Page 72 of Just a Heartbeat Away

“Well.” She cleared her throat. “Regardless, you look handsome.”

“Thanks,” he repeated, his brow furrowing. Some puzzle pieces started to click down into place, and Seb was immediately terrified that he was going to break this foggy, warm haze that had fallen over her. He moved slowly as he messed around with the pipes, unwilling to startle her.

“I thought for sure that you must have a date tonight, because you look so nice.”

Was she fishing?

“Nope.” He finally got the knob to twist and he heard the telltale hiss of hot water, unblocked and starting to fill the pipes of the heating register. He dusted off his hands and rolled up to his knees. “No date.”

Free as a bird, something inside him wanted to add. But Seb clamped down on that. He wasn’t free as a bird. He had a kid and a dog, and she was in her twenties with a boyfriend—as far as he knew. Even if she was biting her lip and looking at him like she wanted to go behind the jungle gym and kiss at recess, that still didn’t make Seb free as a bird.

“That oughta do it,” he told her, setting the iron gating back into place and putting his hands on his hips, mostly so he didn’t reach out and test the puffiness of that coat.

“Wow!” She looked surprised, like she’d barely remembered what he’d come into her office to do in the first place. “Thanks!”

“You got it. I’m gonna jet and grab Matty. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

She nodded absently and moved over to her desk to gather up a few papers.

Sebastian gave her a quick wave and melted out the door of her office. He was both intensely relieved and wildly disappointed to be free of her.

SOFTBALLGOTRAINEDOUT,so it wasn’t until the next staff meeting that Seb really got to see Via again. He was painfully curious if it would be back to normal, or if it would be anything like last week. Sexy, tense last week.

“I see you left your sleeping bag at home today,” Seb said, grinning at her as he slid into the seat next to her. He greeted Grace and Shelly and passed out gum.

“If you’re referring to myveryfashionablewinter coat—” she shot him a look “—yes, I left it at home. Some guy fixed the heating in my office.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“Meh, he’s fine. A little full of himself.”

They both laughed and only stopped when they found a hot pink envelope being wagged in each of their faces.

Seb saw his name scrawled carefully across the front. “What’s this?” he asked Sadie, who was the person doing the wagging.

“Open it and see!” she squealed, practically bouncing on the spot.

“You set the date!” Via said, her voice delighted. “Oh, Sade, I’m so happy for you guys.”

“It’s the weekend after next,” Sebastian said, frowning down at the invite, assuming it was a typo.

“Yup. We wanted to give people as little notice as possible. Rae’s family is huge, but they won’t all be able to make it on such a tight time frame.” She whispered the last part out of the side of her mouth.

“Wow.” Via stared down at the invite. “Okay. Cool.”

“So, please fill them out during the meeting and then hand them back to me by the end, because I don’t have the time for tardy RSVPs, ’kay?” She air-kissed and then moved on to pass the next row their invites.

Via pulled a pen from her bag and neatly wrote her name on the line. She checkedfishinstead ofchickenand then put a1in the box for number of guests attending.

Seb felt the light scratch of her pen rattle him like Godzilla’s footsteps. He could almost hear the echoing reverberation of that number one rolling around his thick skull.

“Evan still upstate?” he asked, not even caring that she’d know he’d been peeking at her response card.

“Hmm?” she asked, handing the pen to him.

Seb nodded at her invitation. “Your boyfriend will still be out of town next week?”

“Oh.” She dropped her gaze immediately to the invitation, flipping the incriminating information over. “Ah. No, he’s back in Brooklyn. I heard.”

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