Page 59

“Yes,” Braxton said as his gaze found Sebastian, “I did,” before he walked away.

“Thank you,” she said, noting the absent nod of acknowledgement before she turned her attention to Sebastian to find him once again glaring at Braxton.

“I don’t like him,” he said as they moved up in line.

“Really?” she asked, blinking up at him. “I couldn’t tell.”

Grumbling something that sounded suspiciously like, “Brat,” they moved up in line so that he could buy his ticket. Once he had his ticket, they went to the concession stand where he refused to let her pay for anything. Since she knew that he was probably going to devour most of her food anyway, she shrugged it off and followed everyone into the theater even as she couldn’t help but wonder why they’d let Mathew and Joshua pick the movie.

A few minutes later, she was sitting down next to Sebastian and was surprised to find Braxton sitting on her other side. Shifting the large bucket of popcorn on her lap, she moved to get comfortable only to find both boys hogging the armrests. Biting back a sigh, Mikey settled in to watch the movie, deciding that it would probably be for the best if she pretended that they weren’t glaring at each other and focused on what promised to be a very gory movie.

An hour later, she had her arms wrapped around Sebastian’s arm and was pressing her face against his shoulder as she mumbled, “Is it over yet?”

“Do you want me to lie to you?” came the whispered response.

“Always,” Mikey said, nodding only to decide that it somehow amplified the sounds of bodies being torn apart and stopped.

That was quickly followed by her deciding that she’d had enough for one night.

Decision made, she released her hold on Sebastian’s arm, opened her eyes and headed for the exit sign while keeping her eyes firmly locked on the floor below. That was followed by covering her ears with her hands and trying to tell herself that she didn’t just hear what sounded like flesh being devoured.

Before she reached the exit, Sebastian was there, wrapping his hand around her arm and quickly pulling her through the door. Once they were a safe distance away from the sounds that she would really rather not think about, Mikey dropped her hands away, spotted a lovely bench just outside the theater and decided to kill some time there.

Sighing in relief, she dropped down on the bench, pulled her ball out of her sweatshirt and began rolling it between her hands as she sat back and waited for the movie to end. Sebastian didn’t say anything as he sat down, and to be honest, she really didn’t expect him to. He wasn’t big on malls, so she wasn’t exactly surprised when he pulled out his iPad and lost himself in a book.

That was fine with Mikey since that left her free to people-watch, her second favorite pastime. She watched as people came and went, guessed who was out on their first date, winced in sympathy for those who were probably about to get dumped, and found herself relaxing. A half hour later, she watched as their cousins walked out of the theater, all of them glaring at Joshua and Mathew before her attention shifted to a familiar looking girl standing off to the side with a little girl doing her best to drag her toward the arcade games.

“Isn’t that their neighbor?” Mikey managed to get out just as the little girl that really seemed to have it out for Cole, suddenly turned around and–

Yeah, that was definitely their neighbor, Mikey thought, biting back a wince that Cole probably wouldn’t appreciate at the moment. At least, she didn’t think he would, but since he wa

s currently trying to crawl away from the little girl hellbent on beating him with a cutout of Tom Cruise, she decided just to go for it only to cringe in sympathy when the little girl somehow managed to get her hands on a wet floor sign.

Chapter 27

“Please don’t make me hurt you,” Mikey said when Jonathan tried to move his sleeping bag closer to her.

“Why are you fighting our love?” Jonathan asked only to grunt in pain when Sebastian shoved him aside so that he could place the sleeping bag that he’d borrowed from Uncle Jason on the floor next to her.

Once he was settled, Sebastian reached over and helped himself to the pillow that he saw Aunt Haley give her earlier and settled back with a satisfied sigh. That was followed by a pained grunt of his own when the vicious little pain in the ass reached over and snatched it back, causing him to hit his head against the couch.

He considered stealing it back but decided that he’d wait until she was asleep. Wondering how he’d let her talk him into this, Sebastian pulled his iPad out of his sweatshirt pocket as he took in the rest of the living room, absently noting that everyone else had moved their sleeping bags closer to the television. Well, except for Braxton and Cole. Braxton had been given the other couch to sleep on since he was considered a guest and wasn’t used to them yet. And Cole…

Was standing by the large bay window with an icepack pressed against his head, glaring at his neighbor’s house. That probably wasn’t going to end well, Sebastian thought as he reached for his Coke only to end up sighing and plucking it out of Mrs. Blaine’s hands.

With a glare, Sebastian finished off half his Coke and placed it back on the end table with a look of warning that he knew the older woman was going to ignore. When she’d decided to join them for a movie, he had a feeling that it was just an excuse to get her sugar fix. Judging by the way that her eyes narrowed dangerously on him, he knew that he was right.

“Don’t make me tell Aunt Haley, Grandma,” Sebastian said with a look that told her that he would happily tattle his ass off if she pushed him.

With a huff, Mrs. Blaine focused her attention back on the movie. A few minutes later, movement out of the corner of his eye had him sighing and reaching back to steal his Coke away from her. This went on for several minutes until Mikey got up with a sigh and disappeared into the kitchen only to come back a few minutes later with a bottle of water.

Mikey managed to steal his Coke back when the feisty woman grabbed it and handed her the bottle of water. “Here you go, Grandma.”

At Sebastian’s stunned look, Mikey shrugged it off as she said, “I don’t like to be left out,” making Mrs. Blaine’s lips twitch. Sebastian held his hand out for his Coke, but Mikey simply ignored him and took a sip as she stepped over him and settled in comfortably on her sleeping bag. He turned his head to glare at her when he caught the murderous glare Braxton was sending their way.

Biting back a sigh, Sebastian reached over and stole his Coke back and finished it off before shifting his attention back to his iPad. Sometime later, he felt Mikey curl up against him. He swiped to the next page only to end up rolling his eyes when she grumbled in her sleep and snuggled closer. God, she really was a demanding little thing, Sebastian thought as he turned off his iPad and laid down next to her only to sit back up, reach over and swipe her pillow before laying back down and–

Glaring when she stole it back.