It's Only Make-Believe (6 page)

However, when Melody went to talk in the other part of the yard with the other women, Sebastian had slowly been abandoned. It was done subtly. Or at least they tried to pretend it was subtle. Al picked up his chair just to move it closer to the grill. To watch the food. Mel's father soon followed suit and then her uncle. A couple of family friends stood beside them. So far, Sebastian was the only white guy there. White person, actually.

One of the ladies had brought her small child, a boy of eight or so, who'd once come by to stare at Sebastian and ask him why he talked funny. When Sebastian attempted to explain he was British, the tyke quickly lost interest and abandoned him like everyone else.

He sighed. He'd known when Melody asked him that it would likely be a mistake. The truth was he'd wanted to please her.

Melody's father said something low to Melody's uncle and then glanced Sebastian's way. After a second or so, her father headed for his direction and sat in the chair previously occupied by Melody.

"Sebastian, is it?"

"Yes, Mr. Jenks."

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Harold Jenks had a beer in his hand and he took a sip. He was a large, muscular man with very dark skin. Not quite as large as his son, though.

"So, don't take this the wrong way or anything, but what are you doing here?"

Sebastian admired the man for getting straight to the point. "Your daughter asked me. We've sort of been seeing each other for the past week or so."

"What does that mean?"

"We're taking things slow."

Mr. Jenks nodded. "Uh-huh. Well, let me tell you something. My family does pretty well. We're all educated.

Mel's a lawyer, a partner in her own firm. My son's a chiropractor."

Sebastian's gaze flicked to Al and he winced. He couldn't imagine the beating he'd take with Al as his chiropractor.

"My wife and I were both teachers before we retired," Mr.

Jenks continued. "My point is we're not some poor black family, and Mel's not the first one in our family to finish college. She doesn't need to be rescued by a white knight in shining armor. You get my drift?"

"No."

He sighed. "A lot of guys like you think they like to experiment."

"Guys like me?"

"Whites. You think getting it on with a black girl will be exciting. Something different. Exotic even. Been happening since the master slept with the slaves."

"Mr. Jenks—"

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"But my daughter's a real person with real feelings and a family who doesn't want her to get hurt."

"I'm not out to hurt her," Sebastian protested.

"Look, you're probably a nice guy. You're educated, well-off, got a good job as a lawyer. No offense. But my daughter's been in love with Luther Winthrop for a long time, and we'd all kind of like to see that happen between them."

"I see."

Mr. Jenks stood up. "I hope you do. Enjoy the party."

* * * *

Melody finally extricated herself from her mother and her friends to catch up with Sebastian. She'd left him to her family for too long and she was feeling guilty. She found him standing over the fish pond her father had put in the side yard and filled with koi a couple of years ago when he retired.

He had his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants.

She slipped her hand into his arm. "Hi."

He smiled. "Hey there."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you like that for so long."

"Quite all right. I can handle myself."

Melody stood on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. "I saw Daddy talking to you."

Sebastian nodded.

"And then Al."

He nodded again.

"Mama, too."

"Right. They all wanted to give me advice."

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Melody froze in the middle of stroking his arm. "Oh, no.

They didn't."

Sebastian grinned. "They did."

"What did they say?" Melody's stomach twisted. She knew her family. They meant well, but whatever they'd said to Sebastian wasn't what she wanted him to hear.

The truth was she was becoming very fond of Sebastian.

Since the first time they had sex they'd seen each other every night. In fact, other than that first night where he hadn't had his contacts, they'd spent their nights together. They hadn't repeated the desk sex, both agreeing that while it was incredible and exciting it wasn't appropriate and definitely wasn't a good idea. But their sex life was on fire.

She had barely given a thought to Luther, which she felt pretty bad about. He'd called once to ask her to go to dinner, and she'd turned him down saying she had to work. Mel hadn't admitted she preferred to see Sebastian.

"Well?" she prodded when he didn't answer.

"Basically they all said while I seemed like a nice enough white guy, they wanted to see you with a nice black guy, preferably named Luther."

"Shit. I'm sorry."

"It's all right. Like I said, I can handle myself."

She shouldn't be surprised, Mel figured. They'd bombarded her with talk of Luther, too. And it wasn't as though she could really blame them. As far as they knew she'd always wanted Luther and wasn't into white men. Only now she definitely was into Sebastian.

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She threw her arms around him and embraced him. "Well, I'm sorry they gave you a hard time just the same." She searched his face. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Do you still think about that woman you wanted? You know from the restaurant?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Mel, want to know something?"

"Hmm?"

"There never was a waitress at Paolo's who I had the hots for."

Melody blinked. She was incredibly glad. Hell, her heart raced with happiness at the news, but ... "Really? Then why did you say there was?"

Sebastian kissed the tip of her nose. "It was stupid.

Anyway, it no longer matters. There never was such a woman."

She kissed him hard and deeply, suddenly feeling great.

"Want to get out of here?"

"Are you ready to leave?"

Mel nodded. "Sure. I already said goodbye to Daddy and gave him a birthday kiss."

"Okay. Your place or mine?"

"Yours this time."

* * * *

Sebastian was dog-tired Monday morning when he pulled his car into the parking garage of the law firm. He and Melody had spent all Saturday night having sex and well into Sunday 58

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morning. They hadn't spent Sunday night together as she'd had a wedding shower to attend that afternoon. She called him when it was over, but both of them admitted to being pretty exhausted, so they spent their Sunday night at their own places.

He parked in his assigned space, got out, and reached for his briefcase. Melody's space was a few spaces from his, but it was still empty.

A big gold sedan pulled up behind him and the passenger side window lowered.

Luther Winthrop smiled out at him. His hands on the steering wheel were covered with several large silver rings.

