“Hey.”

Ben hugged him.

“I’m glad you came tonight,” Sebastian said to Leah. “Ben’s parents are great.”

“Don’t let them catch you calling them my parents,” Ben said. “Mom will hit the roof since she wants you to view them as your parents, too.”

“I’m fresh out of parents,” Leah said. “Can they be my parents?”

Ben’s face brightened. The comment could be taken to mean that she’d like Herschel and CeCe as her mother- and father-in-law. “Done!”

Leah looked pleased and so pretty that Sebastian forced down a swallow.

“We were discussing our summer plans when you walked over,” Leah told him.

“I know about Ben’s family trip to Florida,” Sebastian said, “because I’m joining them for part of that one.”

“We’re the unmarried uncles.” Ben swung his thumb back and forth between them. “Which means we’re the two adults who spend the most time playing with the kids.”

“Playing how?” she asked.

“They like to throw wet sand,” Ben answered, “and build sandcastles on the beach and go boogie boarding. For some reason, they also like us to get down on all fours so they can ride around on our backs and have sword fights with pool noodles.”

“They call that fighting horses.” Sebastian felt obligated to talk Ben up in front of Leah. “Ben’s better at all of it than I am.” He considered himself to be a decent uncle, but objectively, Ben was better. Ben would play those games with the kids for hours. Sebastian’s patience was limited, and he’d rather read a book with a kid than carry one around on all fours. . . .

As if thinking about the kids had called one to him, Hadley Jane, Ben’s three-year-old niece, ran in Sebastian’s direction with her arms lifted up.

He scooped her into the air and positioned her on his hip.

“Sebastian!” she sang, wrapping the hair at the back of his neck around one of her small fingers.

Until he’d had kids in his life to love, until he’d watched a child grow from an infant to a toddler to an elementary schooler, he hadn’t fully grasped what a child’s life was worth. Now he did, because of the Coleman grandkids. Which had made him a better doctor.

Hadley Jane shot Leah a look that said she believed Leah had come to the party as either a kidnapper or a burglar.

“Have you met Hadley Jane?” Sebastian asked Leah.

“I haven’t.”

“This is Miss Montgomery,” Sebastian said to the little girl.

“How do you do,” Hadley Jane said.

Ben chuckled with a fist in front of his mouth. “Who taught you that?”

She shrugged slyly.

“Your brother did,” Sebastian told Ben. Then, to Hadley Jane, “Miss Montgomery was about to tell us about her summer plans.”