Sucking in a breath, she almost couldn’t hear his words over the roar of blood in her ears. Almost. “Abby . . . you have no idea just how much more I want from you.”
Chapter Thirteen
“So . . . you’re here with Zach . . .”
Pulling the lasagna out of the oven, Abigale braced herself for the next inquisition. She recognized the low, smooth sound of Sebastian’s voice without even turning around and she already knew how to handle this one.
Over the past few hours, she’d handled the curious questions from the twins, seen the odd gleam in Ron’s eyes, and almost went head-to-head with Keelie, although she really didn’t know why Keelie despised her so much.
The easiest person, by far, had been Denise and that had been a shock. Denise, Zach’s mom, was the one person Abigale had been sort of dreading to face over this and she hated that, because she adored Denise. Because she adored Denise, because she knew and loved the woman, she knew what Denise wanted most was to see her kids all happy.
Denise didn’t necessarily equate happy with married, but more than a few late-night conversations had cemented one certainty in Abigale’s head.
Denise suspected her second-oldest son was lonely.
Not crying-in-his-beer lonely, Denise had told her once. But he was looking for something.
Abigale hadn’t ever seen it, and that bothered her because she was his best friend, but Denise had told her that there were some things a mom just knew. Maybe so. It wasn’t like Abigale had the best mom to really judge things by.
But Denise had been easy.
Sebastian was the other person she’d been dreading having to face over this. Might as well get it over with, she told herself as she reached for a towel and turned around to look at him.
They were alone in the kitchen, although that wouldn’t last long, she knew.
Denise had been bustling in and out of the kitchen for most of the afternoon and in a few minutes, Abigale knew she’d be pulled out there to enjoy the party as well. Pretty little Chinese lanterns strung throughout the back swayed in the breeze and people were laughing, calling out to each other. All in all, everybody seemed to be having a good time, even Trey, although every now and then, he’d get a far-off look in his eyes and Abigale knew he was thinking about his wife. Cara had only been twenty-three when she died. Too young, Abigale thought. Far too young.
Blowing out a breath, she surveyed everything around her. She was pretty much done. It was a buffet-style meal and she wasn’t feeding an army. A party for thirty people was easy for her. Somebody else was handling the cake and everything so she was almost at the point that she could take a few minutes, but she’d rather take those minutes with Zach. Playing twenty questions with Sebastian wasn’t her idea of fun.
It was going to happen, though.
“I’m often at places with Zach,” she pointed out, giving Sebastian an easy smile. They were friends . . . usually, and got along well enough, when Zach wasn’t in the picture.
But the two of them lived very much in two different worlds.
“You probably don’t remember a lot of it, but Zach and I have often been in the very same place for more than twenty years.” She winked at him and added, “There were even a few times when I was there while you were there . . . in diapers.”
Sebastian was twenty-two and the youngest of the crew. He was also the prettiest, prettier even than Zach, and it seemed he was determined to chase after the career Zach had walked away from. He still lived in LA and he was doing pretty well lately . . . a few small parts on a TV show and there was talk that his character was going to become a regular next season.
He looked up to his older brother with something that was near adulation, she knew. Zach could do no wrong. He was almost fiercely protective of him. But Sebastian had tunnel vision. He was almost certain that Zach’s main issue in life was that he just hadn’t found the right venue back into Hollywood.
Sometimes she wondered if Sebastian and Roger had been drinking the same Kool-Aid.
“So I hear your show is going well,” she said, shifting his focus from Zach to his other love in life.