Page 4 of Just a Heartbeat Away

“Hand it over,” Tyler demanded, holding his hand out for the phone.

Sebastian complied and chuckled as Crabby, their two-year-old poodle mix, immediately bolted over the second he saw Sebastian’s hand moving. Crabby blinked up at his owner, poofy tail wagging furiously, like,got any ear scratches you might wanna distribute?

Sebastian obliged and scratched behind the dog’s one white ear. “I really don’t think this is the way I find somebody.” He nodded toward the phone.

Tyler scoffed. “Seb, this is howeverybodyfinds somebody. Here, what about her?” He flipped the phone around and showed a picture of a very pretty girl on a beach.

Sebastian lifted a dark eyebrow. “Tyler, I’m forty-two. With a kid. And enough gray hairs to prove both. I’m not dating some twenty-five-year-old cupcake in a thong bikini.”

“You don’t have to make a life with this woman. Just take her to some bar, buy her a drink and then let her remind you why God gave us opposable thumbs.”

“You’re a moron.”

“Actually, I’m a genius. You’re just too pedestrian to recognize my brilliance. How about her?”

He tossed the phone over and Sebastian flipped through the profile of a professional-looking woman with chin-length blond hair and a very white smile. Apparently, she was a wine connoisseur. Sebastian clicked the phone off and needled one corner of it into his brow.

“What if I’m just not ready for this? I mean, what if I get to some date with some woman and I’m just...lost? Or thinking about Cora.”

Tyler swept a hand out. “Then you get there and you’re lost and thinking about Cora, and you come home. And then I come over, and we have a beer.”

“I used to be good at this.”

“I remember. Used to steal chicks out from under me all the time. I was relieved when you got married.”

Sebastian scoffed. Tyler hadnotbeen relieved when he’d gotten married. He’d actively lobbied against it. He’d never particularly gotten along with Cora. Cora was a perfectionist who had planned out every single second of her days; Tyler was a contrarian who enjoyed throwing everyone’s rhythm off. Not exactly a match made in friendship heaven.

More than that, though, Tyler had never understood why Sebastian’s response to Cora’s unexpected pregnancy wasmarriage. In fact, he’d thought it was downright batshit. “Father and husband don’t have to go hand in hand, Seb,” he’d pleaded. “Come on, man. You’ll be a good dad no matter what. Don’t walk the plank!”

Sebastian hadn’t seen another way. He figured life moved at a breakneck pace whether you were there for it or not. He was determined to be there for it. So, he and Cora had gotten hitched, barely knowing one another. Seb figured that they’d muddled their way through well enough.

Even if things between Ty and Cora were always relatively tense, it was definitely true that Tyler’s luck with women had increased once Sebastian was off the market.

“I just don’t want to go online shopping for a woman,” Sebastian said as he clicked back into the app to scroll through a few more profiles. He tossed the phone back over to Tyler. “I just met Cora and liked her. And that was that. None of this swiping left or right bullshit.”

“Seb, you gotta try something. You never leave your house long enough to meet anyone. You’re either in your workshop or at Matty’s school, or you’re right here in your damn living room. Not exactly a swinging singles scene.”

That was true. Unfortunately. He played his last card. “I like things just me and Matty. Why complicate it?”

“Because as much as I enjoy being your platonic life partner, I am a wolf, and you, my friend, are a swan.”

Sebastian laughed, swinging his head to one side to eye his friend. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means I prefer to operate alone, taking a mate on a seasonal basis. But you? You mate for life. Like a damn swan.”

“And you really think I’m gonna find a lady swan on that hookup app?”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “No, I think you’re gonna find a hookup on this hookup app. It’ll just be a little dessert to tide you over while you wait for your lady swan.”

Sebastian laughed and groaned at the same time. “Just delete it.”

“Too late. I messaged the cupcake for you.”

SEBASTIANIGNOREDTHEvibration of the phone in his pocket. Cupcake wouldn’t stop messaging him, and it was driving him up the wall. Fucking Tyler.

“Sit,” he said sternly to Crabby, who hovered his booty about an inch off the ground while his front feet danced. It was the closest they could get to a real sit. Better than nothing.

Sebastian leaned forward over the crates of produce at the Grand Army Plaza farmers market and picked up two eggplants, comparing them. This was one of those times when he really lived by the old adagefake it ’til you make it. He had no idea what to look for in an eggplant, so he chose the purpler one and set the other back.

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