Reckless In Love (The Maverick Billionaires #2)(76)
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Charlie and Sebastian were given kitchen duty and assigned two fresh-faced seventeen-year-olds, a boy named Ezekial (who asked them to call him EZ) and a girl, Stacey. As Sebastian laid out the base cabinet instructions on the floor, Charlie was again glad she’d come. If it turned out that she couldn’t squeeze any college classes into her fall schedule, at least she’d have logged in a little teaching time today.
“We’ll need screwdrivers.” Sebastian pulled one from his belt. “Here’s how we put the pieces together.” He was fast and efficient, as if he used to install kitchens for a living, and the kids watched with interest, taking in everything he said and did. “And we’re done.” The cabinet, which would contain drawers, fit perfectly next to the stove, according to Daniel’s floor plan. “Now let’s do the corner cabinet that’ll go beside it.”
Instead of letting them try themselves, Sebastian put that one together too. Charlie didn’t want to take over, but since teaching was a big part of the exercise, when Sebastian started to take on a third cabinet solo, she had to butt in.
“We probably need to split up and each take a cabinet, or we’ll never get them all done.” She tried to make it sound like an idea rather than a comment on his training skills.
For just a moment, frustration flashed in his eyes, then it was gone. He nodded and everyone took a carton to start work.
Charlie was usually a pro at this sort of thing, but honestly, today she was having trouble focusing on the job at hand. Sebastian was so damned sexy in his tool belt. And when she started to have visions of him wearing only the tool belt and nothing else? Her hands actually trembled, she wanted to reach for him so badly.
As if she’d transmitted her thoughts straight to him, their gazes met over the kids’ bent heads. The look of love brimming in his eyes wrapped around her, as though he held her heart carefully in his hand. God, she loved him, falling deeper with every day, every moment.
She’d seen him on stage and at what seemed like a million galas, but it was a whole different level of sweetness to see how kind and patient he was with the kids. When Stacey started screwing in the corner cupboard carousels before they’d mounted the cabinets, he didn’t get mad or banish her to the garage to fold cardboard for the trash. He simply said, “We’ll hang the cabinets first, and then put in the carousels and drawers, okay?”
“Why?”
Sebastian was already moving ahead and said only, “You’ll see.”
Charlie touched Stacey’s arm. “Since the cabinets are actually mounted on the wall, it’s easier to hang them and get them straight when they’re empty.”
Stacey smiled at her. “Thanks, it helps to know that.”
Meanwhile, EZ had forgotten to use the level on the cabinet mounting bars, ending up with one side lower than the other—and Sebastian had already stepped in to fix it while EZ stood back and let him.
Just as Charlie decided to butt in again, suggesting that EZ fix his own mistakes, she was interrupted by a gravelly male voice. “What have we got going on in here?”
A smile a mile wide creased Sebastian’s face. In the open garage door, the big, bald, ruddy-faced man enfolded the much taller Sebastian in a bear hug. Then Bob stood aside so that Sebastian could gather Susan into a hug as bearlike as the one Bob had given him.
It was obvious who the couple was given the affection and adoration in Sebastian’s eyes and voice. Charlie felt her chest squeeze tight. These people might not be his birth parents, but they meant the world to him.
“I’ve got someone I want you to meet.” Sebastian held out his hand to her. “This is Charlie.”
The fact that he didn’t say her last name—that she was just Charlie—meant he’d told these special people about her.
Susan took both her hands, giving Charlie’s heartstrings another strong tug. “Charlie, I couldn’t be happier to meet you. I read that article about your sculpture at the Regent Hotel. I’m so delighted for you.”
“Thank you. And it’s so nice to meet you too. I’ve heard such amazing things about you and Bob.” She smiled at the lovely, fiftysomething woman. “And Sebastian hasn’t exaggerated a bit.”
A few inches taller than Charlie, Susan had a trim build, an engaging smile and knowing eyes. When she glanced at Sebastian, then back to Charlie, it was as if she knew everything, approved, and accepted. Charlie warmed all over. The only woman she’d ever felt total acceptance from was her mother. But with one little sideways look, Susan Spencer made her feel as though she could be a Maverick.
“Now, where are the rest of my boys?” Susan called, and Jeremy immediately came running.
“Grandma!”
After fifteen minutes for all the hugs and hellos, Daniel put his parents to work in one of the second-floor bathrooms. They all settled back into their jobs, until twelve-thirty, when Daniel blew a whistle like a drill sergeant and yelled from the front room, “Lunch break, everyone! Pizza in the backyard.”
“I didn’t notice before,” Charlie said to Sebastian after everyone had headed out to the yard, “but now that I know there’s pizza, I’m starving,”
“I am too. Starving for this.” He grabbed her up in his big arms, right off her feet, and planted a kiss on her mouth before dropping her back down.