star hotels and rich people’shomes.”
“That’swhy you ‘summered’ onNantucket.”
“Yeah. We lived in the maids’quarters.”
“That’s so bourgeois,” Imurmured.
“Wasn’t as bad as it sounds, to be honest. At least people weren’t rude to her the way they’d been at her other jobs, sometimes right in front of me.” He paused for a bite. “At the café, when that woman disrespected Luciano, it triggered something in me. Rudeness usually does,apparently.”
His comment came rushing back tome.
“You’ll call a stranger an asshole, but you can’t even stand up for your supposedfriend?”
Everything clicked. “I didn’t defendhim.”
“Yeah, so I took it out on you. Especially since that day in particular was . . .tough.”
“Because I was starting thejob?”
“No.” He reached out and cleared some hair from my cheek. After a few moments, he said, “You’re just the kind of woman my mom wanted me to meet. I wish I could bring youhome.”
“Where’shome?”
“Gone,” hesaid.
One word sent chills down my spine. My response came out as a strangled whisper. “Gone?”
“The day I met you was the first anniversary of her death.” He took his handback.
The misshapen puzzle that was Sebastian’s personality finally clicked into place.Momwas the piece I’d been missing. She was why he’d stood up for Lu in the coffee shop and had called me out for not doing the same. “I’m . . . I’m so sorry, Sebastian. Whathappened?”
“She . . . when we were saying goodbye . . .” He paused, swallowing. “I made her a promise to be better. She wanted me to settle down and meet a nice girl, so I’ve been trying to make somechanges.”
She was behind his sudden change in lifestyle too. I’d doubted the integrity of the exposé in the first place, but now the lack of research over things like the car accident and Sebastian’s background angered me. “The exposé must’ve been a huge setback,” Isaid.
“I’d never felt like such adisappointment.”
His reaction to my presence, and to being maligned in the press, made more sense now. “You’ve been under pressure since the day I metyou.”
“And my mom was the one I went to for anything,” he said. “Always.”
“You’re not a disappointment,” I said. “How could you be? You’re kind, smart, generous, successful. IfIof all people know that, your family definitelydoes.”
“Was that acompliment?”
“It was four. You called mebeautiful.”
His expression fell. “You should know, my mom would’ve had my hide for how I’ve treated you. She didn’t raise me thatway.”
“I understand so much betternow.”
“Do you?” he asked. “I need you to know I’m notNeal.”
