never felt the need to get out every night when you were living with Frank.” Max shrugged. “And you didn’t last week when Seb was in Reno.”
Neely glared at him. “Don’t you have anything better to do than work out my motivations?”
A grin flashed across Max’s face. “You’re my daughter. I’m catching up on all the years I never got to be a father.”
“If you want to practice all the things you missed, Mom’s coming out this weekend.”
Abruptly Max’s smile vanished and he straightened up in his desk chair, put both feet on the floor and gave Neely a hard look. “Your mother and I are past history.”
Neely gave an airy wave of her hand. “Just thought you’d like to know.”
Max grunted. “Go bowl.”
She did. She even went out for a beer with the group afterward. It was nearly nine when she got home. Sebastian was working at the computer. He didn’t turn around when she came in, but kept working while she made a fuss over the kittens, then scratched Harm’s ears and said, “Hang on. Let me put my stuff upstairs and I’ll take you for a run.”
“I already did.”
She blinked as Sebastian spun his chair around and met her surprise with an unsmiling stare. “Oh. Well, um, thanks.”
“And I fed the cats and the rabbits and the guinea pig. Maybe you shouldn’t have animals if you’re not going to take care of them, Robson.”
Neely straightened, eye wide. “I beg your pardon? Who says I don’t take care of them?”
“Well, you’re gone all day and all night—”
“I came home at lunch and took Harm for a run. I came home before I went bowling and fed him and took him out. I fed the kittens. I played with them. I took the rabbits out on the deck. I never neglect my animals! And if you think I do, then you can—”
Sebastian raised his hands, palms out. “So, fine, you do take care of them, I didn’t know. You weren’t here. At least you’re not here whenever I’ve been here. Which must take quite a lot of effort on your part.” He paused and then repeated, “You aren’t here. I wonder why….” He let his voice trail off.
Their gazes met and she knew Sebastian knew exactly why she wasn’t here.
She waited for him to suggest, as Max had, that she was running scared, but he just said gruffly, “Anyway, I took him for a run.”
“Thank you.” Her tone was stiff. And she turned away to clip Harm’s leash on his collar anyway.
“I’m leaving in the morning,” he said to her back. “Back to Reno. So I won’t be here to walk your dog. “
“I’m sure we’ll manage,” she said, still not looking at him, heading toward the door.
“Or kiss you senseless.”
She spun around and stared at him.
He smiled. “Only saying.”
It was far better that Sebastian was gone.
Really, it was. She didn’t have to keep bumping into him in the hallway or on the stairs. There was no T-shirt hanging on the hook in the bathroom tempting her to pluck it off and breathe in the subtle scent of him. There was also no coffee container sitting on the countertop because he’d forgotten to put it away, and no running shoes by the door to trip over, and no pair of smoky-green eyes watching her every time she looked up.
It was a relief all the way around.
So why did the place seem so empty?
It wasn’t empty, of course. Harm was here. The kittens were here. And the rabbits and the guinea pig.
It was exactly the way it would have been after Frank left.
Exactly the way it was when Seb had gone to Reno after the very first weekend he’d bought the houseboat. It hadn’t been lonely then, had it?
Well, actually, now that you mentioned it…
No! Forget it. And it was true that she did breathe easier while he was gone—though she still felt his presence everywhere.
But she had to admit she was surprised and a little disconcerted when Friday came and Sebastian didn’t.
She didn’t go out on Friday night, actually sat home and worked and played with the kittens and, heaven help her, played the violin that Sebastian had brought with him.
Why not? She thought crossly. He never played it.
She was always careful to put it back where she found it. She didn’t think he ever knew she’d touched it.
She shouldn’t touch it. And yet she couldn’t seem to keep her hands off.
She’d missed not playing, but she hadn’t realized how much until she began again. It had nothing at all to do with it being Sebastian’s violin.
Nothing!
Saturday her mother arrived and there was barely time to think about Sebastian, except to be grateful he wasn’t there. Her mother wasn’t going to stay with her; she’d arranged to stay with a friend on Vashon Island. But of course Neely was picking her up at the airport and would take her back to see the houseboat.
Still she hoped he hadn’t come back while she was at the airport. She didn’t think Sebastian needed to meet her mother, and she was quite sure Lara didn’t need to meet Sebastian.
She hadn’t seen her mother since going back to Wisconsin at Christmas, but Lara was the same as ever, rather like the weather—mostly sunny and with scattered clouds and the occasional rain shower whenever she teared up remembering “the good old days” with John.
“It’s so empty without him,” she told Neely in the car on their way from the airport to Lake Union. “Even after all this time.”
“I know,” Neely agreed, because it was—and because knocking around the houseboat the past two days had given her a glimmer of how empty life could seem—and how aware she was of a man who wasn’t there.
“But he’d be glad I’m out visiting you instead of staying home,” Lara went on as they drove north from the airport. “I can hardly wait to see your houseboat.”
“Oh, er, about the houseboat…” Neely hadn’t told her mother about what happened. Now she did, and watched Lara’s consternation grow.
“You’re sharing a houseboat with a man?”
“I’ve always been sharing a houseboat with a man. This is just a different man.”
“What sort of man?”
“He’s like Dad. A workaholic architect. Totally consumed by his job.” Well, almost.
Lara looked appalled. “Like
