Page 22 of Bodyguard Baby Daddy

“That’s not it,” Sebastian implores. He locks the van and walks past me to reception. He toes the door open as he walks, and I follow. We’re at the desk, and he dings the bell.

“So you are afraid of him?” I hiss.

He looks sideways at me and dings the bell again.

“Coward,” I utter as the lady comes out. I’m half teasing half not. I’m all one hundred percent hurt though.

His eyes bulge and his nostrils flare, he suddenly seems to grow ten times in size, except none of that gets directed towards me. Instead, he smiles at the old lady and taps the keys on the counter.

“Good evening,” he says.

“Good evening to you too,” she says, hand on the counter and leaning down into her seat. “Suppose you’re wanting a room.”

“Stink of the road, is that obvious?”

She laughs and clicks at her computer. “Oh, we get all kinds through here, but you don’t stink. The ones that stink,” she says looking at us with a face slightly twisted and sour. “They stinkbad.”

Sebastian laughs, and it dinks a chip in my armor. I suddenly feel a bit mean about the cowardly call.

“I’ll take it as a compliment then,” he says, now going to his wallet and taking out cash. “So what’s happening?”

“We’ve got an assortment of rooms at this fine motel. We ain’t got five stars but we can see the stars here. But for you two love birds, I can only put you up in our last room.”

“There are not two?” he asks, a look of surprise coming to his face. He leans forward on the counter to try to see her screen. “The car park is empty?”

She tilts it slightly away and looks at him like he’s trying to see behind the veil. She sours slightly. “That may be, Sherlock, but we’ve got the Bird Watchers of America Association here for the weekend. Booked up, and they all wander off for the nesting or some crap. I don’t particularly care, but they’re nice enough and keep a clean room. Even with all the bird noises.”

I can’t help but giggle, and she presses her tongue to her lip in appreciation of my laugh. Her eyes flash with joy.

“So the room?” she asks.

“The room,” Sebastian replies. He folds a few bills and gives them to her. She takes it and gives change, along with two sets of keys.

“You’re in room twenty-eight. Last on the right.”

Sebastian takes the keys, and we both head out, she makes another bird joke, but neither of us hears it. I try apologizing to him, but Sebastian still says nothing. He starts the van, and we whip around in the parking lot real quick, and he shoots us off to the end of the lot.

“C’mon Seb, I’m sorry,” I say. “Look, I shouldn’t have called you a coward.”

He says nothing.

“But it’s valid, asking it. Is my brother’s presence too much for us to have anything? Even with all the fun we have.”

He still says nothing and instead throttles the steering wheel.

The motel is a u-shaped building with entry and reception at the bottom of the shape. We’re on the right hand side of the building as we come up the center. As we pull into a stop out front of the room, there’s another car parked over two spots on the left. The guys are smoking like chimneys and reading a map.

Sebastian gets out and slides open the rear door to grab our stuff.

“Well, if you’re not a coward, you’re being childish,” I say. I’m hurt and frustrated again. “You have a bunch of lame excuses why we shouldn't be together. But then we have a good time. We clearly want each other. I’m just confused, Sebastian. What are we now?”

We grind to a halt, staring at one another at the back of the van. I’m staring up into his blazing blue eyes and folding my arms tighter. I feel like he’s sizing me up and is about to spew fire on me for my stupid damn words.

“I’m not a coward. Or childish. Or afraid ofhim.”

“Then what is it?” I ask.

He steps closer. “You want to know what we are now?”

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