Page 48 of Overnight Inheritance

“Thank you for understanding.” He cupped the side of her face with his large palm. “You always do.”

She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, keeping herself steady at the warm contact of his hand on her face, and waited until he dropped the hand and shoved it into his trouser pocket before she let herself take another full breath. They set off walking again, and she said, “Hey, here’s some news for you.”

He coughed out a laugh. “Not sure I can handle any more news.”

“You’ll like this one. You were right about Sarah and Lauren. Well, from Sarah’s side anyway. I nudged her a bit—”

“I can imagine,” he said, smiling.

“—and she’s going to tell Lauren how she feels.” It was the one bright spot in this wretched day.

“You’ve done a good thing, Mae. After seeing them together, there’s no way it’s one-sided. I’m glad for them.”

“Me too.” And since Sarah was going to tell Lauren how she felt, Mae needed to do the same. “This is really crappy timing, but there’s something I need to say too.”

He shrugged, as if resigned. “Go on then.”

“You asked me at the restaurant if I loved you and I didn’t reply straight away. That’s because I’m not always great at recognizing how I feel about things.” She stopped walking again and he stopped too, watching her intently. “But I do. I love you, Sebastian. So much.”

He reached for her and pulled her face to his, their lips crashing in a kiss that was hungry and desperate, and she melted against him. Her brain was trying not to read anything into the kiss because the day had been turbulent, and it was just a kiss, after all, but her heart was full of hope. They broke away and he rested his forehead against hers as they caught their breath.

“Is there any chance for us?” she whispered.

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly and stepped back. “All my life I’ve had my guard up, even with Ashley. Always waiting for someone to leave or kick me while I’m down. I have no idea why I let you in so easily, but now that my guard is up again, I don’t think I can bring it back down. I am sure I don’t want to. I love you, Mae, but I can’t spend my life constantly proving myself to you.”

That was fair. It might break her heart but she couldn’t blame him for needing to protect himself and his precious son.

His cell chirruped in his pocket and, lightning fast, he had it out and at his ear. She watched the conversation, watched the color drain from his face, and then he disconnected and carefully put the cell back in his pocket.

“Sebastian?” she said gently.

“It was too late.” He looked at her, his eyes wide and unseeing. “They couldn’t save him.”

She pulled him close and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m so sorry.”

“This doesn’t seem real.” He rubbed his hands over his face, as if trying to wake himself up. “And it’s all so messy, I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”

She took his hands and held them between hers. “There’s no ‘supposed to’ in these situations. How do you feel?”

“Numb.”

“That’s probably normal.” Unlike Sebastian and his father, Mae had been very close to her mother, and when she died after being hit by a car, Mae had felt numb for days.

He looked back at the hospital over his shoulder. “They said I could go inside and say goodbye and collect his personal things.”

“You want me to come with you?”

He released her hands and stepped back, his face blank. He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I think I should do this alone.”

She’d expected that, and she tried not to care that it stung, because he really did need some time alone to say goodbye to his father. “Call if you need anything.”

He nodded, turned, and left.

She watched him walk away from this little moment outside time, and wondered if she’d ever feel this close to Sebastian Newport again.

Twelve

Mae stepped out of the elevator at Bellavista Holdings just over a week later, surrounded by her aunt, her brother and future sister-in-law, and one of their lawyers. An invitation had arrived a couple of hours ago to attend a meeting in the boardroom. The message was from Rosario, and she’d apologized for the short notice and said they could bring along anyone they wanted, but mentioned nothing about the reason for the meeting. After a quick conversation, they’d decided that whatever the meeting was about, having Freya’s forensic accounting brain and one lawyer would be useful, so Heath had rung Freya at work and asked if she could get away for a couple of hours, and Sarah had organized one of her lawyers to attend.

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