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He never wanted to let her go.
“Nothing happened,” Sebastian promised, hoping that would be enough.
“And you’ll tell me if that changes?” his father asked, watching him closely.
“We’re just friends,” Sebastian said, watching his father slowly nod as he thought that over.
“And is there a reason that you felt compelled to sneak out after I brought the little pain in the ass home last night?” his father drawled.
“Because we needed to finish our plans for world domination?” Sebastian said, wondering if he was about to start off high school grounded.
“And how did Reese handle finding you in his stepdaughter’s bed at two in the morning?” his father asked, making him wince as he thought about Reese’s hand wrapping around his ankle as he made his escape through Mikey’s bedroom window and-
Clearing his throat, Sebastian said, “About how you would expect.”
“Then, I guess we’re done here,” his father said with a satisfied sigh as he gestured for him to get up. “Hurry up and get ready if you want a ride to school,” he said, reminding him that this nightmare was finally over.
CHAPTER4
“It’s just that,” Mikey began, only to pause to release a shuddering sigh before she continued, “I didn’t realize just how painful this would be for you.” When nobody said anything, Mikey decided to follow that up by gesturing to them just in case there was a misunderstanding and released a heartfelt sigh as she let her shoulders slump in defeat and mumbled, “I love you too much to do this to you.”
“That’s really generous of you,” her mother murmured absently as she finished changing Toby’s diaper before moving onto Thomas, who’d ripped off his diaper sometime during the last thirty seconds.
With a glare aimed at their mother, Thomas threw the diaper on the floor before rolling onto his belly and wiggled his little bottom in silent demand. “You are definitely a Bradford,” their mother said with a warm smile as she placed Thomas onto his back and reached for a fresh baby wipe.
“I’m going to need you to focus here, woman,” Mikey said, only to swallow hard when Reese drawled, “And I’m going to need you to tell me why Sebastian was in your room last night?” as he helped Nathan and Zach pull off their pajamas.
“World domination?” Mikey said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth even as she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d made a tactical error by not waiting until Reese left for work before she did this, but since time was a factor here…
She cleared her throat, released another shuddering sigh, did her best to look like this was the last thing that she wanted to do and said, “I’m not going to leave you. Not like this, and not when I’m the reason why you’re in this mess in the first place. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have kept having babies, hoping beyond hope that one of them would be just like me.”
When her stepfather muttered, “Jesus Christ,” with a heavy sigh that didn’t sound promising, Mikey decided to push forward and hope for the best. “I just don’t feel right leaving you, knowing that you’ll be lost without me.”
“And what exactly would you be doing instead of going to school?” her mother asked, giving her hope.
“I’m glad you asked,” Mikey said with a nod as she cleared her throat, nodded again, and then, gestured randomly between her parents for effect. “I’ve decided to help both of you.”
When Reese opened his mouth, most likely to ruin her plans, she cut him off by saying, “I’ll, of course, be helping Mom cook and come up with delicious recipes that her customers won’t be able to get enough of.”
“You can’t cook,” her mother pointed out, which had Mikey clearing her throat and amending her previous announcement. “Then, I’ll supervise Mom cooking and coming up with delicious recipes, which my very presence will inspire, and I’ll go with Dad to help him design and build things.”
“That’s very generous of you,” Reese murmured.
“It’s the least I can do,” Mikey said, nodding solemnly.
“I tell you what,” her mother said, pausing to dutifully kiss Thomas’s little foot when he raised it for her, “you can stay home as long as you explain what Sebastian was doing in your bed last night.”
“Why is world domination and my managerial skills never good enough for you people?” Mikey demanded, shaking her head in disgust as she turned around and headed back to her room, grumbling every step of the way because the last thing that she wanted to do was have this discussion since it would most likely end with her being forced to make a promise that she would never be able to keep.
Granted, she’d already been told that she wasn’t allowed to have Sebastian sleep over anymore, but she felt that having this discussion again would only make things awkward the next time Sebastian got caught hogging her bed. Since she really didn’t think that she would be able to survive without snuggling in Sebastian’s arms, Mikey decided that she was going to have to go through with this after all.
With that, Mikey made her way over to the box that she’d shoved into the corner a week ago, and after a slight hesitation and a heavy sigh, she grabbed the school uniform out of the box, sighed again, turned around and headed to the bathroom. After she took a shower, grumbled some more, and gave herself a twenty-minute pep talk, which resulted in Reese knocking on the door to tell her that she was going to be late, she did what needed to be done.
* * *
“I figured it out,”Jonathan announced with a satisfied sigh as he hopped up onto the bathroom counter while Sebastian finished tying his tie, only to pull it loose seconds later with a frustrated sigh.
“How to annoy the hell out of me?” Sebastian asked as he slowly exhaled and willed his trembling hands to work while he stood there, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that this nightmare was finally over.
