CHAPTER NINETEEN #2
Luke cleared his throat and stepped back a little, trying not to think about what it felt like to dig his fist into Sebastian’s curls and fuck his mouth.
After Sebastian stood, Luke greeted him stiffly, then did his best to ignore him without being rude as they stood around talking in a small group.
When it came time to start the crafts, Luke ended up with Sebastian and Harper seated across from him at the rectangular table.
Evie and Maura were there too, and a couple of other kids Luke had never met before.
Connor was at the other table, surrounded by a handful of slightly older kids who wanted to talk hockey. They’d brought some team merch to give out after. Thad had sounded very disappointed they were doing this without a media crew following.
After they sat, volunteers passed out craft supplies and the woman running the program talked through what the craft for today would be. It was a red cardinal made from felt in front of white birch trees.
To start, they got sheets of heavy pale blue paper and stripes of white paper and scissors. Luke helped the kids cut notches in the strips to look like tall, straight birch trees, then shaped the short one into a sideways branch.
“Yours looks funny, Uncle Luke,” Evie said, peering at his paper.
“I’m good at hockey,” he muttered. “Not art.”
Sebastian’s picture looks pretty good though, Luke thought with a frown, stealing a glance at it.
“Why do you call him Uncle Luke?” Harper asked Evie.
“Cause he’s Daddy’s friend. I’ve known him foreverrr,” Evie said, sounding a little smug. “How do you know Uncle Luke?”
“He’s my favorite player.” Harper beamed at him. “He’s the best.”
“He’s mean,” Evie said. Though it didn’t exactly sound like an insult. Luke grinned down and fist-bumped her.
“Yeah. I like that,” Harper said. “He makes the monsters go away.”
“What?” Luke asked with a frown. “What monsters?”
“The bad monsters that come in my room when I sleep.”
“She has nightmares sometimes,” Sebastian said quietly, looking Luke in the eye. “They got really bad after her dad left. But Brie told her to imagine the biggest, baddest tough guy she knew and that he’d kick their butt and make them go away. Apparently, that was you.”
Luke swallowed. Shit. Well, that explained why Harper liked him so much. “I’d definitely kick their, uh, butts,” he said to her. “You just tell me who needs a good punching.”
Harper giggled.
“I had nightmares after Mommy left,” Maura said, biting her lip.
“Your mommy is gone?” Harper asked.
“She’s not gone,” Evie said. “She and Daddy got divorced and now we live in two houses. One with Mommy and one with Daddy and Ducky.”
“Ducky?” Harper asked with a tilt of her head.
“Jesse. Daddy’s boyfriend.”
“Oh!” Harper’s face brightened. “Dancing goalie.”
“Yes, but we call him Ducky,” Evie said.
“Does your daddy have a Ducky?” Maura asked.
Harper shook her head. “No. He’s just gone.”
“Up in heaven gone?”
“No. He just left.” Harper sounded matter-of-fact.
But Luke swallowed thickly because fuck that man. Fuck anyone who would fucking walk out on their sick kid and leave their wife to deal with that shit alone.
He glanced at Sebastian, who nodded like he knew exactly what Luke had been thinking.
“You should get a Ducky,” Maura said. “They’re the best.”
Harper glanced at Sebastian. “Uncle Sebby likes boys. Maybe he’ll get a Ducky.”
Sebastian looked away and cleared his throat. “Uhh. Maybe someday. Uncle Sebby is busy with work right now.”
“Do you play hockey?” Evie asked him.
“I did, but never as well as your dad and, uh, Uncle Luke.”
Holy shit. That was the first time Sebastian had ever complimented his hockey. Luke wasn’t holding his breath that it would happen again but …
“Then what do you do?” Evie sounded like she couldn’t imagine anyone doing anything but playing hockey.
Which made sense to Luke. Why would anyone want to do anything else? He sort of understood why Sebastian had quit but it still seemed crazy to him.
Sebastian smiled. “I own three flower shops.”
“What kind of flowers?” Evie asked. He answered and the O’Shea girls asked him a couple of questions about flowers before Evie changed the subject to her favorite topic. “Do you like horses?”
