Page 123 of Cheap Shot

Luke felt oddly relieved to hear that. But that still left him with a lot of questions.

“How long have you known each other?” He glared at Sebastian.

“Since like … freshman year of high school. We went to the same prep school in New York.” Sebastian huffed. “Why the fuck do you care?”

“Youwent to a fucking prep school?” Luke said, his voice filled with disbelief. Calhoun had that snobby rich kid vibe, but Luke wouldn’t have pegged Sebastian as being from that kind of family at all.

“Yeah. What of it?”

“Just didn’t seem like you is all.”

“Look, I don’t knowwhatyour problem is tonight,” Sebastian said. “But get over yourself. And you can fucking have my jersey cleaned, you asshole.”

“Oh, fuck you!” Luke said, glowering at him. “Can’t you take a fucking joke?”

“You know what? Fuckyou, Crawford. And get the fuck out of my apartment right now.”

The apartment door still rattled in the frame as Luke stomped down the stairs and out of the flower shop. Sebastian wanted him gone? Fine, he’d go.

Happily.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“Sebastian?”

He glanced up from an anniversary bouquet he’d been working on to see Rosaleen hovering in the doorway of the workroom. “Yes?”

He’d been in a horrible mood all morning, so he wasn’t surprised that she looked a little hesitant to interrupt him.

Last night, as Sebastian had furiously scrubbed Luke Crawford’s cum off his Calhoun jersey, he’d been angry and upset in a way he didn’t fully understand. He’d spent all night tossing and turning and replaying the way the conversation had gone with Crawford before coming to a terrible conclusion that he was the one primarily at fault here.

Hell, he could have just taken the damn jersey off before they had sex.

His guilt about not being loyal to Nicky had made him lash out at Crawford, so now healsofelt guilty about the way he’d actedtoward Crawford and regretted some of the things he’d said in the heat of the moment.

In the middle of the night, Sebastian had rolled over to reach for his phone half a dozen times, going so far as to type out a message, only to delete it, more than once. But it had been late and he knew Crawford needed a good night’s sleep for recovery.

Sebastian might not behappywith the way Crawford had acted either, but he wasn’t going to deliberately sabotage his playing. So Sebastian hadn’t messaged him. Had decided to wait until this evening. He planned to apologize via text and ask if they could talk in person.

But waiting left him oddly on edge, and on top of the lack of sleep, he’d been moody all morning. He’d tried not to take it out on his employees, and he’d succeeded in not snapping at anyone, but he hadn’t exactly been his usual self either.

They’d given him a wide berth all day.

“There’s someone here for you,” Rosaleen continued, breaking him from his thoughts. “Uh, Luke Crawford.”

Sebastian blinked, sure he’d misheard her. Wishful thinking, maybe? “I’m sorry.What?”

“Luke Crawford is here for you,” she repeated.

“Seriously?”

She frowned at him like she didn’t understand it either. “Yeah, I dunno what he’s doing here. Just said he wanted to talk to you.”

Sebastian wondered if she was mistaken. Maybe it wasn’t Crawford. Maybe it was just some other guy who had a shitloadof tattoos and a menacing expression. Or someonepretendingto be him? Though why anyone would do that was beyond him.

Sebastian frowned back at Rosaleen. “Are yousurethat’s who it is?”

Her face lit up. “Oh yeah, it’s definitely Luke. I’ve met him a couple of times at Aunt Catherine and Uncle Declan’s house!”