Rotheworth chuckled.
Sebastian swirled his tankard. “I feel I’m longing for a future I’m not sure I’m allowed to want.”
Thomas grimaced. “God. That’s nauseatingly poetic.”
“You just feel this way?” Rotheworth asked. “Makes sense.”
Sebastian looked over at the man. “It does?”
“Aye,” Thomas echoed. “It does?”
Rotheworth shrugged. “I felt the same way about Charlene. Sometimes I still do. It’s only natural when you meet a woman whom you believe deserves better than you.”
Better than him… Did he believe that?
“If you thought you were no good for your wife, why did you marry her?”
“Too selfish to let her go.”
Selfish… Sebastian didn’t believe he was a selfish man, but thinking about Maddie… Yes, he could be selfish. He could most certainly be selfish. He wanted her. He didn’t want anyone else to have her.
“That, I can understand.”
“So, what do you suggest I do?” He hated even bloody asking.
Thomas smirked. “You ask me for romantic advice? Good God, man, are you trying to lose her?”
Rotheworth snorted into his tankard. “He has a point. He was more worried about his horses than his fiancée. If he had been to court his wife without the wager… Let’s leave it at that.”
Thomas raised his tankard in a mock toast. “It all still worked out in the end.”
“From what I hear, barely,”Rotheworth muttered.
“Barely is still working out. What about you?”
“I pursued the woman I love with my unrivalled charm.”
Sebastian rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re both useless.”
“You don’t need advice,” Rotheworth said after a beat. “You need to decide what you want, although it seems you’ve already done that; now all you need to decide is how to ask her.” He paused, his expression softening. “Then stop sulking in a piss-scented tavern. The lady seems taken with you, after all.”
Sebastian let his head fall back against the seat, eyes fixed on the warped ceiling beams. Ask for it. The words rang oddly in his chest. He didn’t ask for things. He inherited them. Managed them. But Maddie?
She was not something to be inherited. To be managed.
“I don’t want to be another disappointment in her life.”
Thomas shook his head. “In my experience, give your chosen woman more credit.”
Chosen woman…
Sebastian liked that.
“You need to talk to her,” Rotheworth said simply. “Not flirt. Not banter. A real conversation. Tell her what you want. Your dream for the future. See if hers aligns.”
Sebastian lifted a brow. “What if I don’t know what that is yet?” The future stretched long, did it not?
“Then you listen,” Rotheworth said. “And figure it out together.”
