Not Used To Cute - Becca Seymour Page 0,7
he was gorgeous. “I heard the car pull over right beside me, so I looked in that direction. He started by just saying hello. I just assumed he was asking for directions or something.” I bobbed my head in understanding, urging him to continue. “He seemed friendly. Just a kid really. Can’t have been older than twenty-one, asked if the bar was any good, if I worked here.” He paused and blew out an unsteady breath. “I didn’t think anything about it until he asked if I was a girl and liked to take it.”
Heat punched into my chest. I froze, willing myself to calm down and not lose my shit. “What sort of car was he driving?”
Rather than answer, Seb continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “A girl.” He scrunched his nose and shook his head. “What, just because I’m not seven fucking foot tall and don’t have a beard? I swear, I am so over little homop—”
“Seb, baby, please focus.”
His mouth dropped to an O, and a light blush covered his cheeks. The first I’d spotted on him since we’d met. “Yeah, sorry, okay, a white Holden. An older model. It was beat up and—” Seb cut himself off and went wide-eyed before saying distractedly, “The mess. It’ll need clearing up and—”
“It’s okay. Go on,” I said, internally cringing at my slip-up.
He bobbed his head, fierce resolve in his eyes, his muscles bunching under his tee the more worked up he was getting. “Okay, well, I don’t know. His friend, who I hadn’t really noticed before, said something, and they started laughing. He angled his body away from the window and I assumed he was about to pull away so I turned my back anyway to get the hell away—” He cleared his throat before continuing, “—but then he called out, and then I saw the red just coming at me. It took me a moment to realise what it was. I had a serious Carrie moment.” The pink in his cheeks turned a bright red at this point. The anger reassured me. It was a damn sight better than him being frightened.
“Shit,” he continued, “I’m sorry. I dropped the package. I’ll go back—”
“Jesus, Seb. It’s fine.” He blanched at my hard voice. I needed to get my head straight, but it was so difficult knowing Seb had been in that situation. Yet unbelievably, he was still worried about everyone else, which was something I’d quickly discovered about the man before me. He was selfless and kind. “It’s no big deal,” I clarified. “Lenny will head out and look, but if it’s gone, it really is no big deal, okay?”
He twisted his mouth, uncertainty etched on his face.
“Hey.” I reached out and palmed his cheek, brushing his cheekbone softly with the pad of my thumb. “All I meant was nothing in that parcel is more important than you, okay?” I lifted my brows and waited for an acknowledgment, so very aware this was the first time I’d touched him like this. He nodded. “We all care about you and hate you were in that situation.”
Focusing on Seb’s wide, bright eyes, I asked, “And what happened after that? He say anything else?”
“He told me I should consider getting therapy. That was before he snorted at himself like a dickhead, then drove off.” Not once did Seb’s tone dip, his voice break, or did he lose eye contact as he recounted what happened. His strength echoed in every syllable and every slow, even breath. I, however, wanted to rip the guys’ goddamn heads off—whoever they might be. “I didn’t get the registration.” He shrugged.
“Hey, that’s okay.” Whoever the dung heaps were, they’d not only attacked Seb, but had known or assumed he worked here. Immediately my thoughts went to the graffiti that had appeared in the last couple of weeks around not only my place but a few of the other businesses too. It didn’t take much to figure out it was likely they were connected. But if Seb was right thinking at least one of the guys was maybe twenty-one, and not the young teenagers I’d expected, that took the threat to a new level.
The thud of my heart pounded in my ears as I tried to process everything I’d heard, everything I felt, and exactly why these guys had started to be arseholes now. This was the bloody Sunny Coast, a place with sunshine and rainbows. I sighed at that. There were still a lot of bigoted wankers