Page 117 of Just a Heartbeat Away

There was a weighted pause. “Wait. You didn’t actually propose, did you?”

Seb laughed harder. “Jesus, Tyler, we’ve only been dating for like two weeks. No. I haven’t proposed.”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong. I like Via, a lot. But damn, you almost stopped my heart.”

“I rushed things my first time around,” Seb said carefully. “And I’m not beating myself up over it or anything. But yeah. No. Slow and steady, that’s more my and Via’s style. Gotta make sure Via has her feet under her before we move forward too much. Gotta make sure Matty has his footing, too, you know?”

“You sound different, dude,” Tyler said. “Younger. Kinda like the old you.”

“Hmm.” It would be ironic, he supposed, if after all that worrying about their age difference, actually being in a relationship with Via was what helped strip away some of the worn-out weariness from Seb’s shoulders. “I feel good.”

“A sex marathon with a pretty girl will do that for ya.”

“Apparently.”

Seb waited for another joke from his friend. But there was just a long pause, heavy with some emotion he couldn’t quite put his finger on. “I’m happy for you, Sebastian. This whole thing, you deserve it. You really do.”

“Ty—”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Gimme a call when you’re back in town. I’ll come over. Your girlfriend can make us brunch.”

When they hung up a few moments later, Sebastian couldn’t quite decide exactly which aspect of his life was filling his gut with champagne, making him want to laugh like a maniac, put the windows down in the flurrying snow. He also decided it didn’t matter.

This was his life.His.He wasn’t acting a part. He wasn’t pretending. He wasn’t watching the world move on all around him. He was living.

The next day, Via opened her door to Seb, Matty and Crabby. Matty’s fingers were a brilliant red from his refusal to wear mittens, and she couldn’t help but kneel down and squash them between her warm hands. “You look like a popsicle,” she told him.

Matty laughed. “There’s snow outside!”

“I saw. It’s been snowing all morning. I was worried about you guys driving in it.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Seb said, kicking his shoes off and making eyes at Matty to do the same. “How was your Thanksgiving?”

“Excellent. And yours?”

Via rose up, and he bent down and gave her a perfect kiss. Fresh from the cold weather and warm with affection. After helping towel the snow off of Crabby’s feet, she led the Dorners into her kitchen, where she had some snacks laid out. It was a few minutes later that Matty leaned across the table and started playing with the gold thumb ring she wore.

“Via,” Matty asked, twirling the ring, “Dad says that you’re in love with each other.”

Her eyes snapped up to Seb’s. He froze for a second. He’d referred to love between them a few times. But the phrasein lovefell between them like a sack of potatoes.

Seb broke the tension by shrugging his shoulders like,duh. Via couldn’t help but smile.

“Yup,” she told Matty, but her eyes were on Seb. She watched him absorb the impact of her words.I love you.

“Okay.”

He was quiet for a minute, still fiddling with her ring. “Matty, do you have more questions? Seems like you do?”

“Well...” He shrugged. “Are you in love with me, too?”

Her breath caught as her entire world zoomed in on the little person in front of her, a blush on his cheeks and that mercurial brown hair looking almost blond in the sunlight. She could feel his legs kicking under the table like he was super nervous. There was nothing else except for Matty in that moment. Even Seb was blurred away. “Matty, I love you very much. You’re very easy to love.”

His eyes slipped up to hers for a second and then drifted away. “Okay.” Then he turned to his dad, a small smile on his face and his little fist in the air. “Knuckles, Daddy.”

ITWASAfew weeks before he said it back to her. The three of them were watching a movie a few days before Christmas. Matty was stretched out across them, his cheek on Via’s leg. Almost asleep toward the end of the boring Christmas movie, Matty rolled over and reached up to touch the ends of Via’s hair.

“Love you,” he mumbled right before he buried his face in her stomach and fluttered off to sleep.

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