Page 5

Chapter

Five

“ I wanna go wif you, Daddy.” Those pretty eyes filled with tears.

“Not tonight, honey. Tonight, you’re staying with Uncle Xavi. Tomorrow. We’ll go to the park. Or maybe we can go to the river and watch the fishes.” Sebastian thought she seemed so little with her tiny overnight bag and Mr. Bunny held tight under her arm.

He just couldn’t risk anybody staying alone at the house right now, and she was safe here.

“She’ll be fine,” Xavi told him with a wink. “This way, if you happen to have a drink at the bar, you can just walk over. We’ll have a slumber party.”

Xavi was one of his absolute best friends on earth. He’d been there in the room when Abby was born. The little apartment above the curio store wasn’t fancy, but it was warm and solid and clean, and there was even a little bed for Abby whenever she came over to visit.

“I’ll have ice cream ready for our night, er, recap.”

Abby’s eyes went wide. “Ouch cream? For me too?”

Xavi nodded to Abby. “Of course, ouch cream for you. I have strawberry ice cream just for my favorite girl.”

Abby just beamed. “I stay wif Uncle Xavi.”

“Good girl, I’ll be up here as soon as I’m done meeting my…friend—” the asshole “—and then when you wake up, I’ll be here just like normal.” Thank God they’d stayed at Xavi’s a hundred times, just like Xavi had spent nights with them. “Do I look okay?”

He was going for professional but not dressed up. Casual, but not slumpy. So he’d decided on wearing jeans, hiking boots, and a long-sleeved black T-shirt. At their altitude, it was always too cool at night for just short sleeves.

“You look perfect. Run your fingers through your hair. Your curls are getting wild.” Xavi reached out and smoothed his unruly mop, those dark eyes just dancing. “It’s all right. Maybe it’ll help, seeing him. Are you going to tell him?” Xavi’s eyes cut to Abby.

Sebastian shook his head. “God, no. What am I supposed to say? I wouldn’t know where to begin. Besides, he has a lot of explaining to do. He ghosted me. Don’t worry, man. You’ll get all the sordid details.” He kissed Abby and then headed out on the very short walk over to the hotel.

As he walked in, he waved to Tori behind the desk. “Hey, lady, how’s it going?”

“Busy, you know. We’re full up. Crazy group.” She rubbed her swollen belly.

“Yeah, they’re working at my house.”

She rolled her eyes and winked. “Everyone’s abuzz. Apparently, your house was busy today. Good luck. There’s a couple of cute ones though.”

Yeah, no. “I’m supposed to meet one or more of them at the restaurant.”

She bobbed her head. “Alexander made up one of the private dining rooms for you. It was requested.”

“Is it cool if I just go to the kitchen and say hi to Xander?”

She shrugged. “Sure, honey. Does Xavi have Abby tonight?”

He nodded. “Yes. She’s visiting with Uncle Xavi.”

“I bet her Uncle Xander is gonna be jealous that he has to work tonight and can’t just hang out with the two of you.” Tori’s laugh rang out.

“He’ll be there after he gets the kitchen cleaned up. We’ll still be awake.”

Instead of going through the front of the dining room and making a walk of shame to whichever of the two private dining rooms that Xander had decided on, he took the back way and moved right into the kitchen.

“Xander? Which private room did you stick me in, and why a room?”

“Dining room is booked for the night. Entire town wants to see the ghost hunters. Curiosity runs wild. Besides that, he kind of wouldn’t take no for an answer, so it looked weird if I said no. How are you, honey?”

“Totally wigged out. I—he’s been hurt pretty bad. He says he was in some kind of a cave-in. I don’t know what to think. I just, I just?—”

“Hey, you’re cool.” Xander took him into a hard hug before pulling back to grin at him, the man literally looking as Irish as it was possible to look. Red hair, green eyes, freckles, pale as milk—it was like his own personal leprechaun.

And the man could cook. Nothing fancy. Burgers. Meatloaf. Steaks. Omelets. Just solid, healthy, amazing food. That was what everybody wanted here.

