“No, no.” Via waved away his apology. “It’s almost bedtime. I’m just so glad you stayed. Fin and I probably would have eaten at the regular old dinner table instead of a pillow fort.”

“You liked the fort?” Matty asked sleepily, tilting his head to see Via.

She stepped over to Matty and Seb, absently stroking a hand over Matty’s back. Her hand briefly brushed over one of Seb’s, and he refused to clench it into a fist, even if it felt like he’d been sunburned in a good way.

“I love the fort.”

“It was my birthday present to you.”

Seb knew he was biased, but damn, his kid was sweet sometimes. Apparently Via thought so, too, because she leaned forward, puckering her lips, and gave Matty a kiss. The top of her head brushed against Sebastian’s chin, and he shifted a little. He was extremely conscious of their nosy-ass friends all watching him.

“All right.” Was that his voice? All gravelly and gruff as hell? “Thank you for having us. Sorry we’re leaving you with a mess.”

“I’ll stay and help clean it up,” Mary insisted.

“I’ll help you get your dog and kid and all the rest of your crap home, Seb.” Tyler was already gathering Matty’s schoolbag.

The goodbyes were quick and nondramatic, and it wasn’t until Seb and Tyler were walking home, side by side down the dark sidewalk, that they looked at one another and shook their heads.

“Jesus Christ, man,” Tyler murmured, checking to make sure Matty was asleep on Seb’s shoulder. He was.

“Yeah. I mean. Damn it.”

They both knew what they were talking about.

Tyler sighed. “I won’t give you shit about how dopey you were with yours, if you don’t give me shit about how dopey I was with mine.”

Seb laughed and shook his head, at himself and his friend. “Deal. God. We’re like a couple of teenagers.”

“Middle schoolers, I’d say. We had girlfriends in high school, remember? It was middle school that we were blushing at parties, too scared to tell the pretty girls that we wanted to make out in the back of a movie theater.”

“That’s what you want to do with Fin?” Seb asked dryly.

“I probably wouldn’t kick her spooky ass out of the back of a movie theater.”

They laughed and chatted, making fun of themselves for the rest of the walk back to Seb’s.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

OVER THE NEXT WEEK, Sebastian watched Via very carefully for signs of trauma. He was deeply grateful that the incident with the man in her office hadn’t been worse. In fact, the bruise was already completely gone from her hand.

He only saw her at softball and school, there being no particular reason to see one another extracurricularly.

November waltzed in in that stiff-wind, fall-downpour, golden-leaves-at-every-turn sort of way. And then dumped eleven inches of snow on the city.

Welcome to winter, mofos.

Just when you thought New York would let you dip a toe into anything. Nope.