Chapter Thirty-One - Sebastian
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Sebastian
EVERYTHING FEELS RIGHT in the world.
Thalia is sitting at my side, trying not to laugh as Owen grows increasingly flustered as he argues with his father about the pass he fumbled in our season opener. Blake is smiling widely, shaking her head at her husband as he gestures wildly with his hands, Owen’s face turning a brighter red.
Thalia hasn’t helped matters by turning Owen’s error into a GIF that she loves to send out of the blue in our group chat. Unfortunately for Owen, the cameras caught Owen letting the football slip right through his fingers, bouncing off his face mask as he stared at his hands in horror. I’ve heard plenty about this small mistake that ended up making no difference in our game, so I can only imagine how much he’s talked Blake’s ear off about it.
He’ll be fine, and eventually his massive ego will recover.
Their father isn’t helping matters as he eggs Owen on, pointing out what a great pass it was, as Mrs. Lewis shakes her head at them .
“Owen, you’re being ridiculous. Everyone makes mistakes—learn from it and move on,” she chides, and I cover up my laugh with a short cough.
He turns to look at her in disbelief. “Who said anything about it being a mistake? Maybe Bash just made a shitty throw.”
Lia is quick to pull her phone out, already having the replay queued up. “Well, according to this, he threw it right at your face. You dropped it.”
I rest my hand on her leg underneath the table, squeezing her knee to silently communicate that we don’t need to play it right now. She catches my meaning, putting the phone down before playing her role as the antagonizing little sister.
“Honey, just let it go. It was three games ago, and no one is talking about it anymore except for you. If you stopped bringing it up, everyone would forget,” Blake says with a gentle smile, and his face softens. Thankfully, she understands him in a way I never thought anyone would.
“How’s work going, Blake? Any big projects coming up?” Mr. Lewis asks, taking the opportunity to change the conversation.
Thalia nods excitedly, her leg bouncing underneath my touch. “I swear I never see her anymore unless it’s a home game.”
“You’re also gone every other day taking day trips for that magazine, so that’s another reason why you haven’t seen me.” Blake snorts playfully. “I’m working with an orthopedic surgeon to design a new model for artificial hip replacements that will hopefully have a longer life span to reduce the need for more surgeries,” she explains .
Owen immediately picks up where she left off, talking animatedly about the difference between titanium and ceramic. This is way over my head considering my degree focused on the parts of the brain instead of the parts of the body. Sometimes I forget he was also an engineering major in college.
Lia leans into me, dropping her voice to a whisper. “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?”
“Hip replacements?” I whisper hesitantly, and Thalia rolls her eyes.
“I knew that much, but I thought maybe you knew more than I did.”
“Sorry, we’re stuck in the same boat of cluelessness. When do you fly out tomorrow?” I ask, changing the topic abruptly. I love that she’s freelancing again, but I’m a little disappointed she’s leaving for a few days this time, as opposed to the day trips Lia’s been taking.
“Late evening instead of midday; I switched to a later flight because Chris asked if I would take Henry in the morning. You know I can’t say no to him, especially not when it means getting to spend time with my godson.”
She’s had Henry for a few hours every week since Chris has had so many meetings with his lawyer, and I love watching the two of them interact. She’s so good with him, and every time I see them together, it has my brain impulsively jumping ten steps forward until I rein it back to reality.
“What does Chris have going on?” Last time I spoke to him a few days ago, he hadn’t mentioned anything new coming up.
Thalia hesitates, ducking her head, immediately raising a flag in my head. “He asked me not to say anything. ”
“Is he okay?” I ask, watching her features carefully.
“ Bash ,” she says my name quietly, before sighing. “Allie flew into town tonight, and he’s meeting with her in the morning.”
“What about Chris?” Owen asks, catching part of our conversation. I’ve been so engrossed in our conversation that I hadn’t realized the discussion about hip replacements had ended. Thalia’s face pales because I gather that if Chris asked her not to tell me, then it’s definitely not meant to be a conversation at the dinner table.
“Nothing,” Thalia says, and Owen’s eyes narrow suspiciously, but he doesn’t press her further.
“How’s Henry handling everything?” Blake asks, and she shrugs, taking a drink of her water.
“He’s doing good. He hasn’t asked for Allie, but I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.”
“That poor child,” Mrs. Lewis says sympathetically.
From what I’ve seen, Henry seems to be a normal kid, but I really only see him when he’s with Thalia. Henry adores her, so he’s happy 99 percent of the time, and not to toot my own horn, but he really seems to like me too.
Mr. Lewis nods in agreement, his gaze flickering to me. “At least you and Kiera weren’t already married when you found out about her pregnancy. It would have been a completely different situation, son.”
That thought has crossed my mind more than a few times since finding out the truth, but I try not to linger on it. There’s nothing I can do to change anything, so moving forward is the only path.
To my surprise, Owen is the one who interjects in my defense. “ Dad ,” Owen scolds, but I quickly shake my head .
“He’s right, Owen. It would have been a lot more complicated—actually, it’s still fairly complicated, but things could always be worse,” I agree as Thalia squeezes my hand reassuringly. I’m lucky to have her in my life.
“Have you found a new place to live yet?” Mrs. Lewis asks, redirecting the conversation into a slightly less awkward one. I’d prefer talking about where I’m going to live as opposed to how I almost married the wrong woman.
“My realtor and I found a house in a neighborhood near the stadium. It has a decent sized backyard, which will be nice for Zeus, but the rest of it is nice enough,” I say, causing Thalia to scoff.
“ Men . Mom, the house is beautiful: marble countertops, high ceilings, and don’t even get me started on all the natural lighting from the windows. Bash only picked it because it’s close to the stadium, and is in a gated community.”