“All right, cool. That’s me. I’m just the coolest, and I’ve gotta go suck it up.” He found Xander a smile. “Which room, and what should I order?”

“The one here next to the kitchen. I’ll hear if you raise your voice and get the Guinness stew. Either that or the shepherd’s pie.”

“Gotcha.” He loved Xander’s shepherd’s pie. “You should totally make those cottage-pie baked potatoes again.”

“Yeah? Maybe this weekend. I’ll be baking off a ton of potatoes this week. These guys like their steaks and airline chicken.”

“Cool.” He wiped his hands on his thighs, a nervous habit for him, and tried a smile. “Okay. Here goes.”

“Yodel if you need me.”

“Like, yodel-ay-hee-hoo?”

Xander nodded. “Yep. That’s like, intentional, right? I mean if you and the dude yell, then I won’t interfere. But if you yodel…”

“Got it.” He had to chuckle then, some of his tension leaving him. “Okay. Going in.” He headed toward the private room, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out.

He stopped just inside as if he’d hit a wall, because Colton stood looking out the window, his back to Sebastian as he drank a glass of wine. The cane was propped against a chair that was pulled up to the one table in the room that was set up.

He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be at home where he belonged, with his daughter. He swallowed hard, blinking at Colton, trying to will himself to leave.

Colton turned then, eyes widening a little at the sight of him. “Sebastian.”

“Hey.” He didn’t know what to say. How to feel. Whether he was simply going to pass right out.

“Come on and sit down, huh?” Colton waved him to the table, and he was very cautiously distant, physically. Which was good. If he’d moved in for a hug or something, Sebastian would have lost it. But Colton watched him kind of like a mongoose watching a snake.

He just needed to be calm. Sure. He hadn’t done this—any of it. He wanted this to be over.

Now.

He sat down, hands folded in his lap.

“So, uh, did you order supper for you?” Colton asked. “The cook said you would.”

He tried hard not to smile. “You definitely talked to him if you call him cook not chef.”

Colton snorted. “He read me the riot act.”

“He has opinions, and he knows what I like.”

“Is he your lover?” Colton asked.

“Is that your business?”

“Maybe.” Colton sighed, setting his wineglass down. “Look, I’m here to help. Hank says you have a lot of trouble in the house.”

“I do. I just want to find out what’s wrong with the ghosts. That’s it.” He wanted peace.

“Well, we can work on that.” Colton studied him. “You want some wine?”

“No. No, I’ll probably stay up here, but in case I decide to drive home…”

“So how have you been?”

“Exhausted. Stressed. You’ve been…busy.”

“Have I?” Colton tilted his head. “I guess so. I mean, I left on that job. I was bailing on it when someone sent off a charge in the mine we were working in. Tennessee. It wasn’t pretty. So yeah. Four surgeries. Months of rehab. Two infections that almost lost me my leg. I’ve been busy.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that.” He’d been pregnant and raising a baby, but that was way more common than a mine.

“Yeah. Well, I tried to call to tell you all about it, but you never answered.” Colton’s eyes were starting to snap a little fire at him.

He let one eyebrow raise. “Really? Are you sure about that? I never got a phone call from you.”

He’d even sent his new number to Colton when he changed his number. Fucking liar.

“I called and called. What the hell else did I have to do in the hospital in fucking Nevada?”

He shrugged and held up his phone. “It’s been four years. No ringy-dingies.”

“Well, I called.” Colton gritted his teeth, his jaw flexing. “I’ve never lied to you , Sebastian.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I haven’t spoken to you to lie to you.” He wasn’t going to be accused of anything, fucker.

“Lies of omission are just as bad as lies to my face!” Colton popped up out of the chair, then staggered and reached for his cane, his face going white as a sheet.

He leapt up and grabbed Colton. “What the fuck? Should I call 911?”

If they were going to do that, they needed to do it now. It could take ninety minutes, easy.

“No. No, I just stepped wrong. I still have a lot of scar tissue that’s working itself out, and the ortho guy thinks I need one more surgery.” Colton put his hands on Sebastian’s arms to steady himself, Sebastian thought. God, those big hands were hot.

“Bastian. Is she mine?”