Sebastian scowled.
His phone chimed again. A text from CeCe.
We’re having a family dinner at our house on Sunday, and I’m making your favorite. Shrimp in butter sauce with mashed potatoes, green beans, and homemade rolls. You’re not allowed to come, though, unless you’ve asked out that woman by that time. I really hope you can come, because I’d hate to give your shrimp to Eugene.
Groaning, Sebastian bent forward and set his forehead on top of his forearm on the desk. He didn’t deserve the things they did for him. He’d never felt that he did. Which was one of many differences between him and them. The things they did had nothing to do with whether or not he was deserving. The things they did were motivated by simple love.
For him, love was not simple.
Another text from Ben.
The PE teacher and the vice principal at Misty River High both have a crush on her. You’re burning valuable time.
And then, from CeCe:
Call her. Or I will.
In his whole life, he’d only formed two deep attachments—with his mother and the Colemans. Loyalty to Ben ran in his blood.
It was difficult to think about acting contrary to that.
It was also difficult to think about how to protect his heart from Leah if she agreed to go out with him.
It hadn’t been difficult to avoid giving women the power to hurt him in the past. But he already felt uncomfortably far gone over Leah, and they weren’t even a couple.
Warnings were stirring inside him. He heard them. Yet they were pitted against his attraction to Leah, and Leah was winning.
She’d told him point-blank that she was not looking for romance. If she did agree to go out with him, she’d want to keep things light. Right? Yes. Which was reassuring. It meant she wouldn’t demand vulnerability from him.
What should he do?
Should he really move forward with this?
He wrote a text to both Ben and CeCe.
Are you sure you’re okay with the idea of me and Leah?
CeCe answered almost immediately.
As sure as God made little green apples.
Then from Ben:
As sure as death and taxes.
Sebastian picked up his phone and selected Leah’s contact. Filling his lungs, he remembered how she’d looked at the football game in her jersey. Her pale hair. Her long eyelashes and straightforward gaze. She was quirky, self-reliant, sacrificial. Her personality entertained him. Talking to her challenged him. He often dialed-in conversations with people. But he’d never be able to dial in a conversation with Leah Montgomery. Keeping up with her demanded his full attention.
He connected a call to her, then went to stand at his window in his wrinkled scrubs. Outside, the lights of Atlanta sparkled against a black backdrop of sky. He concentrated on a distant window glowing with yellow light as if, should he try hard enough, he’d be able to see her there.
Leah’s brows glided upward when she saw the identity of the incoming caller. Sebastian was calling her? Sebastian? “Hello?” She sounded woefully breathless.
“Leah, it’s Sebastian. How are you?”
“Very well, thanks. And you?”
“Doing well.”
The deep voice she’d heard a few nights ago in a dream curled around her like a warm silk blanket. “Still wearing the Susan B. Anthony T-shirt?” she asked.
“No. It was so tight I had to use a vacuum attachment to suck it off me when I got home.”
“The idea that ‘we, the people doesn’t mean we, the white male citizens’ has never been a comfortable one for men to wear.”
He laughed. “True.”
“I happen to love my T-shirt. I’m wearing it while grading papers at this very moment, in fact. Eminently comfortable.”
A pause of quiet. Why had he called?
“I wondered if you’d be interested in having dinner with me,” he said.
Her shocked mind took a ride on a Tilt-A-Whirl. “For what purpose?”
“For the purpose of enjoyment.”
What did that mean? She didn’t want to misunderstand. “Are you asking me out on a date?”
“I am.”
A thrill sizzled along her spine.
“Right after I met you,” he said, “I wanted to contact you, but I didn’t know your name. I couldn’t believe my luck when I ran into you at the school’s farmers market. Except, right after we started talking I learned that you were the Leah who Ben’s been interested in for so long.”
“Oh.”
“He’s talked about you since you started teaching at the school. When I discovered who you were to him, my hands were tied.”
“So you encouraged me to date him.”
“It seemed like the right thing to do. For everyone concerned.”
She tried and failed to wrap her mind around the idea that Ben and Sebastian could both be attracted to her.
“Ben saw us talking at the football game,” Sebastian said. “Afterward, he told me it would be fine with him if I called you and asked you out. Are you interested in going out with me?”
“No—that is . . . Yes.” She cleared her throat. “On one hand, I am interested because I’m attracted to you even though, as I told you weeks ago, I truly thought I was missing the attraction gene. On the other hand, no. I’m not interested because I refuse to come between you and Ben.”
“Ben has told me that our friendship will be fine.”
“Maybe, but I don’t see the point in testing that. Or risking the good rapport that you and I share by going on a date. After all, based on my romantic past and your romantic past, the odds of a fulfilling relationship materializing from our date are abysmally low.”
“I don’t expect every date I go on to convert into a fulfilling relationship.”
“No? Then why bother with dating? Isn’t the point of it to find a life partner?” That’s what was logical. To the best of her knowledge, that’s why her friends subjected themselves to dating.
“For me, the point is to have fun.”
“Fun?”
“Yes, Leah. Fun. Go out with me, and I’ll show you what I mean.”
From her spot in the dining room, she stared at the books about New England she’d brought back from her trip and stacked on a living room end table.
She knew Sebastian well enough to know that his friendship with Ben was the most important relationship he had. It wasn’t worth jeopardizing in pursuit of “fun.” “I appreciate the kind offer. But the answer’s no. I’m chagrined because I realize that makes me sound ungrateful. When, in actuality, I’m very grateful for your assistance with my hospital records and the gift you sent Dylan. I owe you.”
“You do?”
“Yes.”
“If you think I’m too honorable to leverage that into convincing you to go out with me, you’re wrong.”
She snickered. See? This was the problem with him. She genuinely liked him. She had a weakness for scoundrels.
“Good night, Doctor.”
“Good night, Professor.”
Click.
Sebastian grinned.
Leah had just said no to him, but instead of disappointment, he experienced a stab of determination. She was unsure of him. But their conversation had only made him more sure of her.