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His question made me realise I’d been openly ogling him. From the slight smirk on his face, I’d been caught red handed. “What?”
He stepped forwards, mischief on his face as his mouth opened. Then, like he was wearing a leash that had been yanked, he stopped abruptly. “Uh, I was just wondering if you want it organised by weight or colour.”
Disappointment flooded me. Sebastian was treating me with kid gloves, and I hated it. I understood why—he was respecting my choice to take things slow—but I missed that side of us. The teasing, slightly dominant way he used to own me.
“However you like,” I mumbled.
I hadn’t asked Sebastian to organise my yarn. I wasn’t even sure when I’d last opened the cupboards. But he’d turned up this morning and announced that was what he wanted to do.
“Weight then colour,” he announced, studying the yarn with his hands on his hips. “That way you can find the yarn you need before picking the colour.”
“If you say so,” I said, distracted again by the long lines of his body. Had he chosen extra tight jeans today just to tempt me? I grabbed a cushion, dropping it on my lap to hide my predicament.
“Oh, I totally forgot.” Sebastian clapped his hand against his head comically. “I picked something up this morning along with breakfast.”
He strolled in the direction of the kitchen. Much to Leo and Ferry’s bemusement, Sebastian had shown up every morning with breakfast for all of us. He’d assemble it in the kitchen while I kept him company. Sometimes he told me stories about places he’d been and things he’d done, but mostly he told me about his family.
I didn’t know what had happened to them, but I knew enough to assume they were the ones he’d meant when he’d said those fateful words to Isaac all those months ago.
“Do I need to remind you what happened the last time a wolf clan hurt people who were mine? When they took those I loved from me?”
It hurt to know that the family he’d clearly worshipped were the ones he’d been referring to.
That love shone through with every word he told me about them. The special bond his parents had shared. The games of chess he’d played with his mother. The long walks he’d enjoyed with his father. The duelling matches with Geralt and horseback riding with Magnus.
Most of all, it was his love for Amelie that rang through. After the fourth breakfast, I realised that all of his stories about her took place before she turned three.
That realisation had had me sobbing into my pillow that night.
“Here.” Sebastian came back in, waving a magazine triumphantly. “Spotted this at the checkout and thought you might like it.”
He dropped it into my lap. It was a copy of Simply Crochet.
I frowned down at it in confusion as he went back to the cupboard. “Why don’t you look through that and find a pattern you want to do? Maybe we can pop over to that wool shop you like this afternoon and pick up the yarn you need for it. You’ll have more space once I’m done organising.”
Everything clicked into place. The baking. Spending time with Leo and Ferry. Sorting the yarn.
Sebastian was trying to remind me of everything I loved, other than him. Of what I needed to make me happy. The things I’d lost when I’d lost him.
I was off the sofa in a flash, tugging him to face me.
“Sunshine?” His brows drew together. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” I smiled up at him, my muscles aching at the unfamiliar movement. His eyes widened, but that was all I saw before I threw my arms around his neck. I was beyond grateful when he immediately hugged me back. “Everything’s just right.”
Another week passed, and this one saw me returning to lectures and studying.
I still saw Sebastian every day. He’d arrive in the morning to make me breakfast before driving me to campus. Then, after class was done for the day, I’d stroll out to see him leaning against his car, a smile always ready for me.
One morning, I found myself halfway through applying my face before I’d even realised what I was doing.
For the first time in months, I was putting makeup on. I’d frozen, the Charlotte Tilbury foundation in hand, when something hit me.
The makeup I’d found all those months ago hadn’t been from Leo.
It’d been from Sebastian.
Even when he’d insisted he wasn’t interested, before anything had happened between us, he’d gone out of his way to make me happy. To encourage me to be my true self.
