Just a Heartbeat Away

by Cara Bastone

  “Bye.” She waved over at Christian.

  “Hold up a minute,” he called, mixing a drink and flashing her the one-minute symbol.

  Via looked over her shoulder, saw Grace talking with Shelly still and figured she had a minute to spare.

  A second later, Christian was in front of her, wiping his hands on his bar towel and leaning toward her. His salt-and-pepper fade was crisp, his shirt ironed and his tattoos tantalizing. He really was handsome. But Via felt no flutters. No swelling of feeling. Not a single tingle.

  “So, what’s the deal, Via? Are you single or what? You’re breaking my heart over here.”

  Her eyes widened at his sudden honesty. She’d figured he was the kind of guy who flirted with everyone. He was a bartender; there were big tips in it for him after all.

  “Oh, ah.” She stumbled over her words before she looked back up at this man. She didn’t really know him, and he didn’t really know her. What did she have to lose here? Without even really consciously deciding, the words were tumbling out of her mouth. “I’m single. But I’m not free. I’m really, really into someone.”

  Christian hung his head in mock defeat. He looked back up at her. “That old guy who bought you a beer? Really?”

  Via couldn’t help but laugh. “He called you old, too.”

  Christian snorted. “Figures. He’s as threatened by me as I am by him.”

  She smiled at his candor.

  Christian peered at her from squinted eyes. “I’d tell you he’s too old for you, but I think I’d be cutting off my nose to spite my face.”

  Via laughed again. “Have a good night, Christian.”

  “Yeah.” He sighed. “You, too. See you next Friday.” He took a step away from the bar and then leaned forward again, pointing at her. “You’re paying for your beer next time.”

  Still laughing, she nodded her head. “Fair enough.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  SEBASTIAN FELT LIMBER, energized and off-kilter as hell as he, Matty and Crabby pulled up to the softball field the next day. This was their last game of the season. He was wildly disappointed that he wasn’t going to have an excuse anymore to see Via dancing around the bases, diving for line drives and knocking the ball back to Queens.

  He’d been supercharged when he’d gotten home from the bar last night. Matty had subconsciously picked up on his dad’s energy and had been a little hellion for an extra hour past his bedtime. But Seb hadn’t cared.

  He’d just blatantly flirted with Via DeRosa. And she’d flirted back.

  I’m attracted to older men, she’d said.

  There weren’t a ton of other ways to interpret that statement.

  Seb let out a long, slow breath and hauled Matty out of the car and hooked Crabby up to a leash.

  He knew that if he looked for an issue to worry over right now, he’d find it. Their age difference was ridiculous; she was too young for a real commitment. And he had so much baggage, a real commitment was pretty much the only thing he was looking for.

  But it wasn’t those thoughts that swirled in his head as he led kid and dog to the bleachers. No. It was that sly smile she’d given him across the table when they’d been texting. It was the V of exposed, golden skin above her trim little blouse. It was the way she’d so naturally leaned into him. He’d been praying last night that she didn’t look down at his lap. He was pretty sure her eyes would have bugged out of her head had she known he’d popped wood just from watching her drag a finger through the condensation on her beer glass.

  Seb wasn’t ashamed. He was heated and loose; he felt like he could play four games of softball back-to-back. Something pumped through his veins, hard and fast, and Seb liked it.

  Seb spotted Via in the dugout, stretching and chatting with Sadie, and it was enough just to see her, for the time being. She was here. He was about to go over there. He felt like there was a wolf in his chest, sniffing the air for a mate.

  He finally understood why they howled at the moon.

  Because flirting was so fucking fun.

  Seb parked Matty on the second row of the bleachers and tied Crabby’s leash there as well. He leaned forward and fussed with his son’s new winter coat. It wasn’t that cold out today, but he was gonna be sitting still for a while. He pulled the hood up around Matty’s ears and zipped it to his chin.

  “Too tight, Dad,” Matty groused and zipped it back down.

  “You’re gonna get cold.”

