Page 100 of Just a Heartbeat Away

“He’s right,” Matty said. “We even walk Mary home. And she lives really far away. And Daddy doesn’t even kiss her.”

Via laughed and threw her hands up. “If you say so,” she repeated again, but Seb didn’t miss the joy in her eye.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ITWASSTRANGEthat Matty and Seb were the only people who existed anymore. She couldn’t quite explain it. She went to work, joked with Sadie, kept up on appointments and ate dinner with Fin. But then she’d see Matty and/or Seb, and every image got sharper, brighter, that much more real.

Which was why Via was at loose ends when the boys went to White Plains for Thanksgiving break. The Department of Education had made the Monday and Tuesday of the holiday week professional development days. So, with the free Wednesday off as well, the kids had a full week off starting the Friday before Thanksgiving.

Via skipped that happy hour—gratefully, considering she still wasn’t quite ready to face all the questions about her relationship with Seb—and headed straight home with Matty and Seb. She wasn’t trying to be nosy, but her organized little heart nearly seized up when she saw the manner in which Seb and Matty were packing for their trip.

Perhaps that’s how she wound up on Matty’s floor, teaching him how to lay out outfits for the week. Next on the agenda was how to properly fold a T-shirt. But when he asked her how to choose which books to pack? She threw up her hands.

“That’s like trying to tell an artist which colors to paint with,” she told him.

Seb laughed from the door and hauled her to her feet. “You’ve helped my kid enough. Now it’s time to help me.”

Via followed him back to his bedroom, Crabby winding through her feet and hopping up on Sebastian’s bed like he owned the place.

She paused at his doorway, like she still wasn’t sure if she was invited inside. Seb came to stand right behind her, one hand up on the door frame next to her head. He brushed the hair from her neck and placed a kiss, a perfect kiss, on the back of her neck.

Via leaned backward an inch and let her eyes wander around his room. The walls were a dark, masculine blue that was still a little romantic somehow. He had a big wooden dresser on one side, a floor-length mirror on the open back of a closet door, and she could see an en suite bathroom, mostly white, on her right. There were two big windows over top of the bed.

Via let her eyes rest on the matching copper bedside lamps, the half-drunk glass of water, the dog-eared book and the—gulp—reading glasses. Everything in Via’s body pulled tight when she pictured Sebastian lying in bed—shirtless, because hey, this was her fantasy—with those black-rimmed glasses on, reading.

Finally, finally, she let her eyes fall to the bed. That same green comforter she’d seen in a picture once was smooth over top of the queen-size frame. The bed was made nicely, but not obsessively so, a little rumpled in one corner. And the headboard was a raw slab of wood, obviously something that Sebastian had made on his own. The whole effect was gorgeous and sexy...and completely intimidating.

She felt his warm hand at her lower back, and Via realized he’d threaded his fingers through the belt loop at the back of her trousers. He gave her a gentle tug forward and backward, his mouth dropping to her neck again.

“You know,” he whispered hotly over skin he’d just dampened, “every time I’ve pictured you in my bedroom, it was never for that reason.” He pointed into one corner that she hadn’t looked at yet.

A sound of total horror exploded out of her. She winced and covered her eyes with her hands.

“Oh my God, Seb. How can you possibly stand that?”

Her trepidation about his intimidating bedroom completely forgotten, Via pulled away from him, striding in and planting herself on the floor next to the open suitcase. She grimaced at the pile of unfolded clothes, the half-full travel bottles strewn about, the mismatched socks.

He chuckled. “I’m hoping you find this charming and not grounds to break up with me.”

Via tried not to startle at his words. She hadn’t realized that they were in a place where theycouldbreak up yet. Did that mean that he considered them to be together? Did that mean that they were exclusive? The idea utterly thrilled Via, but not as much as it shocked her.

Sure, they’d texted the entire week. Made out in his living room three times. And talked on the phone, just because, twice. But in Via’s world, that could mean anything. Shit, she’d been sleeping with Evan for six months before he’d even admitted that they were dating.

Via yanked the suitcase toward her and fiddled with it, hoping to cover her reaction.

“Charming or not,” she told him in a totally normal voice that she thanked the heavens for, “I’m about to have a coronary. Go fill these up while I start folding.”

She shoved the travel bottles into his hands and turned to the pile of clothes. He set the bottles aside.

“I just totally freaked you out, didn’t I?”

“What?” She didn’t look up at him as she started pairing socks, tucking them into one zippered pocket as she went.

“Fuck,” Seb swore suddenly. He sat abruptly on the ground and leaned his back against the bed. When she looked up at him, his head was down, and he was roughly scraping a hand over the back of his neck.

“Seb, what’s wrong?” Alarmed, she dropped the socks she was working on and leaned toward him, one hand on the ground.

“Nothing. I just...feel so fucking old.”

---