Page 84 of Cheap Shot

Sebastian turned to Rosaleen. “You just started. I don’t want to leave you here to fend for yourself if you’re not comfortable.”

Rosaleen shrugged. “I mean, Morgan and Raularehere if I have any questions.”

“True,” Sebastian said. “I just don’t want you to feel like I’m bailing on you …”

“We can also text if anything comes up that we can’t handle,” Morgan said with a laugh. “Or call.”

“You know, if you were any less trustworthy, I’d be a little concerned that you’re trying to get rid of me for some nefarious reason,” he said with a laugh as he looked between Morgan and Raul.

“You caught us,” Morgan said with a giggle. “We’re planning to throw a party.”

“Dance party!” Raul said, doing a move that Sebastian was pretty sure hadn’t been popular atanypoint in Raul’s lifetime.

Rosaleen grinned. “I knew I was going to like working here!”

Sebastian shook his head. They were all a little nuts, but he felt lucky to have them. And Joe. His delivery driver had really stepped up lately and done a lot better job communicating.

Despite Sebastian’s protestations and joking, hedidtrust his staff. Any time he’d had to leave to go take care of Harper, they’d done a fantastic job of running the shop and it really wouldn’t kill him to take the rest of the afternoon off today …

“Okay, okay,” he conceded. “I’ll go. But if you needanything, you know where to find me.”

After grabbing his laptop from his office, he turned to go upstairs but Raul was standing there, hands on his ample hips.

He was about half Sebastian’s height, but he peered up at Sebastian with a scowl. “Leave the laptop. You won’t really be taking a day off if you’re just upstairs doing admin shit.”

Sebastian scowled.Damn it.He’d only been planning to post a few things on social media and send his web manager an email about some tweaks he wanted to make to his website and maybe review his financial statements … but Raul had a point.

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed, turning back to set his laptop on his desk. “I’ll … go relax.”

“Or go besocial. Go makefriends. Find a handsome man to smooch.”

Sebastian grimaced because even though he gave his sister shit for not making friends, he hadn’t either. It wasn’t that he didn’t want more local friends.

He stayed in contact with his friends in New York, but he hadn’t really gone out much since he’d been living in Boston. Hadn’t really met anyone new, except maybe the people who worked for the Harriers but although the organization and the team had been great, they weren’t potential new friends.

Sebastian’s life had pretty much been work, hockey games, and Harper and Brie. Rinse and repeat. Which wasn’t all bad—and was, in fact, totally understandable.

But still, he could do better.

With a sigh, Sebastian looked at Raul. “I’ll do my best,” he promised.

“That’s the spirit!” Raul said. “Go make out with some handsome men for me! Love George but let me tell you, sometimes I miss kissing strangers. Not enough todoanything about it, mind you, but at least one of us should be enjoying ourselves.”

Sebastian chuckled and headed for the stairs. “Message received.”

In his apartment, he glanced around, somewhat at a loss for what to do. He had the afternoon ahead of him and … no plans. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened.

He pulled out his phone in search of ideas, opening up the hookup app out of habit.

He was tempted to message Crawford, but he hadn’t heard from him since the craft event at the children’s hospital a few days ago.

Sebastian wasn’t overly surprised.

Crawford had been surprisingly tolerable that day, but he was still a prickly bastard, and Sebastian hadnoexpectations that that was going to change. Sebastian had already put it out there that if Crawford wanted him to come over and hook up, it was an option.

Now, the puck was in his zone, so to speak.

Sebastian sighed, closed the app, then tucked his phone in his pocket. Fuck it, he’d listen to music for a while until he figured out what he wanted to do.