Page 7 of Prognosis Temporary

CHAPTER TWO

AS THE evening drew to a close, Callie was aware of Sebastian becoming quieter, his gaze more intent as a weird kind of charge grew and then arced steadily between them. Like an approaching storm.

Laden. Ominous.

It enthralled and frightened her all at once. She knew she should get up and leave while she could but was powerless to its pull. Even when Geri called for a doggie bag for the massive pizza she hadn’t been able to finish and the others took their leave en masse, she was helpless.

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow at them. ‘Coffee?’

‘Kill for one,’ Geri agreed.

‘That would be lovely,’ Callie murmured.

She should have declined. She knew that. But that unruly lock of hair flopping across his forehead overrode all her common sense. No seemed to have been stricken from her vocabulary. Besides, Geri was giving her a lift home so she had to stay. Right?

Sebastian beckoned a waitress over and they placed their orders. As she left, Callie became aware of a raised voice behind her and all three of them turned to look at what was happening.

They were sitting in the alfresco area of a restaurant in Fortitude Valley. The suburb was up-and-coming, quite hip with the movers and shakers but by and large it was still less than salubrious in places. With a large client base here and Jambalyn being located a stone’s throw from the restaurant, Callie knew the area well.

A dishevelled man, probably homeless, definitely down on his luck, was asking customers at the tables closest to the street for spare change for food. A young, preppy-looking man in an expensive suit at a table full of suits had taken it on himself to loudly lecture the unfortunate man, who was shuffling his feet, his head downcast, much to the delight of the other suits.

Callie turned away, unable to witness such callous inhumanity. She felt sick. How could he? What would a guy like that know about the difficulties some people faced and how life could go down the drain so rapidly? How could he judge so cruelly someone he didn’t even know?

Her gaze fell to her lap and her shaking hands and she twisted them together to still the tremor. Her heart thumped like a gong in her chest and the meal she’d just eaten was like a lump of lead in her belly.

Geri placed a hand over hers. ‘Are you okay?’

Callie looked up into Geri’s concerned eyes. She could see a frown knitting Sebastian’s brows in her peripheral vision and her gaze darted to him and back again. She nodded but the ugly scene had opened the floodgate on memories she’d been trying to keep at bay all day, from the bridge all the way through to Zack’s little-boy voice, and her lungs suddenly felt too small and there wasn’t enough air.

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Sebastian was surprisedby the sudden change in the previously animated Callie. She’d gone very pale and there was an unbearable sadness in her expressive, amber eyes. The arrogant fool confronting the homeless man had obviously upset her. After her fearless performance on the bridge today he’d half expected her to march over and verbally eviscerate the conceited guy.

Where was the tall, proud Amazon from this morning, her eyes a’blazing?

He’d wanted to kiss that woman on the bridge senseless. This Callie looked like she was about to faint and, curiously, he wanted to wrap her up in his arms and shield her from the big bad world. ‘Excuse me,’ he murmured.

Sebastian strode over to where the commotion was taking place, drawing level with the table just as the abusive dick finished suggesting that the obviously itinerant man get a job.

‘Have you quite finished?’

It wasn’t in Sebastian’s demeanour to court danger. In fact, he’d had enough of danger this last year. He was certainly no he-man. He didn’t pick fights or go around looking for trouble. But some things just couldn’t be ignored and this dickhead needed to learn some manners.

‘I...I beg your pardon?’ The younger man looked around at his friends and the rest of the people in the half-full restaurant, obviously embarrassed to be called on his appalling behaviour.

Good!

‘Feel like a big man now in front of your friends, humiliating another human being who was just looking for a bit of decency and compassion?’

The man stood, the scrape of his chair loud in the suddenly charged atmosphere. ‘Who the hell are you?’ he demanded but quickly paled when he realised that Sebastian had four inches and several muscles groups on him.

‘Someone who doesn’t need to prove himself by being a dick.’

‘Look...I’m sorry, mate.’ He held up his hands in a placatory manner. ‘I didn’t mean any harm.’

Sebastian jaw tightened. This guy was a bully. Picking on someone helpless but backing down at the first sign of superior strength. He needed to apologise but the homeless man had obviously seen his opportunity and fled the ugly scene. Sebastian located him across the street shuffling away, his shoulders slumped.

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