Chapter Two
“I really am going to kill you, Shelli. I know how to do it so it looks like an accident, and I know where to hide the body.”
“Whoa. You’re scary.”
Flicking on the turn indicator, Grace gave her partner—who laughed at her in the ambulance’s passenger seat—a glare. “You, too, Rory, if you keep laughing.”
“Hi, Rory,” Shelli called through the phone connection, her mirth filling the cabin. “Can you tell Grace to lighten up?”
“Sure. Lighten up, Wilder.”
Grace gritted her teeth and directed the ambulance into its designated parking bay in the depot.
“Thanks, Rory,” Shelli said. “I’ll buy you a drink after the game on Friday.”
Grace killed the engine and dropped her forehead onto the steering wheel. “Why did I ever introduce you two to each other?”
Rory slapped her on the back. “Because your new partner was a fabulous Scottish Chinese gay boy new to Sydney, and you took pity on his lonely—”
“But fabulous,” Shelli interjected.
“But fabulous arse, and gave him a friend.”
“Exactly,” Shelli agreed through the phone.
Raising her head, Grace scowled first at her phone where it sat in its dock on the dash, and then at Rory.
Rory wriggled his eyebrows.
Grace chuckled and shook her head. What was the point? It was impossible to be angry with Rory for long. “Get out, Chang, and go home. Your shift’s done.”
“Bye, Rory,” Shelli called. “See you Friday. Don’t forget we’re fundraising for breast cancer this game.”
“Lollie-pink tutu and a tiara to be worn. Got it. See you there.” Squeezing Grace’s hand, Rory opened his door and climbed out. “Don’t be too hard on Shelli. We need her on the basketball court.”
Grace waved him off with a smile. “Be gone, Chang. See you tomorrow.”
Alone in the ambulance, she let out a sigh. It had been a long shift. A stressful one, given she hadn’t been able to have a conversation with Shelli until now.
She’d left Shelli numerous messages to get her butt over to Cody and get Sebastian out of it. She’d received two replies from Shelli. One saying she was caught in a work emergency and would get to Cody as soon as possible, and another two hours later stating everything was okay.
The workday just added to the fun—two drug overdoses, a suspected stroke, a fifteen-year-old girl with a broken back from a skateboarding accident, and a possible food-poisoning victim. And that was just the legit callouts. In among all that, there’d been the usual false alarms and nonevent jobs. At least the lovely, but clearly lonely, old lady at the last one of those had offered tea and biscuits. A couple of Tim Tams and a milky tea with three sugars may not be the best of dinners, but it was something.
Chocolate biscuits and tea in your stomach, a friend going behind your back, and an annoying irritation at home. Maybe a third straight shift is what you need right now?
“You’re mad, aren’t you?”
She rubbed her eyes at Shelli’s soft question. “Shels, I thought you knew how I felt about Sebastian Hart. And let’s not even talk about the fact you and Cody went behind my back.”
“But you should have seen Cody’s face, Grace. When we were talking about big brothers and what they do with their little brothers. I haven’t seen him so excited since Gary…” She trailed off.
Grace closed her eyes. Since Gary had been alive. That’s what Shelli had been going to say. Since Cody had a male figure in his life. Since he had a family member who played with him and didn’t work all the time.
She dropped her head onto the steering wheel again. “But why Sebastian Hart, Shels? Why him?”
“It wasn’t my call, it was Judge Myers. I couldn’t tell her Cody wasn’t a good fit because you and Hart used to call each other names when you were kids, could I? She’s…scary.”
“Scary? You want scary, Shels? Sebastian Hart is back in my life now. He brought out the worst in me. Are you ready for that again?”
Silence stretched over the connection for a second, and then Shelli sighed. “Okay, I’ll admit you guys had a turbulent relationship, and he wasn’t always nice, but Grace…he’s a filmmaker. Think about how much Cody loves movies. I know none of his friends really get him and his geeky-movie obsessions, so having someone like Hart in his life would be incredible. I mean, who wouldn’t want the Sebastian Hart in their life? Well, except you.”
A chill swept over Grace, singeing away her agitation. Cody’s friends didn’t get him? God, how woeful of a mother was she if she didn’t know that? He’d been turning down playdates lately, and talking more about the school library than the school playground, but she hadn’t thought it had anything to do with not fitting in. Her stomach knotted. Jesus.
