Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance - Sosie Frost Page 0,320

if he wasn’t thrilled with bedtime. I wrestled him into his bedroom and tickled him until he smiled. The space wasn’t quite his yet—nothing fun on the walls and none of his toys around—but it’d get there. First, I had to get him settled in with Mom at their new house, then we’d work on mine.

I tossed Bast on the bed half a dozen times WWE style, then finally peeled off his marinara sauce stained shirt. I handed him his PJs. Sponge Bob. I could work with that.

“Get changed, little man. I’ll be back.”

The kid would get stuck in one pant leg in the time it took me to change, but at least that’d keep him busy. I rooted through my drawers until I found my own Sponge Bob pajama bottoms. I changed into the yellow pants and a t-shirt and returned to get him started on the night-time adventure.

“Brush your teeth?” I asked. Sebastian nodded. I knew better. “Open your mouth.”

He did, but the little liar had oregano in his teeth and spaghetti sauce on his neck. I marched him to the bathroom and handed him a spare toothbrush. He groaned as I tackled him with a warm washcloth.

“Let me break this down for you,” I said. “I’m trying to make a good impression with Elle. How about we make a deal? You brush your teeth, I read you a story, you go to sleep, and I’ll get you a donut in the morning on the way to kindergarten. Deal?”

Sebastian spoke with a mouth full of toothpaste, spraying the foam everywhere. “Can’t I stay up with you?”

That wouldn’t help the date go any smoother. “The sooner you sleep, the faster you get a donut.” I mussed his hair. “Besides, the better behaved and cuter you are, the more Elle will like me.”

His eyebrows furrowed. He pointed at me. “Twenty dollars.”

“You’re as bad as a mafia shake down, little man. How about doing this as a favor to me? You like me, right?”

“No.” He faked an attitude. “I love you, Lach.”

Good thing I never had to face him on the field, or he’d bring me to my knees every damn snap.

“Good. Spit out the toothpaste and I’ll read you a story.”

“Two chapters.” He threatened me with the toothbrush. “And you better make the voices.”

“Two chapters, funny voices, and my signing bonus if you promise to behave.”

“Okay.”

I regretted teaching him to haggle. He held out his hand, coated in peppermint toothpaste, and we shook on it.

He rinsed what teeth hadn’t fallen out of his head yet and hurried to the bed. I shifted his ass over so I could get in too.

“Don’t hog the bed, Bast.”

“Don’t call me Bast.”

“I’ll call you whatever I want, Bast. Scooch over.” I turned on my Kindle, loaded with a hundred or more kid’s books so I didn’t have to fill my house with Spot and Dog or Harry Potter and the Untimely Blue-Balls. “Where’d we leave off?”

He thought hard about it. “Harry was in trouble.”

I shook my head. “Got news for you, little man. Harry’s always in trouble.”

“But he’s big and tough like you. You’d never get caught by Voldemort.”

“True. I worry more about linebackers.”

“Not you!” Sebastian hopped up. “You’re the best football player ever. Everyone should be scared of you.”

“Oh, they are. Definitely.” I settled him back in bed. “Besides, I can’t let you down, can I?”

“You promised you’d be the best.”

“Yeah. That was the plan. Working so well, huh?”

“Yep.”

It was actually working better than he realized. A new contract meant a beautiful and safe home for him, the best schools, and a guaranteed college education. It also gave Mom an early retirement, something she deserved after working multiple jobs and sacrificing everything to get me to where I was. I only wished I could give her more after all the shit I put her through.

I read—two chapters including my squeaky Hermione voice and my spot-on Snape impression. He was out by the end of the second chapter, and I eased from of the bed as carefully as I could.

Elle waited for me in the kitchen. She’d loaded the dishwasher and now stared, sponge in hand, at the drying marinara sauce sprayed on the walls.

“You don’t have to clean up,” I said.

“I needed something to do.” She gave me a sly glance. “Sponge Bob?”

I glanced at my pants. “Sebastian likes to wear the same PJs as me. I’m kinda his idol.”

“You love it.”

“I do.”

“You’re reading him Harry Potter?” she asked.

“He likes it.”

“You started in