Page 72 of Best Kept Vows

I shook my head and handed him my credit card. I had to drive home, so this was my first and last drink of the night.

I signed the receipt and sat back to enjoy my drink the best I could under the circumstances. The bar was busy, which wasn’t unusual for a Friday night.

A group of friends near the entrance laughed loudly, the easy kind of laughter that belonged to people with no real worries. A couple in the corner leaned in close, their hands entwined, murmuring intimately.

I used to have that. I used to haveher.

I took another sip, my grip tightening around the glass. What if I had already lost her for good? The thought was interrupted by a voice beside me.

“Sebastian Boone, right?”

I turned to see the man who’d been in the photograph Jane had triumphantly shown me.

He was Luna Steele’s brother Lev. I’d checked him out. He ran the Steele timber business. I wondered how that was going, not that it failing would hurt the Steele fortune. But then, maybe people thought the same about the Boone non-existent fortune. Looks, as they said, could be deceiving.

“Lev Steele.” He held out his hand. I shook it after a brief hesitation.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, handsome,andten years younger than me. Was I ever this confident and comfortable in my skin at his age? I didn’t think so.

He sat on the empty stool next to mine.

“Hey, Lev, how’s it goin’?” the bartender greeted him.

“All good, man. How’s the wife?”

“Big as a house,” the bartender chuckled. “Your usual?”

“Yeah, thanks, Javier.”

His usual was a beer on tap. He took a sip of the drink and made an appreciative humming sound. “We’ve got a mutual connection—your wife.”

I lifted a brow. “I’m aware.”

He smirked, unbothered. “She lives across the hallway from me.”

They were neighbors? Fucking hell, I thought indismay. I knew she wouldn’t cheat,butI didn’t think I could stand it if she were even attracted to him.

“We had dinner together the other day at Collins.”

That was the same restaurant she’d asked me to meet herat on Monday when she agreed to see me. I studied him, trying to get a sense of him.

“My wife works for your sister.”

He shrugged. “Luna is head of architecture at Savannah Lace, a lot of people work for her.”

I didn’t know what to make of that, so I drank some more. I wasn’t in a good headspace, and thisboywasn’t helping.

Come on, Sebastian, he’s not a boy, he’s a grown man, and Lia looked fucking thrilled to be having dinner with him. Remember the last time she laughed like that with you?

Fuck my life!I couldn’t remember a time when Lia had been that happy with me. Part of it was my fault, my workaholism, my need to first prove I could survive without Boone Metals, and then to prove I could make Boone Metals survive.

“There’s a friend of mine,” Lev said conversationally. “She’s been with her husband for…I don’t know, fifteen years or so. They have two kids, and he works, and she stays home.”

He looked at the menu, and I waited for him to make his point.

“Javier, can we get some popcorn and some truffle fries.” He set the menu away. “I missed lunch, and it’s too early for dinner.”

Like I give a shit!

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