“You’ve finished your shift, right?” Shelli asked.
She swallowed. “Yeah.”
“Come ’round. You need a cuppa. And a hug.”
Another knot twisted in her stomach. “What do you mean, come ’round? Aren’t you at my place?”
There was more silence.
“Shelli?”
“I couldn’t get away from work. So I called your house, and Hart was totally okay staying with Cody until you finished your shift. Cody was having a ball. I’d interrupted them playing Mario Kart. He was nice to talk to.” She paused. “Although I don’t think Hart remembered who I was. Guess I didn’t have as big an impact on his life as you did, huh?”
Grace scrunched up her face and fisted her hands in her hair. “Shelli, I really am going to kill you when I see you again. I’ve to get home. Who knows if Hart is still there? He’s probably gone and left Cody with his personal food stylist.”
“He’s got one of those?”
As angry and frustrated as she was, she couldn’t help but laugh. Shelli was an acquired taste, but everything she did, she did from her heart. “Who knows? Probably. He’s a Hollywood celebrity. Hollywood celebrities have those kinds of things, don’t they?”
Shelli snorted. “Well, if he has left Cody with his personal whatever, Judge Myers is going to have a fit. She’s tough. Doesn’t joke about. I’m surprised Hart got community service, to be honest. Myers is the kind of judge to throw a person in jail for what he did.”
“What did he do?”
“Oh, honey, when you get home, Google Sebastian Hart and Hugo Boss.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Even when he’s bad, it involves a lifestyle I can’t fathom.”
Shelli laughed. “As far as I know, his punishment was kept from the public—isn’t that always the way with celebrities—but there’s plenty of stuff out there about what he did. Including smartphone footage.”
“Footage?”
“Check it out when you get home. If nothing else, it might make you feel better. Seeing your nemesis doing something so stupid.”
Stupid? Sebastian had done a lot of irritating things during their time living next to each other, but he’d never been stupid. He was too smart, too…self-aware to be stupid.
“On that note”—Grace plucked her phone from the dock—“I’m going home. If I’m lucky, Hart will still be there, and I won’t find Cody alone.”
“And if you’re unlucky?”
“My mother-in-law will have called while I was on shift, will now know I’m such a woeful mother Cody needs a court-appointed big brother, and she will be organizing a flight from the UK as we speak to come tell me to my face how pathetic I am.”
“Your mother-in-law is a cow.”
“Yep.”
“I’ll beat her up if she tries.”
Warmth flowed through Grace, and a smile pulled at her tired lips. “I know you would, Shels. And I love you for it.”
“So, you forgive me for what Cody and I did?”
Grace threw back her head and laughed. “Hell no. You’re still not out of my bad books.”
Shelli’s chuckle wafted through the connection. “Love you, Wilder.”
“Love you, too, Holt. Now bugger off. It’s way past your bedtime.”
She ended the call before Shelli could say anything else. A tight lump had taken up residence in her stomach sometime between Sebastian Hart first appearing on her door and now. Was it from anger? Shame?
“Well, sitting here isn’t going to deal with it, so…” She opened the driver’s door, climbed out of the ambulance, and headed into the depot.
The requisite paperwork took longer than she’d hoped, thanks to the drug overdoses and the legal forms needed for each. By the time she was in her car and heading home, a headache was doing its best to give her grief. Plus, the lump in her stomach was getting tighter the closer she got.
Turning onto her street, the windows of the houses around her mostly dark, she let out a shaky sigh. After the hell Sebastian Hart had put her through during their time living next to each other, she still wasn’t sure how to approach him in her home.
She chewed on her bottom lip. “Maybe if I ignore his existence?”
Yeah, like that was going to work. It hadn’t when she was a teenager, and it sure as hell wouldn’t—
Her phone pinged with an incoming message. She glanced at its screen, and her stomach tightened even more.
Another double shift? Want me to bring some supper over? Hot chocolate? Justin.
Justin wanted to come over. Justin, her single and thoroughly sweet next-door neighbor who always seemed to know when her shifts had beaten her down. Justin, who offered to mow her lawn and knew how she took her lattes and owned a fancy coffee machine.
Justin wanted to come over. With hot chocolate.
While Sebastian Hart was in her house.
