Chapter 28
RHETT
“You rang, oh hunky one of mine?” Miss Sebastian says as she walks into my office.
My head snaps up from where I was focusing on a spreadsheet.
“I messaged you a minute ago,” I say. “How did you get here so fast?”
“As always, my timing is perfect… aaaand I had lunch with the girls, and we decided to bring over some food for our men.”
“Where’s mine?” Hearing the word food, my eyes dart to her hands.
Miss Sebastian rolls her eyes as she places a paper bag on my desk.
“You’d swear I never feed you,” she mumbles while making herself comfortable in a chair across from me.
Usually, I’d be tearing at the bag to get to the food, but not today.
Miss Sebastian notices the serious look on my face, which makes her manicured eyebrows dart into her hairline.
“Hold that thought,” she says. She gets up, closes the door and locks it. Her ass hardly touches the chair before she shoots up again, reaches over my desk, and unplugs the phone. Then she proceeds to switch off my cell and her own before she finally slumps back in the chair.
“Now we won’t be disturbed. What’s wrong?”
I’ve never seen her so serious before. It’s actually a little scary.
“Uhm… well… you see – ”
Her eyebrows draw together as she leans across the desk, placing her hand on mine.
“You’re a hot mess, my babykins! Who do I need to kill? Just give me the name, and I’ll take care of them. No one will be able to trace it back to you by the time I’m done.”
I start to laugh, but at the same time, my heart overflows with love for this woman. Since I’ve met her, she’s shot up the ranks to the number one spot in my heart.
“You don’t have to kill anyone,” I say, giving her a grateful smile. “I need… ahh…” I pinch my eyes closed, hoping I won’t regret this. “I need your help with a woman.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Fuck, my ears are going to bleed.
“OhmyGodI’mgonnadie.”
Oh shit.
“Mychunkofhunkfinallyfoundawoman.”
Here we go. I sit back as Miss Sebastian fires the questions at me one after the other.
“Who is she?”
“Do I know her?”
“What’s her name?”
Her words run together as she’s overtaken with excitement, and I’m already regretting asking her.
Silence fills the office as she sits and bounces on her chair, with a smile so broad I swear if she didn’t have ears it would wrap right around her head.
“It’s Evie Cole. I –”
“AhhhhhhhohmyGodIknewyoustilllovedher!”
I slump back in my chair and close my eyes. This was a huge mistake.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me! I can see them moving even if you close them,” Miss Sebastian snaps at me.
I start to laugh because nothing escapes her attention.
When I look at her, the smile is still plastered all over her face.
“What do you need me to do?”
Finally, we get to the reason I sent her a message, asking if I could come over for coffee after work.
“I fucked up.”
I’ve never seen a smile vanish that fast before.
“What did you do?” Miss Sebastian pulls a face as if I’m about to throw shit at her.
“I didn’t trust Evie.” Confusion makes her eyes blink rapidly, so I quickly give her the short version. “I have some issues I’m dealing with. I don’t trust easily.”
Miss Sebastian's eyebrows pop up again, and I let out a heavy sigh.
“Of course I trust you. You know, it’s very distracting to have a conversation with your facial expressions.”
“You trust me with your little black heart. It’s all that matters. Carry on. You didn’t trust Evie because like my other chunk of hunks, you were too wrapped up in your asshole-ish selves to see a good thing when it was slapping you all right in the face.”
“That about sums it up. Good, we’re on the same page. I don’t know how to worm myself back into Evie’s life.”
“Babykins, I’ve seen your ding-dong when you had that godawful stomach bug. In my professional opinion, which counts for a hell of a lot, seeing as I see a fair amount of ding dongs on a daily basis, your ding-dong cannot be compared to a worm.”
She sucks in a breath of air after getting all of that out.
“Miss Sebastian, can you try and focus? We’re not talking about dicks now. We’re talking about me finding a way to get back into Evie’s life.”
“Well, that’s easy-peasy. Just pick up the damn phone and talk to the woman.” She gives me an incredulous look as if she can’t believe I haven’t thought of something so simple.
“I need to do something bigger than a call. Something that says I’m sorry for being a bastard.”
Miss Sebastian thinks about it for a while.
“My babykins,” she says, giving me a look filled with pity, “I’m afraid you only have two choices. You either call the woman, or you go see her in person. I, personally, would prefer you see her face to face. Doing anything else at this point will be a waste of your time, and honestly, plain creepy. You’re going to have to start slow and work your way back into her good graces the old-fashion way.”
I let out a heavy sigh. I’m scared to death that the second Evie hears my voice she makes a run for it.
Miss Sebastian switches on her phone, and I watch her type something. It gives me time to think about what she just said. Do I call Evie, or do I just show up at her place?
Miss Sebastian suddenly smiles triumphantly. The next second she puts the phone to her ear.
“Hi, Evie?” Her smile widens as my heart stops. “This is Miss Sebastian. I’m a friend of… oh, Willow mentioned me. That’s wonderful. Was it all good things?”
My mouth opens, but only a strangled sound comes out.
“Aww… that’s so sweet of my angel-girl. Anyhow, I’m also a close friend of Rhett Daniels. Oh, but not so close that we bow-chika-wow-wow. I’m happily married. But then, if I weren’t, I’d definitely consider it. You’ve seen the man. He’s seriously fine looking.”
“WHAT THE FUCK,” I mouth the words at her. I can’t believe she just said that to Evie.
“Moving along, from what I understand, his assholishness far outweighed his sexiness, and he owes you an apology. Would you mind meeting with him?”
Miss Sebastian glances down at her nails, frowns and then has a closer look at her hands.
“Ah-ha.”
“Mmmm.”
“Oh.”
“Ugh.”
What the hell was the ugh for? I lean down, my head almost touching the desk as I try to catch her eyes.
“I agree with you, girl.”
She starts to nod.
“I don’t blame you.”
I dart up, and over the desk, grabbing the phone from Miss Sebastian.
I put the phone to my ear. “Evie?”
There’s total silence on the other side of the call. I look at the screen, and when I see that there is no call, I don’t know if I should hug Miss Sebastian or strangle her bedazzled ass.
Miss Sebastian stands up, takes her phone back and shoves it in her bag. She looks at me with the sweetest smile, and cheerfully says, “Either you call Evie now, or the conversation you just heard will be happening for real.”
She comes around the desk and places her hand on my arm. Standing on her toes, she presses a kiss to my cheek.
“I love you, Rhett. I want to see you find your own happiness. I’ve gotten Evie’s number and address from Willow, and I’ve forwarded it to you. Talk to Evie. Delaying it further won’t make it any better.”
I wrap my arms around her and press a kiss to the top of her head.
“You’re scary when you’re serious,” I whisper.
She pulls back and places her hand on my chest. I cover hers with mine and give it a squeeze.
“I’m only serious when it comes to someone I love and you, my babykins, have always had a special place in my heart.”
I give her another hug before she leaves.