The Broken One (Corisi Billionaires, #1)(31)

I wiped down the kitchen counter as I answered. “It’s okay. Really. Things don’t always go the way we hope they will, but I have to believe they work out the way they’re supposed to.”

“You’re a good friend, a good mother, and you would make some man a great wife.”

I folded the towel and pushed it aside. “Not everyone is meant to be in a relationship, Erica. I’m fine.”

“I want to punch that douche.”

“What douche?” I asked. People came and went. Wishing things were different was an exercise in futility that led nowhere good.

“Exactly.”

After picking up Ava from preschool, taking her to a tumbling class, feeding her dinner, giving her a bath, and reading her a story, I was exhausted. When my doorbell rang at eight o’clock, I cursed whoever was risking waking Ava. I was done for the day. D-O-N-E.

I sprinted to the door before they had a chance to ring the bell again. A courier handed me two bags. I tipped him, then took the bags into my living room.

For several minutes I sat on the couch just looking at the bags. Were they from Sebastian? If so, did I really want to know what he’d sent?

I had closed the door on him—once literally and today figuratively. What would a man send after writing what he had? Probably something wildly inappropriate that I’d have to stash or dispose of so Ava wouldn’t find it.

Whatever was in the bags—was it meant to be an apology?

We hadn’t even been on a date yet, and we were already at the gifts-as-an-apology stage? What did that say?

I peered into the first bag, and as I did caught a whiff of something delicious. I pulled out the first item: focaccia bread wrapped in white linen. The next was a thermos that was warm to the touch. I opened it. Just a hot broth soup.

It was such a considerate gift I didn’t want it to be from Sebastian.

Then I found the card.

Ever write something stupid, then hit send by mistake? I have. I hope you’re feeling better tonight.—Sebastian

P.S. There is also something for Ava.

It was a touching gesture that had my head spinning. He’d not only made a mistake and acknowledged it, but his peace offering was exactly what I’d been too tired to make for myself.

But to send something for Ava? I wasn’t ready for him to be part of her life in any way yet. Maybe ever.

The second bag was lighter. I poured out the contents on the table, and my eyes misted. Eight small stuffed wolves: the puppies Ava had said were certain to come now that Wolfie had his Wolfina.

I sat back on the couch, shaking my head. It was such a thoughtful gesture, but one that only confused me more.

It was clear that he regretted what he’d said, but even if we put that behind us—did I want to open myself up to more disappointment? For all I knew this was his way of making sure there would be no hard feelings between us. He didn’t say he would call me. He didn’t ask me to call him.

He just hoped I felt better.

Right then I was wishing I felt a lot less of anything. These were exactly the kinds of gifts the kind of man I wanted would give.

That didn’t make him the man for me.

Nor did it give me “the balls” to call him again.

I leaned forward and picked up a piece of bread and dunked it in the soup. “What do you want from me, Sebastian? We agreed that I should stop thanking you. What do I do with this?”



The next day after work, I left my office a little early to stop at the supermarket before picking Ava up. Nothing against my little one, but shopping was a much faster experience without her.

Erica and her husband were only going away for one night and would have food, but I wanted to have all the extra toppings for crepes. Chocolate sauce, blueberry pie filling, whipped cream.

I scanned my small pile of purchase choices and was temporarily transported away from the busy aisle into a tantalizing scene of how I might have been using the whipped cream for an entirely different reason if Sebastian had said yes. Did food and sex live up to the hype? As I’d proclaimed the day before, I’d had sex—what I hadn’t mentioned was that none had been worth mentioning. My first time had been with a boy I’d hooked up with at a party my freshman year. The rest had been with one of my housemates when I lived with Brenda and that gang. We’d never officially become a couple, and I don’t really know why sex temporarily had become something we did.

Looking back, I think I liked having a warm body beside me as I slept more than I enjoyed the sex. Not that he was bad, but Erica would have been disappointed if she’d seen us together, because he’d never left me glowing.

I smiled as I remembered telling him that he must have been forgetting to do something because I was better at bringing myself to orgasm. That hadn’t gone over well—not everyone can handle my level of honesty. Even though we’d continued to live in the same house, we didn’t have sex again after that.

I shrugged. The man I wanted would have seen that conversation as a challenge. I bet Sebastian knows what he’s doing.

My hands tightened on the handle of the shopping cart as I thought about the dice I’d sent him. He hadn’t mentioned them. I winced. Probably because grown women don’t send things like that to men.

I might as well have sent him a meme of me on my knees begging him to have sex with me with the words “It’s been so long I need the dice to help me remember what to do.”