Let It Be Me by Becky Wade (top young adult novels .TXT) 📕

“I talked with Leah about my feelings for her last night.”

Sebastian put on the armor of control he wore whenever things went wrong in the operating room and the air started to smell like panic. “And?”

“She told me that she likes me as a friend and nothing more.”

The air squeezed from his chest.

Leah wasn’t falling in love with Ben. And yet . . . what came as a tremendous relief to Sebastian was devastating his friend. “I’m sorry.”

“She just suddenly brought up the subject. Out of the blue. Which makes me think that you must have told her that I like her.”

Crap.

“Did you tell her that?” Ben prodded.

“Yes.”

“And did you also tell her to go out to dinner with me?”

“Yes. I was trying to help.”

“I didn’t need your help,” Ben said tightly, clearly struggling with his temper. “I didn’t want your interference.”

“She had no idea that you liked her, Ben. She was never going to figure it out unless someone told her.”

“I disagree. She would have figured it out for herself. I wanted it to happen naturally.”

“You’ve known her for two years. When? When was she going to figure it out for herself?”

“I don’t know, but I was content waiting.”

“I wasn’t content watching you wait.”

“My relationship with Leah isn’t about you or your preferences,” Ben snapped.

Sebastian bit his lip to force himself to shut up. Tension filled the silence. He’d thought recently about how quickly Ben usually got over his anger. It didn’t look like that was going to happen this time. “You’re right. I apologize.”

More jagged quiet.

“You told Leah,” Ben said, “that one of your frustrations with me is that I don’t confront you when you do things that bother me. So let me tell you something outright.”

Sebastian braced himself. “Go ahead.”

“I’ve shared a lot with you over the years. My room. Vacations. Family gatherings.”

“Yes.”

“I know you like Leah, but I draw the line at sharing her with you.”

He didn’t answer.

“Sebastian?” Ben demanded.

“Okay.”

The line went dead. Sebastian cursed.

Ben had shared a lot more with him than the things he’d mentioned. During Sebastian’s two years of high school, Ben had shared some of his paycheck with Sebastian, so that Sebastian could join him at the movies, so that Sebastian didn’t have to wear an uncool brand of socks, so that Sebastian could split the pizzas Ben ordered. Ben had shared his parents’ attention with Sebastian. He’d shared his time and sweat moving Sebastian from one dorm room to another. These days, Ben even shared his nieces and nephews with Sebastian.

It had taken nineteen years, but he’d finally found the limit to what Ben was willing to share.

You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. Those inspirational words by A. A. Milne scrolled across a decorative sign displayed on the bookcase in Leah’s classroom.

Alas, though. The start of a new school year in August always tempted her to deduce that she was less brave than she believed, weaker than she seemed, and dumber than she thought.

By week two, things had started to settle. By week three, the kids gave her reason to hope. And now, on week four, they’d found their rhythm.

When Dylan was at football practice or out with his friends, she kept an eye on him via the phone app that tracked his position. When he was at home in his room, she spot-checked to make sure he wasn’t dead. During their nightly dinners, she forced him to have a conversation with her and to eat healthy meals that contained vegetables.

Blessedly, the dynamic between herself and Ben hadn’t been as uncomfortable as she’d feared after she’d divulged her position on dating him. His laidback, cheerful manner remained intact.

She continued to threaten to set him up because, earnestly, she wanted to set him up. If she found someone for him, she wouldn’t have to feel guilty about her failure to be to him what he’d hoped she might be. So far, he’d evaded her attempts at matchmaking.

Her search for a current address for Jonathan and Trina Brookside had proved equally unsuccessful. They were annoyingly savvy about protecting their privacy online. She couldn’t shake the notion, though, that the Brooksides’ current address must be ripe for the finding somewhere. She simply needed to peek under the correct rock.

She’d revisited the two online articles attributed to Jonathan Brookside at Gridwork Communications Corporation. It very well might be, of course, that another man with the same name had written those articles. But the location of Gridwork, just miles from the hospital where she’d been born, made plausible the possibility that the man who’d penned the articles was, indeed, her biological father.

During quiet moments, she mulled over how best to confirm whether the Jonathan of Gridwork was her Jonathan. And, if so, how to obtain his address from the company without arousing his suspicion. She’d yet to settle on the optimal strategy.

Sebastian continued to visit her in her dreams. Sebastian, lying beside her in the grass, propped up on an elbow, looking down at her. Sebastian, kissing her knuckles.

Occasionally, she indulged herself by driving by his house. Once, she spotted an empty plastic water bottle snagged in a cluster of bushes out front. Since his house was dim and obviously empty—and because she now comprehended that he valued a tidy lawn—she’d darted from her car and confiscated the bottle.

However, she had not had an opportunity to see him or talk to him for more than a month.

Until, that is, she traveled to Atlanta with Dylan to tour two colleges and visit one particular hospital.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It required an act of God and a generous portion of histrionics, but Leah managed to pry Dylan from his bedroom at their Airbnb and convey the two of them to Beckett Memorial Hospital ahead of their prearranged meeting with Sebastian. An assistant ushered them to Sebastian’s office and informed them that he would join them shortly.

Thus, on the first Monday of September, a day she had off