Dating Mr. Darcy - Kate O'Keeffe Page 0,61
when I get back home to my tiny rented apartment on the wrong side of town.”
“Oh, you won’t be headin’ there anytime soon,” Reggie says.
“What makes you say that?”
“He’s into you, darlin’. It’s plain as day.” She leans forward and adds, “Whatever your secret is, please let me in on it. That man does things to me I’m not tellin’ my mama about, if you know what I mean.”
My heartrate kicks up. “He’s not into me.”
“You sure about that?”
“Look out, girls,” Phoebe says as she sits more upright in her chair. “He’s coming our way.”
A moment later, Sebastian arrives. “Good evening, ladies,” he says in that sexy accent of his, and I have to work hard at resisting the urge to leap into his arms.
I have got to get a hold of myself. If he reciprocated my feelings, he would have kissed me when he had the chance.
“How are you all this evening?” he asks.
“Good,” I reply, feeling thoroughly awkward as the others chat with him about the house and the journey here. He smiles and answers everyone’s questions, even Reggie’s about whether he’s ever gone for a swim in his pond in just a pair of pants and a see-through white shirt, like Colin Firth in the famous BBC adaptation I used to watch with my mom.
“I have not,” he replies with a twinkle in his eyes. “But I’ll certainly add it to my to-do list.”
“As long as you tell us when you’re doin’ it. We would hate to miss the show,” Reggie purrs.
“I’ll be sure to do that, Reggie,” he replies smoothly.
After talking with us for a while about his home and how we’re finding the place, he says, “Emma, would you like to go for a walk with me? I would like to show you the garden shrubs we were discussing earlier.”
We both know we didn’t discuss plants of any kind. “Garden shrubs. Sure.”
He stands up and I do the same.
“Until later in the evening, ladies,” he says to the group.
“I’ll be holdin’ you to that,” Reggie says as we turn to leave. “I’ve got a sudden fascination with your garden shrubs myself now, too. Maybe we can go for a walk later?”
“I would enjoy that,” he replies.
Sebastian offers me his arm, and I hook mine over it all lady-like as we walk away.
“Shrubs, huh?” I ask.
“Actually, I wanted to show you the gardens. I think you’ll like them.”
“The fact you said ‘gardens’ with an ‘s’ tells me they’re going to be a whole lot more impressive than my little window box.”
“You have a window box?”
“Don’t pretend to be impressed.”
“I imagine it’s a lot less work than our gardens.”
“Watering a few gerberas every day or two isn’t exactly work, you know.”
“Are you all settled in? Do you like your room?”
“Oh, it’s totally gorgeous,” I can’t help but gush.
The skin around his eyes crinkle as he smiles at me. “I’m glad you think so.”
“It would be hard not to. Your house is seriously amazing. You’ve got to know that.”
“It’s not my house, per se. It’s my family’s. We all live here. My mother, my grandmother, and my sister, too.”
“A bit crowded, huh? I hope no one hogs the bathroom in the mornings.”
He smiles and asks, “Which room are you in?”
“Why? Are you planning to pop in for tea and crumpets?”
He shrugs. “I’m interested, that’s all.”
“I’m staying with Kennedy in the most incredible room with a massive four-poster bed, which I gave to her.”
“Because you’re so magnanimous?”
I know he’s using my word to describe myself, and his playful tone has me relaxing from a tightly bound knot. “You got it.”
“You’ll need to narrow the room down for me. All the guest accommodations have four-poster beds.”
“How awful for you,” I jest. “You’ve got too many guest rooms to keep track of. If you stayed with me, you’d be lucky if you got half the sofa. Frank would claim the other half.”
“Frank?”
“My tabby cat.” I think of my fur kid and my heart gives a squeeze. “I miss him. He’s so cute and fluffy. He can be quite prickly though, even with me, but we’ve come to an understanding: I feed him and let him do whatever he wants and he doesn’t maul me with his sharp cat claws.”
“He sounds charming.”
“Oh, he’s the best. He was a rescue. The shelter said he was mistreated before I got him. I figured he’d gone through some crap, so he could keep his foibles.”
“As well as his fur balls?”
I look at him in surprise.