Chapter 37

CHAPTER37

“Told you she’d say yes,” Jonathan said with a satisfied sigh from the closet where Sebastian shoved him after he’d finished wrapping him in duct tape.

“You should have gagged him,” Braxton said, not bothering to look up from his iPad as he shifted to get more comfortable on his bed.

“I did, but he chewed through it an hour ago,” Sebastian said as he dropped his head in his hands and-

She said yes.

Technically, she’d agreed to let him spoil her, but it was enough. At least for now, Sebastian told himself as he slowly exhaled. It was definitely a start, Sebastian thought, only to sigh heavily when he heard their closet door slam open, followed by the sounds of Jonathan hitting the floor with a pained grunt.

“So,” Jonathan murmured conversationally, “where are we taking Mikey on our date?”

“It’s not a date,” Sebastian said, dropping his hands away as he stood up and grabbed the clothes he’d picked out earlier off his bureau and headed for their bedroom door.

“What would you call it?” Jonathan asked as he tried to rip the rest of the duct tape off his wrists.

“I wouldn’t call it anything,” Sebastian said as he stepped over his brother and made his way to their bathroom, where he spent the next twenty minutes trying to convince himself that this was a good idea.

For the past four months, he’d been working his ass off, taking every job that he could get his hands on and saving every cent that he made so that he could do this right and now…

“What the hell am I doing?” Sebastian asked as he dropped his head beneath the water and-

“I’m glad you asked,” came the murmured response that had Sebastian biting back a sigh as he reluctantly turned off the shower.

“We talked about this,” Sebastian said, opening the shower door so that he could grab a towel.

“I’m still waiting for you to admit that you like Mikey,” Jonathan said with a satisfied sigh as he hopped up onto the counter.

“And I’m going to need you to drop it,” Sebastian said, wrapping the towel around his waist.

“I’m afraid that I can’t do that,” Jonathan said with a sad shake of his head as though pissing him off was the last thing that he wanted to do.

“You really could, though,” Sebastian said as he grabbed another towel and dried his hair.

“You’re going to need me to pull this off.”

“Why is that exactly?” Sebastian asked, tossing the towel aside and grabbed his underwear off the bathroom counter.

“Because you’ve never been on a date,” Jonathan said, grabbing the deodorant off the counter and handed it to him.

“Neither have you,” Sebastian said as he finished pulling on his underwear and tossed his towel on the hamper before accepting the deodorant.

“You sure about that?” Jonathan asked with a pitying look as Sebastian made quick work of getting dressed.

“You would have bragged,” Sebastian pointed out as he fixed his hair.

“Probably, but I know that you can’t go dressed like that,” Jonathan said, shaking his head in disgust as he grabbed the cologne their mother bought them for Christmas and handed it to him.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” Sebastian asked, frowning as he looked down at the Bradford Construction tee-shirt and jeans he’d grabbed.

“I honestly have no idea where I went wrong with you,” Jonathan said, shaking his head in disgust as he slid off the counter, grabbed Sebastian’s arm and dragged him back to their bedroom.

“What’s going on?” Braxton asked as he looked up only to frown. “You’re really not going to wear that, are you?”

“No,” Jonathan said as he released his hold on him and made his way into their closet, “he’s not.”

“What the hell’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” Sebastian asked, watching as Braxton shook his head in disgust as he climbed off the bed and joined Jonathan in tearing through their clothes.

“Should we grab a tie?” Braxton asked, ignoring him.

“No, let’s keep it casual.”

“There’s nothing wrong with what I’m wearing,” Sebastian muttered as he leaned over to grab his shoes and-

“Take off your clothes.”

-looked up to find Braxton and Jonathan standing in front of him.

Swallowing hard, Sebastian took in the determined expressions on their faces before his gaze dropped to the clothes in their arms. He took in the black dress shirt and pants before his gaze shifted to the door behind them as he made a decision. Slowly nodding, Sebastian stood up only to release a pained grunt when they tackled him onto the bed. That was followed by pinning him down as they tried to tear his clothes off and-

“I know that I’m probably going to regret asking this, but what the hell are you doing?” came the question that drew their attention to find Jessica standing at the end of his bed.

“They’re fighting over me,” Jonathan said, not missing a beat as he tore Sebastian’s shirt off the rest of the way and tossed it on the floor.

“That’s even more disturbing than what I thought you were doing,” Jessica said, slowly nodding.

“What are you doing in our room, brat?” Jonathan asked as he climbed off the bed so that he could tweak their little sister’s nose.

“Elizabeth called and wanted to know if we wanted to sleep over tonight,” Jessica said, throwing Braxton a curious look before shifting her attention back to Jonathan.

“That’s not really an option,” Jonathan said, shrugging it off as he kicked aside the sneakers that Sebastian was going to wear and made his way back into the closet.

“Why not?” Jessica asked, dropping down on their desk chair as Sebastian pushed Braxton off him so that he could sit up.

“It just isn’t,” Sebastian said as Braxton threw the shirt at his face. With a glare, Sebastian pulled it on.

“Because Sebastian has plans with Mikey,” Jonathan explained as he walked back into the room carrying a pair of black dress shoes.

“What plans?” Jessica asked, and before Sebastian could change the subject, his brother beat him to it.

“He’s taking her to see a movie,” Jonathan said, shrugging it off only to frown when he saw the look on their sister’s face.

“Does she know?” Jessica asked, sending him a curious look.

“Why wouldn’t she know?” Sebastian asked, only to feel his stomach drop when his sister said, “Because Mikey’s already there.”