When the girls were talking about ponies and riding, Luke kinda tuned it out and looked over at Sebastian.
“Harper, she really thinks I’m some kinda hero, huh?” Luke asked gruffly.
Sebastian nodded. “She really does.”
“Shit”—he glanced over at the girls who thankfully weren’t really paying him any attention—“uh, shoot. I don’t feel like I’m a great role model or anything …”
“She’s been through a lot. She really needed a protector at that time. I guess I wasn’t tough enough to qualify.”
Luke huffed out a laugh. “Did you ever fight?”
“Me? No. I was the setup guy. Good for getting the puck and setting up our goal scorers. That was about it.”
Luke nodded. He could see that.
The organizer raised her voice and gave them their next set of instructions. Luke helped the O’Shea girls trace their hands on red felt, then carefully cut out the shape.
“You’re doing it wrong, Maura,” Evie said, frowning at her sister as she carefully placed the red “bird” shape onto the paper with glue. “It’s upside down.”
“Nuh-uh,” Maura said. “Yours is wrong.”
Catherine came over to referee and get the girls back on track. Luke tried not to laugh when Sebastian had to help Harper pick red feathers out of her hair when she accidentally glued them to herself instead of the paper.
After that, they all glued on black and orange felt triangles to make a face and beak and added googly eyes. Luke’s was kinda lopsided and it looked like the bird might have a conkie or something.
Could birds get concussions?
There were white pom-poms and silver snowflakes to add on top of the trees too and by the time Luke was done, his leg fucking ached and he had glue and little bits of feathers stuck to the tips of his fingers.
“Ugh,” he said with a groan, rising to his feet.
He stretched carefully, his shirt riding up, and he caught a little sideways glance and lick of his lips from Sebastian like he was enjoying the view.
“Here,” Catherine said with a smile, holding out a package of wet wipes. “These should get your hands clean.”
“Thanks.” Luke scrubbed at his fingers, wondering where the fuck the glitter had come from and why it didn’t seem to be coming off. He asked Catherine, who shrugged.
“It’s one of life’s mysteries.” She leaned in and spoke in a low voice. “There’s a reason it’s called the herpes of the craft world.”
Luke choked on air. “Mrs. O!”
She gave him a little wink. “Just repeating what I’ve heard.”
Luke shook his head and made a few laps of the room, trying to loosen up his leg.
After the crafts were done, when the merch had been handed out and everyone was just standing around talking in little groups, Sebastian leaned in and squinted at him, reaching for his face.
Luke ducked away.
“Dude. You’ve got a little bit of feathers in your beard,” Sebastian said, sounding annoyed. “I was just trying to help.”
“Oh.” Luke brushed at it. “Did I get it?”
It took a few more tries but when it was all gone, he gruffly said, “Thanks.”
“Sure. I was tempted to just let you walk around like that all day but I thought for Harper’s sake I’d be nice.”
Luke shot him a look but he saw Catherine watching them from across the room as she gathered up art supplies and turned away rather than say what he wanted to.
He wandered over to where Connor was inspecting Evie and Maura’s art. “They both look great, girls,” he told his daughters. “Are we going to hang these on the fridge?”
“So,” Connor said after they’d run off to show their grandmother their finished art, with Harper in tow, “You and Sebastian seem to be getting along better.”
“I guess. I don’t want to punch him in the face at the moment, so that’s something.”
“What were you two talking about earlier, anyway?” Connor asked.
“When?”
“At the table while we were working on crafts.”
“I dunno. Probably something about the kids.”
“You actually looked like you were agreeing about something. I was so surprised I had to do a double take.”
“Oh. Probably just that Harper’s dad is a piece of shit.”
“Yeah, seriously,” Connor muttered with a shake of his head. He leaned in. “I’m glad Ma decided to invite Harper and Sebastian today. It seems like they need more people to help out.”
Luke grunted because he wasn’t so sure about including Sebastian, but he kind of agreed with the rest.
“What can I say?” Catherine said as she walked past them, stopping long enough to pat Connor’s cheek. “I’m a genius. Now, help me figure out how to get them and Brie over for dinner. I want her to get to know some of the current and former SAPs with kids. She desperately needs some parent friends.”