I opened my mouth to snap at him again, but Sebastian stepped up to the counter, along with Charlotte. I ignored Finn and plastered a smile on my face, as though I didn’t want to reach across the counter and strangle him with my bare hands.
“Surprised?” Sebastian grinned back at me. “I told you that I’d track you down, Gin.”
Instead of letting him see my pleasure and surprise, I arched an eyebrow. “Yes, you did. And you actually followed through with it.”
He gave a modest shrug. “It wasn’t hard. I got the event planner for the dinner party to ask around. She heard from a waitress who heard from a cook who heard from another cook who said that you mentioned some barbecue place. I’ve heard my dad talk about how good the food is here, so I thought that I’d take a chance and see if this was you.”
I had to keep myself from grimacing. I had made some offhand remark to one of the cooks that the Pork Pit was the best barbecue joint in Ashland, and Sebastian had connected the dots. Probably all he’d had to do to get Meredith to ferret out the information was smile at her the way he was smiling at me right now. Sloppy, Gin.
“Well, good for you,” I drawled. “If I had a gold star, I’d stick one on your shirt.”
He let out a low, throaty laugh that made my heart sputter and my anger evaporate. “And I see you’re as sassy as ever.”
His eyes met mine again, and I found myself admiring the bits of amber that shimmered in his dark brown gaze, the sparks and flashes of color so intense that they resembled flecks of pure, polished gold. Maybe it wasn’t such a disaster that he’d tracked me down after all—
Finn snorted louder than a plow horse, breaking the spell. I dragged my attention away from Sebastian and focused on Charlotte, who was still holding on to her brother’s hand and standing slightly behind him. That was a little odd for a teenage girl.
“Hi, sweetheart,” I said. “My name’s Gin. What’s yours?”
Charlotte didn’t answer, although she kept staring at me.
Sebastian slung his arm around her shoulder and hugged her to his side. “Don’t mind Charlotte. My sister is just a little shy.”
I gave the girl another smile. “Well, most folks are, including me. Why don’t y’all have a seat, and we’ll get you some food?”
She studied me in that intense way that kids so often did, as if she could see all the secrets of my soul simply by staring into my eyes. After a moment, she slowly nodded.
My heart clenched, but I flashed her another smile. I couldn’t change what had happened to Charlotte, how her own father had abused her, but I could make sure that she had a nice meal. Yeah, it wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things—it wasn’t anything, really—but it was all that I could do right now.
I’d take care of the more pressing problem of her father tonight.
Sebastian took a seat on one of the stools, while Charlotte hopped up onto the one next to Finn. Being the terrible flirt that he was, my foster brother fixed his attention on her. Finn didn’t care how young or old, or cute or not, someone was, but if she was female, then he felt this obsessive need to charm her into liking him.
“How are you today, little lady?” he drawled.
Charlotte stared at him, something almost like fear sparking in her eyes.
“Don’t mind him,” I said, reaching across the counter to punch Finn on the shoulder. “He likes to tease all the pretty girls who come in.”
Finn gave her a saucy wink. “And you’re as pretty as that peach pie in the cake stand over there.”
Charlotte looked at him for a few seconds longer before her face abruptly crinkled into a delighted smile. A delicate blush tinted her cheeks. She ducked her head and started fiddling with the end of one of her long black pigtails, but her gaze kept sliding back to him, and I knew that Finnegan Lane had struck again. I shook my head. Sometimes I thought that Finn could make friends with a surly grizzly just by telling the creature how shiny its coat was.
But Sebastian had a different reaction to Finn’s lighthearted banter. He put his arm around Charlotte’s shoulder, drawing her close to him again. She froze, her hand clamping around her own hair, and her smile vanished.
“Are you a friend of Gin’s?” Sebastian asked, his voice tight with suspicion.
Finn grinned, but there was no warmth in the expression, just a lot of teeth. “Not a friend—her brother.”
I rolled my eyes. Finn always introduced himself that way to any guys I brought around Fletcher’s house or to the restaurant. I think he had some old-fashioned notion that giving guys the stink-eye would keep them from trying to get into my pants. Please. Finn wasn’t that scary.
But I certainly was.
“Oh.” Sebastian looked back and forth between the two of us, as if trying to see the familial resemblance. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Sebastian Vaughn.”
He held out his hand, which Finn shook a little too enthusiastically for my liking. Finn also held it longer than was necessary, squeezing Sebastian’s hand for all he was worth. Finn noticed me glaring at him again. I drew my finger in a subtle slash across my throat, telling him exactly what I was going to do to him if he didn’t cut out the overprotective bullshit act. Finn glared back at me, but he dropped Sebastian’s hand.
“And I’m the one, the only Finnegan Lane.” Finn gave an overly elaborate flourish with his hand, indicating his own greatness, before propping his elbow up on the counter. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to Cesar Vaughn, would you? The big construction mogul?”
Sebastian nodded. “I’m his son.”
Finn gave me a pointed look, one that said that he knew all about my latest assignment. Fletcher must have told him.
Before Finn could make some snide, thinly veiled remark to that effect, I whipped my order pad out of one of the back pockets of my jeans. “So what can I get for y’all?”
Sebastian ordered a barbecue beef sandwich, baked beans, and some macaroni salad, along with a cheeseburger, fries, and a triple chocolate milkshake for Charlotte.
Both Sebastian’s and Charlotte’s eyes widened as I went over and handed the order ticket to Sophia Deveraux, likely because Sophia was dressed in her usual Goth clothes—black boots, black jeans, and a black T-shirt that featured a white rose dripping blood. Grinning silver skulls dangled from the black leather collar around her neck, while red streaks shimmered in her black hair. Sophia looked at the ticket and grunted as she stirred a pot of Fletcher’s secret barbecue sauce that was simmering on one of the stoves. She didn’t talk much.