Flesh & Bone - a contemporary romance: The Minstrel Series #2 (30 page)

“Is everything all right?” he asked.

“Yes. Fine.”

Sebastian waited, and the quiet between them felt like a cement wall, one he had to wait for Eva to climb.

“I’m always glad to see you,” he said, hoping to prod her a little. “But I’m unsure of my role here. Is there something you need from me?”

She inhaled deeply. “I just need you to listen.”

“I’m all ears.”

Eva stared down at her hands clasped in her lap. “I have something to say and it’s long and I just ask that you don’t say anything until I’m finished. Agreed?”

Sebastian’s own nerves were soaring. Whatever she came here to say, he wanted to hear it. “Agreed.”

“I used to be outgoing, carefree,” Eva began timidly. “A little reckless even. I had friends. We’d go hiking and biking, swimming. Hang out at the mall. Talk about boys and music and boys and school gossip. And boys.” She paused and her lips pulled up in amusement.

“There was one I really liked a lot, Benni, and I thought he liked me. I used to entertain myself with long daydreams about our fairytale wedding.” She scrunched her face, feeling embarrassed. “I was fifteen. It was what girls did.

“All that changed after the accident.”

Sebastian stiffened at the word,
accident
, but remained still.

Eva continued, “I spent so much time in the hospital, I fell behind in school, my friends had moved on. Benni got a serious girlfriend.

“I felt weak and unattractive. I was embarrassed by my leg and preoccupied with my pain. Not just the physical pain in my body, but also the emotional pain of being left behind and forgotten.

“Except by Annette. She was the only one who went out of her way to stay my friend, and I didn’t make it easy for her. I teetered on the edge of a dark, emotional pit, but she wouldn’t let go. She wouldn’t let me fall.”

Eva paused, and Sebastian witnessed a myriad of emotions pass over her face.

“And a little while ago, I did something awful to her,” Eva said. “I was thoughtless and selfish, and I hurt her.” Eva bit down on her trembling lower lip, and Sebastian held back from reaching out for her. He didn’t know if that was what she wanted—if she wanted him to touch her.

“Annette is everything good, and I don’t deserve her friendship. But she forgave me. So easily. She’s the one who challenged me to forgive you.”

Sebastian cleared his throat, but Eva held up her hand before he could speak. “You said you’d wait.”

Sebastian shifted back and kept his mouth shut. Eva took a moment to remove her jacket. Good, she was staying for a little while, at least. Sebastian watched her carefully, listening.

“I wanted to forgive you, I really did, but there was this mountain of pain in my heart and grief over what I felt I’d lost. But I had a revelation recently. I don’t think I would’ve liked the person I would have become if it hadn’t been for the accident. I saw what I was capable of, Sebastian, and I didn’t like it. For the first time I’m starting to recognize that maybe the accident didn’t just rob me of things, but maybe… maybe it gave me something, too.

“Without the accident I wouldn’t have written “The Water Song.” I wouldn’t have had to battle anything, or known what it was like to conquer. I wouldn’t have met you.”

Tears were flowing freely at this point, and Sebastian couldn’t stand it anymore. He ran to the bathroom and returned with a roll of toilet paper. “Sorry. I don’t have any tissues.”

Eva laughed through her sobbing and blew in a very unladylike manner. “I must look a mess.”

Sebastian shook his head slowly. “No. You’re more beautiful than ever.”

“
Shh
,” she said lightly. “I’m not finished. Where was I?”

“You wouldn’t have met me.”

“Sebastian, I wouldn’t have met you. That night at the Blue Note, everything that led up to my being there and singing that song, it wouldn’t have happened. I would’ve been this mean girl and I wouldn’t have fallen in love with you.”

Sebastian’s heart stopped. Did she just say what he thought she said? Every fiber of his being was tense and heated as he waited for the rest.

“For the first time since the accident, I’m actually
thankful
for it.”

Sebastian let out a breath. “Eva.”

“Wait.” She smiled. “There’s more. I’m here to ask you to forgive me. I was unkind and thoughtless. I treated you horribly.”

“I committed a crime. I left you,” Sebastian said. “I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

“You must. It’s the only way I will forgive you. And you want my forgiveness, don’t you?”

His lips twitched. “More than anything.”

“I love you, Sebastian.”

He was on his knees in front of her, gripping her hands. “Can I speak now? Please?”

She smirked and nodded.

“I love you, too, Eva. So much.” He kissed her knuckles and the palm of her hands, overwhelmed with gratitude and something close to shock at this unexpected turn of events. He reached for her face, tracing her jaw until his hand wove through her hair to the back of her neck. His lips gently touched hers, and she responded eagerly, desperate and thirsty. She ran her soft cheek along his rough one, her tears blending with his as they both wept, deliriously happy. They were survivors. They were in love. Sebastian scooped her up like she weighed nothing and carried her to the sofa.

He lay beside her, careful of her leg and pulled her close. He pressed his lips into her hair. “I just want to hold you. Is that okay?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck in response.

He whispered in her ear, “I can’t believe you came back to me.”

“I can’t believe you wanted me back.”

He squeezed her tighter. “I so want you back. You’re mine now. Deal?”

She giggled into his chest. “Deal.”

Eva hated hospitals. The bright lights, the squishy sounds the nurses’ shoes made, the antiseptic cleaner that didn’t quite mask the scent of sickness that permeated the halls. All of it triggered bad memories, and she stuttered to a stop in the lobby.

