Sebastian would have followed his mother, but a hand on his arm stopped him. He glanced toward his father.
“Do you want me to call her and see if I can get her to come? Your mother was looking forward to having her here.”
Irrationally irritated, Sebastian glared at his father. “A phone call from you isn’t going to convince Missy to come tonight. She doesn’t want to be here.” With me. The last two words went unsaid, but Sebastian could hear them echoing in the foyer.
“You might be surprised how persuasive I can be. I got her to stay at Case Consolidated Holdings after you let her quit.” Brandon leveled a disappointed look at his son. “I’d hoped if she stuck around long enough you might come to your senses. I can see I overestimated your intelligence.”
“Come to my senses?” Sebastian repeated. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“She’s in love with you. Has been for years.” The older Case nodded knowingly.
His father’s words hit him hard. “What?”
“And at long last, you’re in love with her.” Brandon waved his hand when Sebastian began to speak. “Don’t bother denying it. It was all over your face that morning at the hotel.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But he wasn’t completely convinced he believed that. Something had happened between them that first night. “We were together, sure, but it was one night.”
Brandon’s smile turned sly. “And since?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“You were ornery and distracted when she was visiting her family. And since she’s back, you’ve had a bounce in your step.”
Sebastian couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I don’t bounce.”
“Well, you sure won’t be if you let that girl get away. Smart, beautiful, funny. Good at getting things done. The office ran more smoothly once she came aboard. And she knew how to handle you.” Brandon nodded, his expression self-satisfied. “I knew a week after she took the job that she was the best thing that ever happened to you.”
And deep down, Sebastian knew it, too.
He rocked onto his toes, thrown off balance as his father clapped him on the back.
“That’s my boy. Now, why don’t you go fetch her? Give your mom a birthday present that’ll really make her happy.”
Sebastian thought about his child growing inside Missy and muttered, “I think I already have.”
The drive from Missy’s house to his parents’ house had taken thirty minutes. The return trip seemed to take an eternity. While he negotiated Houston’s traffic, he prepared a convincing argument for why she needed to forgive him. He parked in front of her condo and immediately saw her car was missing from her parking spot.
When she didn’t answer her doorbell or respond when he knocked, he knew in the time it had taken him to come to his senses, she’d left. Next he tried her cell phone, but she wasn’t picking up. Only one place made sense for her to have gone. Home.
And that’s where he intended to follow.
The day after her big fight with Sebastian, Missy pulled into her father’s driveway around ten in the morning. After he’d left, she’d been too upset to sit in her condo and rehash the mess she’d made of things. Instead, she’d taken a shower and headed for Crusade.
Three hours out of Houston, she’d decided to stop for the night. Her family wasn’t expecting her until the next day, and when she’d fled Houston, she hadn’t considered that her six-hour drive would put her at her father’s house around one in the morning. Besides, after exhausting herself with anxiety and recriminations, she wasn’t in any shape to drive that far in the middle of the day, much less at night.
Heart
thumping too fast, she stared at the car parked in her father’s driveway. Sebastian’s Mercedes stuck out like a couture gown at a country dance. What was he doing here? She opened her door as family members poured out of the house. Sebastian led the way.
“Where have you been?” He jerked the car door from her hand, opening it wide, and dragged her from the seat. His hands explored her face, arms and shoulders. His gaze traced her forehead, cheeks and nose as if to reassure himself she was okay. “I left you a dozen messages. Why didn’t you call?”
“Because I turned off my cell. A dozen messages?” Her traitorous heart danced for joy at his concern, but she pulled away from his touch. “What are you doing here?”
“When you didn’t show up or call we all thought something had happened to you,” Sebastian explained, cupping her face in his hands. “Where have you been?”
“I was tired so I stopped at a motel and slept.” His somber, worried expression was beginning to blur the reasons why she’d left him in the first place. “How did you know I was coming here?”
“When I went back to your house last night and found you gone, I figured you’d head home.”