“You’re infuriating.”
Kade climbs up into the Jeep and holds out his hand to me. We spent all day yesterday working on our secret handshake. Once it’s complete, I return my glare to his father.
“And you’re obnoxiously overprotective,” I hiss.
Seren laughs, and we turn our heads toward her. That’s when I realize how close Sebastian is—our cheeks are nearly touching, and the scent of him scrambles my brain. He’s clean and minty and something musky I can’t define.
“How ya doin’?” Kade asks, causing me to lurch away from Sebastian.
“I’m good, buddy. You ready to see some horses?” I clear my throat when it croaks like a frog.
“Yup. Daddy said I don’t even need my car seat.”
I frown atDaddy, and he shrugs.
“It’s a tour Jeep, they don’t provide them. Leo dropped it off for us because the horses are further north today.”
Leo is on top of everything, and I’m not going to complain about it.
9
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT WOMAN?
SEBASTIAN
“How the hell has she survived thirty-plus years without killing herself?” I fumble through my house toward the kitchen in the dark because I couldn’t find the damn light switch.
“She’s independent,” Pappy responds, scaring the shit out of me. He flicks on the kitchen light, and I move toward it.
“Why are you sitting in the dark?”
He holds up a pint of ice cream, and I chuckle. I’ve never met anyone with a bigger sweet tooth than this old man.
“Alexei read to the boys, so I came for a little snack,” he says, digging into the container again. “Want some?”
I shake my head. “No, I’m grabbing some damn ice for my pain-in-the-ass nanny.”
I’d called Alexei on the way home to get some ice for her ankle, and the freaking guy showed up with brand new ice packs, from the store, that need to be frozen.
“Go easy with her, Seb.”
I huff out a breath through my nose, roll my shoulders back, then turn to face him.
“She’s not had anyone take care of her since her dad passed. She doesn’t know how to accept it, even from me. I can see thatyou’re feeling a certain way, but you can’t take over her world like you do with everything else.”
“I’m not feeling any certain way,” I grumble, sounding worse than a sulking teenager.
“No? Haven’t you always though? You’re the one who got her to play the piano again after her father died. And then you spent that whole summer showing her how to play guitar with the stuff you learned on the internet.”
“I wasn’t teaching her. I only learned the basics, so I gave her enough direction to get her started.”
“And when she was nine and her canoe tipped over, you were the one to fish her out.”
“She was my friend, Pappy. My friend! Would you rather I let her drown?” White stars form in my vision as the first signs of a tension headache appear.
I don’t appreciate that he’s watched us so closely. I’ve never understood why I did the things I did for Rowan. I certainly never paid close enough attention to any of my other camper friends to know when they were sad, but with her, I knew before I even saw her face. It was a feeling I’d get deep in my chest back then, and one I haven’t been able to get rid of since she crashed back into my life.
“It’s not in you to let anyone suffer, Seb, especially not yourfriends.” I don’t like the inflection he uses on the word friend—at all. “My point is, that thread that connects you two has always been there. Don’t run so fast that it snaps before it has a chance to braid those love lines together, is all I’m sayin’.”
