Chapter 33

CHAPTER33

He had five more minutes, Mikey thought as she swiped to the next page and-

Felt her lips pull up into a smile when she heard the telltale sound of her bedroom window opening seconds before a cold draft swept over her. Before goosebumps could finish racing across her skin, Sebastian was closing the window behind him and stumbling towards her bed, looking exhausted as he toed off his shoes.

Without a word, Sebastian gestured for her to move over and-

Dropped down on her bed face-first with a groan, making her lips twitch as she took in his messy, damp hair, the firm lips that made him incredibly handsome when they pulled up into a teasing smile, and the Bradford Construction hoodie that was most likely going to end up joining her collection in the morning before reluctantly shifting her attention back to the iPad in her hands as she said, “You’re late.”

“I’m never late,” Sebastian mumbled into the comforter.

“You almost were this time,” Mikey pointed out with a sad shake of her head, only to smile when the large teenage boy hogging her bed released a muffled grumble.

“I had plenty of time,” Sebastian mumbled sleepily as he shifted to get more comfortable while Mikey focused back on the book that Uncle Jason mentioned in class last week.

“You really didn’t, though,” Mikey said as she glanced over to find Sebastian cracking one eye open so that he could glare at her. That was followed by him glancing back at the alarm clock on her nightstand before settling back in with a sigh and a muttered, “Plenty of time,” making her lips twitch.

For the past few months, Sebastian had been picking up extra shifts working for her mother, helping his father renovate houses on the weekend, picking up shifts at The Fire & Brimstone and Dixon’s Bakery when they needed help and somehow still managed to tutor during lunch every day and a few hours after school a week, and now, he was picking up shifts working for Uncle Jared at Bradford Construction on the weekends and he wouldn’t tell her why. The only thing that she knew was that it didn’t matter how tired he was or how late it was, Sebastian always made sure that he spent time with her.

Always.

He looked so exhausted, Mikey thought, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she reached back and placed her iPad on her nightstand. As soon as she lay down, Sebastian was reaching for her. In a matter of seconds, he had his arm wrapped around her and she was snuggling closer as she placed her hand on his bicep and began absently running her fingertips up and down his arm as she watched him.

“You’re working too hard,” Mikey mumbled softly as she raised her hand and ran her fingertips along his jaw.

“I don’t have a choice,” Sebastian said as intense blue eyes met hers.

“Are you going to tell me why you’re doing this?” Mikey asked, watching as her fingertips slowly ran along his jaw.

Shaking his head, Sebastian said, “I have a plan.”

“For…” Mikey said, hoping that would be enough to get him to talk.

“Nice try,” Sebastian said, closing his eyes on a soft sigh as she narrowed her eyes on him and-

“I can feel you glaring,” he mumbled sleepily as she pulled her hand away and placed it back on his arm so that she could run her fingertips along his arm while she tried to figure out why he was doing this.

“What did you do today?” Mikey asked, watching him closely.

“Did you miss me?” Sebastian asked as she ran her fingertips down his arm, over his hand and along his fingers.

“Not even a little bit,” Mikey lied as she pulled her hand back and ran her fingertips back up his arm.

“Liar,” he said, chuckling.

“Didn’t have time,” Mikey said with a sad shake of her head. “After training with Dad and Braxton, I helped with the boys, supervised Mom making a wedding cake, finished my paper for Uncle Jason, and ran drills with Braxton.”

And she’d missed him every second.

“Sounds exciting.”

“It really was,” Mikey assured him, watching his lips twitch as she ran her fingertips back down his arm.

“If it helps, I struggled against the urge to beat the hell out of Jonathan and shove his body in a dumpster,” Sebastian mumbled as she ran her fingertips back down to his fingers.

“It really does,” Mikey assured him as she moved to run her fingertips back up his arm, only to have Sebastian spread his fingers apart so that hers slid between them.

“Are you ready for tryouts?” Sebastian asked as he wrapped his fingers around hers.

“As ready as I can be,” she promised him.

“You’ll be fine,” Sebastian assured her as he absently ran his thumb over the back of her fingers before asking the one question that she’d been avoiding for the past three months. “And your fan club?”

“Have completely forgotten about me.”

* * *

“That’s gonna leave a mark,”Sebastian said on a pained grunt when he hit the ground.

Biting back a groan, Sebastian dragged himself off the ground and started making his way back to his house, struggling to ignore just how exhausted he really was and just how badly he wanted to turn around and make his way back to Mikey’s bed so that he could pull her back into his arms, but that wasn’t an option. So, instead, Sebastian willed his legs to move and made his way across the dimly lit yard, careful to stay out of reach of the floodlights, across the street, and then, pulled himself up onto the porch roof and made his way onto the small roof above.

Seconds later, he was shoving his bedroom window open and-

“Definitely going to leave a mark,” Sebastian muttered against his bedroom floor.

“So, I’ve made a decision,” Jonathan murmured, sounding thoughtful as Sebastian moved to drag himself off the floor only to say the hell with it and crawled the rest of the way to his bed.

“Don’t care,” Sebastian grumbled hollowly as he pulled himself onto his bed, only to groan when he saw what time it was.

“You’re going to drop soon,” Braxton said, sighing heavily as he climbed out of bed and closed the window.

“Probably,” Sebastian muttered weakly, even as he wondered how much longer he was going to be able to keep this up.

He was running on fumes and ready to drop, but he needed to pull this off. If he didn’t…

Christ, he didn’t know what he would do.

“I’ve decided to take pity on you,” Jonathan said with a heartfelt sigh as he dropped down from the top bunk.

“Please don’t make me kill you,” Sebastian managed to get out as he dropped face-first on his bed.

“I’ve decided to help you,” Jonathan announced as he dropped down next to him.

“I don’t need your help,” Sebastian muttered as he used the last of his energy to reach over and shove his brother off the bed.

“You really do, though, but that’s fine because I can wait until you beg me for help and you will. It’s just a matter of time,” Jonathan said with a satisfied sigh from the comfort of their bedroom floor.

Ignoring his brother, Sebastian shifted his focus to Braxton and said the one thing that he’d said every night for the past few months. “Mikey?”

“Is still a pain in the ass,” Braxton assured him, making his lips twitch.

“Is she ready for tomorrow?” Sebastian asked as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

“More than ready.”

“And her fan club?” Sebastian asked after a slight hesitation.

“Is still making her life a living hell.”