I would be devastated if he left. And no matter how angry I was, I still loved him with every breath I took.
“Now what did you bring for dessert?” I asked Willa, giving my brain a break from thinking about Sebastian.
“Cupcakes,” she said, getting up.
She went into the kitchen and returned with a box from Sweet Dreams.
“Gimme, gimme, gimme,” Stella chanted.
Willa grinned and opened the box. “You act like you didn’t go to Sweet Dreams yesterday.”
Stella grabbed a cupcake and then handed the box to me before glaring at Willa.
“No pastry shaming. This town is too small for a feud between us.”
Stella might have huffed about the size of the town, but I knew she loved it here. Especially since it was where Mason was. She was head over ass in love, and I didn’t see that ever changing.
Mason was her person, and he treated her like a queen. After her sheltered and controlled upbringing, the free-spirited mechanic was exactly what she needed.
“Is he picking you up tonight?” I asked, knowing she wouldn’t drive after having more than one drink.
“He’ll be here at ten. That’s usually when you throw us out. Unless there’s cocktails involved. Then you wouldn’t care if we stayed till the next day.”
They both giggled, and I pouted. “Not true. I would never throw you out.”
We spent the rest of the night laughing at Malena’s stories from work. She had an ongoing feud with one of the lawyers in her firm, and neither one of them was willing to call a ceasefire.
He sent her to the wrong courthouse, gave her the worst clients, and scared away her assistant. In turn she messed with his calendar, regularly switched out his coffee orders, and made sure he had a vast supply of pens, totaling fifty boxes so far and counting.
A knock on the door signaled the end of our girls’ night. Stella let Mason in, who planted a long kiss on her, making Malena widen her eyes at me.
When they came back up for air, he nodded at us in greeting. “Hey, girls.”
“Hi, Mason. How have you been?” Malena asked, collecting her bag and jacket. “You still okay to give me a lift?”
“Of course,” he said, pulling a beaming Stella into his side.
She leaned against him, her body molding to his. I met her dopey smile with a grin of my own.
We walked outside just as Jameson pulled up to get Willa.
After hugs and kisses and promises to call tomorrow, they took off. I watched their taillights, and only when they disappeared around a corner did I go inside.
I straightened the already clean house, waiting for Sebastian to come back.
When it was nearing midnight and it was clear that he wasn’t going to show, I got ready for bed. Maybe he’d given up on us already.
I woke up what felt like five minutes later to a body sitting down on the bed. A finger whispered over my jaw and a familiar scent engulfed me.
“Sebastian,” I mumbled, opening my eyes.
“Sorry to wake you. I just wanted to see you before I went to sleep. You usually sleep like a bear in hibernation, and I didn’t think you’d notice if I was in here.” He looked at his hands. “Wow, that sounded creepier out loud than it did in my head.”
Is he embarrassed?
“Are you staying on the couch again?”
He took my hand, his thumb tracing lazy circles on my palm. “Of course.”
