Sebastian closed the door behind them while Mikey grumbled to herself as she walked around the dinner table, pausing to pet his mother’s dogs and completely oblivious to the amused looks that his family was sending her before she dropped down in the seat next to Jonathan, grabbed a paper plate and helped herself to a slice of cheese pizza from one of the many pizza boxes piled high on the large kitchen table.
“Hey, sweetie, how was your day?” his mother asked him, smiling warmly as she finished pulling what he thought might be a pan of baked spaghetti with extra tomato sauce out of the oven before she walked over and pulled him down for a hug only to frown. “It’s freezing outside. Where’s your sweatshirt?”
“Mikey stole it,” Sebastian said, shrugging it off as he leaned down and kissed her cheek.
“I needed to establish dominance,” Mikey said, nodding solemnly and making his father’s lips twitch as Sebastian walked around the table andī
“Hey!” Mathew snapped with a murderous glare as he found himself unceremoniously shoved off his chair so that Sebastian could sit across from Mikey, who he was guessing wasn’t talking to him at this point. “You could have just asked, jerk.”
“I could have,” Sebastian admitted as he reached over and plucked the slice of pizza that looked delicious out of Mikey’s hands before she could take another bite.
Mumbling to herself, something that he noticed that she did a lot when she was cranky, she grabbed another slice of pizza that he would probably steal as Mathew sat down next to him with a sigh and shot Jessica, who was too busy trying to finish her homework while she ate to really care what was going on, a pathetic pout that she easily ignored.
“What happened to your hand?” Jonathan asked, making Sebastian bite back a curse.
“Oh, my god! Sweetie, what happened?” his mother asked, worrying her bottom lip as she took in the bandage that Mikey wrapped around his hand.
Before he got a chance to answer, Mikey said, “He talked back,” only to nod to herself as she added, “He’ll learn.”
Chuckling, his father reached over and carefully took Sebastian’s bandaged hand into his to get a better look as he said, “On the off-chance that Mikey didn’t beat you, you want to tell me what happened?”
With a sad shake of her head, Mikey asked, “My beatings aren’t enough for you, Uncle Trevor?”
“Of course, they are,” his father drawled, shooting Mikey a wink as he carefully pulled the bandage up to get a better look at the cut on Sebastian’s hand.
“Then why are you questioning my methods?” Mikey asked, doing her best to distract his father, which Sebastian appreciated since it actually worked sometimes.
“You really are a brutal little thing, aren’t you?” his father asked.
Nodding, she reached over and stole Jonathan’s glass of chocolate milk and finished it off all while maintaining eye contact with his father. “I really am.”
“And you’re really bad at changing the subject,” his father said with a teasing smile as he returned his attention to Sebastian’s hand.
“Not usually,” Mikey murmured, looking thoughtful as his father took another look at his hand.
“You want to tell me what really happened?” his father asked with a sympathetic wince.
Shrugging, Sebastian pulled his hand free. “I had to fix something for Aunt Haley.”
“And you forgot to wear gloves?” his father asked, sending him a questioning look as he sat back in his chair.
“They got in the way,” Sebastian said, noting the questioning look Jonathan was sending him.
“Next time wear them,” his father said with a pointed look at his hand.
Nodding, Sebastian reached over to grab another slice of pizza when he caught the way that Jonathan was staring at Mikey. Frowning, his gaze flickered to Mikey to find her staring right back at his brother. “Can I help you with something, pookie?” she asked, somehow managing to look bored.
“Why are you here?” his brother asked, looking confused.
Blinking, Mikey asked, “Why wouldn’t I be here?”
Instead of answering her, Jonathan followed that up with, “What is your mom making for dinner tonight?”
“Meatloaf and mashed potatoes with buttermilk biscuits.”
“And…”
“And chocolate fudge cake for dessert?” Mikey barely had a chance to finish when Jonathan nodded once, stood up and headed toward the door.
“But I made baked macaroni and cheese,” his mother said, sighing with disappointment as her shoulders slumped while the rest of them slowly turned their attention to the pan on the stove and swallowed hard as they stared helplessly at the red gooey mess that they were apparently expected to eat.
He loved his mother.
He did.
More than anything in this world, but the woman couldn’t cook. What she could do was create disturbing messes that had been known to send people to the hospital, praying for death. He still didn’t know how she managed to do it, and to be honest, he probably didn’t want to know.
She was determined to learn how to cook and honestly, none of them had the heart to tell her that they were terrified of her cooking. She knew how much they loved food and she wanted to be able to do this for them, so they pretended that they weren’t terrified every time she so much as glanced toward the kitchen. They also took turns cooking, came up with excuses to keep her out of the kitchen, and those times that she actually managed to get near the stove, they’d come up with a system that allowed them to safely discard her cooking without her ever finding out. But sometimes, now being one of those times, they were taken by surprise and left with no other choice but to panic.
He turned his head to see how his father was going to get them out of this when Mikey asked, “On a completely different subject, umm, do you think an overnight trip to the hospital would be enough to buy me a few more days on a book report?”
Before anyone could answer, Mikey mumbled, “Probably,” to herself as she released a shaky breath, grabbed her plate and headed toward the stove with a weakly mumbled, “Totally worth it.”
It took Sebastian a minute to realize what she was doing, and when he did…
“Wait! No, this is my only chance to play baseball!” Mikey gasped, struggling to reach the macaroni and cheese that wouldn’t end well as his father struggled to pull her back while Sebastian tried to pry the spoon out of her hand before she did something that she would regret.
As they wrestled Mikey to the ground, doing their best to avoid one of the elbows that she was throwing in an attempt to dislodge them, Sebastian turned his head to find his mother watching them with a questioning look on her face and before she could ask a question that none of them really wanted to answer, he said, “She’s watching her carbs,” only to grunt when the ungrateful brat took advantage and caught him in the gut with an elbow.
That led to him calling her a filthy Mudblood and her trying to ensure that he never had children.
Chapter 7
“I don’t understand this,” Mikey said only to groan when the book that she was being forced to read was suddenly plucked from her hands.
“I thought you went home an hour ago,” Jonathan said absently as he dropped down on the end of Sebastian’s bed where she was currently lounging along with the boy that she was no longer speaking with.