Chapter 33
Leah
Eight weeks ago, I graduated with my MBA, moved in with Sebastian, and a week later started my new job in the wonderful home office he’d set up for me. We’d established a routine of waking early, sometimes by making love, having breakfast, and then my kissing him goodbye when he left for his office. I’d work at home and when Sebastian got home at the end of the day, we’d make dinner together, and then spend the evening wrapped up in our cocoon of love.
He was at every doctor’s appointment, peppering the doctor with questions. The first time we heard the baby’s heartbeat, we both wept at the miracle of it. It also brought home how real this was, and it became clear that we’d need a larger place to fit all the stuff a baby needed. Sebastian put his apartment up for sale and we went on the hunt for a new place. We found a great three-bedroom that had a separate home office. It was perfect, at least to my mind. Sebastian wasn’t so sure, but that was only because it was in the same building as my father’s apartment.
Over the several weeks since I’d fainted, my father was civil, but there was no missing his true feelings about Sebastian. For his part, Sebastian did his best, but I knew it was difficult. He was both hurt and angry at my father’s inability to put his personal animosity aside for my sake. In the end, he agreed that the apartment was ideal, and two weeks ago, we’d moved in. It took us a couple of days, but eventually we’d christened every room and new piece of furniture. It was a great excuse to have sex because I was feeling horny a lot lately. So much so, a couple of times, I asked Sebastian to come home for lunch to service me.
“You are the perfect woman,” he’d said to me.
“Because I need you to fuck me so much?”
“Yes.” He grinned, and it filled my heart to see him so happy. The Sebastian I’d known before seemed to be a shell of a man, going through the motions of life. Now he was more animated, and he smiled and laughed more. Occasionally, I’d get a text from Niall thanking me for making Sebastian easier to work with.
Now if my father would come around and be more accepting of Sebastian, my life would be perfect. Sebastian and my only source of conflict was around my father. While Sebastian tried to keep his feelings about it to himself, sometimes we’d argue when he’d bow out of dinner with my father and Karen, who’d moved in with my dad a few weeks ago.
We were in the middle of one these arguments now.
“I want us to tell him about hearing the baby’s heartbeat,” I said, wanting Sebastian to be with me when I shared baby news with my father. I had this idea that it would help soften my father’s feelings toward Sebastian since he was why I was having a baby.
“I don’t see your father coming here for dinner.”
He was right. My father always declined our invitations. Sebastian definitely tried harder than my father did to heal their relationship, something that Sebastian was growing resentful over. I couldn’t blame him, and yet, I didn’t want the animosity between them when the baby was born.
“We can’t stop trying, Sebastian.”
“I can.” He went to the refrigerator for a beer. “I’ve bent over backwards to make peace with him, but now I’m done. I’ve had enough.”
“We need to do it for the baby.”
“Why me, Leah? Do you give your dad this same lecture?”
“Yes.” And it fell on equally deaf ears. “But he was hurt.”
Anger flashed in Sebastian’s eyes. “Whose fault is that?” He walked out to the terrace and stood looking out over the city.
I hated it when he blamed me for seducing him. But I understood where his anger and frustration came from, so I ignored it. “I just think it’s up to us to try to make it right.”
He shook his head as he laughed derisively. “He gets a free ride on all he’s done to fuck me over?” He turned to me; his facial features hard. “He tried to take my company and isn’t shy about letting me know he thinks I’m less than pond scum. All I ever did was fall in love with his daughter.”
“I didn’t say he was being fair. I just feel like since his behavior is in response to us, that we need to continue to try to reach out to him. At one time you agreed.”
He stared at me for a moment, and I’d hoped I was getting through. “What I agreed to was that you and him needed to get into a good place again. You are. Mission accomplished.”