“Oh man, why does life have such a weird sense of humor?”
Pulling into her driveway, she killed the engine and lights and studied her house. A blue flickering glow in the living room meant someone was in there watching television. Sebastian? Or had he bailed? She wouldn’t put it past him.
Her phone pinged again. Another message from Justin.
So? Hot chocolate?
Get inside, get Hart out, text Justin. That’s what she would do. Maybe it was time to start thinking of her…love life again. If Cody needed a male figure in his life, Justin Fitzsimmons was a perfect fit. He was friendly, hardworking, sporty, outdoorsy, and intelligent. And he really knew how to make the most delicious hot chocolate, just what every single, working mum needed.
But you don’t want to start thinking of your love life. Not at all.
Still, Justin would be a better male role model for Cody than Sebastian, right? Justin was nice. Sebastian was… Well, Sebastian.
“Get in, get Hart out, text Justin,” she muttered as she shoved her phone into her bag, climbed from her car, and hurried into her home via the internal garage access.
The sound of one of those US late-night talk shows drifted down the hallway, the laughter raucous even if the volume was low.
Okay, so whoever was watching it was considerate of the time of night. No one needed audience laughter blaring at them at close to midnight, especially a ten-year-old. Although if Cody was still awake watching the show on a school night, she would really put her grumpy-mum pants on and kick some butt. Hollywood celebrity or not, Sebastian was going to discover she could still smash her foot into his shins with brutal precision.
Approaching her living room, her heart thumped faster.
What would she do if Hart wasn’t here? If he had taken off? He was selfish enough to. Well, at least the Sebastian she’d grown up next door to had been. If she told this Judge Myers, what would happen to him? Jail?
A cold finger traced up her spine. Regardless of everything he’d done to her growing up, the thought of him in jail…
She shuddered.
On the television screen, the host was doing one of those opening monologues. The audience laughed. An image hung in the space beside his head, superimposed there by a computer. A movie poster? With a woman with long wild hair.
She squinted, trying to make out the title of the movie. Samantha and who?
“Are we calling it a mess?” the host asked someone off screen. “Or is that being—”
The television screen went black just as Sebastian leaned forward on the sofa.
Grace paused, something about the way he was sitting, something about the way his shoulders bunched…
“Hey.”
He jumped at her soft greeting, jolting stiff on the sofa. “Fuck a duck, Tinsel Teeth, you scared the— Sorry, sorry. That was mean. I won’t call you that again.”
“Thanks.” Hmmm, so that was a lame reaction to his teenage nickname for her. Not what she used to do. But then, she’d never known Sebastian to be so…ruffled. “You okay?”
A frown flickered over his face, and his Adam’s apple jerked up and down. And then he let out a chuckle and flopped back onto the sofa again. “I’m always okay. You look confused. Surprised to still see me here?”
Yeah, definitely ruffled. Why? “A little. I thought you might bail and get one of your entourage to take over.”
He laughed. “Actors have entourages, Grace. Not directors. I have personal assistants.”
“Assistants? Plural?”
He flashed a grin at her—back to the Sebastian Hart of old. “I have two. Anya deals with my work stuff, and Mitch handles my personal stuff. What would happen if I only had one PA, and I want something and they were doing something else for me? Always better to have more than one.”
“I totally forgot what a self-absorbed wanker you are.”
“Hey!” He pulled a wounded pout.
With a roll of her eyes, she turned. “I’m just going to check on Cody. I’m more than happy for you to not be here when I get back.”
Cody was sound asleep, stretched flat on his stomach in his usual sleeping position, glasses skewed on his face, a Star Wars novel next to his head.
He was still in his clothes, not his PJs. God, had he showered? Cleaned his teeth? Eaten?
“He’s a weird kid.”
Grace let out a soft gasp at Sebastian’s low murmur right behind her. She spun, hand over her mouth, and glared at him.
“But a cool one,” he finished, not looking at her but at Cody. “Knows a lot about movies.”
“Out, out,” she whispered, pushing him out of the room.
He chuckled, hands raised in submission, and backed away from the door.
Sighing, she followed. Okay, so she needed to talk with him about sneaking up on her. In fact, she’d had that conversation with him when she was fourteen. Or was it fifteen? When he’d gone through his let’s-scare-Tinsel-Teeth-and-make-her-scream stage. That stage had ended when she’d given him a black eye.
