Page 5 of Please Save Me

“Twenty-three.”

I blew out a pained breath. Surely it didn’t help that my fortieth was coming up that Sunday, but lately I felt like the adults in my house kept getting younger and younger.

“What?” He seemed offended at my response.

“Nothing, I just thought you’d be older.”

His nose wrinkled in a way that would have been cute on anyone else. “Why?”

“Well, you got a Ph.D., don’t ya?”

“I fail to see how that’s related to my age.”

Spending time with Sebastian was making me like him less, and I hadn’t thought that was even possible.

“So, if you’re ready to marry her, do you know how you’ll propose?”

“I don’t think I have topropose,” he scoffed. “We can elope at the courthouse.”

“...What if she wants a wedding?”

“Cameron, I know Mason well enough to know she’sfinewith eloping.” His response came automatically, almost cutting off the end of my question.

“How?”

“Because that’s what relationships are: knowing the other person better than the back of your own hand.”

I was taken aback by his philosophy. If that was the case, then I wasn’t inanyrelationships. Even after three years of living together, Lucain and Sophia still surprised me at times; that’s what kept life interesting.

Sebastian interrupted my musings with another shocking insight: “Mason is a massive, hormonal mess right now anyway. There’s no way she’d want to be seen in a wedding dress looking like that.”

I fought the urge to jump out of my fancy leather seat and break Sebastian’s nose. No one in this world was allowed to talk about Mason like that, least of all this miserable narcissistic scum-sucker. Sure, she was big and miserable, but she was allowed to be a little grouchy. I had seen the way Jas and Juni could destroy a room; I couldn’t evenimaginethe kind of trouble Rosie could get up to inside Mason’s belly.

Sebastian continued speaking, though I could barely hear him over the rage in my ears. “I’m hoping that if I help you do something nice for her, like get her food, it’ll get the ball rolling for a conversation that ends with her as my wife.”

There was no way in hell I’d let that happen… but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Is that why you wanted to come with me?”

As he nodded, the guilt in his expression reminded me of a dog that had just chewed up someone’s shoes.

“And I’m kind of surprised you let me come.”

And now, I had the perfect opportunity to explain why I wanted to hang out with Seb.

“I, uh, my motives ain’tpureeither.”

He studied me as he pushed up his glasses. “You’re not using this as a chance to woo me, are you?”

A bark of laughter escaped before I could stop it. “You ain’t exactly my type.”

“I could say the same… I like partners who actually take care of themselves.”

I ignored the fact that this was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

“I saw Dale today.” My heart thundered just thinking about the encounter. “Worse than that, he was on the property.”

His eyes went as wide as the ocean. “Does he know about Mason?”

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