Page 28 of The Cursed Sebastian Storm

“It’s okay,” James said again, abandoning the coffee to face Sebastian. “I hope we can trust each other more the longer we’re together. You can always talk to me.”

“I know I can talk to you, James. I’m sorry.” Sebastian felt helpless. He didn’t want to lose James’s trust or admit he hadn’t trusted James the way James trusted him, but he knew keeping big secrets like this wasn’t the way to build a good relationship.

Sebastian hadn’t realized his self-preservation had come at the expense of trusting James. But it had. He’d believed in the worst-case scenario more than he’d believed in James or what the two of them had together.

James rubbed his eyes again. “We should tell Eli.”

“I can talk to him,” Sebastian offered, hoping that doing that for James would help.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll do it.” James grabbed a sports drink out of the fridge. “You get that phone working and see about the duplex. I’ll go meet Eli at Parker’s now and talk to him, then go for my swim. Meet you back here after.”

“Only if you’re sure.”

James gave him a kind smile. “I’m sure. And don’t worry, Eli won’t blame you either, Sebastian. He and I will never blame you for something you didn’t do. You never had to be afraid of that.” He gripped Sebastian firmly on the shoulder and left the kitchen, grabbing his swim bag on the way out.

Sebastian swallowed. His throat constricted and tears filled his eyes. He was a mess of guilt and regret. He’d been preparing for the end of everything good, but instead of helping him survive, it had made everything worse.

CHAPTER TEN

With some borrowed cash from James, Sebastian walked to the General Store to sort out his phone.

Carla smiled as Sebastian approached the register. “Got your wallet?”

His stomach was tight with a combination of anxiety due to the crowded store and worry about his conversation with James. He nodded at Carla and set the SIM card on the counter. Someone came to stand in line behind him.

“You here visiting?” Carla asked as she rang up the purchase and took his cash.

“No.” Sebastian glanced at the middle-aged woman behind him in line, hoping she wouldn’t get impatient as Carla talked to him. He’d never liked annoying people.

“New in town then?” Carla pressed, not yet counting out his change.

“No. I’ve lived just outside of town for a while.” Sebastian fidgeted with the hem of James’s leather jacket. He hadn’t been able to leave its comfort behind, even after disappointing James. “I wanted to move closer.”

“Outside of town?” Carla looked confused. Which was fair. There wasn’t anything outside of Moonlight Falls other than trees.

“You’re not the one at Storm House, are you?” the woman behind him cut in, blatant curiosity lighting her face.

“Maybe,” Sebastian muttered.

“Probably best to get out of that festering old place,” she advised. “My mother said the Storms used to have parties out there when she was a little girl. No matter how lively they were, she said they couldn’t disguise the creepiness of the place, and those were the good old days.”

Sebastian didn’t respond. Sullivan and his son, Simon, had lived at Storm House with their families. They’d had guests out to the house and hosted regular events. It would have been much less obvious to people in town that the two men never left the property when their wives and children came and went, and Storm House wasn’t some foreboding place no one visited.

People in town seemed to believe things at Storm House had gone steadily downhill, gotten undeniably creepier and more haunted as the decades passed and guests were no longer invited out. But that was mainly because Simon had wanted peace and quiet in his final years, and Stephen hadn’t had the kind of family support his predecessors had when he’d been trapped there alone.

“Well, it’ll be good to have you in town,” Carla said, breaking the strained silence as Sebastian and the other woman stared at each other. Carla offered his change, smiling brightly at Sebastian as he took it and fled.

The duplex was around the corner, across the street from Gray Electrical. Sebastian called the number listed on the For Rent sign in the window. When the landlord realized Sebastian was standing in the front yard, he rushed over to meet him.

“Might as well show you through now.” The man seemed eager to accommodate Sebastian as he walked him through the small home. It was partially furnished, with a bed in the room upstairs and a couch and dining table downstairs.

Sebastian didn’t like anything about it. “I’ll take it,” he said after spending five minutes in the place.

The landlord seemed delighted. He’d bemoaned how hard it was to find tenants in such a small town, especially when most residents wanted a larger property and didn’t want to share a wall with their next-door neighbor.

“The man living here before took great care of everything,” the landlord assured Sebastian. “He was here for ten years before moving to be closer to his grandkids, and the woman next door is lovely.”

Sebastian nodded. He wasn’t a fan of small talk. Never had been. He’d been quiet as a kid, and maybe the roots of his new anxiety had always been there, though there was no denying he didn’t handle unpredictable situations as well as he used to.

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