so I drop my gaze to my hands. The help. I hate hearing Mia described like that, and I hate watching her act like it.
“You work here?” Sebastian says. “That’s interesting.” He finally takes his eyes off her and looks at my father. “I know Mia’s father. He lives by my gram.”
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Mia asks him.
“Mia!” Gwen says. “Forgive her rudeness, Sebastian. She typically cares for the baby. She doesn’t understand the appropriate way to act in these situations.”
“I apologize,” she says quickly.
Sebastian grins. “Nothing inappropriate about her question, ma’am. Mia probably doesn’t know I’m on the team.” He shifts his gaze to me. “I haven’t been traveling in the same social circles as the rest of the guys, since I wasn’t playing last season.”
“Well, that’s about to change,” Dad says. “Seriously, the boys are welcome here anytime, and that offer stands for you, too, son. I forget you were raised in Blackhawk Valley. Is it good to be home?”
“It’s always good to be close to family.”
Bailey busies herself filling water glasses, and Mia bites her lip and stares at Sebastian. For the first time it occurs to me that maybe she didn’t tell her father about working here. Her old man would probably go on a tear if he knew. Does Sebastian know that?
“You should probably go check on dinner,” Gwen says to Mia.
Mia nods and scurries out of the room, Bailey not far behind.
Mia
“Did you know Mr. Muscles was on the team?” Bailey asks. “Because damn. Sebastian Mother-May-I? And the way he was looking at you? I think he would have tried to devour you whole if he didn’t have an audience.”
I pull the broiling pan from the oven and sprinkle the filet with blue cheese crumbles before sliding the pan back in to let it melt. “You have an overactive imagination. He was looking at me like that because he knows how my dad would feel about me working here. Not everything is sexual.”
“Not everything.” She cuts a slit in each of the foil-wrapped potatoes and then positions them on the plates lining the counter. “But most things, and definitely the way he was eye-fucking you.”
Sebastian definitely wasn’t eye-fucking me—he was looking at me like a guy who knows how my father would feel about my job—but there’s no use arguing any such thing with Bailey. She sees what she wants to see.
We work in silence for a few minutes, then she sighs heavily and turns to me. “Ask me about Mason.”
“What? Why?”
“I’ve been good. I don’t ask questions. I don’t demand you tell me things normal best friends tell each other. So ask me about Mason so I can talk about the damn elephant in the room.”
I fold my arms. “Fine. What’s going on with you and Mason?”
“Nothing. I broke it off when Nic got out of prison.”
“I remember.” She fed me some bullshit excuse about things getting too serious between the two of them, but I knew the truth. Nic was home, and she needed to be available.
“Mason has been nothing but a friend for me since,” she says. “Trust me, I wanted more after Nic died, but Mason says we can’t be just sex anymore. He said we’re in too deep for that, so he’s holding out. No sex unless I’ll be his girlfriend, and you and I both know I’m not in a place to sign up for that. So. Your turn.”
“Wait. Slow down. Mason won’t sleep with you?”
“Selfish motherfucker, isn’t he?”
I bite my lip. “I kind of respect his restraint. He cares about you, and he wants more. It’s sweet.”
She narrows her eyes. “It’s sexual blackmail.” Grabbing the potholder, she opens the oven, pulls out the steaks, and begins adding them to the plates. I follow behind her with the green beans.
“Let’s get these on the table before they get cold,” I say, grabbing a few plates.
We serve dinner and refill drinks. Sebastian watches me with undisguised curiosity the whole time, but we’re able to escape the dining room without another awkward conversation.
“The elephant!” Bailey says when we’re back in the kitchen.
“What’s the elephant?”
She grabs my hand and pulls me into the living room and out the French doors. “Arrow. I’m going to be honest, I was hoping him coming home might be good for you. Good for you both.” Her eyes are soft and gentle, and I know all I have to do is say that I don’t want to talk about it and she’ll let it