Page 5 of Overnight Inheritance

“First of all, this is preemptive. Heath and I don’t even own it yet. The legalities are still being sorted out. But even so, what makes you think I’d want to sell a company I’d only just inherited? Especially to you, when there’s so much history with my family.”

“Because I was there, talking to you last night, and you don’t want to run a business. But the money you’d make on the sale, well, that could be put to all sorts of good purposes.”

“What I do or do not want is—”

Sebastian held up a hand as faint noises came through the baby monitor in his pocket. Not crying, just the sounds of Alfie waking up. The crying would start soon, though.

“Nice meeting you, Mae. I have to go,” he said and moved to close the door.

“We are not done,” she said.

“True,” he said. “We’ll continue this another time. Right now, I need to go.”

“You do not get to walk away, just because I caught you out—”

Alfie’s vocalizations were changing, as if he were working himself up to a cry. “Look, if you’re not done, then fine, but I really have to go. You’re free to stay or leave, but either way, shut the front door behind you.”

He turned and headed for the stairs, taking them two at a time, just as Alfie’s wail exploded through the baby monitor.

Mae stood on the threshold and watched Sebastian’s retreating back, not really sure what had just happened. She’d been primed for a confrontation—had lain awake most of the night planning for one—and been determined to get some answers. But she hadn’t gotten far before he’d...left. And had that been a baby’s cry? The sound had been muffled and faint, but it had sounded like a baby.

She frowned as Sebastian disappeared around a corner upstairs. Then she glanced over her shoulder at the border to Sarah’s place next door. The sensible thing to do would be to pull the door shut and head back to Sarah’s. But then, no one had ever accused her of being sensible.

Besides, Sebastian had invited her in. Sort of.

Feeling a little like she was trespassing, she closed the door and followed him up the stairs. The house had the air of slightly faded opulence, with its heavy wooden furniture, thick rugs, and expensive drapes, as if the place had been tastefully decorated many years earlier but not been updated. Huge portraits in gilt frames filled the walls, and elaborate light fittings hung from the center of the rooms on either side of her. Mae might have been staying with Sarah for a few weeks already—both here and at her New York City apartment—but she was still adjusting to the realization that people really lived like this.

At the top of the staircase, she turned left—where Sebastian had disappeared from sight—but all she found was an empty hall. Pausing, she heard low murmurs, so she followed the sound to the first door on the right.

Inside was a nursery, and unlike the other parts of the house she’d seen, this one was newly decorated. Fresh mint-green walls, buttercup-yellow checked drapes, and matching bedding. It felt bright. Happy. She stepped inside in time to see Sebastian reach into a crib and lift out a toddler, maybe eighteen months old, maybe a bit younger.

Transfixed, she watched as he laid the baby on a changing table, smiling down at him. Then, with one square, tan hand on the baby to keep him safe, he reached with the other to a cabinet above the table for a diaper. The movement showcased his strong, broad shoulders, and she was momentarily distracted. He murmured to the baby as he worked, changing the diaper in economical movements.

He glanced up, seeming to notice her for the first time, and she fought the instinct to shrink back behind the door. The moment seemed too private, too intimate to be observed by a stranger. But Sebastian wasn’t angry.

“Meet Alfie,” he said and lifted the baby again, holding him to his chest, high enough that their faces were side by side. The intensity of two sets of ocean-blue eyes was startling. Alfie had long lashes and his T-shirt had ridden up to show some adorable, chubby baby belly.

Damn, he didn’t play fair. She’d been all worked up and annoyed at him when she’d arrived, and now the wind was totally taken out of her sails. First, when she’d seen him, and his masculine beauty had hit her square in the gut, and, after she had recovered from that, with the realization that his baby was a cherub.

“Hi, Alfie.” She waggled her fingers at him. “How old is he?”

“Fourteen months,” Sebastian said and tickled his son’s belly. “You’re getting big, aren’t you?” Alfie gurgled in agreement.

“Come on,” he said to her. “Alfie is hungry.”

“Sure,” she said, with no real idea what she was agreeing to.

Sebastian turned for the door, swiping a plush toy elephant from the crib on the way out.

She followed them down to the kitchen and waited while Sebastian settled Alfie into a high chair. This morning was quickly becoming surreal. She’d come over to his place to confront him, maybe yell a bit to get it off her chest, but here she was, standing in a kitchen, watching him with a darling baby.

“I prepped a fruit platter for him earlier, but you’re welcome to coffee instead.”

“Is his mother still asleep?” she asked, then realized how inappropriate the question was. Did he even have a ring on?

“It’s just the two of us,” Sebastian said with a shrug that looked practiced. “Isn’t it, Alfie?”

“You’re divorced?” she asked, unsure why she was pushing the point.

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