His mother had given her parents hell about that. Had threatened to have her arrested. Her mother had told his mother to stick it in her arse.
“Want a cuppa?”
She blinked at Sebastian’s question, and then frowned as she realized he was making his way to her kitchen. “What?”
“You look beat. Exhausted. Do you want a cup of tea?”
“What?” Who the hell was this man in her home?
“Tea? Hot beverage. Dried leaves in boiling water. Antioxidants and sustenance. Do you want some?”
“And you’re going to make it?”
“No. I’m going to get my personal assistant to.” He threw a mock look over her shoulder. “Mitch, can you come here and make Grace a cup of tea. Earl Grey. No milk. One sugar.”
“You remember how I take my tea?” What the hell does that mean?
A confused frown tugged at his forehead, and he rubbed at the back of his neck. “Apparently, I do. Go figure.”
Go figure, indeed.
“Now do you want the tea or not?”
“I have no idea what the hell is going on right now, but sure. Make me a cup of tea, Sebastian Hart.”
He shook his finger. “No, no. That’s award-winning director Sebastian Hart to you, thank you very much.”
She arched an eyebrow.
“Sit. Sit. Let me make you a cuppa.”
Lowering herself onto the sofa, she frowned as Sebastian continued into her kitchen and started opening cupboards. She hadn’t expected this. Of course, she hadn’t expected to become a mother at eighteen, or a widower at twenty-six, either, so the bane of her childhood suddenly making her tea in her home shouldn’t knock her so off-kilter.
“I should warn you,” he said, placing the electric kettle under the tap, “I’m a better director than I am tea maker.”
“Is this your way of telling me my tea is going to suck?”
He tossed her a loose grin over his shoulder. “Yes.”
She laughed, shook her head, and scrubbed at her face with her hands. Nope. She wasn’t doing this. Being friendly with Sebastian Hart. Not happening.
“Why did you call Cody weird?” That’s what she needed to do; focus on the typically annoying Sebastian-isms. “He’s not weird. He’s incredible. Amazing.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong.” Sebastian placed the kettle on its stand, set it to boil, and then turned to face her, resting his butt against the kitchen counter. He looked so at home in her outdated, cluttered kitchen, so relaxed. How was that even possible, with how much money he made, and the circles he moved in? “I like weird. Trust me, in my world, weird is the norm. Some of the most talented people I know are weird. Heard of Thomas St. Clair?”
“The horror author?”
“Yep. That’s him. One of my best mates, and he has this really weird tic about fate and writing gods. Oh, and all these weird rules about social interaction when he’s on a deadline. Weird is okay.”
“So why is Cody weird?”
The kettle boiled, its climax filling the kitchen with a gurgling, bubbling sound. Holding up a wait finger, Sebastian pushed himself off the counter and turned back to the kettle.
Before she realized what she was doing, she checked him out. He filled in his jeans—no doubt designer label—so well, and the T-shirt he wore stretched nicely over his broad shoulders and tapered back. He’d always looked good. As a teenager, all the girls at school had drooled after him. How had he stayed in such good shape? Did he work out now? Did he have a personal trainer? He had a swimmer’s body. He probably had swimming pools in all his homes. And a gym and a—
“Busted.”
She blinked. Heat flooded her cheeks. “Busted doing what?”
The doorbell rang.
“Shit.” She scrambled off the sofa and bolted for the door. What kind of idiot rang the doorbell at midnight?
Don’t wake up, Cody. Don’t wake up, Cody.
Justin Fitzsimmons stood on her doorstep, two steaming mugs in his hands. “Hot chocolate time.”
…
Who the hell is this guy?
Sebastian narrowed his eyes at the man following Grace into her living room carrying two matching coffee mugs. Steam swirled up from both, as did the distinct aroma of chocolate.
What kind of guy brought hot chocolate to a woman’s house at midnight?
The kind wanting to get laid.
A tight ball twisted in Sebastian’s chest, and he once again leaned back against the kitchen counter. Hard to get laid while another guy was in the house, that was for certain.
And there’s a reason Grace shouldn’t get some?
