Page 53 of The Sebastian Guarantee
She barely nodded.
He pressed on. “It was a good idea to wear our cocktail hour clothes in the car. I think that was your idea.” He sounded like a blabbering fool.
He reduced their speed as they came around a bend and a sprawling lodge emerged in the distance. Flanked by rows of lights, the Glenn Pines Lodge glowed invitingly next to a shimmering lake.
“See, we made it, and this place looks lovely.” He wasn’t lying. There was something enchanting about coming around a corner in the dark of night to find a mountain oasis shimmering in the distance.
Phoebe shifted in her seat. “Sebastian, pull over.”
“But the lodge is only a few minutes away, Pheebs. It’s right there. We’re so close.”
She rubbed the back of her neck. “We need to talk before we check in.”
Her voice shook. It was barely perceptible, but he caught it, and it broke his heart. He slowed and eased the car to a stop beneath an iron lamppost. The golden light glinted off the beads and tiny sequins sewn into her dress like she, too, was part of the place’s magic.
He could see the wheels turning in her head and decided to make the first move. “Listen, Pheebs, I know what you’re worried about. I’ve been thinking about it, too.”
“You have?” she replied, wide-eyed as she returned to wringing her hands. “You’ve been thinking about whatoccurredin my kitchen?”
Occurred—now there’s a word. But now wasn’t the time to worry about semantics.
Be her life coach. No, be more than that. Be her best friend.
He rested his hand on hers. Instantly, she stilled the nervous wringing and inhaled a sharp breath. Maybe touching her was the wrong call. They hadn’t even brushed past each other since they’d made love. The contact of his skin meeting hers sent a buzz through his body. He stroked his thumb over her knuckles as if it were second nature.
Focus on the Sebastian Guarantee.
What did he need to do? He knew the answer. He had to reframe what had happened to allow them to move forward. He removed his hand from hers, hating how it left an emptiness in his chest.
Clearing his throat, he went into work mode. “What occurred is in the past. It’s not like we did anything wrong. We’re adults. We share a comfort level and a familiarity with each other that carries into every facet of our lives. I can still picture your face the first time I saw you through the window when I was sitting in the back seat of Mibby’s car.”
“You can?” she asked, her voice a scrape of a sound.
Why the hell had he said that? This was absolutely not the time to muddy the waters. He needed to fall back on his knowledge base: business, yoga and meditation, and what he’d gleaned from experts regarding health and success.
“Whatoccurred,” he continued, “was merely two people driven to be their best, exceeding the standard. In other words, we’re the types to go above and beyond and always give it our all. We go all in. And ourall inwith the kissing assessment spiraled into another activity.”
Jesus, what a word salad.
“Okay, I think I’ve got it.” She chewed her lip. “When we wentall in, what occurred involved your appendage and my orifice, like an extra credit project.”
More like an extra, extra, extra credit project, but this was what they got for being two very detail-oriented people. Still, he couldn’t go down this orifice-and-appendage road again. The words alone would leave a perma-cringe plastered on his face.
“And we’re moving on, mindfully, with open hearts that are prepared to accept exciting new possibilities.” Sweet Jesus, he was serving up another helping of word salad with an extra side of word salad slaw.
“Can we also agree,” Phoebe began tentatively, “that ourall in-nesswill stay between us? As much as we love them and would never want to keep anything from them, Aria and Oscar won’t be privy to the details of the all-in appendage-orifice extra credit occurrence.” She cringed.
Winner, winner!They had a word salad spinner winner, and her name was Phoebe Gale.
“Agreed,” he said with a relieved breath. “And Pheebs?”
“Yes?”
“I’ll need you to stop saying the wordsappendageandorifice.”
“Yeah, okay, duly noted,” she answered, then pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle a flowery giggle.
“They are strangely comical-sounding words,” he commented.
