Page 122 of Last Man Standing

Tensions? Or straight up homicidal get her out, Sebastion!

“In the interest of my son’s happiness, I’d like to invite you to dinner.” And then another layer of bitchiness. “It’s been a really good day for Bas. He’s feeling well enough to wander down for dinner, so while we have the window, we intend to enjoy him. I’d like you to join us.”

“Why?”

“Wh—” She snaps her teeth shut, unaccustomed to being questioned. Ever. “Why would I like you to join us?”

“Yes. Why?” Don’t cry now, Scarlett! Refuse the angry tears. You’re doing great! “I can’t help but feel my presence would have the opposite effect you’re looking for. If Bas wants family dinner, it would be best that dinner didn’t come with an underlying layer of tension.”

And now I shed my bitchiness too, lowering my shoulders, and, right after those, my chin, too. “You should enjoy your evening with the boys. I’m truly happy Bas is feeling up to leaving the medical wing for a short while.” I take a step back and close the door another inch. “You can tell them you offered, and I was the asshole who declined. Tell them I wasn’t interested.”

“No, please.” She jumps forward and presses her hand to the door before I can shut her out. For the first time since I came here, I’m met with a pair of eyes exactly like her son’s. Hard when they’re angry, but so, so vulnerable when they’re not. “Please. I don’t want to lose my son, Scarlett. I don’t want to chase him off because I’m too stubborn and selfish to see past my own stubborn and selfish ideas. I wasn’t always like this.” She gulps and inches the door open a tiny bit. “I swear, as a mother of three sons, I’ve dreamed for a very long time of the relationships I would someday have with the women they brought home.”

“You’re the first one,” Koda chirps happily, wriggling away from the hand Arabella tries desperately to clap over his mouth. “She messed up, cause she never had practice before.” Giggling, he leans forward and whispers loud enough for the whole friggin’ state to hear, “She’s actually pretty nice. Pinky swear. She watches cartoons with me all the time, and sometimes she even does sword fights and lets me poke her.”

Behind him, Arabella’s cheeks glow bright red.

“Foam swords,” he snickers. “Dad said real swords aren’t allowed anymore. Not since Mav poked Sebastion that one time.”

My brows shoot high in question.

“Alright. That’s enough of that.” Arabella yanks her son back and holds him tight enough to immobilize his little limbs. She glances up at the ceiling for a beat, two, three, four, then exhaling, she brings her eyes back to mine. “Please come to dinner. It would mean a lot to have my son back at our table again, especially tonight while Bas is well, and I know it would mean a lot to my son if you joined us.”

“Mom!” Sebastion’s sharp tone cuts a line straight down the hall and makes two of us jump.

Koda merely grins.

Pushing my head through the gap in the door, I peer along the hall and stop on Sebastion’s fiery eyes.

“What the hell did you say?” He barrels forward, his chest puffed wide and, for a single second, his scalding glare melting me into the floor. Like I’m the one he’s mad at. Like I knocked on her door and interrupted a perfectly good evening pretending not to exist so the matriarch isn’t inconvenienced in her own home. But then he weaves straight past his mother and pops the door wide, grabbing my wrists in one hand and shoving me behind his back. “You made her cry! What the fuck, Mom?”

Wait. What?

I peel one hand from his and swipe a traitorous tear from my cheek.

Dammit, Scarlett!

“I warned you, Mom! I told you to stay the hell away and leave her alone. Jesus! Why can’t you just⁠—”

“Wait.” Sit down, Scarlett. Shut up. But noooo. That’s not what I do. I squeeze into the gap between him and the door and tug his arm. “Relax. She was inviting me to dinner.”

“She—” His eyes flare wide. “You—” And again. Then processing my words, he turns back to his mother and explodes. “Just stop it already! Whatever you’re doing, just fucking quit it!”

“Uncle Bas is coming to dinner.” Arabella forces her lips into a small smile and wipes her face. Lucky: at least she doesn’t cry when someone scolds her. “He insisted on escaping the medical wing tonight and demanded I cook my special lasagna.” She casts wary eyes across to me. “My invitation was genuine. No gimmicks, no strings, no drama. My husband, best friend, and all three of my sons swear you’re actually really lovely, Scarlett. So…” She shyly peeks up at Sebastion. “I’ll understand if you’re not interested. But I hope you’ll reconsider. Just…” Finally, finally, the dam breaks and her eyes sparkle with tears ready to overflow. “Don’t run away, okay? Please don’t leave without saying something to me first. They didn’t hand manuals out at the hospital when I had you, and since you’re my first, you’re stuck with all of my bumbling first attempts for each new stage of parenting.” Taking a long step back and pulling Koda with her, she expands her chest with a deep breath, then exhales it again and nods. “If you don’t come, I’ll understand. But if you do, dinner will be served in twenty minutes.”

38

SCARLETT

HERE IT COMES

“Don’t abandon me, okay?” Fifteen minutes later, I stand exactly where I was when Arabella walked away, but now the door is closed and a choking lump of nerves strangles me half to death.

My heart thrums wildly out of control as I press my back to the wood and stare across the room to where Sebastion sits on the side of his bed. “I know you said we wouldn’t go, and I know I said we should, but…” Fuccccck. “Don’t leave me.”

Stewing within his own crisis, he presses his elbows to his knees and drops his head into his hands. He scratches the back of his scalp and scrunches his eyes closed.

His crisis makes my crisis feel worse. He makes my nerves pulse louder in my ears.