  “You made me wear two pairs of pants! I’m so hot I’m gonna puke.” Matty was one step away from a full-on pout-fest, and Seb knew when to fold ’em.

  “You’re right. Are you gonna read or do your puzzle?”

  “Read. I like the book.”

  “Cool,” Seb said, inching away from his son like he was a wild animal he didn’t want to spook. “Snacks are in the bag. You can have whatever you want. And we’re gonna grab pizza afterward with the team. Just so you know.”

  “Why?” Matty looked up from digging through the bag for the snacks and the book.

  “Because it’s the last game of the season.”

  Matty shrugged. “Okay. Sounds boring, but I like pizza.”

  Seb leaned forward quick and kissed his son on the top of the head. No muss, no fuss. He was growing up and didn’t want as much PDA from his dad anymore. But Matty was already opening his book and blocking out the world.

  “Matty.”

  He looked up.

  “It’s cool that you’re reading.”

  Matty nodded. “I know.” He held up his fist. “Knuckles, Daddy.”

  Seb knocked fists with Matty and jogged over to the dugout and grinned down at Sadie and Via, who were sitting down, stretching their hamstrings. He held a hand out to both of them and hauled them upright. He couldn’t help but trace a thumb over the back of Via’s hand.

  “Hi.”

  “’Sup,” Sadie said back, stretching her arms over her head.

  “Hi,” Via said, almost shyly, her eyes just barely meeting his.

  “Holy shit!” Sadie whispered in excitement, squinting over toward the stands. “Is Matty reading on his own, for pleasure?”

  “Yes,” Sebastian said in bemused delight. “I mean, I always keep books on his bookshelf and today, for some reason, he just picked one off the shelf and started reading it after breakfast. He asked if he could bring it along. I swear, my eyes must have exploded like when Bugs Bunny sees a pretty girl.”

  “Well, as his former first-grade teacher, please don’t mind if I take a little bow.” She did just that, making Seb and Via grin.

  “It’s very cool,” Via agreed. “It shows a ton of different skills all at once, to sit by himself and read in a sustained fashion.”

  “Right?” Sadie agreed. “Reading comprehension, focused attention, willingness to—”

  “You two are such teachers,” Seb cut in, a smile on his face. “My reaction was like, cool, you mean I don’t have to pack toys?”

  “Well,” Via said as Sadie started calling the team together for her traditional pregame pep talk. “It’s a teacher victory for sure, but it’s definitely a dad victory, too.”

  She grinned up at him and knocked her shoulder against his. When she straightened, facing Sadie, Seb closed the distance between them, just a touch. He stood with his shoulder slanted just behind hers. The sleeve of his shirt brushing over her hair.

  She reached back to put her hair in a bun, and her elbow knocked him gently. He could smell that rosemary scent of hers and realized it was probably her shampoo. He wanted to bury his face in her hair. But he settled for poking lightly at her bun. She looked back over her shoulder at him, one eyebrow raised and a flush in her cheeks.

  He shrugged, offering no explanation for poking at her. He knew it made him seem like an elementary schooler, poking the girl he had a crush on. But he d
idn’t care. She was cute and so was her bun. And he couldn’t drag her down in the dugout and press his face into that hair like he wanted to, so he settled for a bun poke. He did it again, and this time she knocked his side with her elbow.

  He nudged her back.

  She made a little tsking sound and pretended to listen to Sadie talking as she nudged him a little harder, bumping him to one side with her shoulder.

  Seb was glad they were standing in the back of the crowd because this was ridiculous, and probably would have been mortifying if anyone was looking.

  Via gave him one last little shove that had enough of her soft hip involved to have Seb clearing his throat, and then she was jogging out to shortstop, screwing her hat on her head.

  * * *

  THEY WON THE game and went for pizza. Sebastian felt like he could lift a bus as he tied up Crabby to a bike rack outside the pizzeria. He pulled a rawhide from his back pocket and had the pup’s tail thumping a mile a minute.