Sebastian squeezed her hand. “Are you okay?”

She forced a smile. She knew it would be tough on her when he asked her to come, and she’d said yes. No way would she back out now. “I’m fine.”

The off-white paint on the elevator doors was scratched in places where stretchers and wheelchairs had banged into it—janitors with their overstocked carts, kitchen staff with food trolleys.

“My mother and sister are coming,” Sebastian said, breaking the silence between them. He’d mentioned this already, but Eva didn’t point it out. Obviously, he was nervous.

Which just made her more nervous.

They exited the elevator and moved down the hallway until they came to a private room, number 36B and Sebastian gave her another uneasy grin.

“We don’t have to do this,” Eva said.

“I want to. I want him… I want them to meet you.”

Eva thought coffee and cake at Sebastian’s flat would’ve been a more relaxed setting, but his father wasn’t well enough to leave the hospital. Sebastian had told her he probably wouldn’t be coming home again.

When Eva stepped into the room, her eyes skipped over the strangers to the IV pole and the monitor equipment. For an instant, she was the one with the tubes running from her arms and her nose. Her blood plummeted to her feet, and she gripped Sebastian’s arm to keep from fainting.

“Eva?”

Get a grip!

“I’m fine.”

A well-dressed middle-aged woman with greying brunette hair stood next to a younger version of herself.

“Mama, Leah,” Sebastian started, “This is Eva. Eva, my mother and sister.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Frau Weiss said. Her handshake was dry and firm.

“Hello,” his sister added.

“Nice to meet you both,” Eva said.

There was a moment of awkwardness when they took in her cane and registered that she was the girl Sebastian had hit and the reason he had been arrested.

Herr Weiss grunted from his position on the bed. “I’m not dead yet,” he muttered gruffly. “Let me see the girl.”

Eva’s eyes widened with trepidation, but Sebastian grinned and shook his head. “His bark is worse than his bite.”

Herr Weiss smiled when his eyes landed on Eva. “So you’re the reason my son’s been in such a good mood these last few days.”

“I hope so.”

The four of them stood around Sebastian’s father’s prostrate form, quiet like they were at a wake and not a hospital with the man still quite alive. Eva wondered if she should say something but her mind was completely blank.

Finally, Frau Weiss broke the quiet. “Sebastian tells us you’re a student?”

“Yes. I’m in my first year.”

“What are you going to major in?”

“Art History and Music.”

Eva felt the stares of Sebastian’s mother and sister on her. When she glanced at them, their gazes darted away. These are the people who ostracized Sebastian for pursuing music.

“Eva’s an excellent musician and singer-songwriter,” Sebastian added.

“How nice,” Frau Weiss responded politely.

Leah was more straightforward. “I’m surprised you’re with Sebastian again, after, you know.”

Frau Weiss reprimanded, “Leah!”

“It’s true,” Leah continued, undaunted. “Not many girls would. I have to commend you.”

Eva wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“No one knows the truth to that more than me,” Sebastian said, draping an arm over Eva’s shoulder protectively.

Herr Weiss coughed and all eyes turned apprehensively to him. “I’m on my death bed so you need to pay attention to me.”

“There’s no danger in that not happening,” Frau Weiss said without smiling.

Herr Weiss ignored her jab. “It’s time I owned my faults. I was wrong, son. If music makes you happy, if this little girl makes you happy, then I bless you to pursue both. You only live once.”

Frau Weiss’s frown deepened but she didn’t challenge or contradict her husband. Eva wondered if the elder Weiss had wished he’d done things differently.

Sebastian rubbed his chin and cleared his throat. “We have to go now, Papa, but I’ll come again soon.” He patted his father’s hand, then walked around the bed to give his mother a quick hug.

He nodded to Leah. “See you later.”

“Bye, lovebirds.”

“That was awkward,” Sebastian said once out of earshot.

“Your sister’s nice,” Eva said.

Sebastian chuckled. “My mother’s a tough nut to crack. It’ll take time to warm up to her. But my papa… has changed.” He slowed to catch her eye. “It means a lot to me that you got to meet him.”

“I’m glad I came.” She was. Another fear—hospitals—faced and conquered.

They rode a taxi back into the
Neustadt
. “Do you want to do something tonight?” Sebastian asked. He gazed down on her like he was afraid he was asking too much. Eva had made it clear that they needed to take things slow and already in just a few short days, she’d met the family.

But she wanted to see him again. She wasn’t ready to say good-bye for the day. “Okay.”

Sebastian let out a breath like he was surprised, but he didn’t want to scare her by showing it. “What do you feel like doing?”

“Let’s go to the Blue Note.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Now he stood in their living room conversing comfortably with her parents and Eva had to shake her head and grin. She never thought she’d see the day when her mama and papa would approve of her dating Sebastian Weiss.

He was still on house arrest, which meant they couldn’t go far, but the Blue Note was within range and in walking distance. She hadn’t been there in forever. Plus, she had a surprise.

Sebastian rested his arm over her shoulder and opened an umbrella over their heads. Eva leaned into him, carefully navigating the damp sidewalk with her cane.

Sebastian shook the rain off the umbrella before collapsing it as they entered the pub. Maurice greeted them with a hearty hello.

“Thanks again for letting Hollow Fellows rehearse here,” Sebastian said as he shook his hand.

“Hey, it’s not being used in the mornings anyway, so why not.”