The ball in his chest turned to a heavy lump. He knew Grace didn’t have a boyfriend. Cody had told him. Although he still wasn’t sure why he’d asked her son if she had one. Grace Ford, correction, Grace Wilder, would be a nightmare as a girlfriend. Too sharp with her tongue, too combative. How her husband—what was his name? Gary? How Gary had put up with her was beyond him. Although in all the photos Cody had showed him, their little family unit had appeared happy and relaxed and perfect.
The Grace he’d grown up beside had never rolled over and showed her stomach, or been relaxed and happy, no matter how much he’d pushed her.
She’d called him out for being indulged. For being rude and mean. Even Harrison had been on the receiving end more than once, and of the two of them, Harrison had been the one who’d treated Grace well.
Why didn’t I treat Grace well? Why did she bring out the worst in me back then?
“I know you didn’t text me back,” the newcomer said as he followed Grace into the living room, his smile easygoing, “but I saw your light still on, and I know you pulled another double shift, so I figured a hot chocolate was what you needed.”
Sebastian cleared his throat.
“Fuck,” the guy burst out, jerking around to stare at Sebastian. Hot chocolate splashed from both cups. “Shit.” He held the dripping mugs away from him, bowed in that awkward way people stand when trying not to get scalded.
Sebastian nodded and grinned. “G’day.”
“Oh God, Hart.” Grace rolled her eyes. And yet, were her lips twitching? A little? “I see you’re still all about the dramatics.”
The new guy gaped at him. “You’re Sebastian Hart. The film director.”
“No, I’m Sebastian Hart. The plumber.”
New Guy blinked.
“All right, Seb. You’ve had your fun.” Grace crossed to where he stood in the kitchen and retrieved the tea he’d made her. The tea. Not New Guy’s hot chocolate. Good.
And that’s good why?
“Justin, this is Sebastian Hart.” She flicked Sebastian a pointed look. “The director. Seb and I used to live next door to each other a long time ago.”
A long time ago. In another life, when the only person who thought he was worth anything was his mother. That was before his talent for filmmaking made him famous, of course. After that, everyone thought he was worth something and did everything they could to make him happy. The weird world of Hollywood fame and power. How would Grace have dealt with him if she’d been a part of his life for the last twelve years? Would she have changed? Or would she have been the same Grace, telling him he was being a dick, an egomaniac narcissist. She’d introduced him to the term. Surprisingly, he’d thought of her every time it was used to describe him throughout his career. And it had been used a lot.
“Wow.” Justin recovered from his gaping, dumped the dripping mugs on Grace’s coffee table, wiped his hands on his jeans, and hurried over to where Sebastian stood in the kitchen, right hand extended. “Pleased to meet you, Sebastian. Mr. Hart. Seb.”
“Only Grace calls me Seb.”
Now why the hell did I say that?
“Sorry.” Justin shook his hand, his grip firm. A power shake. Jesus, was the guy trying to do the whole alpha-male thing?
This guy’s a—
“Sebastian, can you pass me the paper towel, please?”
Retrieving his hand from Justin’s, Sebastian looked at Grace. She seemed…unsettled and kept flicking quick looks at Justin. What was going on here? Surely she couldn’t be interested in this guy? He was…was…very beige. Generically good-looking; that’s how Daryl—Sebastian’s favorite casting director—would describe him.
“Sure.” He reached behind him, grabbed the roll of paper towels on the counter, and handed it to her. “How do you know Grace?”
Justin chortled, an easy sound that put Sebastian’s teeth on edge. “I live next door to her now. Cody, her son—have you met Cody?—washes my dog.”
Lives next door? Nope. Not a fan of that. “Do you pay him? Or is it a child labor–type arrangement?”
“Okay, Hart.” Grace placed her tea and the paper-towel roll on the counter and pointed at the door. “Time to go.”
“Nah, I’m good.” He pushed himself from the counter, stare locked with Justin’s, and ambled over to the living room. “Toss me the paper towel, and I’ll clean up the spilled hot chocolate all over the floor and coffee table.”
Grace regarded him from the kitchen, expression unreadable. Did she want to hit him? Kick him in the shins?
Justin had followed him and lowered himself into an armchair, as if he had every right to be here.
Not a fan of that, either.
Sebastian looked at Grace. “Honey?”
Her eyebrows shot up. Sebastian caught his breath. What the hell was he doing?
