Sebastian laughed and joked with me while I helped Sophia fix their food, but Charlotte didn’t say a word. Instead, she kept tracing her index finger over the counter, painting a pattern that only she could see. I wondered what she was thinking about. I wondered if she enjoyed being here with Sebastian or if she was already worried about returning home and what might happen there, what her father might do to her.
Well, she shouldn’t have worried. Because after tonight, Cesar Vaughn wasn’t going to hurt her ever again.
“Is something wrong?” Sebastian asked, noticing the dark look on my face.
I shook my head. “Of course not. Unless you turn out to be a lousy tipper.”
He laughed, and I joined in with his hearty chuckles.
Finn looked at Sebastian, then at me. His frown deepened. No doubt, Finn would run straight to Fletcher as soon as Sebastian and Charlotte left and tell the old man all about the two of them coming into the restaurant. But there was nothing that I could do about that, so I decided to focus on my two customers—and enjoy this unexpected time with Sebastian.
I still had to work, of course, seeing to the needs of the few remaining diners, but I was able to spend most of my time hanging out at the counter with Sebastian. He was as warm, witty, and charming as he had been at the party. Maybe even more so, since today he was just a guy eating in a restaurant, flirting with a cute waitress who enjoyed every second of his attention.
Finn finally got up to help Sophia with something in the back of the restaurant, while Charlotte slipped off her stool and headed toward the bathroom.
“Alone at last,” Sebastian murmured. “I thought your brother was never going to leave. He doesn’t seem to like me very much.”
I snorted. “Finn doesn’t like anyone who’s cuter than he is.”
“So I’m cuter than he is? Good to know.”
Sebastian grinned, and I felt myself blushing, just like Charlotte had earlier.
“And now for the real reason that I came here.” He leaned forward and captured my hand with his, even though I was wiping down the counter again. “Go out with me, Gin.”
I’d been having so much fun with Sebastian that I almost said yes without even thinking about it. But at the last moment, I swallowed my easy agreement. Maybe I’d been around Fletcher too long, because I couldn’t quite quash the little whisper of worry in the back of my mind, the one that insisted that Sebastian had some secret agenda, the way rich guys almost always did.
“Why would someone like you want to go out with someone like me? We don’t exactly run in the same circles.” I made my voice light and teasing, as if it didn’t really matter whether we went out or not. Although I was startled by just how much it suddenly did matter—to me.
His mouth set into a stubborn line. “I don’t care whether you have money, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t care about anything like that. Not money, not power, not people and how I can use them. Not like my father does.”
His lips pinched together, and I wondered if he was talking about Charlotte, and if he knew what his father was doing to her. But his sour expression melted away, and Sebastian smiled at me again.
“You’re the most interesting woman I’ve met in ages, Gin. So c’mon. Give a guy a break. Let me take you out to dinner, a movie, coffee, something, anything you like.”
His eyes met mine, and I stared into the dark, liquid depths, still trying to discern his true motives. But all I saw in his earnest, pleading gaze was a desire to get close to me. Maybe he really did want to get to know me, or maybe he thought that I’d be an easy lay, so bowled over by his suave moves and smoldering good looks that I’d let him do me before dinner. Either way, I felt myself wavering, despite what a bad idea it was. But really, I liked the attention, and I wanted it to last for at least a little while longer.
“All right,” I said, laughing a little at how good it felt to give in to him. “All right. You win.”
“I always do.” He grinned again. “How about tonight?”
I thought of my plans for his father, plans that just wouldn’t wait. My laughter vanished, and I shook my head. “I can’t tonight. How about Friday?”
That was three days from now and a more natural date night than the current Tuesday. More important, it would be after I’d killed his father, and I had no doubt that Sebastian would have other things to think about then and would forget all about me.
A pang twinged through my chest at the thought, even though I knew it was for the best. Still, it surprised me how much I cared about seeing Sebastian again, even though I probably never would after today.
Maybe if I’d met Sebastian before Fletcher had gotten the Vaughn job. Maybe if I’d met him months after. But, of course, my terrible luck had made us cross paths at precisely the wrong moment. Fletcher was right—nothing could ever come of this. No matter how much I might have wanted it to. My heart squeezed tight.
Sebastian’s grin widened. “Friday would be great.”
“I still have to work.”
“I understand. Pick you up here around seven?”
I smiled at him, keeping up the charade until the bitter end, even though my expression was as brittle as my heart. “It’s a date.”
Finn returned from the back of the restaurant, Charlotte stepped out of the bathroom, and they both took their seats again. Sebastian kept giving me sly little winks, though, as if we were in on some secret joke together.
If only he knew how many secrets I had to keep—especially from him.
Sebastian and Charlotte finished their food, while Finn finally scraped up the remains of the peach pie he’d been eating when they’d first arrived. I told Sebastian that the meal was on the house, but he insisted on paying and giving me an obscenely generous tip. Charlotte seemed too full for desert, given that she hadn’t eaten all of her cheeseburger, so I packed up some chocolate-chip cookies for her to take home, putting them in a white paper bag with the Pork Pit’s pig logo printed on the side.
I pushed the bag across the counter to her. “Here you go, sweetheart. In case you want a snack later.”
Charlotte stared at the bag of cookies, then at me. She glanced at Sebastian, who nodded. She reached out and dragged the bag off the counter, hugging it to her chest, almost as if the crinkly white paper were a shield that would protect her from all of the terrible things in her life, including her father.
No bag, no cookies, could do that—but I would.