Page 68 of Best Kept Vows

“Canoodling?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t know what word to use.”

“He’s my neighbor, and he’s Luna’s brother. Lev.”

Sebastian nodded, and pursed his lips. “I was…Iamjealous.”

“You are?”

“Yeah,” he admitted sheepishly. “I know, it’s stupid, but I can’t help how I feel.”

“You used to never be like this.”

“I was never afraid of losing you before.”

Right then, for a moment, he looked like the boy I used to know, the one who would sulk and pout, the one who would do anything to make me smile.

“Remember when I was pregnant with Tristan, and I was dying for a slice of pizza?”

He took my hand in his. “Yeah, baby, I remember.”

“You made the worst pizza in the world.”

He nodded. “Yeah, that was pretty inedible.”

“But I was happy.” I felt a pang for the past when wewere justus. “What happened to my husband who tried to make New York-style pizza because his pregnant wife was craving it?”

He brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “That man lost his way.”

“I feel like I’ve found who I am in these few short weeks since I started working. Even when I was doing my MBA, I felt…alone. You weren’t there. It’s like you checked out of our marriage.”

He kept my hand in his on his thigh. “I spoke to my father. We’ve decided to sell Boone Metals.”

A quiet gasp escaped me, and my lungs forgot how to work for a moment.

Sebastian’s gaze softened. “I asked him why he didn’t sell it before. He told me it was because of pride. That was why I was killing myself with work, too.Pride. I wanted to showhimbut also myself that I was the bigger dog.”

“And now?”

“I feel like a fuckin’ idiot because I don’t even like running the damn company. I liked being a consultant. I liked that cadence of work. This is…fuckin’ torture.”

I slid back on the sofa, and my hand slipped away from his. “Your mother isn’t going to like you selling the company. She takes great pride in the family business.”

“Mama isn’t going to like a lot of things that are going to happen,” he stated flatly and then told me about his parents’ finances.

“Arewegoing to be okay?” My internshipdidn’t pay a lot, and it would be a while before I made decent money. “I can always get a job instead of this internship, and?—"

“You know we have investments.” Sebastian cupped my cheek. “I’ll take care of us, baby. Never doubt that.”

“But no Christian Dior bracelet for me?” I teased.

He let out a bark of laughter, his hand dropping from my face. “Jesus! No wonder they’re bleeding money if she’s spending like that.”

“You know the Beaumonts, don’t you?”

He frowned. “Yeah.”

“Well, Pearl Beaumont works at Savannah Lace. We were sitting together for lunch, and she was talking about how some of the old-money families were losing their fortunes, including hers.”