“Honey?” Justin twisted in the chair to frown at Grace. “I didn’t know… I mean…” He looked back at Sebastian. “You two…”
Sebastian grinned. “Sometimes things in life take you by surprise, Justin. Cody and I were talking about it today during lunch. Of course, we talked about movies during dinner. I promised him I’d introduce him to Robert Downey Jr. next week.”
“Oh God, Sebastian.”
Something heavy wrapped around Sebastian’s chest at Grace’s groan. Something primitive joined it as Justin met his stare again. There was a challenge in the other man’s eyes.
“Okay.” Grace waved her hands toward the front door, not looking at either of them. “Out. It’s way too late. I’ve got an early start tomorrow, Cody has a school excursion leaving at seven a.m., and I need some sleep.”
“I can take Cody to school,” Justin piped up, straightening in the chair even as he flicked Sebastian a quick glance.
“It’s all good, Grace.” Sebastian didn’t move on the sofa. “Cody and I have got it all figured out. I’m making him breakfast at six thirty and then taking him to school.”
Grace blinked.
Sebastian grinned. Take that, Justin. “And I’m picking him up when school finishes. We’re going into the city to my offices. I’ve got a meeting with Chris Huntley, and Cody said he’d like to meet him.”
Grace stared at him, her expression impossible to decipher. He’d made the assumption Grace was going to approve his appointment as Cody’s big brother, but was she? He sure as hell wasn’t going to ask her now, however. Not with Justin circling like a hungry great white.
“I read an early review of your new film this afternoon, Hart,” Justin said.
The pressure around Sebastian’s chest turned cold. The television audience’s laughter from earlier flittered through his head. The host’s words joined them.
He drew in a slow breath. Justin smirked at him from the armchair.
“Wasn’t that good.” Justin plucked at something on the knee of his jeans, lips curling. “Or maybe I’m thinking of a different film. You’re the director of Samantha and Dave, right?”
Bastard.
Sebastian’s gut clenched. He’d refused to believe what he was watching on television just before Grace arrived home. He’d never made a bad movie. He didn’t have it in him. And Samantha and Dave was a passion project he’d poured his soul into. But here was Grace’s next-door neighbor mentioning another scathing—
“Mum?”
Sebastian started at Cody’s sleepy voice. So did Justin. Good.
“Hey, bug, what are you doing up?” Scowling at Sebastian and then Justin, Grace hurried over to where Cody stood in the entrance to the living room, rubbing at his eyes.
“I heard voices.” Sleep turned the statement to a mumbly rasp. “I wanted to say good-bye to Sebastian.” Cody gave Sebastian a tired smile. “Don’t forget tomorrow.”
Warmth flooded through him. “I won’t, buddy.”
“Hi, Cody.”
Cody gave Justin a squinty-eyed, just-as-tired smile. “Hi, Mr. Fitzsimmons.”
Mr. Fitzsimmons. Huh. So formal.
Taking Cody’s hand, Grace gave them both another scowl. “Say good night, bug. Seb and Justin are leaving.”
Sebastian wriggled down deeper into the sofa. Like hell Seb’s leaving.
“Night,” Cody mumbled.
She arched a look at Justin and then Sebastian. “You both know where the door is.”
And with that, she turned and headed into the dark shadows of the house.
Throwing Justin a smile, Sebastian straightened to his feet. “Let me show you where it is.”
Justin also rose to his feet, eyes narrowing. “I know where the door is. Been here many times. Unlike you. So are you and Grace…”
“And if we are?”
What am I doing?
Justin ran a slow gaze over him, a slow smile stretching his lips. “Funny how she’s never mentioned you before.”
“Funny how she’s never mentioned you before.”
Justin chortled again. Yeah, Sebastian really didn’t like that sound. “See you around, Hart.” He turned and walked from the room, snagging an apple from the dining table. “Tell Grace I’ll come around and get the mugs from her later. Before her shift starts tomorrow. While you’re heading into the city with Cody.”
Sebastian drew in a slow breath, waited for the sound of the door closing, and then slowly let it out again. He dragged his hands through his hair, his heart thumping fast. What was going on with him? He was behaving like another man was interested in his girl. Grace sure as hell wasn’t his girl, so what the hell was his problem?
But still, she was Grace, a woman he’d grown up with, who was now clearly dealing with the crappy hand life dealt her, and he didn’t like the idea of her not being happy. It didn’t sit right with him. And while he would win the metaphorical pissing contest initiated by Justin, maybe the generically good-looking guy was what Grace needed.
