CHAPTER ONE

Sebastian Tadzee Vernon watched his mother and father dancing at the annual Mardi Gras ball at Belle Fleur. It was something Mama Irene was passionate about. In fact, Mardi Gras was nearly as big a deal as Christmas or New Year when it came to celebrations by their family.

There were parades, floats on boats, beads, king cake, and so many delicious foods it made your mouth water just thinking about it. Sebastian’s mouth didn’t just water, he got hungry thinking about it. Really hungry.

His best friends were running around the tent with the Stanton quadruplets. They all had crushes on the girls. Even him.

Leif, the son of Magnus and Addie, was madly in love with Ellie. As high school juniors, they already had their lives planned out. College for her, military for him, marriage, kids, the whole thing.

Walker, the son of Bodhi and Vivienne, was head over heels for Magnolia, or Mags as they called her. He’d been in love with her since their freshman year of high school, and she felt the same way.

Maddie and Emelia were a bit more free-spirited. Everyone knew that Maddie had a crush on Forrest, and Sebastian suspected that the feeling was mutual. Never were there two more stubborn people.

For Sebastian, the only woman that existed was Emelia. Em was everything he ever wanted. Beautiful, smart, loving, a great sister and daughter. If he could only work up the nerve to ask her on a date, his life would be much better.

“Staring at her from across the room won’t make her come to you,” smiled Rachel, Emelia’s mother. She was a beautiful, brilliant woman. She’d saved Belle Fleur by discovering something that was eating away at the soil. With her solutions, Matthew was able to expand his land, not lose it.

“I don’t think she likes me,” he said quietly.

“Girls are strange creatures, Sebastian. I should know. I had four of them. Sometimes, they just come right out and tell you they like you, and sometimes, they like to hide it in their pocket, like a little nugget of gold. Emelia is my daughter who doesn’t want the world to know how she’s feeling.”

“You mean she doesn’t want others to know she likes me?” he frowned.

“That’s not what I said,” smiled Rachel. “She’s a private girl. This isn’t a private place. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. She struggles to keep things secret from her sisters. But I know she likes you, Sebastian.”

“How do you know that?” he asked.

“Because the inside of her notebook has SV+ES in little hearts everywhere. That’s how I know,” she smiled.

“It doesn’t bother you that I’m mixed?”

“Mixed? Sebastian, honey, we’re all mixed. I don’t know one person on this property who is one hundred percent of anything. You’re a beautiful mix of your father’s heritage and your mother’s beautiful Athabaskan heritage. You’re stunning, Sebastian.”

“I didn’t think it would bother you, but you never know. Some people at school have made comments.”

“Well, then they’re ignorant. Truly. You know we don’t see anything like that here. Color, background, religion, none of it matters to us.”

His eyes followed Emelia as she left the massive tent, pulling off her Mardi Gras masque as she did.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” Rachel nodded, watching as he walked toward the maze. Behind her, Chief wrapped his arms around her shoulders and kissed her cheek.

“He loves her, doesn’t he?”

“As much as a seventeen-year-old boy can love a girl. Yes. But something tells me this one is forever. He’s a good young man, Chief. We’d be lucky if he ended up as part of our immediate family.”

“Well, we’ll let her make that choice. So far, it seems three of our four have made up their minds already. They’re young, but we’ll give it a chance.” He turned his wife to face him and smiled down at her. “I’m just happy you chose me. Now, what do you say we dance?”

“I’d say I’m the lucky one, and yes. I’ll always dance with you.”

Sebastian followed the cascade of beautiful brown hair as the wind blew through the trees of Belle Fleur. Mardi Gras could be seventy degrees or seven. This year, it was a brisk thirty-eight. He noticed that Emelia wasn’t wearing a jacket and picked up his pace.

“Em! Em, wait up,” he called. She turned, giving him a smile as she wrapped her arms around herself. He took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. “You shouldn’t be out here without a coat.”

“I needed to be away from all the chaos,” she smiled.

“Oh. I can leave you,” he said shyly.

“No, Sebastian,” she smiled. “You’re not the chaos. All of that is. I love our families, but sometimes it’s a lot.” He laughed, nodding at her.

“It’s a lot all of the time. Believe me, I understand.” They walked slowly through the maze, and Sebastian felt the wind pick up. “Maybe we should get somewhere warm.”

