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She hadn’t touched a baseball all week. Refused to leave her room until Monday and the only reason that she’d left it was because her mother refused to let her stay home from school. Not that Mikey had put up much of a fight, she’d simply nodded when her mother told her that she had to go to school. The whole way there, she’d stared at the ground, never saying a word to him.

It had been the same way all week. He’d waited until everyone was asleep before he snuck into her room. She didn’t say anything when he laid down next to her. She simply turned over and buried her face against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her and held her.

Maybe he should buy her a new bucket of baseballs? Sebastian thought as he grabbed the old throwing target that she’d managed to pulverize and carried it out front for trash pickup. He moved to go put the tools away when he spotted the mail truck at the next house. He walked back over to the mailbox and grabbed the mail for Aunt Kasey and headed back to the house when a thick envelope on top of the pile drew his attention.

Rerum Prep High School.

For a minute, he stood there, staring down at the thick envelope in his hands as he debated doing something incredibly stupid. This was a bad idea, but…

This could make everything better.

After a quick glance at his watch, Sebastian shoved the rest of the mail back in the mailbox and ran across the street to grab his bike. After a quick glance at the kitchen window to make sure that his mom wasn’t looking, he shoved the letter in his pocket and headed to the middle school.

Ten minutes later, he was out of breath and waiting outside the gym for the second lunch bell to ring. Sighing heavily, Sebastian leaned back against the brick wall and waited, tapping his fingertips against the brick wall as he counted down the seconds until the bell rang as he kept an eye out, just in case.

“Finally,” Sebastian said, sighing with relief a few minutes later when the lunch bell sounded. He waited a few more seconds to make sure that everyone was gone before he glanced through the crack and when he didn’t see anyone, he carefully pushed the door open and headed inside.

As soon as he was inside, Sebastian made his way to the boys’ locker room and slipped inside, pausing at the end of the small hallway before he made his way through the locker room and did the same thing at the door that led to the main hallway.

When he heard the sounds of students heading to lunch, Sebastian pushed the door open and headed to the cafeteria, blending in with the rest of the students. As he made his way to the cafeteria, he slowly exhaled, hoping that they were going to be able to give her a full scholarship. If not, then that was fine. It was just the first school that had responded and he was sure that one of the schools was going to offer her a full scholarship after seeing the video he’d made.

God, he hoped so.

He stepped inside the cafeteria and moved to the side, searching for Mikey. When he didn’t see her in line, Sebastian shifted his focus to the back tables and found her sitting by herself, staring down at her lunch and looking so damn miserable that he–

“Don’t move,” came the harsh command as he felt someone grab hold of his arm and before he could move, his arm was pulled behind him as someone used the move to drop him to his knees.

“You’re under arrest for trespassing,” came the announcement that had his stomach dropping as he felt cold metal close around his wrist.

His other arm was yanked behind his back seconds later. Sebastian felt the metal cuff close around his other wrist as he was yanked back and dragged out of the cafeteria. In seconds, he was laying on his stomach and–

“What are you doing? Let him go!” he heard Mikey scream from somewhere behind him.

“It’s fine!” Sebastian yelled, closing his eyes in defeat as he pressed his forehead against the tiled floor. “It’s fine!”

He was going to be sick.

God, he’d just screwed everything up, Sebastian realized as dread pooled in his stomach when his arms were grabbed and he was dragged to his feet. He looked over his shoulder to tell Mikey not to worry only to have the words die in his throat as he watched an officer pull Mikey’s arms behind her back and reach for his handcuffs.

Oh, God…

Chapter 37

“So, I was thinking,” came the softly spoken words that had Zoe smiling as she felt her husband’s arms wrap around her and pull her back against him.

“About?” Zoe asked.

“Everything,” Trevor said, pressing a kiss against the back of her neck before he let her go so that she could turn around and pull him down for a proper kiss.

“What are you doing home so early?” she asked as she brushed her lips against his one last time.

“Would you believe that I missed you?”

“Possibly, but I have a feeling there’s something else that you’re not telling me,” Zoe said with a teasing smile.

“I talked to the coach over at the high school about Mikey playing next year.”

“You did?” Zoe said, blinking in surprise.