"Hey, man, Sebastian, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you know when Melody's going to be here? I need to talk to her," Luther said.

Sebastian shrugged. "Not sure. Any time though. Anything wrong?"

Luther grinned. "No. No, nothing wrong. Hey, man, you two aren't serious or anything, are you? I mean, I know you guys went to the club the other night, but that wasn't anything serious, was it?"

Sebastian didn't know how to answer that or even if he wanted to answer it. "Why?"

Luther tapped his hands on the steering wheel. "This is going to sound crazy, but I can't stop thinking about Mel.

We've known each other almost all our lives and I've always kind of thought of her as a sister. But not lately. Anyway, I 59

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want to talk to her about it. I don't want to cut in or whatever on you."

"No, it's ... it's fine," Sebastian said, finding it hard to get the words out. This is what Melody wanted. This man. It was why she'd bothered with him in the first place. And her family wanted it, too. "Well, good luck. I have to go into the office now for a call."

He walked toward the elevators that would take him up from the parking garage and to the level where the building was, trying to ignore the bitter disappointment threatening to choke him.

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CHAPTER 8

Melody was surprised to see Luther's sedan near her parking space when she pulled down the aisle. She quickly noted Sebastian's car already in his space. Now, she was sorry she hadn't insisted they spend the night together. She'd missed him terribly. She would have willingly just slept if he was too tired for anything else. But now that she was anxious to see him, here was Luther.

She got out of her car. "Good morning, Luther."

He stepped out of the sedan, which he'd left running, and came to give her a fast hug. "Morning, beautiful."

Melody realized he'd called her a couple of times and she hadn't returned his call. Now she really felt bad. She cleared her throat. "I'm glad to see you, but you didn't have to come to the office."

He grinned. "Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, since you didn't call me back, I thought I'd catch you and see if you wanted to have breakfast. I'll bring you back here when we're done."

Melody mentally went over her schedule for the day. She didn't have any meetings or calls until the afternoon. "Sure, that sounds great." She grabbed her purse and followed him to his car.

Getting into the passenger seat, she speed dialed the office on her cell phone to tell them she would be out.

"Peyton, Wallace, and Jenks."

"Ming, what are you doing answering the phone? Where's Sally?"

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"Called in sick. Anyway, Julie's covering, but I was walking by the desk so I thought I'd just answer. What's up?"

"Listen, I'm not going to be in for a couple of hours. I'm having breakfast with Luther."

There was a slight pause, then a definite chuckle. "Oh, Luther, huh? I knew it! So the plan worked. I'm so happy for you."

"What? No, Ming, it's not that."

"Yeah, sure, sure. Breakfast? Come on. Anyway, it's very cool. I'm glad. I'll let Julie know you won't be in until later."

Melody bit her lip, wanting to explain to Ming she hadn't spent the night with Luther. Didn't intend to, either. Ever. But she couldn't talk about it in front of Luther. "Um. Okay, I'll see you later."

Luther glanced over at her as he pulled out of the parking lot. "Everything okay?"

"Sure, no problem. Where are we going?"

"I figured Kenny's Diner over on Figueroa will work. They usually have a booth in the corner that's pretty private."

Melody drummed her nails on the door. "Private?"

"Yeah, I'd like to talk to you, Mel. I've been thinking a lot about things ... about us." He shook his head. "Let's wait until we get to the restaurant.

* * * *

"Hey, Sebastian," Ming said from his office doorway, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yes?"

"Success!"

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"Pardon?"

She hurried in and raised her hand in a high-five gesture.

Sebastian merely looked at her hand and raised an eyebrow.

Ming sighed. "Okay, whatever. But I just talked with Mel and guess what?"

Sebastian frowned. He hoped she wasn't sick or having car troubles. But Ming sounded way too happy for that. "You got a raise?"

Ming snorted. "I wish. No. She called on her way to breakfast with Luther."

Was that his heart plummeting. "Oh?" he asked, making his voice casual.

"Do you know what that means?" Ming sat on the edge of his desk. The same edge where he'd had Melody.

"Don't sit there," he said, waving her off the desk.

She grimaced, but stood up. "It means, Einstein, that she spent the night with him last night. The plan to make him jealous and realize his true feelings worked."

Sebastian feared that was exactly what it meant. And he wanted to scream and rail against it. Of course he wouldn't. It was what Mel had wanted all along. He'd swallow his own pain and squash his own hopes.

"It appears you're right, Ming. Great news," he said. He was proud of how smooth and casual he sounded.

The ringing desk phone saved him from further false celebration

"I probably ought to get that."

Ming headed for the door. "Okay, okay. I know when I'm not wanted." She slipped through the door.

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He pressed the button on his speaker phone. "Sebastian Kincaid."

"Sebastian, this is Ernie Phillips."

Sebastian remembered Ernie from a previous law firm they'd both worked at after passing the California Bar. "Ernie, how are you?"

"Good. I wondered if I could convince you to come to San Diego."

* * * *

It was difficult to concentrate on eating her California omelet with Luther sitting across from her wanting to talk.

Once upon a time she would have been thrilled to hear him tell her he wanted to talk about
them
. But she had someone else she'd rather have that conversation with now.

The fact was, if she'd been honest with herself, she'd been attracted to Sebastian for a while. She'd always sought him out to talk about nothing in his office or to go to lunch. She'd tried to keep it business. Tried to tell herself that he was just a co-worker or a friend. But she didn't find herself traipsing down to other lawyers' offices in her firm. Just Sebastian's.

She also knew it hadn't been mere coincidence when she asked him to be her date in her bid to make Luther jealous.

Mel adored Luther. She always would, but now she realized it was a schoolgirl's crush she'd actually outgrown.