Page 65 of Prognosis Temporary

He looked up, returning her gaze. ‘Does it still worry you?’

The thought tore at her heart. She would never want a child of hers to go through the rigours of mental illness. ‘Of course,’ she whispered. ‘Looking after Zack all those years, worrying if he’s got more than his father’s athletic ability... the thought of passing something like that on frightens the hell out of me.’

His hands smoothed up her body to her face, cupping her jaw, his thumbs stroking the hollows beside her mouth. ‘Don’t,’ he murmured. ‘We wipe the slate clean. You and I.’

‘But what if — ’

‘Shh.’ Sebastian placed a thumb against her lips. ‘There are no guarantees in life, Callie. You and I both know this child could get any number of horrible illnesses. So could we. But we can’t live our lives like that — in constant fear. We just love our kids and we love each other and we hope like crazy it all works out. And no matter what, we’ll deal with whatever life throws us.’

Callie’s hands came up to grasp Sebastian’s wrists. He was right, of course he was. Life was for living — they both knew that, probably better than most. ‘I love you,’ she whispered.

He smiled, using his thumbs to tilt her jaw back. ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to tire of hearing you say that.’

‘Good,’ she murmured, ‘cos I’m not ever going to tire of telling you.’

He dropped a kiss on her upturned mouth. And then another. And another, until they melded into one and were swept away for long drugging minutes. ‘Just promise me one thing,’ he said, eventually pulling away.

‘Anything,’ Callie agreed, her head spinning from the kiss.

‘Can we tone down the pink?’

Callie laughed as she looked around the room. ‘Actually, it’s kind of grown on me.’

Sebastian groaned. ‘Fine. Can we at least have yellow ducks?’

She nodded. ‘Absolutely. I promise.’

And she sealed it with a kiss.

––––––––

THE END