Page 79 of Release Me

His laughter shakes my body. “Right. He probably would have hated me in the beginning, threatened to take me out if I hurt his baby girl.”

“Exactly, and he was from Texas so there probably would have been a gun involved.”

“Texas?”

I nod. “Houston to be specific. He was born and raised there. I think most of his family still lives there.”

“You have family in Houston?”

“Yes, on my dad’s side. Grandparents who didn’t want me to exist and aunts and uncles who were happy when their youngest brother left the fold because it meant one less person to split the Hawthorne empire with.”

Sebastian has been rubbing small circles on my arm, but the last words in my sentence make him pause. “Hawthorne. As in Hawthorne Energy?”

“One in the same.”

I knew he would put it together, but I’m impressed that he did so quickly. My paternal grandparents own and operate the largest Black owned oil and energy company in the United States. Like Sebastian, my father came from money, and just like me when I came to New Haven, my mother came from nothing. By the time she got to Texas Southern, where she met my dad, she was all alone in the world. Her parents were dead, both of them surrendering to drug habits they’d fought her whole life. She had no siblings or extended family to speak of because everyone had either died or wrote her parents off after years of broken promises to get clean.

“So they didn’t approve of your dad and your mom.”

“Nope. They were against them from the jump, but they didn’t say anything because they thought their relationship would fall apart when they graduated from college.”

“But they didn’t.”

“Nope. Mom got pregnant with me then Dad proposed and all hell broke loose. My grandma tried to pay off my mom to get an abortion and leave town. When Dad found out he confronted his mom, and everyone took her side, so he cut them all off. They lived together in this small apartment near the school until they graduated. I was born a few weeks later, and then they moved to California.”

When my dad used to tell me the story of him and Mom, I used to get so annoyed, but now I’m glad that I listened, that I stored the information away for a moment like this because sharing these details with Sebastian feels like reaching a new level of intimacy.

“How’d your dad go from drilling for oil to running a vineyard?”

The question makes me laugh because it’s one that everybody would ask when they found out where he came from. No one could fathom why an heir to an oil fortune would want to spend his days pruning vines and tending to grapes.

“He said he always had this desire to use land for something beautiful, to create something from it instead of leeching it dry like his family had for generations.”

“That’s admirable,” Sebastian says, and I hear the respect in his voice. “Did your mom share his dream?”

“Oh, yeah, she left all the farming and science to Dad, but she loved the business and the people. She had all the good ideas like vineyard tours and wine tastings, and all the staff loved her because once a week she’d cook these big family meals to feed everyone. It was her way of checking in. Your mom reminds me of her a lot.”

“She loves you, you know, and I know it won’t make you miss your mom any less, but I’m happy to share her with you.”

I know he means it because he already is sharing her with me. Honestly, he’s sharing his entire family with me. Over the last month and half, I’ve built my own relationship with each member of the Adler family, and I don’t have any plans on letting any of them go.

Sitting up, I place my hand on his cheek and look deep into his eyes, losing myself for just a second in the calm of the champagne orbs. “I think I’ll take you up on that offer.”

“Smart woman.” He drops a kiss on my lips. “Do you want to tell me more or are you done sharing?”

I consider stopping but find that I don’t want to. The more I say about my parents and myself, the more I want to say. And so I tell Sebastian everything there is to know about me while we sit on the floor of my kitchen. It takes forever, and every time I mention Beau and Roland, his hand turns to a fist at my waist. He gets especially upset when I tell him about them blowing through all the money in my trust while I was in college.

Eventually, we get off the floor and reheat the dinner we let get cold. Then Sebastian sits me on the island counter and feeds me straight from the pots with a spoon he takes bites from when he’s not busy kissing me, which he’s doing right now.

“I have one more thing I want to tell you,” I murmur against his lips.

Sebastian pulls back, his eyes serious as they move over my face. “What is it?”

“My name.”

28

SEBASTIAN

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