“Well, the deal on the house in our neighborhood was almost closed when you backed out. You could have lived there until you found something different,” Blake adds from across the table, and I resist the urge to make a face. I had zero interest in that house beyond making the wrong woman happy.
“I hated the house. I only put an offer in on it because Kiera loved it.”
“All I’m trying to say is it would be better than the hotel room you’ve been staying in,” she continues as Thalia tries to hide her laughter by taking a sip of water. I’ve definitely not been staying in the hotel room I’m paying for.
I’m trying to maintain some boundaries, but realistically, I’m staying at Thalia’s every night. It’s not that I’m afraid to be alone. I’ve spent plenty of time alone and plenty of time feeling alone while I was with Kiera.
I am afraid to be without Thalia. Ever since her nightmare after the incident at the bar, I’ve been trying to keep a closer eye on her. She’s good at putting up a front, and there’s been a lot of changes recently.
I love being the one who gets to fall asleep holding her, and how we can resume our secret conversations in the dark when her insomnia keeps her awake, or vice versa. I even like having Zeus sleep with us, despite telling her it drives me nuts.
“Lia, why don’t you bring Henry to the stadium tomorrow? He can sit in on a practice, and decide if he still wants to be a football player,” I suggest, rapidly changing the subject. Owen catches my drift, probably not wanting to discuss my current living arrangements any more than I do.
“I think that’s a great idea. What do you think, Thalia?”
She smiles brightly at the idea, and I’m momentarily stunned by how beautiful and happy Thalia looks. Her green eyes are bright as she makes eye contact with me, and my heart races. “I think that sounds perfect.”
~
“Do you have to go?” I grumble, watching her pack more clothes into her duffle bag.
“I do.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“Really? I had no idea. Grow a pair, Sebastian, and deal with it. I’ll be back in a few days.” She rolls her eyes, having been in a mood ever since she dropped off Henry back at Chris’s.
“I know that, but am I not allowed to miss you? ”
“I’m not gone yet, so there’s nothing to miss. Besides, you spent years with another woman, so I think a few days by yourself won’t be a problem,” she teases. I know she didn’t mean it that way, but I also don’t find it amusing to joke about Kiera.
I’m not sure what’s going on right now, but like it or not, we’re going to talk about it now before she’s gone. It took too damn long for things to be right in my life to let shit fester. “Okay, what happened with Chris when you dropped Henry off?”
She glances up at me, her wry smile gone. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that you’ve been in a mood since you got back from his place. So what happened, because something obviously did?”
Thalia shakes her head, her hands faltering as she refolds a shirt. “I’m not in a mood. If you want me in one, then I can think of some way you’ve pissed me off recently.”
Bullshit. I’m not stupid.
“Lia, come on.”
“Fine. You want to know what’s bothering me? Chris could lose Henry, and it’d be my fault,” Thalia snaps, looking up at me to reveal the agony she poorly attempted to hide.
“How would it be your fault?” What the hell is going on?
She throws her hair into a bun that immediately starts falling out, much to her frustration as she exhales sharply. “Allie is upset that Chris is allowing Henry to be around us. She doesn’t think you’re a good influence on him because of the arrest, or detainment, or whatever the fuck you want to call it. Throw that in with everything happening in the press with Kiera, and she’s threatening to use it against Chris in court.”
If I heard her correctly, the problem isn’t Thalia. It’s Henry being around me.
“Why is Allie doing this?” I ask carefully, trying not to say the wrong thing and her face falls.
“Because she can! Chris said it’s best if I don’t see him until things calm down. I love the time I spend with that little boy and I don’t want things to change because there’s been enough recently that I’d like things to just fucking calm down for the moment.”
“Because change freaks you out. You don’t do well with it, but what’s happening with their marriage isn’t your fault, Thalia. You love Henry. Chris knows that. I think he’s just trying to keep his kid.”
“Change freaks me out?” she asks, her voice deathly calm. I swear, the temperature in the room drops a couple of degrees with the coldness she’s now directing toward me.
Yeah, that was definitely the wrong thing to say. “Fuck, I only meant that—”
“I think I know exactly what you meant, Sebastian . Change doesn’t freak me out, but being blindsided sure as hell does.”
Oh god, I do not want to rehash this right now. Every alarm in my head is going off that this room has turned into a danger zone, and I’m not sure how to backtrack the conversation. I wasn’t even talking about that proposal years ago, which is what I can only assume she’s referring to.
“No, what I meant was up until recently I was engaged to someone else while I was trying to suppress my feelings for you, and you were dating another guy. Now Chris has moved back, and is asking you to not see Henry. I can’t imagine how hard that was to hear.” Her mouth flattens, and I drag a hand through my hair. “Love, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said change freaks you out. I’m not sure what the right thing is to say right now.”
I take it back, I am stupid.
“I hear you loud and clear, Sebastian. I think it’s best if you go; I want to be alone right now.” Thalia crosses her arms over her chest, and I regret opening my mouth in the first place.
I push myself up off the bed, doing my best to keep calm. “Fine. Have a nice trip.”
It’s only on the drive back to my hotel that I realize how much I’ve fucked up. Chris told Thalia that Henry couldn’t be around me, and if that turned into her not being able to be around him, that’s because she wouldn’t stay away from me while she had him. My fuckup isn’t just with Thalia, but also with Henry. The kid’s really grown on me, and I know how much Thalia loves him. I didn’t think that my actions affected anyone other than myself and the team, but they do. Chris can’t lose Henry because of me and Thalia needs stability. She tried to tell me that, and all I said was how change freaks her out.
I’m fucking stupid.
I pull my phone out, and press a number I was given for an entirely different reason. “Hey. It’s Sebastian Walker. I need your help with something.”