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“She’s been crazy about him since the night of Kyle Hawthorne’s going-away party,” Deena supplied helpfully. “She got super drunk and he took her home and she’s been crazy about him ever since. She went all through training class without any nookie. A couple of the Doms have been hitting on her, but she’s only got eyes for Sebastian.”
She should have switched to wine the minute she realized she wouldn’t be playing with Sebastian tonight. “You know I didn’t gossip about you when you were dating Eric.”
Ally’s jaw dropped open. “Are you trying to bring lightning down on us?”
“That wasn’t gossip. That was friends talking about other friends. Because we care.” That needed to be made very clear.
Ally shrugged. “All right. Since you’re all gossip-free now, you totally won’t want to learn everything Macon knows about Sebastian.”
What? That perked her right up. Sebastian was a tightwad when it came to talking about himself. He would talk about wine and food and art all night long. He would listen to her. But he rarely ever talked about himself. She’d learned about his past in tiny snippets he let slip from time to time. She knew he’d worked for a while in London. Knew he’d gone into the Army during his twenties and had been discharged after his accident. She knew so little else.
She was hungry to know more about him. It wasn’t gossip. Not really.
Macon held his hands up. “Oh, that goes against a whole bunch of codes. Seriously, there’s a Dom Code. That sleeping giant over there made me sign it.”
“But you’re the Pie Maker,” Tiffany pointed out. Macon could do no wrong in Ian Taggart’s world because he was the one who made the sweets Big Tag never seemed to get sick of. Everyone knew if Big Tag was in a bad mood, you handed him one of Macon’s pies and the world changed.
“I’m also a guy who likes Sebastian.” Macon frowned.
“It’s okay,” Ally replied with a ready smile. “He totally talked to me. I didn’t sign Tag’s code, so I can tell you everything.”
“Allyson!” Macon bit out her name.
“Do you honestly think they’ll be able to do this on their own?” Ally’s eyes got big and wide as she looked up at her husband. “Where would we be if Chef and Grace hadn’t meddled in our relationship?”
Deena looked up at Macon, too. Her lip actually trembled a bit. “I don’t know where Eric and I would be without well-meaning meddling. Probably alone. Without love or friends. Sad. I know I thank the day my friends meddled in my relationship.”
God, they were good.
Macon shook his head. “Fine. You can ask me a couple of questions, but don’t expect me to give any advice. I’m bad at that. I take my cues from Big Tag and never get involved in other dudes’ relationships.”
That was not how she’d heard it. She’d heard Big Tag was a terrible gossip and often played fairy godmother, but she wasn’t going to be the one to point that out. Besides, she did have questions. “Do you have any idea why he’s so touchy about his legs? Don’t get me wrong. I can imagine that it’s hard to lose a piece of yourself, but he’s so secretive about them. He’s not like you. You don’t hide it. You let yourself be comfortable.”
“It’s because I’m a sexy beast,” Macon replied with a ready smile. “I’m joking, but I’m kind of not. In the beginning, I didn’t want anyone to look at me. I didn’t want to look at me. I wore pants that covered me for a long time. I didn’t want to use crutches around people because I thought it made me look weak.”
“What changed?” She kind of thought she knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from him.
His hand came out, touching Ally’s head. “She did want to look at me. She did want to touch me. And when I finally let her, I realized how much I was missing. It sounds like you and Sebastian are already moving in that direction. I’m glad to hear that. You should know he’s a good man.”
She already knew how good he was. “Do you know how he lost them? Weren’t you in the hospital together?”
He nodded. “We were initially in a hospital in Germany. We weren’t injured together. We were in two separate accidents, but we were in similar shape. He’d been there for a few days when I showed up. Ramstein was where we did the beginning stages of recovery before they shipped us home. We shared a room for a few weeks. He was in a chopper accident. He was lucky to live, but I know that at the time it doesn’t feel that way. Like me, he lost some friends. I think he lost a very close friend from how he would talk when he was drugged up. He would call out for a man named Gary. I know he also talked about a woman named Alicia, but when I asked about her a few months back he would only tell me she was a woman from his hometown.”
Alicia. “He says he doesn’t speak to anyone there now. Is that why he went to London?”
“We both had a shit time when we got home. I came here to be around Adam, but right around that time, Sebastian called me and asked if he could stay. He came for a week, met with Ian, and they decided to send him to London. Back then he was in a wheelchair.”
“He couldn’t walk?” How hard would that have been for a man like Sebastian? To be stuck in a chair.
“His injury was more extensive than mine. Losing both limbs is exponentially harder. There was a doctor in London who specialized in getting double amputees back on their feet, so to speak. He looked so good when he got back to the States, but honestly, I’m still worried about him. Less over the last few weeks. It’s good to see him warm up.”
He was quite warm. He simply needed to remember that it was okay to care about people. “Do you have any idea why he stopped talking to his mother? I know they didn’t talk for months before she died.”
“There was some kind of big fight after he got home,” Macon explained. “I’m not sure what it was about. His father passed while Sebastian was in the hospital. Maybe his mom was too emotional to deal with it all. I’m not sure. He won’t talk about it, but I know he hasn’t been home in years. He hasn’t talked to his sister in forever. I don’t think he plans to.”
“He has a sister?” How much did she really know about Sebastian? How much would he tell her?
Macon nodded. “A younger one. Her name was Ramona. I know he was very excited to see her when she came to travel back with him. They looked like they were close. She held his hand and took care of him. I don’t know what happened when they got back home.”
