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“I know,” came the weakly mumbled response.

“Would it make you feel better if I bought you an ice cream?” Sebastian asked, deciding that they should move on to the bribery phase to avoid wasting anymore time.

A sniffle, and a mumbled, “Maybe,” gave him hope.

“How about a movie? Would you like to go see a movie?” Sebastian asked, mentally calculating how much money he had in his wallet. With his allowance and the money his father owed him for helping him last week, Sebastian probably had enough to take her to a movie, buy her usual snacks, and take her out for a burger afterwards.

“I don’t know,” Mikey mumbled after a slight hesitation.

“We can hit the arcade and maybe go bowling afterwards,” Mathew said, jumping in and earning a killing glare from Sebastian.

Ignoring the warning look on Sebastian’s face, his cousin Elizabeth added, “We can also grab food at the food court.”

Before he got a chance to say anything, Mikey mumbled, “I like the arcade,” sealing his fate. Knowing that there was no way of getting out of this now, Sebastian grabbed Mikey’s bag off the ground and tossed it to Mathew. Biting back a sigh, he reached down and picked Mikey up, threw her over his shoulder and carried her home.

Ten minutes later, when he turned to carry her to her house, she stopped him with a sadly mumbled, “I’m not ready to face them. Not yet.”

That made him pause. “They still don’t know?”

“Do you think I proudly share my shame?” she asked with a shuddering sigh.

Shaking his head, because he honestly didn’t know how to deal with her sometimes, Sebastian turned around and carried her across the street just as his father’s truck pulled into the driveway.

“What’s wrong with Mikey?” his father asked as he climbed out of his truck.

“I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it. Not yet,” she said around a few more adorable sniffles as his father put his bag down.

“Bad day?” his father asked as he reached over and plucked Mikey from Sebastian’s shoulder and threw her over his.

“It really was,” Mikey mumbled in agreement.

Sebastian grabbed his father’s bag and followed them inside just in time to hear his brother and sister asking their mom for a ride to the mall. When his mom spotted Mikey over his father’s shoulder, his father said, “She’s not ready to talk about it yet,” as he carefully placed Mikey down on the kitchen counter where she continued to pout.

With a damning finger pointed at Sebastian, Mikey said, “That boy promised me ice cream.”

Worrying her bottom lip, his mom said, “I don’t think we have any ice cream,” as she went to check the freezer.

“There’s ice cream across the street,” Mikey mumbled sadly.

When Sebastian stood there, glaring at her, she added, “It will make me feel better,” making it impossible for him to say no.

“You really are spoiled,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as he headed for the door only to feel his lips twitch with amusement when she said, “Appropriately adored.”

Hoping that this helped, Sebastian quickly made his way across the street, around the back of the house and went inside where he found Aunt Kasey in the kitchen, cooking. At her questioning look, he said, “Mikey,” putting a world of meaning into that one word.

With an understanding smile, she gestured with a dough-covered spoon toward the first freezer. “There’s homemade chocolate chip cookie dough and peanut butter cup ice cream in the back.”

Mikey’s favorite.

Nodding, Sebastian grabbed a quart of homemade ice cream only to smile when one of the twins threw a ball outside their play area. After placing the ice cream on the kitchen island, he walked over to the play area that Uncle Reese had created for the boys, pausing along the way to give Happy a scratch behind his ears and grabbed the ball off the floor. “Here you go,” Sebastian said, leaning over to hand the ball to Nathan and give him a kiss on his forehead. With a smile, Nathan pulled his arm back and sent it flying again. With a mock glare, Sebastian obediently retrieved the ball and handed it back to him as he glanced at the crib in the corner, noting that Nathan’s baby brothers were fast asleep, along with his twin.

“Are you joining us for dinner tonight?” Aunt Kasey asked as Sebastian headed back over to the kitchen island and grabbed the ice cream.

For the past week, they’d been alternating between his house and this house, working on their essays and filling out their applications with their parents’ help. They still needed to get letters of recommendation, but that shouldn’t be a problem. At least, not for Mikey. He still didn’t know what he was going to do since he doubted that any of his old teachers would jump at the chance to write a letter for him, and he didn’t really think that any of the schools would be impressed with a letter from his mother.

He’d figure it out later, but for right now, he wanted to make this better for Mikey.

“Not tonight, Aunt Kasey. Mathew and Elizabeth are trying to convince my parents to let us go to the mall.”