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I ring the doorbell.
Stella answers it right away. “Welcome!” A woman on the shorter side grins from ear to ear as she gathers me in a perfumed hug. I don’t mind that her spiky, silvery hair is poking me in the cheek because her hug reminds me of my mom’s hugs when I was little.
She pulls back and gently places both hands on my cheeks. “You’re even more beautiful than they said you were.”
“They?” I laugh as my gaze darts to Sebastian. He doesn’t look embarrassed. He’s looking at both of us with a fondness that might be reserved for someone he’d known his whole life, for a promise of things to come. I feel it zip through my body, along my sheer, navy nylons, and all the way down to my black, slingback heels.
Stella seems to see or feel the look he’s giving us, too, but she doesn’t dwell on it, and I’m grateful for her discretion. She takes a couple of the bags of food and motions for us to follow her inside.
“I could have cooked, Sebastian. Henry being here is such a special occasion and you know how I love to feed you Tate boys’ bellies!”
“We didn’t want you to have to go to all that work on such short notice. Besides, we know this Korean place is your favorite. Don’t even try to deny it.”
“I won’t. Itismy favorite.” Her laugh is rich and comforting—like a bowl of peaches and cream.
We enter the cozy kitchen with wall-to-wall honey oak cabinets and a kitschy rooster theme. I love it. We set the bags on the kitchen table and Stella points to the doorway past the fridge. “Sebastian, everyone else is in there. Go say hi.” She turns to me. “Elianna, I’d love to get to know you. Will you stay here and help me transfer the food to some serving bowls?”
Her smile is so genuine, I can’t say no. And it’s not even intimidating to think about losing Sebastian as my buffer.
“Wow,” I pick up one of the serving bowls she has out, an orange crock with a raised dot design. “In my family, we just sort of devour our food straight from the containers.”
Stella giggles. “I know I’m odd.” She’s got one of the Styrofoam boxes open and is carefully guiding the parmesan-encrusted chicken into a florally patterned bowl. “And I get teased for it. My kids used to hate having to wash all the extra dishes we dirtied.”
“Hey, you do you,” I tell her.
“That’s right!” She reaches for a round container full of sauce. “You mentioned your family. Tell me a little about them. And you.”
I explain how my parents and older brother are actuaries in New York now, but that I was raised in California, and that I’m raising funds to renovate a playhouse on Capistrano Beach.
“And how are you liking Longdale? It’s a far cry from Southern California.”
“I like it a lot more than I thought I would,” I say. “Sebastian’s been a great boss.”
“Are you sure?” Stella’s eyes narrow, but then she smiles. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I just know Sebastian’s had difficulty in the past keeping employees. He’s a stickler for company rules and ethics. It’s rubbed some people the wrong way.”
“I can see how it could, yes. But that hasn’t been a problem yet.”
She reaches out to pat my shoulder. “His expectations for himself are so impossibly high. Sometimes that can bleed over into his relationships. Work relationships, as well as personal ones.”
I swallow hard at her mention of relationships. I don’t like that we’re hiding what’s going on between us, but we’ll figure it all out soon.
Still, she’s right. He does have a penchant for rules and ethics, so I wonder again how he feels about dating someone he works with. Is he seeing this as a blemish to his honor?
“Yeah, well, so far so good.” I really like Stella. But I don’t know her well enough to spill my heart and soul.
Stella eyes me carefully, then finishes transferring the food, licking the spoon before she sets it in the sink. “I know this sounds funny, but Sebastian reminds me of the bull mastiff they had when they were kids.”
“What?” I can’t help but laugh. His aunt is comparing him to a dog?
She holds up her palms. “Now, hear me out. My brother, Thomas, Sebastian’s dad, bought him. I think because he felt guilty about being gone for work so much and thought it would make him feel better if he bought them a huge guard dog. The kids named him Finny. He was a guard dog to a fault. He’d circle the perimeter, even when the family was all in the family room watching TV. Poor Finny. He had a hard time relaxing because he was always on alert, always searching for the next scary, dangerous thing that might come and attack the family, like the paper boy or someone trying to sell pest control.”
I nod. “That does sort of sound like Sebastian.”
“This has made it hard for him to place his own needs and wants at the forefront,” Stella says, her eyes trained on the tin rooster decoration on the counter. “If you’re so busy taking care of other people all the time, you tend to not value taking care of yourself. Besides, entangled in all of this is a lot of childhood wounds.” She shakes her head and wipes her hands on a tea towel. “Sebastian wouldn’t like me talking about this with you. Although, I think all the boys know by now that I’m going to talk aboutallthe uncomfortable things!”
We laugh, and she eyes me carefully. “And I don’t even know why I’m bringing this up now except, maybe just to tell you he’s a wonderful man with some work to do on himself. Take it or leave it, I guess.”
I’ll take itis my immediate thought. But doubts are creeping in a mile a minute, too. Sebastian is a complicated man. Is he ready for all of this? Am I?
