“We’re coming with you,” Seb told her.

“What?” She knelt next to Matty and Crabby.

“We’re gonna walk you home,” Matty replied, already well aware of the drill. Seb felt a swell of pride in his son. Look at him, being all gentlemanly.

“You guys don’t have to walk me home. It’s only 6:00 and a ten-minute walk, if that.”

“Violetta, don’t argue. Dorners walk people home.”

“He’s right,” Matty said. “We even walk Mary home. And she lives really far away. And Daddy doesn’t even kiss her.”

Via laughed and threw her hands up. “If you say so,” she repeated again, but Seb didn’t miss the joy in her eye.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

IT WAS STRANGE that Matty and Seb were the only people who existed anymore. She couldn’t quite explain it. She went to work, joked with Sadie, kept up on appointments and ate dinner with Fin. But then she’d see Matty and/or Seb, and every image got sharper, brighter, that much more real.

Which was why Via was at loose ends when the boys went to White Plains for Thanksgiving break. The Department of Education had made the Monday and Tuesday of the holiday week professional development days. So, with the free Wednesday off as well, the kids had a full week off starting the Friday before Thanksgiving.

Via skipped that happy hour—gratefully, considering she still wasn’t quite ready to face all the questions about her relationship with Seb—and headed straight home with Matty and Seb. She wasn’t trying to be nosy, but her organized little heart nearly seized up when she saw the manner in which Seb and Matty were packing for their trip.

Perhaps that’s how she wound up on Matty’s floor, teaching him how to lay out outfits for the week. Next on the agenda was how to properly fold a T-shirt. But when he asked her how to choose which books to pack? She threw up her hands.

“That’s like trying to tell an artist which colors to paint with,” she told him.

Seb laughed from the door and hauled her to her feet. “You’ve helped my kid enough. Now it’s time to help me.”

Via followed him back to his bedroom, Crabby winding through her feet and hopping up on Sebastian’s bed like he owned the place.

She paused at his doorway, like she still wasn’t sure if she was invited inside. Seb came to stand right behind her, one hand up on the door frame next to her head. He brushed the hair from her neck and placed a kiss, a perfect kiss, on the back of her neck.

Via leaned backward an inch and let her eyes wander around his room. The walls were a dark, masculine blue that was still a little romantic somehow. He had a big wooden dresser on one side, a floor-length mirror on the open back of a closet door, and she could see an en suite bathroom, mostly white, on her right. There were two big windows over top of the bed.