Page 31 of Treasure and Tarot

“Right?” He rolled his eyes at himself. “But it doesn’t have to be.”

They were both adults, right?

“Oh, I can’t think of any reason that it wouldn’t be weird. Everything about our relationship, thus far, has been pretty outside the norm.”

But at least Sebastian was starting to say that they had a relationship. That was a plus.

He nodded toward the bottle Bastian had a death grip on. “I’ll have to call down to the kitchen and ask if they have a corkscrew we can borrow.”

“Hey, now, I’m classy. I brought a screw top.”

“Oh, you are a smart little guy, aren’t you?”

Sebastian gave him the raised eyebrow. “I’m not that little.”

Colton’s cheeks heated. “No, you’re not. I’m just really nervous. I’ve never had a dinner in my room with the father of my child before.”

“Really? Neither have I.” Sebastian gave him the great big, wide, patently fake fluttery gaze, and he just cracked up. What else was he supposed to do?

Once the laughter eased, they sat, and he poured the wine. Then he grabbed the house plans from beside his chair. “So, I really do believe that this activity is your omega trying to get Abby out of the house and not in a violent sort of way. I think he’s trying to wake her up and save her.”

Abby was the same age as the youngest child from the big murder. It just made a lot of sense to him.

“Okay, I’m totally willing to go with that. I really am. In fact, that would make me happy if it was. I mean, I’ve lived with these ghosts my whole life and while, sure, periodically things have been a little weird. It’s never been scary. It’s never been like this.”

Colton frowned. “Huh.”

Sebastian blinked at him. “What?”

“Well.” He was beginning to formulate a thought. “Can you tell me about the ghosts? I mean, will you tell me your experience from the time you can recall? Do you remember being a little kid and having the ghosts bother you?”

Sebastian shook his head. “I mean, you have to remember this was my grandparents’ house. Until oh… I think I was a tween when we moved in, because my grandfather had died, and my grandmother needed help. You know, all of those stairs.” Bastian sighed and shook his head. “I mean, we lived here in town. We lived next door, as a matter of fact, and I slept there quite a bit, but I didn’t live there.”

“Do you remember the ghosts ever shaking your feet, ever waking you up?”

Sebastian closed his eyes, like he was trying to remember. “I always knew about them being there. You know, kids running up and down the stairs, doors opening and closing, papers shuffling, things like that. I do remember that, but I don’t really remember my feet being shaken or anything. When I stayed as a kid, I almost always slept in my grandparents’ room on a cot, so that I was close. When we moved in, the first big thing I remember is I wanted desperately to have a Las Vegas night for my sixteenth birthday. So, my folks did it up right, like the whole thing. They did a fake roulette wheel and a poker table and everything. It was so much fun, and I remember it was the first night that we all felt like we crossed the line.”

Colton rolled his eyes, unable to help himself. “Poker party.”

“Right. You know, I guess it had been long enough that, we just didn’t think about it. I mean, they’re ghosts, right? You don’t think about whether this is going to disturb the ghosts. But it did, and things were wild for about a week.”

“It had been over a century, Bastian. That’s not unreasonable.”

Sebastian nodded. “Then it calmed back down. And it started up again… I guess about the time I found out I was pregnant? It’s just been building and building, and now it’s unbearable. So how do I talk to him, the omega, and tell him that Abby’s fine, and that I’m not going to let anybody hurt her?”

Colton pondered that. “Well, we can bring in a medium, maybe. I know a guy who does good work. We don’t have to film that if you don’t want to.” He gave Bastian a wry smile. “Though it would make hellacious good TV.”

Sebastian chewed his lower lip, and Colton stared, caught by the urge to nibble right there too. “Well, maybe you could film it, and then I could watch the footage and sign off or not?”

“That’s more fair than I probably deserve.”

Turning his wineglass around and around, Bastian shook his head. “Not really. I mean, okay, look. Regardless of what happens with you and me, the show itself offered to pay me for the right to film. And I’m not a greedy butthead. You deserve to get your full episode worth.”

Colton melted a little. This was why he’d fallen for Sebastian in the first place. He was just good. Fair. So smart. “Thanks, baby.” Whoops. The honey he’d stifled, but the baby had slipped out.

Sebastian teared up a little bit. “I’m so angry at your parents. I mean, I know you are too. At least you’re acting like you are, but I really wanted to be… I don’t know. I feel so stupid. I mean, I’ve felt stupid for a while now. I was on birth control. I wasn’t planning on having a baby. I was hoping to ask to come to your next adventure with you. So, yeah. Tired of feeling like a rube.”

“Do people still say rube?” he teased, trying to lighten the mood.

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