Page 25 of Overnight Inheritance

“I’ll extend the booking,” Sarah said with a valiant attempt at a smile.

“Thank you,” Mae said and stood, snagging the bagel from her plate. She kissed both her brother and aunt on the cheek, mouthed “Thank you” to Lauren, took her plate back to the kitchen and went to her room to get dressed for work. The room where the sheets were still rumpled from her encounter with Sebastian. She bet they still smelled like him too.

Less than an hour later, she walked through Rosario’s office, placing a French vanilla cappuccino, with oat milk, and a paper bag containing a pastry on her desk.

“Mae, I’m so glad you came to work here,” Rosario said with a smile that bordered on adoration. “Best boss ever.”

“Hey.” Sebastian appeared in the doorway. “You know she doesn’t actually work here. I’m still your boss.”

Rosario lifted her hands, palms out. “You don’t bring me coffee. My loyalty is fickle.”

Mae went to her shared office and headed for her little wooden desk. “Morning, Sebastian.”

“It’s all making sense now,” he said, one side of his mouth hitched up. “You agreed to shadow me so you could woo my staff into switching loyalties. You were the one with the nefarious plan.”

“I can write down the way she likes her coffee for you if you think it would help,” she said sweetly, and heard his chuckle from behind her.

As she sat down at her desk, she noticed a square box tied with a red ribbon. She glanced at Sebastian, who gave her a self-satisfied smile, and opened it to find an assortment colored pens, sticky notes, striped paper clips, highlighters, and a bright-orange notebook.

She gasped. “You got me stationery?”

“I had some spare time this morning without Alfie at home, so I left early. When I passed a stationery store, I remembered you said how much you like it.” He casually shrugged one shoulder. “I figured you needed some for your desk.”

“Thank you,” she said, lifting each item out of the box and admiring its beauty.

He rubbed a hand across his jaw. “No need to be too grateful—it went on the office expenses.”

It was more than that, though. He’d thought about her and had stopped to pick out some things he thought she’d like. Her heart swelled in her chest. She lined each of the items up along the side of her desk, then folded her hands, looking at them. Then she looked back up at him and smiled. “What’s on the agenda today?”

“Back-to-back meetings I’m afraid.” He swiveled in his chair to face his computer screen. “First one starting in ten minutes in our boardroom, then we’re darting across town for the next. No time for one of our lunches either, since we’re catching up from yesterday. We’ll just grab something on the go.”

No time to go out for lunch? That was when she was going to ask him about the engagement dinner. Maybe she should just get it over with now instead. “Sebastian?”

“Mm-hmm?” he said as he stood and started collecting things he’d need for the meeting.

“Are you busy Friday night?”

His brows drew together. “Not really. Amanda and Barry are keeping Alfie over the weekend.”

“Then you should come to dinner with us,” she said brightly.

“Who is ‘us’ exactly?” He looked over, his deep blue eyes narrowed.

She counted off on her fingers. “Heath, Freya, Lauren, who is Freya’s mom and Sarah’s best friend, Sarah, and me.”

“You want me to have dinner with the heart of the Rutherford family?” He put his things down again and crossed his arms. The action brought her attention to his fresh white shirt, and the muscular chest beneath it that had been pressed against her breasts the night before. Suddenly, there wasn’t enough oxygen in the room.

“Yes,” she managed to whisper.

“Why?” he said, his voice full of incredulity.

She shook herself and forced her attention back to the conversation at hand. “Because we’re toasting Heath and Freya’s engagement.”

“Sure,” he said pointedly, “but why invitemeto it?”

“Because I think we need to move past this idea of who is from what family and preconceptions about things and just meet each other as people.” Was she the only one who saw it like that? How people were just people and should be judged on their own merits?

He was still clearly less than convinced. “Now who has a secret agenda?”

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