Page 91 of Just a Heartbeat Away

He grinned, smug and so damn happy. “Glad you like it.”

She grumbled something into her champagne that he didn’t quite catch, but this time, she staunchly refused to reveal it.

The reception went into full swing after that. The happy couple was announced by the DJ, and Seb grinned when Via jumped to her feet to cheer.

“Look at them!” Via teared up. “God, can you imagine being that happy?”

Uh. Yeah.

He was pretty much that happy right this very second.

Then everybody filed back to be seated for dinner. Seb’s eyebrows rose in surprise as he glanced around the table. Rachel had brought a date to the wedding, he hadn’t noticed before.

“Apparently, Geeky Greg hasmajorgame,” he whispered in Via’s ear, causing her to snort into her water.

“Good for him,” Via replied, and then her eyes went thoughtful. “And good for her, too. They’ve been looking at each other like they’re the luckiest two people on the planet.”

Via was just so sweet, always seeing the best in—

“But frankly, I wouldn’t care either way as long as it means Rachel stops jamming your biceps between her boobs.”

Now it was Seb’s turn to choke on his water. He coughed it out and turned to her with a little smile that he attempted to smother. “You noticed that, huh?”

“Sebastian, the astronauts in the Space Station noticed that. She’s not exactly subtle, is she?”

He thought about making a joke but instead erred on the side of complete and utter transparency. He didn’t want her worrying. He’d had a taste of that watching Christian the bartender fawn all over her and he wasn’t a fan. “Then you probably noticed me removing my biceps from said boobs over and over.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I noticed.”

“And since you’re such a careful observer, you may have noticed that I’m not a flirt.” One of his fingers, still on the back of her chair, lightly, breathlessly, played in the ends of her hair for just a moment.

Her eyes cut to that side and then back at him. “I have quite a bit of evidence to the contrary, Seb,” she said dryly.

He laughed. “Well, let me be clear then. I’m not a flirt with anyone I’m not completely swept away by.”

Her face went from dry and amused to pliant and soft. Soft like warm pillows and wet lips and down comforters and snow outside andcome here, let’s do that again.

They let out twin breaths and then simultaneously turned away to gulp champagne. This was getting out of hand.

A light tinkling of metal on a glass rang out through the hall, and all the teachers at the PS 128 table straightened up.

“Does anyone else feel like a staff meeting is getting called to order?” Grace hissed across the table and made them all burst out laughing.

Sadie, sitting at the head table, grinned over at her teacher buddies like she knew exactly what they were all laughing about.

The speeches commenced, and the caterers set out food on the tables in large bowls. It was family style with about thirty dishes to choose from.

“Jesus, this is like Thanksgiving,” Seb muttered to Via.

A solemn look passed over her face, and he wondered what her Thanksgivings were like usually. His were rooted in Sullivan family tradition, because he and Matty always made the trek up to White Plains for the holiday. It wasn’t the most raucous day of the year, but the predictability of the traditions had come to be a sort of familial comfort over the years. And Matty loved it.

Soon, the speeches were over, the music was back on, and everyone was simultaneously grinning and groaning at the humongous slices of cake being passed around.

Sebastian couldn’t eat another bite. He also couldn’t possibly simmer in this seat for another second. He could have sworn that the air around him was shimmering with heat and lust. He wanted to collapse on the woman beside him, drag her under the table. The tablecloth could be their bedroom walls. Fuck it, he’d pay rent for that.

He made a last-second attempt at saving his sanity in front of people he respected.

“Wanna dance, Shell?”

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