I couldn’t even enjoy the ride home; my skin was crawling, and the need to take a shower made me restless.
When we walked back inside, Stella was watching a reality show, her favorite pastime.
“A delivery came for you while you were out. I put it in the kitchen,” she said, then took a closer look at me before waving me off. “Go do your thing. We’ll talk when you feel human again.”
“Thanks, Stella,” I called out, already heading to the bathroom, dropping my purse along the way.
CHAPTER FOUR
I stared at the flowers and tried to get rid of the lump in my throat. I knew who they were from. He always sent me red roses. Exactly eleven of them. He was obsessed with numbers and their meaning, and I knew eleven signified change and destiny since I’d looked it up. At least it didn’t signify murder and mayhem.
I pulled the cardigan I’d put on after my shower tighter around me.
“Who sent you the flowers?” Stella came into the kitchen where I was staring at said flowers on my counter. “You didn’t tell me you were seeing anyone. Is it—”
She stopped in her tracks when she saw the look on my face. “Oh shit, what’s going on?”
I looked up and knew it was time to fess up. Stella could smell a lie a mile away. And I just didn’t have it in me to make something up. Not tonight.
“They’re from Clive.”
“What the fuck?” Stella hissed and stalked past me. She took the flowers, stomped to the front door, opened it, and threw them outside, vase and all. They landed with a loud crash, the vase shattering into a thousand pieces on my walkway. I had to make sure to clean the front yard before the kids went out there.
“What’s going on?” Sebastian asked, joining us in the kitchen. His hair was wet, and he was only wearing jeans, water droplets glistening on his chest. We must have interrupted his shower, because he was still holding a towel in his hand.
All I could see were abs. And abs. And did I mention abs? He was a sculpted work of art.
Stella snapped her fingers in front of my face, and my eyes refocused on my friend.
“Okay, now that we have you back, it’s time you tell me what’s going on,” she demanded, closing the door.
Sebastian leaned against the wall, settling in for the show-and-tell. I would have rather done this without him. I didn’t want him to know how pathetic I was.
Stella snapped her fingers again when my gaze dipped down to the perfect V leading to Sebastian’s jeans.
“Please tell me you’re not still talking to that psycho,” she said.
I recoiled at the thought and glared at her. “Of course not. The flowers started showing up the day after our date. How stupid do you think I am?”
“I don’t know. Pretty stupid since you failed to mention any of this shit to me.”
“What shit?” Sebastian chimed in.
Stella glanced at him, and I knew by her drawn eyebrows that she meant business. “Nora had one date with this guy, and he became obsessed with her. And I’m not talking the sweet, caring, ‘I would do anything for you’ obsessed. I’m talking the creepy, stalkerish, ‘I want to impregnate you with my babies right before I lock you away in my dungeon’ obsessed.”
Did she have to put it that way? She made things sound a lot worse than they were. Clive just had a little impulse control issue. And he also thought I was his soul mate. A feeling I didn’t return.
“Name?” Sebastian barked, dropping his towel on the floor and grabbing a T-shirt from his bag that was still sitting in the hallway. My inner hussy sighed when he was once again covered in clothes.
“Clive Miller. He works with Nora,” my traitorous friend replied.
Sebastian stilled, locking eyes with me. “Clive? And you didn’t think to mention this?”
Hang on, what’s going on here? I felt like I’d missed an important part of this conversation.
“Why would I have mentioned it to you?” I asked, frowning.
He narrowed his eyes, something I was getting used to. “I’ll be back.”
Sebastian gave us a chin lift and turned to the door. “Gears is just across the street. Stay inside.”
With that barked instruction, he grabbed his keys off the table and left.
God, he was confusing.
I turned to Stella and sniffed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
She sighed as she walked over to the couch and sat down. “Who’s Gears?”
“A guy who’s currently across the street, watching the house,” I said and followed, perching on the edge of the couch next to Stella.
“I’ll let that one go for now. What I really want to know is what tall, dark, and hot is doing in your house.”
Stella pointedly looked at Sebastian’s open duffel bag.
“It’s only temporary,” I said.
I mean, what else could I really tell her? That Sebastian was here to make sure I didn’t disappear? That he was waiting for my loser ex to show up again?
“Mm-hmm,” she murmured, her tone telling me she wasn’t buying my story.
We stayed on the couch, Stella relentless in her pursuit to get me to tell her about Sebastian. When I wouldn’t budge, she turned the TV on, keeping me company. When she finally left three hours later, I stayed on the couch, too scared to go to bed yet by myself. It was pathetic to admit, but I’d let Jim screw me around for so long because I was petrified of being alone. And now I was paying the price for being so weak.
A door closing pulled me out of a dream that involved talking frogs, a gold stamp, and