  When he ducked back inside, it was to see Matty in Via’s arms. She’d picked him up to choose which type of pizza he wanted from the glass case and apparently it was very serious business because they were speaking to each other very solemnly.

  Honestly, Matty wasn’t all that much smaller than Via. He was a big kid and she was a small lady, but her strong arms held him with no trouble. Matty easily hitched his legs around her waist and his arm over her shoulders.

  Seb walked toward them, like he was in a dream. But a supercharged high-def one. He felt like he was outlined in bright color, high speed and flinging through the air. He felt like there should be a beam of light coming out of his chest right now, spotlighting his son in Via’s arms. Because there were so many reasons to slow down where she was concerned. But then...this. His gigantic son in her tiny arms. Come on. If there’d been bowling pins in his way as he crossed the restaurant toward them, he would have scattered them to the winds.

  “You smell good,” Matty was telling Via as Seb stepped up to them. He was lifting up her crystal necklace, clear pink today, and inspecting it as he spoke.

  “Considering I just played a full game of softball, I’d say that would be very surprising.”

  Seb made eye contact with Via. He pointedly leaned forward and sniffed her. “Nope, he’s right. You smell very, very good.”

  “I smell sweaty,” she corrected, her cheeks flushing.

  “No, you smell like muffins. And a little sweaty,” Matty corrected.

  “Plus, girl sweat smells good,” Seb chimed in.

  Via blushed even further, but to Seb’s ultimate delight, she leaned forward into his space and sniffed. “Apparently, so does boy sweat.”

  “Are you guys flirting?” Matty asked out of the blue, still gently tracking the crystal on her necklace from one end of the chain to the next.

  Seb’s heart stuttered to a screeching halt. He thought about the fairly blatant tightrope that he and Via had started walking. Matty had just twanged the hell out of it. And now he and Via were going to fall off of that tightrope, one side or the other. He just hoped they ended up on the same side.

  “Subtlety is a luxury only the childless enjoy,” he said to Via, making her crack a smile even through the shocked nerves that had bloomed over her face.

  Seb turned to his son. “What do you know about flirting?”

  Matty shrugged, his eyes still on Via’s necklace, as if he were a little embarrassed about the topic. Well, that made three. “Just that Brian Addison was teasing me and Joy for playing together and said that we must be flirting because I’m a boy and she’s a girl and we were teasing each other. But I don’t think we were flirting.”

  “Brian Addison sounds like a twerp,” Seb replied, reaching out for his son. Matty went from her arms to Seb’s without a peep. “Or he probably has a crush on Joy. Or on you,” he added, realizing that he didn’t want to instill something ignorant in his son.

  Matty shrugged. “I don’t get it.”

  Seb nodded. “Trust me, it doesn’t get less confusing. But we can talk about it more at home if you want.” And then he looked up at Via, straight into those brown eyes of hers that made him want to press his nose to hers. “But just to be clear, yes, we were flirting.”

  She sucked in a little breath, and Seb couldn’t tell if she was thrilled or put off by his forwardness.

  “Why?” Matty asked.

  Again, Seb went with the truth. No point in lying and confusing everyone. “Because she’s fun to flirt with. And sometimes it just happens. Because she’s so pretty.”

  Her hand went nervously to her necklace and she toyed with it, just like Matty had. The gesture snapped a twig somewhere inside Seb. There was no more sneaking up on this feeling. It was there and in his face and in hers. Whatever this feeling was, it had jumped the fence. It was out now, in between them, living and breathing.

  Now they had to decide if they were going to walk toward it together or turn tail and run.

  “Yeah,” Matty agreed. “Plus, she smells like sweaty muffins.”

  Seb and Via both barked out surprised, delighted laughter, tinged with equal parts hysteria and relief. Matty had tossed them in the soup, but also, it kind of seemed like they’d both been too scared to jump in the first place.

  * * *

  THAT WEEK’S STAFF meeting was just as charged as softball practice had been. She’d sat with her shoulder pressing against his damn near the whole time. Her legs looked slim and long in her work-fancy trousers that ended in heels of some kind or the other. And, to Seb’s surprise, she wore a little gold ring on her left thumb.

