She’s twenty-seven years old.

What was he doing? This was utterly ridiculous. This woman was in a completely different stage of life than Seb was. She was just starting out. She was living in her first apartment without a roommate, for God’s sake. Seb was shooting himself in the foot spending time alone with her.

He should have insisted Fin join them for the tour. All he was doing was wasting time on someone who was just not right for him. Sure, she was cute as hell and her personality made his heart race, but honestly, he was just torturing himself. He needed to politely send her packing. Via and her pretty friend, who was practically just as young as Via was. What had he been thinking of? Sure, intergenerational friendships existed. And sure, they could be great. But he shouldn’t have agreed to a date with Fin, and he sure shouldn’t have invited them over.

Joking around with her at school was one thing. But listening to her tuck in a sick Matty? Sebastian meet cliff, cliff meet Sebastian. Don’t worry, I sprinkled glass bottles at the bottom just in case the fall doesn’t kill you.

Maybe Valerie the dog walker had been a little bit of a dick, but Seb realized that she hadn’t been completely wrong. Dating a widower with a kid was just different than dating a regular single guy. There was no way that Seb wanted to put that kind of pressure on any woman who wasn’t completely ready for it. Especially not one who was barely out of undergrad. Her age had nothing to do with it, Seb told himself. Her life was too young for his. And his life was too old for hers.

And, duh, boyfriend yada yada.

Seb started clicking lights off as he responded, showing her that the tour was over. “I wouldn’t feel bad about having IKEA furniture; most kids do in their first places. You’re young. You’ve still got time to get your space the way you want it.”

He clicked off the last light and braced a hand under the garage door as she ducked under it. He could feel her eyes on the side of his face, but he didn’t look up as he padlocked his shop.

“GOOD GOD,” FIN muttered once they were far enough away from the house not to be heard. “That was one of the most intense energies of any room I’ve ever been in.”

“I know,” Via groaned. “So weird.”

“Sexual tension sundae topped off with politeness whipped cream.”

“Totally! I’ve never seen something like that before. I’m exhausted just from watching it. Did you get his number?”

Fin’s brow furrowed and she switched the half-full grocery bag from one hand to the other. “Whose number?”

“Tyler’s.” Now Via was confused, too.

“Oh.” Fin cleared her throat as she took an uncharacteristic amount of time to answer the question. “Right. Me and Tyler. No, I didn’t get his number.”

“Why not?” Via looked supremely confused. “That man looked like he would have kissed the ground you walked on. How could you have left without his number?”