An image of Grace and Justin walking hand in hand along a sunlit beach filled his head, and with it a weird sensation twisted through his gut.
He swallowed. Jealousy? Fuck, what was wrong with him?
“I thought I told you to leave.” Grace walked back into the room, frown firmly in place as she rounded the sofa.
“So you like this Justin guy?”
She froze just as she was about to pick up the two mugs Justin had left. “Sure. He’s a nice guy. Why?”
“I’m not a fan.”
She burst out laughing. Threw back her head and really laughed. Looked at him, hand over her mouth, eyes sparkling, and started chuckling again.
“What?”
Rolling her eyes, she collected the mugs and carried them into the kitchen. “Hart, what you think about the people in my life means diddlysquat to me.”
“What about what Cody thinks?” He shoved himself from the armchair and strode into the kitchen. She flicked a look at him as she poured hot chocolate—probably warm chocolate now—down the sink. “Cody calls him Mr. Fitzsimmons. Doesn’t that tell you something?”
“It tells me Cody is respectful of his elders. Not something I recall you knowing much about when you were his age. Did you ever once call my dad anything but Reggie?”
“His name was Reg. What else was I meant to call him?”
She let out a sharp bark of a laugh; her Seb-Hart-is-a-moron laugh. He remembered it well. “Oh, I don’t know. How ’bout Reg? Or better yet, Mr. Ford?”
Returning to the living room, she dropped into an armchair and tugged her ponytail free. “Forget it. I don’t know why I’m wasting my breath. Thank you for staying with Cody today. I’ll contact Big Brother tomorrow morning and tell them you can go to another little boy.”
“Why?”
She frowned at him. “Surely you don’t want to have to deal with me every time you come around to do your community service?”
Ouch. So, she knew why he was in the program.
“I don’t want to deal with you,” he said. “You’re horrible.” He smiled to soften the jibe and shrugged. “But Cody is awesome. A weird little awesome kid. We had fun today, talking movies and games. To be honest, I was surprised how much I enjoyed hanging out with him, even if he did kick my arse in Mario Kart. I’m happy to spend time with him.”
They’d also talked a lot about Cody’s dad, about how incredible he’d been. A firefighter. Heroic and brave. Cody missed him, still idolized him. Sebastian almost envied the boy’s innocent worship of his father. Sebastian sure as shit never felt like that for his own father. He’d felt an unusual guilt for turning the conversation to Grace. Cody clearly loved his mother more than his ten-year-old brain could articulate, and he was fiercely protective of her. When Sebastian had asked the boyfriend question, Cody spluttered out a no, his young face growing red behind his glasses. He’d shaken his head so much it was a wonder said glasses didn’t fling off. He hadn’t mentioned generically good-looking Justin at all, not even as “Mum’s friend” or “our neighbor,” so if the next-door neighbor did have a thing for Grace—and with the challenge in Justin’s eyes, Sebastian suspected that was the case—Cody knew nothing about it.
“So I can’t get rid of you?” she asked.
“No. I’m not going anywhere.” And not just because Judge Myers would be displeased. As much as he didn’t want to go to jail, he wanted to…
What? See what life had done to Tinsel Teeth?
He swiped at his mouth with his hand. No. He didn’t like that reaction. True, he’d found himself wondering about her on and off over the years, about what she was doing, but she wasn’t Tinsel Teeth Ford. Not anymore.
“Did you hate me?” Now why the hell had he asked that? “When we were kids? Teenagers?”
She studied him like he was a specimen in a petri dish. Science had been her forte subject at school. In fact, if he remembered correctly, she’d won some kind of science award when she was sixteen.
“Yes.” She let out a sigh, her expression impossible to decipher. “I did.”
“I wasn’t your biggest fan, either.”
She threw back her head and laughed again, and before he knew it, he was laughing as well. Okay, so a late-night talk show didn’t like his latest movie. Big deal. So he was on community service. So what? Right at that second, laughing with his old nemesis felt good.
“Drink your tea,” he said, sliding her cup closer to her across the coffee table.
She picked it up and blew a gentle stream of air on its surface. “What did you end up feeding Cody today?”
“We made Vegemite sandwiches for lunch and got pizza delivered for dinner.”
