Page 46 of Just a Heartbeat Away

“I’m not,” she repeated. “She said it was a gift from an old, rich boyfriend, and she never liked it that much. It sat on the floor, leaning against the wall in the guest bedroom for years. And yet, she had three different O’Keeffe prints carefully framed and displayed in the kitchen. She had a Picassooriginalthat no one ever saw and she could talk your ear off about Georgia O’Keeffe. I don’t know.” Via shrugged and seemed to come back from her memories. Back into the here and now. “It taught me something about art, I think. Not to have reverence for something that doesn’t move you.”

She strolled to the other side of the workshop and looked at one of the lamps he’d flicked on. It was the beta version of the one she claimed to have admired at Mary’s shop.

“I guess that I just like art that fits into somebody’s life, you know? I’ve seen Georgia O’Keeffe exhibitions before, but I still prefer the way those paintings looked on the old peeling wallpaper of Jetty’s kitchen.”

She turned back and caught his eye. After a second, those dark eyes of hers dropped and she shrugged her slim shoulders.

“I feel exactly the same way.”

Her eyes swooped back up to him and she stopped shifting around on her feet. “Yeah?”

“Definitely. When I finish a piece, it’s in the best shape it will ever be in. Sanded, polished to a nice glow, the works. But as soon as I send it home with somebody, I know it’s only a matter of time before there’s fingerprints on the copper, scratches on the wood, crayon or a hot coffee cup ring or whatever it is. This is art, sure, for me. The process of it is creative. And I love that. But in the end, I want people tousethis furniture, you know?”

She nodded and turned away. “You can never come over to my place.”

“I’m sorry?” He pushed his meaty hands into his pockets and froze. Had he said something offensive? Or—God—could she tell that he was one second away from blushing like a schoolboy just being alone with her? That would be humiliating.

“I think we’re becoming friends, but I’m pretty sure you’d drop me like a hot potato if you saw the furniture in my house.” She was grinning at him and it soothed his worry at the same time it made his stomach turn over. She had quite the smile, this Miss DeRosa. White, white teeth, that crooked one in the front catching the light. When she lit up like that, lines beside those dark eyes fanned out and made her look a little older. In a good way. Too good of a way.

She’s twenty-seven years old.

What was he doing? This was utterly ridiculous. This woman was in a completely different stage of life than Seb was. She was just starting out. She was living in her first apartment without a roommate, for God’s sake. Seb was shooting himself in the foot spending time alone with her.

He should have insisted Fin join them for the tour. All he was doing was wasting time on someone who was just not right for him. Sure, she was cute as hell and her personality made his heart race, but honestly, he was just torturing himself. He needed to politely send her packing. Via and her pretty friend, who was practically just as young as Via was. What had he been thinking of? Sure, intergenerational friendships existed. And sure, they could be great. But he shouldn’t have agreed to a date with Fin, and he sure shouldn’t have invited them over.

Joking around with her at school was one thing. But listening to her tuck in a sick Matty?Sebastian meet cliff, cliff meet Sebastian. Don’t worry, I sprinkled glass bottles at the bottom just in case the fall doesn’t kill you.

Maybe Valerie the dog walker had been a little bit of a dick, but Seb realized that she hadn’t been completely wrong. Dating a widower with a kid was justdifferentthan dating a regular single guy. There was no way that Seb wanted to put that kind of pressure on any woman who wasn’t completely ready for it. Especially not one who was barely out of undergrad. Her age had nothing to do with it, Seb told himself. Herlifewas too young for his. And his life was too old for hers.

And, duh, boyfriend yada yada.

Seb started clicking lights off as he responded, showing her that the tour was over. “I wouldn’t feel bad about having IKEA furniture; most kids do in their first places. You’re young. You’ve still got time to get your space the way you want it.”

He clicked off the last light and braced a hand under the garage door as she ducked under it. He could feel her eyes on the side of his face, but he didn’t look up as he padlocked his shop.

“GOODGOD,” FINmuttered once they were far enough away from the house not to be heard. “That was one of the most intense energies of any room I’ve ever been in.”

“I know,” Via groaned. “So weird.”

“Sexual tension sundae topped off with politeness whipped cream.”

“Totally! I’ve never seen something like that before. I’m exhausted just from watching it. Did you get his number?”

Fin’s brow furrowed and she switched the half-full grocery bag from one hand to the other. “Whose number?”

“Tyler’s.” Now Via was confused, too.

“Oh.” Fin cleared her throat as she took an uncharacteristic amount of time to answer the question. “Right. Me and Tyler. No, I didn’t get his number.”

“Why not?” Via looked supremely confused. “That man looked like he would have kissed the ground you walked on. How could you have left without his number?”

Fin waved a hand through the air. “Ah, you know how I feel about red auras.”

Via shrugged. “All right. You know best. But what I just saw? That was really special.”

“I agree.”

Via got the strange feeling that they weren’t exactly talking about the same thing.

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