Magdalene’s phone started to ring, and she laughed answering it.
“Oh, hi, Mr. Maxwell.”
My ears perked up more than Marmaduke’s did when he saw the shell of a tortoise.
“Yes, sure. She’s still here.” She paused and then: “Hold on a second.” I tried to look busy when Magdalene called to me. “Sadie, Mr. Maxwell would like to speak to you.”
“Oh. Okay.” My heart started to flutter as she walked over the phone.
“Hello.”
“Hey.”
His voice sounded tense. “Is everything okay?”
“I was trying to reach you, but you weren’t answering your phone.”
“Oh. It was . . . in my bag, I guess. I probably didn’t hear it because of the barking.”
“Barking?”
“We were teaching Marmaduke how to speak.”
I heard Sebastian blow out a deep breath through the phone. “Listen. I was trying to get out of here by eight thirty so I could make it home before you leave. But that’s obviously not happening. I could probably get out in an hour or two. Do you think you could . . . hang around until I get home? We need to talk.”
My pulse quickened. “Sure. Of course. Why don’t I tell Magdalene she can go?”
“If you don’t mind. She’s been staying pretty late all week. So that would be great.”
“Of course.”
“Let me run. We’re down a few people.”
“Okay. See you later.”
I ended the call and handed the phone back to Magdalene. “Sebastian asked me to stay so we could . . . uhhh . . . talk about Marmaduke’s training. Why don’t you go home? He said you could use a night of getting out early.”
She smiled and looked over my shoulder at Birdie, then leaned in to whisper. “Mr. Maxwell has been cranky this week.”
“Has he?”
She nodded and winked. “Hopefully your talk about Marmaduke’s training will have him feeling better.”
“Oh . . . it’s . . . not what you think.”
She raised both her eyebrows.
I sighed. “Okay . . . so maybe it is what you think. But it’s . . . it’s . . . I don’t know what it is, Magdalene.”
She smiled. “He’s a good man. Have patience with him.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so instead I just nodded.
After Magdalene left, Birdie took a shower. She came out to the living room and asked if I could braid her hair. About nine thirty, she yawned, and I tucked her into bed. Then I sat in the living room waiting for Sebastian. I kept replaying what he’d said to me on the phone over and over. “We need to talk.” No good news came after an opening line like that. A horrible feeling of dread loomed over me as I waited. I felt hurt, and he hadn’t even ended things yet. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what exactly he would be ending. It wasn’t like we’d defined anything. All I knew was that we had started something, and to me that something was special.
By ten thirty, I was still sitting on the couch but now bobbing my knee up and down, feeling like I might jump out of my skin. I hadn’t heard from Sebastian again. On the phone, he’d said an hour or two, so hopefully that meant he’d be here any minute. Deciding I needed to calm down, I went in search of wine in his office.
I knew where the key was kept, because I’d watched Macie raid the locked cabinet last weekend. But when I went to grab it from the desk drawer, a framed picture snagged my attention. I picked it up and stared at a photo of Sebastian and Amanda. It had been taken in the hospital. Sebastian had one arm around his wife’s shoulder while she cradled a newborn Birdie. They were both smiling and looked so happy.
Was this how it would be if we were together anyway? Framed photos of his first love all over the house? Living in the shadow of another woman? How exactly would that work if he got married again? Would the photo of his new bride slide into the frame right over the one from his first wedding? Maybe him dumping me tonight was for the best.
Yeah, definitely for the best.
“She was born three weeks early.”
Sebastian’s deep voice startled me and I jumped. Unfortunately, the frame slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor, landing facedown with a loud clank.
The hand that had been holding the frame flew up and covered my heart. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry.”
Nervous, I bent to pick up the frame. I felt nauseous when I turned it over.
Cracked. The glass was cracked.
I shook my head. “God, I’m so sorry. It’s broken. I’ll replace it.”
Sebastian walked toward me and slipped it from my hand. “It’s fine. No big deal.” He set the frame facedown on his desk and our eyes caught. “Sorry I’m so late.”