His voice cracked when he said that and my heart broke for him. I knew it was hard for him to think about Jaden growing up without his mother and I wished there was something that I could do. But all I could do was let him know that I would be there for him. I held his hand, gently rubbing it.
“I wish I could make everything better for you, I hate to see you hurting.”
“Thank you, it means a lot. It’s just going to take time. Therapy and time.”
“Are you going to be in therapy with Jaden or is he going to talk with the therapist alone?”
“It’s mostly going to be for Jaden but if she wants me to join in on the sessions I will.”
“I think therapy will be good for him, and like you said before, kids are resilient.”
“Yes they are, thank goodness.”
We arrived at the restaurant right on time and were seated right away. Sebastian and I enjoyed a beautiful dinner, keeping the conversation light, even talking about the Dubai hotel. I noticed that he kind of kept the pace moving along and we didn’t really linger at dinner. I almost felt he was rushing us. Is he ready for the date to end already? The waiter came over to us when we were done eating.
“Would you like to see the dessert menu?”
Sebastian looked at me and I was going to order but he stopped me and then looked at the waiter. “We’ll just take the check.”
The waiter left and I gave him a curious look. “I’m not allowed to have dessert tonight?”
“Of course you can have dessert, you can do whatever you want. It’s just that I have something planned for us back at my place.”
I raised my eyebrows at him and held his gaze. “Oh, you are assuming that I am going home with you. Are we there yet Sebastian?”
He looked uncomfortable and fidgeted in his chair as he searched for words and then he raised his eyes to mine.
“I was hoping that we were, I have missed you like crazy and I want you in my life. I thought it would be nice if we had dessert at my place. My chef baked a delicious lemon cake for us.”
“But you didn’t even know if I would be going home with you.”
He looked at me, his eyes sincere. “I was hoping.”
As much as I thought I wanted to, I couldn’t resist him so I smiled at him. “Lemon cake sounds delicious.”
“Good, I’m not ready to say goodnight to you yet.”
It suddenly occurred to me as we were riding in the car that I was going to his house for the first time and I thought of Jaden.
“Is Jaden at your house? It might be awkward to meet him like this.”
“No, he’s with my mom. I wouldn’t have you two meet each other like this Elena. You both mean too much to me. I’m trying to figure out the best way for it to happen. He knows about you, he knows that you are my special friend so it’s just a matter of finding the best way to get you two together.”
“He knows about me?” I was totally shocked.
“Yes, of course. Jaden knows that Sophia and I were just friends and we always made sure that we were nice to each other in front of him. We were never together after he was born so he has never seen us acting as a couple.”
“I just wonder if it will be weird for him to meet his father’s special friend.”
“No, I don’t think so. I talked to a professional about this exact thing and she said that it will be good for Jaden to see me in a healthy relationship. She said that I should only introduce him to someone when I know that the relationship is special because I don’t want him to get attached to someone who is not going to stick around.”
“Okay, well I do want to meet him, I’m looking forward to it.”
“I will plan something soon, maybe we’ll go to the zoo or something like that. He loves animals.”
“That sounds fun, I would be up for something like that.”
The car pulled up to the gate and as we drove through I was once again in awe of how beautiful his house was. I felt like I was in a fairytale and I was getting ready to walk into a castle with my handsome prince.
Sebastian linked his fingers through mine as we walked into his house. The first thing I saw was a beautiful double wrought iron stairway leading up to an enormous landing. His house was beautifully decorated and it looked like it had been professionally decorated.
“Sebastian, your house is gorgeous.” I had to admit that I felt a little bit intimidated once I was inside. His house was the first obvious display of his wealth that I had seen. I mean, I knew he had money, but I guess it was hard to wrap my head around exactly how much he had until I walked into his house and saw it all practically staring me in the face.
“Thank you. I know it’s a bit big but I bought it when I found out about Jaden because I knew I wanted to have more children. I really want to have a big family so I had to make sure that I had a house that was big enough.”
I looked at him and smiled. “I didn’t know you wanted to have a big family.”
He turned and looked at me, holding my gaze. “I do, do you?”
“Well, I guess I’ve never really thought about it beyond knowing that I do want to have kids someday.”
He winked at me. “Well, at least that’s a start. Let me give you a quick tour.”
His house must have been at least 15,000 square feet and each room seemed to be more beautiful than the one before it. He showed me every room except his bedroom and when we were seated at the breakfast bar in the kitchen with our pieces of cake, I decided to play with him about that.
“So, is there a reason we skipped the bedroom?”
He was just getting ready to put his first piece of cake in his mouth when his fork stopped in mid air and he raised an eyebrow at me. He slowly put down his fork.
“I’ll show you that room the day that you decide to stay with me and share my bed.” His voice was teasing but his eyes smoldered as they searched mine and I couldn’t help but blush.
“Oh really? And when do you suppose that is going to happen?”
“I would prefer that it happened sooner rather than later.” The teasing was gone and he became very serious.
My body betrayed me and I blurted out the next words without thinking. “Be careful what you wish for.”