Sebastiannodded, looking at the furry animal tucked into his chest. “Sucks being on yourown, doesn’t it?”
Mrs.Worthington met his eyes, and whatever she found there brought her to rest her knobbyhand against the torn knee of his jeans. “It certainly does.”
“Whydidn’t you have kids?” he asked, and I could’ve smacked him. Who asks somethinglike that? How did this man not haveanyfilters?
ButMrs. Worthington burst just with a somber laugh and held her hands up into the kitchenair. “Do you see this house around us?”
“Hardto miss,” Sebastian replied, quirking his lips and stroking Sandy.
“Well,it’s not cheap, and because Thomas never believed in keeping a working wife, heinstead worked himself to the bone. He was always very career oriented, and notvery in tune with his wants for a family when we were younger and able. Itwasn’t until it was too late that we realized how much we would’ve enjoyed havingchildren of our own,” she explained without hesitancy, folding her hands overher lap and nodding regretfully.
“Hm,”Sebastian grunted with a thoughtful nod.
“Anyway,”I hurried to interject, “I hope that soon, we’ll have a buyer for the house andyou can move in with your niece. It’ll be good for you to have family around.”
“Yes,”Mrs. Worthington nodded kindly. “I hope so too. I just hope the house goes to someonewho will—”
“Iknow,” I cut her off with a glance toward the clock. “It’ll be fine, I promise.But right now, Sebastian and I really need to go pick up Greyson from school.I’ll see you in a few days, okay? I’ll call if I have any updates.”
“Oh,of course!” She reached out to take Sandy from Sebastian’s arms.
“Mrs.Worthington, thank you so much for letting me chill with this little dude,” he said,petting the critter with an affectionate smile. “I can cross chinchilla holdingoff my bucket list now.”
“Sebastian,you are welcome to visit him any time,” Mrs. Worthington replied, pressing ahand to his jaw. “And please, call me Jane.”
12
sebastian
“Ican’t believeyou asked her about her lackof children,” Tabby groused from beside me. The woman sure loved to complainand suck the fun out of everything.
“Whyis that so hard for you to believe? I was curious, so I asked.” It wasperfectly reasonable to me. How was anybody supposed to learn about anything oranybody if they were too afraid to ask simple questions?
“Becauseit’srude! A woman can do whatever the hell she wants without having toanswer to some man she doesn’t even know!”
Hershrill tone rang above the Foo Fighters’ “Learn to Fly” and without a momentshesitation, I pulled to the side of the old country road. Nothing but fieldsand a small cluster of trees surrounded us on both sides. Tabby looked aroundwith curiosity and panic mingling on her features.
“Okay,”I began, resting my arm over the back of her seat, “first of all, if you ever yellover Dave Grohl again, I’m kicking you out of the car and making you walk therest of the way. Hell, maybe there’s a Holstein around here you can hitch aride from, but you’re not riding with me.”
Tabbyonly blinked her incredulity. A fine line formed between her shaped brows, andI touched the spot with my thumb, rubbing it away and surprising her with thetouch. She responded by backing away toward the window.
“Second,howexactlywas it rude? It’s not like I said, ‘Yo, Mrs. W., I have adeep-seated issue with broads who don’t procreate the way the Lord intendedthem to. So, what the fuck’s the deal with that?’ No, I asked a genuinelyhonest question, and shechoseto answer.”
Shakingher head, Tabby scowled and folded her arms over her chest. “It’s inappropriateto ask people things like that about their personal lives. Maybe she had anillness that prevented her from conceiving. You don’t know.”
“Thenshe was free to use her own discretion and not answer,” I replied in a low,graveled voice. “How else are you supposed to get to know everybody you meet?”
“Youdon’t have to get to knoweverybody,” Tabby countered, her tone sharpand challenging.
Withconsideration, I tipped my head. Maybe she was right about that. Maybe mydesire to know everybody, to loosely befriend everybody, had diminished allwant to learn everything about only one. But wasn’t that what made so manypeople like me? My uninhibited interest in everyone I met? Wasn’t that whatmade me the most popular member of the band, next to Devin?
“Maybenot,” I nodded thoughtfully.
“Itdoesn’t make you less lonely,” she added, and when I cocked my head at thestatement, she snickered with triumph. “I’m observant too, Mr. I Want AChinchilla.”
“Hey!”I shouted defensively, gripping the steering wheel and pointing a stern fingerat her. “That thing was really fucking cute and soft, okay? Nobody said a damnthing about being lonely.”
“Butyou did. With all that crap about having someone to come home to.”