  He’d reached out and touched it halfway through the meeting. The metal was warm and almost soft under his finger. She’d glanced up at him, her bottom lip between her teeth.

  “Frosting,” he’d whispered.

  She’d grinned at him in such a way that he’d practically wobbled out of the meeting half an hour later. He didn’t get to see her much that week at all, but he ducked his head into her office right after work on Friday afternoon. She looked up from where she was packing files into her messenger bag beside her desk.

  “Hey!” she squeaked, and then cleared her throat. “Wow. My voice. Sorry for the Minnie Mouse impression.”

  “Quite all right.” He tucked his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t do anything dumb, like stroke those sharp little cheekbones in her place of work. “I just wanted to say bye.”

  “You’re not coming to happy hour?” she asked, sounding disappointed enough that Seb had to keep from puffing out his chest.

  “Nah, I don’t wanna stand Matty up two Fridays in a row.”

  “Understandable. You two have a hot date?”

  “Yup. Microwave hotdogs and the Nets on TV.”

  “Sounds like heaven.”

  “You like the Nets?”

  She looked at him like he was an idiot for even asking and he had to forcibly fight the urge to propose to her right then and there.

  “So,” she started, rocking back on her heels.

  She was nervous and he found it impossibly cute. Like so cute he took a little memory snapshot of her standing there, trying to work up the courage to ask what he thought she was going to ask. He decided to help her out.

  “So, I’ll see you at the wedding tomorrow?”

  “Yes,” she answered resolutely. “I can’t wait.”

  She held his eyes, and Seb could have sworn they were making some sort of promise to one another.

  He’d deeply enjoyed the time since he’d found out she was single. Flirting with reckless abandon, nurturing silly little daydreams about her, allowing himself just the barest, lightest of tastes of what it might be like to be her man. But he also knew it wasn’t sustainable. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he’d known that the wedding would be punctuation of some sort, for this stage of their game.

&nb
sp; And from the nervous, giddy, wanna-kiss expression on her face, she knew it, too.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “HO-LY MOTHER MARY,” Cat groaned from beside Via.

  Grace was the next one to chime in. “Good GAWD, that man can wear the hell out of a suit.”

  A midsize knot of PS 128 faculty huddled together outside the entrance to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Sadie’s wedding ceremony was going to take place in one of the gardens there, and then the reception would be in their beautiful, glassed-in event space.

  Via had never gone to a wedding before, but as she stood in between Shelly and Cat, already laughing, she found she was very excited to go wherever the night took her. Very excited indeed. It was an unseasonably warm mid-November day; the air had a slight bite to it that was offset by bright sun. The yellow leaves that still clung to the trees had the same effect on the blue sky as makeup on an eye. Everyone lifted their faces to the perfumed fall breeze.

  Via turned to see what Cat and Grace were commenting on, and every single thought in her head was wiped clean.

  As long as Violetta DeRosa lived—be it another hundred years—she would never forget the way Sebastian Dorner looked crossing Flatbush Avenue in a charcoal gray tailored suit. He waved a car across in front of him and strolled over toward the group of educators. God, she’d always had a thing for mirrored aviators. And week-old haircuts. And was that...? Yes, he was wearing a vest underneath the coat. She’d always had a thing for vests. And midnight blue ties and crisp white shirts. And damn. She couldn’t breathe.

  He looked so unbelievably hot walking up to the group, sliding his sunglasses into the pocket of his coat, smiling around at everyone, that Via almost missed the way his eyes doubled back, immediately, to her. Almost.

  Via knew her dress was a stunner. Fin had bought it for her at a sample sale a year ago but she’d never had a real reason to wear it. The jade green silk fit her like a glove from breast to knee and was seamless, wrinkle-less perfection. The neckline scooped modestly over her breasts and was held up by two gaspingly thin straps that fell far down her back, showing her almost to the base of her spine. The color did things for her eyes, she could admit.