Page 88 of Just a Heartbeat Away

He’d reached out and touched it halfway through the meeting. The metal was warm and almost soft under his finger. She’d glanced up at him, her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Frosting,” he’d whispered.

She’d grinned at him in such a way that he’d practically wobbled out of the meeting half an hour later. He didn’t get to see her much that week at all, but he ducked his head into her office right after work on Friday afternoon. She looked up from where she was packing files into her messenger bag beside her desk.

“Hey!” she squeaked, and then cleared her throat. “Wow. My voice. Sorry for the Minnie Mouse impression.”

“Quite all right.” He tucked his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t do anything dumb, like stroke those sharp little cheekbones in her place of work. “I just wanted to say bye.”

“You’re not coming to happy hour?” she asked, sounding disappointed enough that Seb had to keep from puffing out his chest.

“Nah, I don’t wanna stand Matty up two Fridays in a row.”

“Understandable. You two have a hot date?”

“Yup. Microwave hotdogs and the Nets on TV.”

“Sounds like heaven.”

“You like the Nets?”

She looked at him like he was an idiot for even asking and he had to forcibly fight the urge to propose to her right then and there.

“So,” she started, rocking back on her heels.

She was nervous and he found it impossibly cute. Like so cute he took a little memory snapshot of her standing there, trying to work up the courage to ask what he thought she was going to ask. He decided to help her out.

“So, I’ll see you at the wedding tomorrow?”

“Yes,” she answered resolutely. “I can’t wait.”

She held his eyes, and Seb could have sworn they were making some sort of promise to one another.

He’d deeply enjoyed the time since he’d found out she was single. Flirting with reckless abandon, nurturing silly little daydreams about her, allowing himself just the barest, lightest of tastes of what it might be like to be her man. But he also knew it wasn’t sustainable. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he’d known that the wedding would be punctuation of some sort, for this stage of their game.

And from the nervous, giddy, wanna-kiss expression on her face, she knew it, too.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“HO-LYMOTHERMARY,”Cat groaned from beside Via.

Grace was the next one to chime in. “Good GAWD, that man can wear the hell out of a suit.”

A midsize knot of PS 128 faculty huddled together outside the entrance to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Sadie’s wedding ceremony was going to take place in one of the gardens there, and then the reception would be in their beautiful, glassed-in event space.

Via had never gone to a wedding before, but as she stood in between Shelly and Cat, already laughing, she found she was very excited to go wherever the night took her. Very excited indeed. It was an unseasonably warm mid-November day; the air had a slight bite to it that was offset by bright sun. The yellow leaves that still clung to the trees had the same effect on the blue sky as makeup on an eye. Everyone lifted their faces to the perfumed fall breeze.

Via turned to see what Cat and Grace were commenting on, and every single thought in her head was wiped clean.

As long as Violetta DeRosa lived—be it another hundred years—she would never forget the way Sebastian Dorner looked crossing Flatbush Avenue in a charcoal gray tailored suit. He waved a car across in front of him and strolled over toward the group of educators. God, she’d always had a thing for mirrored aviators. And week-old haircuts. And was that...? Yes, he was wearing a vest underneath the coat. She’d always had a thing for vests. And midnight blue ties and crisp white shirts. And damn. She couldn’t breathe.

He looked so unbelievably hot walking up to the group, sliding his sunglasses into the pocket of his coat, smiling around at everyone, that Viaalmostmissed the way his eyes doubled back, immediately, to her. Almost.

Via knew her dress was a stunner. Fin had bought it for her at a sample sale a year ago but she’d never had a real reason to wear it. The jade green silk fit her like a glove from breast to knee and was seamless, wrinkle-less perfection. The neckline scooped modestly over her breasts and was held up by two gaspingly thin straps that fell far down her back, showing her almost to the base of her spine. The color did things for her eyes, she could admit.

“Well, don’t you look dapper,” Shelly said to Sebastian, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

“You look beautiful, too, Shelly,” Seb said as he studied Shelly’s face. “Is everything all right?”

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