Belief in Miracles (completed)

Chapter 7: Summer

7

Summer

"So... is your friend coming or not?"

I sighed at my niece's third question in the last twenty minutes. "Yes. He would have told me if he wasn't."

Chelsea rolled her eyes as she looked up from her phone. "And only thirty minutes late. Sounds like an upstanding guy."

I fixed her with a frown from where I sat on the couch diagonal to her recliner. "I'm sure he just lost track of time. I told you he was sick."

She shrugged. "Well, we're not gonna have time to eat if we gotta go all the way to Hartford."

Still frowning at her, I stood. "You're not even supposed to be here. This was my date, remember? So, don't be concerning yourself with what we will or won't have time for."

Again, she shrugged. "Blame my Dad. Or, if you wanna go on your date without me, I'll cover for you, long as you leave me with pizza money and access to HBO so I can watch Game of Thrones."

My mouth parted in horror as I stared at her. "Are you kidding me?"

"Uh, no, actually, I'm not."

"Your Dad would kill me."

"For which part? Leaving me alone or letting me watch HBO?"

I ran a hand through my hair. "I don't know. Both!"

"Yeah well, what he don't know won't hurt him. Or us."

I scoffed and shook my head. "You are way too young to be scheming like this."

She huffed and returned to her phone. "Well, I'm not the one with the late boyfriend who didn't even call."

"He's not my boyfriend."

She huffed again. "Whatever you say. You wouldn't be worried about him if he wasn't your boyfriend."

"He's my friend."

"Whatever you say." She repeated, and looked back at her phone, pausing for only a minute when Skittles leaped up into the chair. She scratched the cat behind the ears, making room as the fat feline plopped herself onto Chelsea's lap to purr.

"Make sure you put Skit in the bedroom when he gets here." I said, and Chelsea looked up at me.

"What for?"

"Sebastian's allergic."

"So, tell him to hold his breath."

Letting out an exasperated sigh, I stared at her. "Chels, please?"

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay. Poor Skittles..." She muttered under her breath as she continued to pet the cat. "It's not your fault the late boyfriend has allergies."

I rolled my eyes just as the doorbell rang, and shared a brief look with Chelsea before leaping to my feet. "The cat." I urged, and she stood, carried Skittles upstairs to my bedroom while I rushed to the door.

Taking a deep breath, I smoothed my hair and straightened the hem of my powder blue fleece while dusting off my skinny black jeans. With my heart pounding, I opened the door. Sebastian was standing on the stoop, looking handsome, and better than that, looking healthy. He was dressed in all black, making his eyes glow a brighter shade of gold, with a sheepish expression on his face. Hands behind his back, he took a step forward as I leaned in the doorway and folded my arms.

"You're late." I said, and his sheepishness grew exponentially.

"I know. Meds put me out and I didn't wake up till almost five. I'm sorry. But, to atone for my terrible lack of courtesy, we have daisies,"