Page 93 of The Spice Play

Seb snorted with his mouthful of banana, pushing off the counter immediately and crossing the kitchen. He came up behind me, his arms wrapping around my waist, and I couldhearthe swallow as he forced the banana to go down his throat. “You know, bud, Ididget you better crayons. Youcould draw a new one, maybe one where Nell is the right color and she isn’t so far away.”

I covered my mouth to hide the laughter I couldn’t quite keep down.

“No, I like this one,” Matty grinned, his head turning over his shoulder to look up at us.

Seb’s hand found mine, his fingers playing with the ring on my left hand. “Did you think, when you agreed to this, that our first family portrait would be in crayon?” he asked me, his lips pressing a quick, banana-scented kiss against my cheek. “Because I certainly didn’t.”

“Honestly, it’s the best we could have hoped for. And it wasfree,” I chuckled. “That’s a steal, if you ask me. A Matthew Blue original in this very house. They say he predicts the future with his drawings, you know.”

Matty giggled and spun around, one hand up with a pointed finger and the other on his hip. “I do predict the future,” he said matter-of-factly, pointing that very same finger to the other one I’d hung recently, the stick figure he’d crafted after seeing an older man walking a dog out the front window. “And I predict we’re getting a dog.”

“Adog?” Seb balked, lifting himself a little higher and resting his chin on top of my head.

Matty nodded, his face completely serious. “A dog, Daddy.”

“And why do we need a dog?” Seb huffed out a chuckle as he squeezed me just a little tighter.

“To make our family complete!”

Complete.I swallowed at the uncomfortableness of that, of thefinalityof that. I hadn’t given much thought to whether or not I actually wanted children of my own — I’d planned on IVF for Morris’ sake because he’d always wanted kids. And I was good with them, clearly, but Ihadn’t ever given myself the space to consider what I wanted.

I loved Matty. Was that enough?

Seb’s head moved, his mouth coming to my ear. “Complete doesn’t have to mean anything,” he whispered, almost as if he’d read my goddamn mind. He knew where my thoughts went far too well. “You’re enough as you are. But if you want more, we can make that happen.”

I locked my fingers with his. “I need to think about that,” I breathed.

He pressed a kiss to my temple and lifted his head again. “What kind of dog do you want, Matty?”

“Any!” he squeaked, turning back to inspect his work a little harder. “But maybe not a weiner dog. Those are weird.”

I twisted in Seb’s arms, looking up at him over my shoulder. “You’re happy to get a dog?”

“I do like dogs, you know,” he chuckled. “And besides, Matty will never shut up about it if I say no, and lord knows you’ll fight for it, too.”

Chapter 40

Sebastian

There was only one shelter in town that I knew the location of, and it was the only place I could think to go.

Matty practically skipped across the parking lot, his body so full of excitement from the moment I’d told him we were going to look at dogs today. I clutched Nelly’s hand in mine as we followed behind him, her left in my right, and I lifted it, watching as the light glinted off the diamond in the afternoon sun.

“I told you it was far too expensive,” she mumbled.

“Nope. It’s perfect. And you don’t even know how much it cost,” I chuckled, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. “How do you know I didn’t drop, like, a hundred dollars on it? It could be fake, you know.”

Her mouth popped open as her brows furrowed. “You didnotgive me a fake ring, did you?”

“Of course not,” I smirked. “At least, I hope not. I’d need to get my lawyer to fight for my twenty-one grand back.”

Herface paled immediately, her brows softening and raising as her eyes went wide. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Oh, come on, Nell,” I laughed, turning as we walked and stepping backward, my knee nearly buckling. “You honestly think I’d wantmyfiancée out and about wearing something worth twenty-one grand?”

I could have sworn I saw her eye twitch. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“All right, you got me, it was thirty-five,” I said, shooting her a wink as I spun back around, spotting Matty up at the doors in half a second. “Or was it forty-five…?”

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