“Let me guess. Barbecue meatlovers from Domino’s.”
Sebastian’s favorite pizza when he was a kid. A grin pulled at his lips. She remembered.
“I thought you’d like some veggies in his meal”—he settled back into the sofa—“so I ordered a roast chicken, sweet potato, and baby spinach calzone from a gourmet pizza joint in Point Piper.”
She blinked. “Point Piper? On the harbor?”
He nodded.
“Almost an hour and a half’s drive away. Chock full of billionaires and millionaires? That Point Piper?”
“Yeah.”
“And they delivered. To here?”
He nodded again.
She shook her head. “I don’t know whether to be impressed by the fact you thought of Cody’s nutritional needs, or gobsmacked by the fact a pizza place in Point Piper delivered a calzone all the way out here.”
“I flew the cook to L.A. once to make me the roast chicken calzone. You’ll love it. I remember how much you liked sweet potatoes. I made sure we left you some. It’s in the fridge. Bet you Justin Whatshisface never brought you sweet potato calzone from Point—”
He stopped. “What did I say?”
“I don’t think I can do this.”
Was he meant to hear her mutter?
She huffed out another sigh. “You were a shit to me when we were kids, Seb.”
He narrowed his eyes. People didn’t talk to him like this. She hadn’t been easy to live next door to. Always pointing out how his mother gave him and Harrison whatever they wanted, always making him feel…inadequate somehow, with just a look, or a word he didn’t know.
“Don’t try to make me believe you’ve changed.”
Her low request sent a cold finger up his spine. People definitely didn’t talk to him like that. He was the one who told people what to do.
He opened his mouth to tell her he had changed. And closed it. He’d called her Tinsel Teeth twice. Thought it more than once. And here he was, in her house, after she’d told him and Justin to leave.
Was she right? And was he sticking with Cody just to irritate her?
“I hate these contacts,” she muttered, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “I’m taking them out.”
Without waiting for his response, she shoved herself from the chair and strode from the room.
He raked his hands through his hair. Was he tense because of the unexpected reaction to Samantha and Dave? Or his unexpected reaction to Grace?
Pushing himself to his feet, he took her tea to the kitchen and placed it in the microwave. It’d be tepid by now, and who in their right mind wanted tepid tea?
Shouldn’t you be going? Or answering all the texts you’ve ignored throughout the day? One of them’s bound to be from Kimmy.
His publicist could wait. As could the rest of the texts.
The microwave beeped at him, the forty seconds of tea reheating finished. Grace hadn’t returned.
He removed her tea, closed the microwave door, and then turned around. Still no Grace.
“All right.” He levered his arse away from the counter. “Let’s take the tea to her.”
Why?
Because she looked wiped out, and it didn’t sit well with him. He preferred Grace giving him hell.
“Grace?” His soft call sounded like a shout as he walked down the hallway toward her bedroom.
A muted light spilled from its open door. A soft sound floated out from within.
“Grace?” He paused at the door, his breath caught in his throat.
She sat on the end of the bed, eyes closed, pinching at the bridge of her nose. “Do you know what’s weird, Hart?”
Shaking his head, he moved to the bed and sat down beside her. She looked up at him over her fingers, and then closed her eyes again. “I didn’t know how crappy I was at being a mum until I saw how Cody smiled at you tonight. When he was half asleep.”
“He smiled at Justin as well.” Even saying that felt unsettling.
She dropped her hand and let out a sigh.
“Do you like him?” Saying that felt even more unsettling. It shouldn’t. But it did. “Justin, I mean.”
“He’s a good neighbor. And a friend. I don’t know…maybe he’s what Cody needs. A male role model in his life he can look up to.”
I could be that.
The thought stole his breath. What the hell was wrong with him? He could not be that. He didn’t want to be that.
Did he?
“And you want it to be the man who brings you hot chocolate at the end of your shift? Justin of the bland good looks?”
She rolled her eyes. “No. I don’t… I mean, no. But I think…I think I’m not being fair to Cody. I think he needs…someone.”
As conflicted as he was at the idea of Justin being that someone, it made sense. Justin could be just what Grace and Cody needed. With the right push.
The right incentive.
Gut in a knot he didn’t understand, he handed her the cup of tea. “Grace, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but let me help you.”