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“I’ve seen the way that your hands shake when they draw my blood and the way that you watch your phone for the next week, waiting for the doctor to tell you that everything’s okay. When that phone call finally comes, I know that the first thing you do is lock yourself in the bathroom and blast music so that I don’t hear you crying,” Mikey bit out as she angrily wiped at her eyes.
“I see the terror in your eyes whenever I’m sick or I have a headache or mention that I’m tired. I know that you think that I’m going to get sick. That’s why I don’t bring my father up because I know that you’re scared that you’re going to lose me, too,” Mikey finished in a rush while she stood there, watching her mother swallow hard as she watched her.
“I don’t think I’d survive losing you, Mikey,” her mother finally admitted.
“You’re not going to lose me,” Mikey said, shaking her head as she reached up with trembling hands and wiped the tears off her face.
“Why haven’t you signed the adoption papers, Mikey?” Reese asked quietly, making her swallow hard as she looked at him and-
“Because I don’t want to be a Bradford.”
“Because you don’t want to be my daughter,” Reese said hollowly.
Shaking her head, Mikey said, “It doesn’t matter whose name is on my birth certificate. You’re my Dad, but I feel like if I say yes and I officially become a Bradford that I’ll be erasing the last part of my father and I just…I just can’t do that to him. I know that it doesn’t make any sense, but I just can’t do it. I can’t take away the only thing left of him.”
“You don’t need to sign a piece of paper to be my little girl, Mikey,” Reese said as he reached over and pulled her into his arms. “I love you, Mikey, even if you are the biggest pain in my ass.”
“I get that a lot,” Mikey mumbled, feeling Reese’s lips pull up into a smile against her forehead as she looked over at her window in time to watch Sebastian walk away.
CHAPTER46
“Wait,” Jonathan said, licking his lips nervously as he watched Sebastian grab another roll of masking tape and shoved it in his backpack, “I think we should talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Sebastian said as he reached for the rope, only to decide against it and grabbed the flashlight instead.
“I feel like there’s a lot to talk about,” Jonathan said, sending another panicked look back towards their house.
Shaking his head, Sebastian said, “I’m done playing this game,” as he double-checked to make sure the flashlight still worked.
“Look, I can help you,” Jonathan said with a helpless gesture towards the house, “let’s just go back inside and figure out another plan that doesn’t consist of you listening to the voices in your head.”
“I like this plan better,” Sebastian said, shrugging it off as he shoved the flashlight in his bag to join the rest of the supplies that he was going to need to pull this off.
Licking his lips nervously, Jonathan glanced back at the house again before he looked at him and shook his head as he said, “I can’t let you do this.”
Nodding, Sebastian dropped his bag on the floor and reached for a roll of duct tape. “I had a feeling that you were going to say that.”
* * *
“The hell with him,”Mikey said while she lay there glaring at her alarm clock, noting that it was now officially two o’clock in the morning and the boy who should be here making everything better was nowhere to be found.
But that was fine.
More than fine.
In fact, Mikey didn’t want him here because if he was here, then she wouldn’t be able to seethe in peace. After the day she had, she deserved to be able to seethe in peace and having Sebastian here holding her and kissing the back of her head would only ruin that. She didn’t want him here and if he crawled through her window to do all those things that she liked when she was upset, she would tell him that.
Nodding to herself because that’s how much she didn’t want Sebastian to hold her, Mikey intensified her glare as she lay there, praying for his sake that he didn’t sneak into her room. It wouldn’t end well for him.
Not at all.
She’d have to kick him out, which, of course, would end with him crying and she really didn’t want to have to do that to him. So, really, it was in his best interest not to come here tonight, Mikey decided with a firm nod as she grabbed hold of her covers and shoved them away so that she could go march over there and tell him that she didn’t want him here.
Decision made, Mikey moved to do just that when she saw it, the crazed teenage boy standing in the corner and-
“Why are you pointing a flashlight at your face?” Mikey found herself wondering as she watched Sebastian Bradford, her best friend, neighbor, and the teenage boy who’d clearly lost his mind, push away from the wall and-
“Is that a roll of masking tape in your hand?” Mikey asked, swallowing hard as she watched Sebastian absently nod as he tossed the flashlight on her bed, making it light up the room so that she could watch as he took his time ripping a piece of masking tape off the roll.
