Chapter 17

CHAPTER17

Should she be concerned that Sebastian was pacing outside her window at one in the morning? Probably, Mikey thought as she watched Sebastian kneel down in front of her window and move to open it, only to ram his fingers through his hair and stand back up and went back to pacing.

Definitely something that she should look into, Mikey decided as she shifted her focus back to the email that Coach Jackson sent earlier and found herself wondering how she was going to pull this off as she looked over everything that he wanted her to work on. Thankfully, Coach Jackson also sent a copy of the email to Uncle Jason and her stepfather, so she really didn’t need to worry about how she was going to run faster and be able to do all of those pushups by March since they seemed determined to make sure that she was ready for tryouts.

That left her wondering how she was going to be able to come up with the five thousand dollars that she was going to need for training camp this summer. Then again, it could be worse. She could be forced to come up with the entire ten-thousand-dollar fee, but thankfully, her scholarship covered five thousand dollars and she had a deal with her mother when it came to her baseball needs.

Her mother covered baseballs, snacks, and all of her first aid needs and for everything else, like fees, gloves, and camps, she matched her dollar for dollar. That meant that she only had to come up with twenty-five hundred dollars. She could ask her mom for more hours, but something, mostly the fact that her mother didn’t seem to appreciate her supervisory skills, told her that probably wasn’t going to be an option.

Thankfully, she had other options, Mikey reminded herself when she heard her bedroom window slide open and-

“Why do you look like you’re about to be sick?” Mikey couldn’t help but wonder as she took in the expression on Sebastian’s face as he stood by her window, noting that he looked completely lost.

“I really hate Jonathan,” he said, swallowing hard while she lay there, nodding because that made sense.

“And you had to climb through my window at one in the morning to tell me that?” Mikey couldn’t help but ask as she watched him open his mouth, only to think better of it, close it, and swallow hard as he closed her bedroom window.

When he still didn’t say anything, Mikey said, “Good talk,” as she shifted her attention back to her iPad and-

“Who is it?” he blurted out, making her frown as she slowly looked up and found Sebastian standing in front of her bed, looking like he was about to be sick.

“Who is what?” Mikey asked, quickly becoming concerned as she placed the iPad on her nightstand so that she could reach over and grab hold of his hand and pull him down on the bed next to her.

“I…” Sebastian began, only to slowly exhale as he dropped his head in his hands, making her swallow hard as she sat there, debating whether or not she should go get her mother.

Just when she was about to climb off the bed, Sebastian dropped his hands away and looked at her as he asked, “Are you really going?”

Blinking at him, Mikey said, “I’m really going to need you to start adding more details if you want me to have any idea what you’re talking about.”

“Tomorrow night,” Sebastian said hollowly.

“Oh,” Mikey said as she dropped back against the pillow with a sigh.

“So, you’re going?” Sebastian asked, swallowing hard as he dropped his gaze to his hands.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I go?” Mikey asked, wondering when he was going to say something that made sense.

Nodding, Sebastian asked, “Who asked you?” once again making her frown in confusion.

“Uncle Devin?” Mikey said, wondering why he was suddenly having a problem with this when it was his idea.

“Uncle Devin?” Sebastian said, somehow managing to look even more confused.

“We need to be there tomorrow night by five,” Mikey said, shrugging it off as she reached over and grabbed her iPad off the nightstand, deciding that she’d give him a minute to finish his nervous breakdown.

“What the hell are you talking about?” came the hesitant question as Mikey went back to reading that email, noting all the fundraiser options that were available to her to help raise the money to cover the rest of the twenty-five hundred dollars.

“To babysit Dustin and Abbi?” Mikey mumbled absently as she noted the candy bar option, which could work for her.

“What about the dance?” Sebastian asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“What about it?” Mikey asked as she debated her other options.

“Why aren’t you going?”

“Because no one asked me?” Mikey said as she looked up to find him watching her.

“And if someone had?” Sebastian asked after a slight hesitation.

“We’ll never know,” Mikey said with a heartfelt sigh as she crawled beneath her blankets and got comfortable.

Throwing her a curious look, Sebastian laid down on the bed next to her, which, of course, led Mikey to ask, “Do you really think this is a good idea?”

“Do you want me to leave?” he asked, throwing her a questioning look.

“Do you want to leave?” Mikey asked as he reached over and plucked the iPad out of her hand.

“What nefarious plans are you coming up with now?” Sebastian drawled instead as he placed her iPad on the nightstand and settled in more comfortably next to her.

“Besides world domination?” Mikey asked, shifting closer to him so that she could lay her head on his shoulder.

“Besides that,” Sebastian murmured as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer.

“I’m figuring out how I’m going to raise twenty-five hundred dollars by May,” Mikey said, only to follow that up with, “I can feel you frowning.”

“Why do you need twenty-five hundred dollars?” Sebastian asked as he began absently running his fingertips down her arm, which always helped lull her to sleep.

“World domination isn’t cheap,” Mikey said, loving the sound of his chuckle.

“No, it’s not,” he murmured in agreement. “What do you need the money for?”

“Training camp,” Mikey said as she shifted to get more comfortable.

“Training camp?”

“Mmmhmm, there’s a baseball training program that the team goes to every summer for a month. They have professional trainers that work with us on everything from drills to batting and everything in between. They also have a dedicated team of trainers just for pitchers and-”

“You definitely need to go,” Sebastian said, sounding thoughtful.

“I really do,” Mikey said, nodding solemnly.

“What’s the plan?” Sebastian asked, sounding lost in thought as he continued running his fingertips down her arm, making it really difficult for her to stay awake.

“To find out the going rate for paid assassins,” Mikey murmured as she placed her hand on his chest with a sleepy little sigh.

“That sounds like a good plan,” Sebastian said around a yawn.

“It does, doesn’t it?” Mikey mumbled, biting back a grumble, knowing that he couldn’t stay, not unless she wanted to spend the next month running laps and killing time in her room. “You can’t stay.”

“I know,” Sebastian said quietly as she felt his lips press against the top of her head and realized just how much she’d missed falling asleep in his arms.