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“She’s not my obsession,” Sebastian said, watching as Mikey went to grab a slice of the yellow cake with extra fudge frosting that her mother made only to go still when something on the other side of the large restaurant caught her attention.
“Then, what would you call it?” Jonathan asked, sounding genuinely curious as they all watched Mikey’s eyes narrow dangerously as she kept her gaze locked on whatever caught her attention as she placed the plate she’d grabbed down and made her way to the tables set up with large platters of turkey and ham and everything in between.
They watched as she grabbed a plate and aggressively, and there really was no other way to describe the way that she slapped a spoonful of mashed potatoes on that plate, filled up the plate, all while glaring at whatever had pissed her off now. Curious, Sebastian followed her glare and-
“That poor bastard,” Cole said as they watched Braxton look up from his iPad and-
“Oh, God, no…”
-mumbled hollowly when he saw Mikey coming his way.
“How’s he holding up?” Cole asked as they watched Braxton frantically search for somewhere to run only to spot the back exit too late.
“He keeps to himself and barely leaves the room. I think he’s waiting for us to send him back,” Jonathan said as they watched Mikey place the plate overflowing with food down on the table and shove it in front of Braxton with a look that dared him to do something about it.
“At least, that’s what he did for the first couple of days,” Sebastian murmured thoughtfully as he watched Mikey fold her arms over her chest as she settled back and waited.
“What happened?” Cole asked while they watched Braxton level a glare on the little bully as he reluctantly grabbed a fork and dug in.
“Mikey,” Sebastian murmured, unable to help but smile as he thought about the way that she’d mumbled incoherently to herself the first time that she’d decided to take matters into her own hands.
“She decided to take him under her wing,” Jonathan said, and Sebastian didn’t have to look back to know that he’d said it with a pitying look.
Not that he could blame him, Sebastian thought as he thought about the last few days and-
Braxton never stood a chance.
When Mikey realized that Braxton hadn’t left their room, she did what she did best. She took matters into her own hands. When his mother offered to take Braxton to the mall so that he could pick out new clothes that actually fit him, he’d told her that he didn’t need anything. That was followed by Mikey throwing herself onto his back and refusing to let go until he finally gave in, and just to make sure that he didn’t try anything, she went with them, following Braxton through the store, shoving clothes at him until he gave up trying to outglare the little pain in the ass and tried them on.
Once they were done, Mikey took one look at Braxton’s messy hair and gave him a choice, get a haircut or risk waking up one night with Mikey standing over him with shears in her hand. Braxton swallowed hard as the image of Mikey standing over him with shears had him moving his ass to the nearest barber.
When Braxton’s father called up to scream at him for embarrassing him, Mikey grabbed the phone from him and turned it off before shoving a catcher’s mitt in his hands and dragging him outside to run drills until he was too exhausted to think about his father.
Every morning, Mikey climbed into their room wearing one of the sweatshirts she stole from him, and bugged the hell out of Braxton until he finally gave up trying to ignore her and climbed out of bed and went for a run with her. From there, she kept him busy with training, working on their science project, watching highlights from old games, and when that wasn’t enough, she managed to talk Aunt Kasey into giving him a job, which made what Sebastian needed to do easier.
“That’s probably for the best,” Cole said, drawing his attention to find his cousin and brother watching him curiously.
“Why’s that?” Sebastian asked, only to decide that he should probably grab something for dessert when he saw that familiar look in his brother’s eyes.
“I don’t think they’re planning on coming back anytime soon,” Cole said, joining Sebastian as he stood up and made his way to the dessert tables.
“That’s what we figured,” Sebastian said, grabbing a plate.
“Are you okay with that?” Cole asked, throwing him a curious look as he grabbed a plate for himself and began loading it with the cookies that Aunt Necie made.
“You mean with Braxton staying for a few more months?” Sebastian asked, shrugging it off. “He’s quiet and doesn’t piss me off as much as Jonathan does.”
“You’d be lost without me,” Jonathan said as he grabbed Sebastian’s plate and began loading it. “Besides, you need me.”
“For?” Sebastian asked, grabbing his plate back from Jonathan and headed back to their table, where he considered his choices.
He could ask Uncle Lucifer for a job, Sebastian thought as he slowly looked around, taking in the large restaurant that his uncle closed for the night so that they could have their family Christmas party. The pay was decent and he could get hours after school and on the weekend, but it would mean missing a lot of Mikey’s games.
He could work for Aunt Necie at Dixon Bakery, Sebastian thought as his gaze found her sitting on Uncle Duncan’s lap, smiling when she saw the mistletoe that he was holding over her head. The money was decent and he could grab morning shifts on the weekend and still make it to Mikey’s games. Either choice would mean grabbing a couple of shifts every week on top of tutoring, working for Aunt Kasey, and school would leave his schedule pretty tight, but it was doable for now.
Working at Bradford Construction would definitely pay more, Sebastian thought as he shifted his gaze to Uncle Jared. One shift with Bradford Construction would pay him more than working a couple of shifts at the Fire & Brimstone and Dixon’s bakery, but it wasn’t an option for another few months until they started working again. He could grab hours with his father in the meantime, work with him flipping houses and grab hours doing odd jobs at his father’s apartment houses as well as grab extra shifts with Aunt Kasey.
“Mikey,” Jonathan said with a satisfied sigh as he dropped down on the chair across from him.
