He’s quiet, then he steals my mug and drinks half of it.
“Hey!”
“I need it.”
I glare at him, and he sighs heavily. “I owe you an apology for the whole Devon thing.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“Shut up. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said and reacted the way I did. It was just a surprise, and there were other things going on.”
“Have you sorted out those other things?”
“Not in the way I wanted, but, yes, I’m not a raging lunatic anymore.”
“That’s always an improvement,” I say dryly.
“You’re different.”
I don’t say anything, waiting for him to elaborate.
“At first, I thought it was a bad thing, but I can see now, you’ve gotten smarter, wiser. You’re calmer now and more thoughtful. You would never have done this event in the past, and we both know you did it to make Mum happy.”
I want to protest, but we both know the kind of person I am, and he’s right. I would have laughed at her and disappeared on the day.
“Why did you agree to do it?”
“I missed everyone while I was gone. It was hard out there, but I wanted to try to make it on my own. The world knows how to make you humble real quick.”
“Yeah, it does,” he agrees.
I lean my cheek on my fist and watch him. “So, what’s going on between you and Cordelia? Why do you suddenly hate each other?”
“I don’t hate her,” he mutters. “She just drives me crazy.”
I laugh. “I see.”
He gives me a baleful glare and then pushes up to his feet. “I have to head back down to Main Street. I need to hang up three hundred red hearts.”
“Only three hundred?”
“I’ve already hung four hundred pink ones.”
I burst out laughing. “Poor Sebastian.”
“Our mother is a very tricky omega. Never make a deal with her. She’s like Rumpelstiltskin.”
I grin. “I know she is.”
He stands up and walks out. A minute later, I hear the front door close.
“Come on, Danger.”
The puppy looks up at me and lets out a long, plaintive whine.
I scoop him up and make my way up the stairs, but right when I’m about to turn into the guest room, I change my mind and go into mine instead. At first, there’s no noticeable difference. Just the smell of them mixed with my perfume, creating this intoxicating mix that feels like it’s wrapping around me in a warm hug.
I wander to the desk and blindly splay my fingers along the wood until I feel something weird. I blink and lean over it.
