To Have and to Hold (The Wedding Belles #1)(86)

Seth froze.

“It’s Ned Alonzo,” Maya said with a little sigh. “He’s not an entrepreneur; he’s a two-bit poker player and sports bettor, and I don’t even know what else.”

In all of his troubleshooting mental exercises in trying to figure out how to deal with this mess of a situation, this had not been one of Seth’s scenarios.

He cleared his throat. “Oh?”

She gave him a look. “Please. Don’t pretend you haven’t been awkwardly sitting on this information for weeks trying to figure out how to break it to me. I know you, Seth. I knew when I hired my own private investigator that you were likely doing the same thing.”

Well, knock him over with a feather. “Maya, I—”

She shook her head and stood. “I know you love me, Seth. I know it’s why you did that. I know that. I’m not going to say I’m not a tiny bit pissed, but honestly . . .” Her eyes filled just for a second. “I want to say thank you. For caring, even if you do so in a horribly invasive way.”

Damn. Now his eyes felt suspiciously close to spilling over with . . . something.

“I want to talk more about this, but there’s someone else I need to talk to first,” she said quietly. “And that conversation’s going to be a hell of a lot more difficult than this one.”

“Grant?” Seth asked.

Maya nodded, and for the first time since she walked into his office, she looked less than 100 percent self-assured. Maybe a tiny bit scared.

Seth opened his mouth to tell her that maybe the conversation wouldn’t be as hard as she thought. That maybe Grant felt the same way.

But then he remembered what Brooke had said. That Maya needed to live her own life, make her own choices . . . and her own mistakes. Although he didn’t think this thing with Grant and Maya, whatever one might call it, was a mistake, still, he kept his mouth shut and decided to go a different route.

Maya shook her head in disbelief as he rounded the desk and wrapped his arms around her once more, although briefer this time.

“Two hugs in one day?” she said when she pulled back. “I don’t know what the heck Brooke Baldwin did to you, but I think I like it.”

Seth’s good mood faded slightly at the mention of Brooke, knowing that he wasn’t likely to get the second chance with her that he had apparently gotten with Maya. He and Maya were blood, with close to three decades of history behind them. Brooke had known him for all of two months and had no reason to give him a second chance. Hell, he wasn’t entirely sure he deserved one.

Maya went on her toes and kissed his cheek. “I love you. You know that, yeah?”

“I know. I love you, too.”

“And Brooke. You love her, too?”

Seth waited for the familiar stab of panic at the thought—at the uncomfortable sense of unpredictability that came from losing one’s heart to someone spontaneously, without knowing whether they loved you back. Of the wild, terrifying abandon of caring about someone so deeply that they could turn you inside out.

He felt none of that. There was only sureness. Rightness.

“Yes,” he said simply. “I love her.”

Maya’s smile was wide and beaming. “You know how you’re always throwing out advice at me, even when I don’t ask for it?”

His eyes narrowed. “Yes.”

She patted his chest playfully. “Well, here’s some unsolicited advice for you. If you want to win her back, go big. Throw your whole heart into it. Because I think she’s worth it.”

Seth watched his sister stroll out of his office, all sassy confidence as she went to get her man.

Just like Seth was about to get his woman.

Because unlike Maya, Seth didn’t think Brooke was worth it.

He knew she was.





Chapter Thirty-Three





JUST THINK, MAN, BY this time tomorrow night you could be getting laid,” Grant said, picking up an ugly vase off Seth’s bookshelf as though he intended to pack it and instead going to the fridge to help himself to a beer.

Such had been the entire afternoon.

His best friend’s idea of “helping him pack” seemed to be limited to the refrigerator and pantry, and instead of anything making it into the boxes, it all went directly into Grant’s stomach.

Seth ignored his friend as he picked up an ugly metal figurine, studying it for a half second, realizing he’d never even noticed it before, and chucking it in the Goodwill pile that was considerably larger than his keep pile.

Goal number one of new life, get shit I actually like.

Actually, no, that wasn’t the first goal.

First he was going to win back Brooke.

Then he’d figure out how to hire a designer that didn’t have a strange fascination with humanoid figures crafted from various types of metal.

“I’m just saying, you’d be a lot less grumpy if you got laid,” Grant said, pointing the beer bottle at him.

“Great. I’ll be sure to call you in the aftermath so that you can reap the benefits of my postcoital glow,” Seth replied.

Grant winced. “Dude. Don’t.”

“You don’t get to don’t me. You’re sleeping with my sister.”

“Hell yes, I am,” Grant said with a cocky smile. “And it’s—”