Pretend You're Mine (The Protectors 12.50)

“I sure as hell am,” I muttered, reminding the pair that they weren’t alone. Sebastian laughed. Ethan took in a shaky breath, then turned his attention back to Sebastian.

“Sorry. We’re newlyweds,” he explained.

They’d actually been married for nearly a year, but I didn’t point that out. Nor did I mention the fact that I figured they’d be going at each other like that for the rest of their lives, considering the way they looked at one another.

That weird mix of joy and envy returned.

“We were hoping to see you perform here in San Francisco, Mr. DeVille, but then you had your accident and—” Ethan abruptly snapped his mouth shut. A look at Sebastian showed he’d gone a little pale.

“Oh God, I’m sorry—” Ethan began.

“No, no, it’s all right. And please, call me Sebastian,” Sebastian cut in. “The hope was always for me to be able to return to the stage. It was a tough decision to retire, but there are still a lot of ways I can contribute to my troupe.” Sebastian said the words with lightness, but they rang hollow. I resisted the urge to take him in my arms, but mostly only because I could sense Sebastian withdrawing.

“Tell you what, I think I may still have a couple of programs from that production… if you want, I could sign one for you.”

Ethan’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Of course,” Sebastian continued. “And if you’re still interested in going to see any of the performances my troupe is doing, just let me know. I can get you tickets and some backstage passes to meet the performers.”

“That would be amazing,” Ethan said. Not surprisingly, at some point Ethan and Cain had ended up holding hands again.

“We should get going,” I said to Sebastian. “Traffic is going to be pretty busy.”

“Wait, you two are going somewhere?” Ethan asked. “Devon, why are you dressed like that? And how do you two know each other?”

“Sebastian’s my new neighbor,” I said. I reached around Sebastian to open the door for him.

“It was really nice meeting you, Ethan.” Sebastian shook my brother’s hand, then nodded at Cain. I imagined he sensed the same thing about Cain that most people did… that he was a hands-off kind of guy.

Well, except when it came to my baby brother.

“You too,” Ethan said as I helped Sebastian navigate the door runner and got him settled in the tall vehicle. I could hear the million and one questions just sitting on the tip of Ethan’s tongue, but ignored him until I had the door closed. Sure enough, as soon I turned and motioned for my brother to head back toward his car, he began firing them at me one after another.

I didn’t answer any of them until he stopped me directly behind my truck. “Devon, wait, is this a… date?” he asked.

“No, of course not,” I automatically said, then cursed myself.

Mostly because I really wasn’t sure if it was or not. And I wasn’t ashamed of the fact that it might be. It was just all so confusing.

Ethan eyed me for a moment. He put his hand out to touch my arm. “Because if it was, that would totally be okay.” His voice was sympathetic and understanding.

I knew I could explain away the whole thing as me doing Sebastian a favor by taking him to this thing tonight so he wouldn’t be surrounded by couples and his asshole of an ex, but I didn’t want to do that. First off, it wasn’t polite. More importantly, though, it was a complete and utter lie.

And I didn’t lie to my family.

Ever.

The reality was that I’d jumped at the excuse to spend time with Sebastian again by coming up with this whole non-date date thing, but when he’d asked me about whether this was a date or not, I hadn’t known how to answer. I’d already maxed out the creeper factor by using my dog to meet the man… how would he have felt if I’d told him that hell yeah, it was a date, but I’d never been with a guy before or really even thought about it?

I ended up sidestepping Ethan’s question by asking one of my own. “Do I look okay?”

“What?” Ethan asked.

I motioned to the tux as discreetly as I could in case Sebastian could see me through the side mirror. “Does the tux look okay? It sounds like this thing tonight is really hoity-toity.”

“Um, yeah, you look—”

“Wait,” I said, putting my hand up. I looked at Cain instead. “Do I look good?” I asked him bluntly.

I’d never once seen Cain look flustered except maybe in the hours leading up to him saying his wedding vows to my brother, but at the moment, he looked like he’d swallowed a fish.

A big-ass, prickly fish that was still alive and squirming as it went down.