Page 70 of Just a Heartbeat Away

“I’ll help you get your dog and kid and all the rest of your crap home, Seb.” Tyler was already gathering Matty’s schoolbag.

The goodbyes were quick and nondramatic, and it wasn’t until Seb and Tyler were walking home, side by side down the dark sidewalk, that they looked at one another and shook their heads.

“Jesus Christ, man,” Tyler murmured, checking to make sure Matty was asleep on Seb’s shoulder. He was.

“Yeah. I mean. Damn it.”

They both knew what they were talking about.

Tyler sighed. “I won’t give you shit about how dopey you were with yours, if you don’t give me shit about how dopey I was with mine.”

Seb laughed and shook his head, at himself and his friend. “Deal. God. We’re like a couple of teenagers.”

“Middle schoolers, I’d say. We had girlfriends in high school, remember? It was middle school that we were blushing at parties, too scared to tell the pretty girls that we wanted to make out in the back of a movie theater.”

“That’s what you want to do with Fin?” Seb asked dryly.

“I probably wouldn’t kick her spooky ass out of the back of a movie theater.”

They laughed and chatted, making fun of themselves for the rest of the walk back to Seb’s.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

OVERTHENEXTWEEK,Sebastian watched Via very carefully for signs of trauma. He was deeply grateful that the incident with the man in her office hadn’t been worse. In fact, the bruise was already completely gone from her hand.

He only saw her at softball and school, there being no particular reason to see one another extracurricularly.

November waltzed in in that stiff-wind, fall-downpour, golden-leaves-at-every-turn sort of way. And then dumped eleven inches of snow on the city.

Welcome to winter, mofos.

Just when you thought New York would let you dip a toe into anything. Nope.

Seb was embarrassed at how cute he found Via’s winter coat. Especially the fact that she was wearing it in the middle of a staff meeting. She was so put together and stylish, he’d figured her for a peacoat kind of gal. But there she was, zipped to the chin in a puffy REI coat he was pretty sure was only used for subzero winter sports.

“Don’t say a word,” she growled as she plunked down into the chair next to him. “Hi, Shell. Hi, Grace.” She accepted the gum he automatically handed around and lifted an eyebrow.

“You said not to say a word.” He grinned and lifted his hands in anI’m unarmedtype of gesture. “It’s not my business if you have to wear a polar bear parka when it’s forty-two degrees outside.”

“First of all, that’s saying a word. Second of all, the temp dropped to thirty-nine and there’s a foot and a half of snow on the ground!”

Seb swallowed his smile down. “There was a whopping seven inches that’s been reduced to a measly four in the sun. Matty didn’t even wear mittens today!”

“That child is insane. And this school is insane. Can’t the city of New York afford heating in its public schools?”

“Oh, we’ve got heat,” Grace assured her as she turned around in her chair. “It’s just not evenly distributed. Trust me. Come on down to my classroom and bring your Hawaiian shirt and a piña colada.”

“It’s true,” Shelly admitted. “But the woman who had your office used to complain, too, Via. Maybe your heating is broken.”

“I’ll come take a look after the meeting,” Seb said.

Via furrowed her brow. “You think you can fix the heating in a ninety-year-old building?”

He shrugged. “Not sure until I see it. But I’m pretty handy.”

Seb turned to her, and his breath caught in his throat.Was she...?Yeah. Yup. Yes. She was side-eyeing his hands and blushing. Straight-up blushing.

Via quickly turned away and shuffled through her messenger bag. But when she straightened up a minute later, not having removed a dang thing, Seb was fairly certain she was just attempting to look busy while she got her blush under control. Interesting. Very interesting.

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