“Sebastian, you need to talk to me.”
He spun around to face her. “What the hell am I going to tell my brother?” He said the first thing that was on his mind. “That on top of being an addict, on top of her being responsible for stealing from the company, his wife cheated on him?” He heard the rawness in his voice, and it matched the pain in his chest.
Ashley placed a hand on his chest. “I’ll be beside you if you want. So you don’t have to tell him alone.”
Although he didn’t know who needed to be present when he spoke to his brother just yet, her offer to be there meant everything. “Thank you. I’m just still trying to come to terms with it all.”
She nodded in understanding. “Let’s break it down. What will you do about the business? How will you get the parts fixed?”
He drew a deep breath. Business. This he could focus on easily. “We’ll have to confirm the issue with the engineers, then funnel money from Peter to pay Paul, so to speak. Ethan will deal with the accountants and figure out how much we need for new parts and get it done. At least we’ve now narrowed down what the issue is.”
“But you have to tell Ethan about how the company got into this position to begin with. About Mandy.”
“Right.” Which brought him back to the part he didn’t know how to deal with or fix. He couldn’t make this better for his brother and that killed him. “I’ll call Parker in the morning. He’ll talk to Sierra. I know that we need to do it in person, that’s for sure.”
She took his hand and led him to the sofa. He lowered himself onto a cushion, and she joined him, curling a leg beneath her. The short dress pulled way up her thigh, revealing a hint of her barely there panties, and he swallowed a groan. Not even a serious conversation could distract him from wanting her.
She met his gaze. “It won’t be easy but you can handle it,” she said, her mind still on their conversation. “And Ethan’s strong. He’ll be okay … eventually,” she said, as if she were certain.
And she probably was, because she knew his brother so well. “I need to ask you something,” he said.
She tipped her head to the side. “Go ahead.”
“Tell me about you and Ethan.” Not because he was jealous, per se, but because … yeah. He was jealous. Of the time Ethan had had with her over the years when Sebastian had had his head up his ass.
He wanted to understand their bond.
She sighed. “It’s just going to make you feel bad and that’s not what I want.”
“You already told me he made sure your birthdays weren’t forgotten and you mentioned Christmas.” He’d gotten over that punch in the gut. He knew they had a sibling-like relationship, and he could handle that.
She nodded. “Okay, well, Ethan couldn’t always come to London. He had your family to be with, too. But he sent gifts on the holidays. He tried not to miss a birthday in person.” She looked up at him through fringed lashes. “And he came to my graduations. Not even my mother did that. And though my education was on your father’s dime, I know that was because she worked it into the divorce agreement, that he paid for me so she wouldn’t have to give me a thought.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“No. We’re past those kinds of feelings and regrets.”
“We are,” he agreed. “I just wanted to understand who Ethan is to you.”
“Well, we talked on the phone in between visits and I got to know him really well,” she said. “Mandy, too, for a while. But he was and is like a brother to me.”
“So you knew about Mandy’s problems. He confided in you.” He swallowed the hurt of the knowledge that Ethan hadn’t thought he could trust Sebastian that way.
“Yes, I knew. And I knew how, when she returned from San Francisco, she was distant. They did have their issues.”
“I didn’t know. Ethan didn’t confide in me that way.” He met her understanding expression. “I regret the way I acted all those years. The careless running around with women, thinking I knew all there was to know about my family and the business, all arrogant and self-assured, when I knew nothing at all.”
She grasped his hand and held on tight, giving him strength. “Your brother loves you. Ethan always understood that we all grow up at different times. He’s going to be proud of what you did out here. He’ll see how you’ve changed, just as I do.”
He’d needed this conversation with her, to understand his brother, but also, he realized now, to understand more about himself.
She had insight even he hadn’t had.