Page 87 of Just a Heartbeat Away

She made a little tsking sound and pretended to listen to Sadie talking as she nudged him a little harder, bumping him to one side with her shoulder.

Seb was glad they were standing in the back of the crowd because this was ridiculous, and probably would have been mortifying if anyone was looking.

Via gave him one last little shove that had enough of her soft hip involved to have Seb clearing his throat, and then she was jogging out to shortstop, screwing her hat on her head.

THEYWONTHEgame and went for pizza. Sebastian felt like he could lift a bus as he tied up Crabby to a bike rack outside the pizzeria. He pulled a rawhide from his back pocket and had the pup’s tail thumping a mile a minute.

When he ducked back inside, it was to see Matty in Via’s arms. She’d picked him up to choose which type of pizza he wanted from the glass case and apparently it was very serious business because they were speaking to each other very solemnly.

Honestly, Matty wasn’t all that much smaller than Via. He was a big kid and she was a small lady, but her strong arms held him with no trouble. Matty easily hitched his legs around her waist and his arm over her shoulders.

Seb walked toward them, like he was in a dream. But a supercharged high-def one. He felt like he was outlined in bright color, high speed and flinging through the air. He felt like there should be a beam of light coming out of his chest right now, spotlighting his son in Via’s arms. Because there were so many reasons to slow down where she was concerned. But then...this. His gigantic son in her tiny arms. Come on. If there’d been bowling pins in his way as he crossed the restaurant toward them, he would have scattered them to the winds.

“You smell good,” Matty was telling Via as Seb stepped up to them. He was lifting up her crystal necklace, clear pink today, and inspecting it as he spoke.

“Considering I just played a full game of softball, I’d say that would be very surprising.”

Seb made eye contact with Via. He pointedly leaned forward and sniffed her. “Nope, he’s right. You smell very, very good.”

“I smell sweaty,” she corrected, her cheeks flushing.

“No, you smell like muffins. And alittlesweaty,” Matty corrected.

“Plus, girl sweat smells good,” Seb chimed in.

Via blushed even further, but to Seb’s ultimate delight, she leaned forward into his space and sniffed. “Apparently, so does boy sweat.”

“Are you guys flirting?” Matty asked out of the blue, still gently tracking the crystal on her necklace from one end of the chain to the next.

Seb’s heart stuttered to a screeching halt. He thought about the fairly blatant tightrope that he and Via had started walking. Matty had just twanged the hell out of it. And now he and Via were going to fall off of that tightrope, one side or the other. He just hoped they ended up on the same side.

“Subtlety is a luxury only the childless enjoy,” he said to Via, making her crack a smile even through the shocked nerves that had bloomed over her face.

Seb turned to his son. “What do you know about flirting?”

Matty shrugged, his eyes still on Via’s necklace, as if he were a little embarrassed about the topic. Well, that made three. “Just that Brian Addison was teasing me and Joy for playing together and said that we must be flirting because I’m a boy and she’s a girl and we were teasing each other. But I don’t think we were flirting.”

“Brian Addison sounds like a twerp,” Seb replied, reaching out for his son. Matty went from her arms to Seb’s without a peep. “Or he probably has a crush on Joy. Or on you,” he added, realizing that he didn’t want to instill something ignorant in his son.

Matty shrugged. “I don’t get it.”

Seb nodded. “Trust me, it doesn’t get less confusing. But we can talk about it more at home if you want.” And then he looked up at Via, straight into those brown eyes of hers that made him want to press his nose to hers. “But just to be clear, yes, we were flirting.”

She sucked in a little breath, and Seb couldn’t tell if she was thrilled or put off by his forwardness.

“Why?” Matty asked.

Again, Seb went with the truth. No point in lying and confusing everyone. “Because she’s fun to flirt with. And sometimes it just happens. Because she’s so pretty.”

Her hand went nervously to her necklace and she toyed with it, just like Matty had. The gesture snapped a twig somewhere inside Seb. There was no more sneaking up on this feeling. It was there and in his face and in hers. Whatever this feeling was, it had jumped the fence. It was out now, in between them, living and breathing.

Now they had to decide if they were going to walk toward it together or turn tail and run.

“Yeah,” Matty agreed. “Plus, she smells like sweaty muffins.”

Seb and Via both barked out surprised, delighted laughter, tinged with equal parts hysteria and relief. Matty had tossed them in the soup, but also, it kind of seemed like they’d both been too scared to jump in the first place.

THATWEEK’SSTAFFmeeting was just as charged as softball practice had been. She’d sat with her shoulder pressing against his damn near the whole time. Her legs looked slim and long in her work-fancy trousers that ended in heels of some kind or the other. And, to Seb’s surprise, she wore a little gold ring on her left thumb.

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