Page 202 of Sebastian's Baby

The rest of the crowd laughs when I say that.

“Finally, Mom and Dad, I know that you’re out there somewhere. You’ve done so much for me; you sacrificed a lot to send me to a music camp that ultimately started this whole ride. I’ll never be able to thank you enough. On that note, I hope that everyone enjoys the fireworks, and thanks again for coming to celebrate with me tonight!”

I head off stage as the fireworks start going off above us, and some of our greatest hits start playing over the sound system in time with the fireworks. I walk directly to Lita, who moves out of Heather’s embrace and allows me to pull her into my arms.

“Come sit with me, princess; it’s still my birthday,” I tell her, playing the birthday card one last time.

There are massive, couple-sized bean bags spread around the grassed area, and I take Lita to the nearest one. We sit down together, and I hold her in my arms as we watch the display above us.

“This is crazy,” Lita whispers while staring at the sky and nodding her head in time with the music.

“It was going to be a live band, originally,” I tell her. “I changed it to Cruise Control songs because I thought that you might like it better.”

Lita turns to look at me and asks, “Really?”

“Yes. I knew that today would probably be crazy and a lot for you to deal with. I thought this might make it better for you.”

Lita hugs me tightly. “Happy birthday, Sebastian Fox.”

“Thanks, princess.”

She settles back against me, and we go back to watching the show. It’s been such a good day. The rides were amazing. My friends showed me how much they love and accept Lita. She didn’t reject me at all and allowed me to hug and kiss her.

All I had to do was not say the one thing I want to tell her at almost all times. As I enjoy her warmth in my arms, I can’t help but think that the tradeoff was worth it. When “Just So You Know” begins to play, I sing it softly to her, and she smiles.

I love her so much.

32

LEVEL 24.3 – Nobody Looks Good in A Tent

I’m sittingon the sofa in my living room when the elevator doors open, and Heather walks into the room, followed by Callum. She walks over to me and gives me a hug.

“Hey, Seb.” She smiles at me and sits on the sofa next to me. “Where’s the lovely Lita?”

Heather is here to take Lita out on their girls’ day shopping for maternity clothes. Lita has been borrowing shirts from me this week, and I’m kind of sad that she won’t need to do that anymore. I get a kick out of finding the clothes that I think will amaze her the most, but I’m sort of running out of those anyway since a lot of them don’t fit her.

“In the office. Working on the video game.” I smile at Heather.

Her company gave her permission to do freelance work while she’s on maternity leave, and she’s even agreed to do some casual hours for them as well. She’s going to make sure she’s not doing too much, though, because neither of us wants her under too much stress because of Mirabella.

When Heather and I walk through the door to the office, Lita has a document open with lots of writing on it and a flowchart, which I assume is some kind of plot for the game. She looks up and blinks at us a few times before smiling.

“Hi, Lita, ready to go?” Heather asks her.

“Sure, let me just save this, and I’ll be good to go.”

Lita shuts down her laptop and gives me a quick hug before she leaves with Heather. I watch her go, and think about how much I love her. I turn my PC on and open the file with Mirabella’s heartbeat that I recorded so long ago. I close my eyes and listen to the recording.

I’d forgotten that Lita and I were talking on it.

“Come here, princess. I couldn’t get a bed in here, but hopefully, this chair will be enough.”

“This might actually work.”

“That’s awesome, Seb. Hurry up and try it; I want to hear our baby’s heartbeat again.”

“Okay, lay back as much as you can, let’s see if we can do it.”

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