She nodded toward the enclosed gazebo, and they jogged toward it just as the rain started to come down. Inside, Sebastian closed the door and started the fire in the small gas fire pit. He then lit the lantern that was always available, and they snuggled together to get warm.

“If I didn’t tell you tonight, you look beautiful, Em. Really beautiful.”

“You didn’t tell me but thank you. You look handsome as well.” They could hear the faint sounds of music floating across the property, seemingly directly at them.

“Would you like to dance?” he asked, standing and holding out his hand. She nodded at him, sliding her arms into his jacket to keep warm. Sebastian didn’t care. His body was on fire. He could hear Bull’s deep voice singing a soft country love song, and he closed his eyes, holding Em tighter.

For Sebastian, it was the most perfect moment of his life. When the song ended, she stared up at him, just looking into his eyes. He was so much taller than she was. He felt the need to protect her.

“Sebastian?”

“Yes.”

“Will you kiss me?” she asked.

“Are you sure, Em? You know what it means to me if we do.”

“I know,” she nodded. “Me too. I love that you feel that way about something as simple as a kiss. We’re going to be going our own way soon, and I don’t want us to forget this. Please kiss me.”

He lowered his head to hers, finding her lips in the dim light. He didn’t pressure her with a tongue or try anything strange. He just molded his lips to hers and enjoyed every breathless moment of it.

When Em pulled back, her chest heaving up and down, they just stared at one another.

“Promise we’ll come back together?” she asked.

“You have my word.”

Giving a promise at seventeen is very different than giving one as a grown man. He and Em did ‘date,’ although that was an exaggeration. They never went to the movies alone together. The others were always with them, tagging along. Dances, sporting events, it was always the group of kids from Belle Fleur.

It seemed enough for now, but when they left after high school to pursue their individual dreams, Sebastian knew that it would be difficult to see one another.

Learning that Em had taken a job with the FBI was like a gut punch. On the occasions they would speak to one another, she never spoke about work. Not her real work.

“It’s just a boring government job,” she would laugh. “Nothing exciting ever happens for me like it does for all of you.”

He never once thought she would lie to him. But when Mags was taken by the rebels in Egypt, and they learned that all of the sisters were in agency jobs, Sebastian was gutted.

“You should have told me,” he said quietly as the others were laughing and joking around.

“I wanted to, Sebastian. So many times. I was just worried that my parents would find out, and I wasn’t ready for that yet.”

“You could have come to see me,” he said, staring at her. She could see the pain in his eyes and shook her head.

“Sebastian, it’s not what you think. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep this a secret from you. I’ve never been able to keep a secret from you. I didn’t want it to be this way but look at how this turned out. Once you knew about Ellie, then you all knew about Mags, Maddie, and me. Everything we knew would happen is happening.”

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“Mom and Dad want us to quit and work here.”

“Would that be so bad?” he asked, kicking his boot toe into the dirt. “I mean, you’d be back here. I’m back here.”

Em took his hand and tugged, walking toward the maze. It wasn’t cold like their first night in the maze. It was a perfectly lovely summer evening. When she stopped, still holding his hand, she looked up at him. That impossibly tall, wide figure making her feel like a doll.

“Maybe you should sit, and I’ll stand,” she smiled. He smirked, taking his seat on the stone bench. He opened his knees, and Em stood between them.

“You’re not coming home, are you?”

“Yes, I am. I just have this one case we’re working, and then I’ll come home. I want to finish this. It’s a series of bank robberies, and I want to catch these guys and end my career on a high note.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said, exhaling.

Em twisted her body to the side, taking a seat on one of his thighs. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him sweetly. When she pulled back, the sweet, innocent seventeen-year-old was gone. In his place was a hard, wide man. His face had a scruffy growth of hair, his eyes intense with longing and burning.

“Come to my cottage,” she whispered. He stared at her, holding her tightly to his own aching body.

“Em, you need to be sure, babe. If we go back to your cottage, we’re declaring to everyone that we mean something to one another. They all know our business.” She looked at him, grateful that he understood her need for privacy.

“You’re right. They will know.”

Hand in hand, they walked out of the maze and toward her cottage. They could feel the eyes of everyone on them, but neither turned back to acknowledge it. Inside her cottage, the nerves were eating her alive.

Now, all she had to do was tell him.