Can it really be that easy?
“If he wants you to forgive him, he won’t just give up. And do you really want him to disappear?” Willa asked.
“No, I guess I don’t,” I said, the realization slamming into me.
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.”
The thought of getting to keep him close warmed me, my heart doing cartwheels in response.
“Don’t you have your own place you want to go back to now that your assignment is over?”
He squeezed my hand. “I live in Chicago, so no, I’m in no rush to get back to my place.”
My heart stuttered to a stop and then lay down in defeat. How did he think we would make this work? Had I been wrong to think he wanted us to be together? Was I once again acting like a lovesick fool and reading the signals wrong?
“Oh, okay. I didn’t know.”
“I quit the FBI today,” he said, holding my hand tighter.
I sat up, bringing our faces close together. The dim night-light coming in from the hallway was enough to make out the clear-cut lines of his face and his firm and sensual lips.
But I couldn’t read his expression. He almost looked like he was holding his breath.
“Why?” I asked.
He brushed his thumb across the back of my hand. “It was time. I’ve known for a while that I had to get out. You can only do that sort of work for so long before it drags you down. My work used to be my life, my passion. But my priorities have changed.”
I lifted my arm, putting my hand on his cheek, the need to comfort him all-consuming. My next words came out stuttered. “Does that… does it mean… I mean, are you going to… stay?”
“All I care about is in this small town. Why would I go back to my life before you walked in?”
“Lie down with me?” I asked, shuffling to the middle of the bed and pulling the blanket back.
He didn’t hesitate to take off his shoes and lie down on his side, facing me. He laced his fingers through mine and rested our clasped hands between our bodies.
“I know there’s a chance you won’t forgive me. But I’m not willing to give up. If I have to prove to you for the rest of my life that you can trust me, I will,” he said.
Tears stung my eyes, and I shuffled closer, smothering his last words with my lips. He responded with slow kisses in return, stealing my breath, the undeniable magnetism between us pulling us together.
When we broke apart, I buried my face in his throat, and
