Page 69 of Cheap Shot

“I’ll do my best,” Sebastian said, already pulling off his apron. “Love you!”

“Love you too!”

It was closer to an hour and fifteen minutes by the time Sebastian arrived at the medical building to pick Harper up. Thankfully, he found her busy coloring in the reception area and when he apologized for being late, the staff assured him it was no problem.

“Uncle Sebby!” Harper said, her face lighting up when she spotted him.

She masked whenever they were at bigger public events, but Brie didn’t force her to wear one all the time unless she’d just had a surgery or procedure done and was at especially high risk.

I want to keep her safe from infections, but I never want her to feel like I’m trying to hide her birthmark, you know?she’d told Sebastian once.Kids are already going to be mean enough. I don’t want her to feelashamedof it.

Sebastian understood.

Thankfully, Harper seemed to be recovering well after her latest surgery, and she was one resilient kid. Physically and emotionally.

“Hey there, Harper,” he said.

“Look at my picture!” she said, waving a paper with a crayon drawing.

He took it and studied it for a minute. Was that a big red monster in the middle? Shit. Hopefully she wasn’t having nightmares again. She’d had some for a while after her so-called father left.

“Do you see? It’s Blaze and Mr. Luke holding me. Oh, and you’re there too! See?”

“I see that now,” he said, squinting at the page, not entirely sure if that was true or not. His niece probably wasn’t going to be a world-famous artist someday. Though maybe if she got into abstract art? He could see a future in that.

Either way, it was a relief to know the “monster” was just a poorly drawn mascot.

“Mommy said Mr. Luke got banged up last night.” She looked up at him with big, worried eyes. “Is he hurt?”

“Uhh, not very seriously, I don’t think,” he said. “Probably just a few bruises or something. It didn’t look too bad during the game.”

“Can you ask him?”

“Umm.” He thought about his unanswered text from earlier. “I can try? We’re not really friends or anything.”

“Yeah. You think hesucks.”

Sebastian winced and one of the receptionists let out a little cough that was probably covering up a laugh.

“He’s not my favorite player,” Sebastian agreed. “Now, are you ready to spend the afternoon with me?”

“Are we gonna make flowers?”

She’d never quite gotten the hang of saying the word bouquet and he was always charmed by the idea of ‘making flowers’.

“Yes,” he said, taking her hand. “Now, tell everyone thank you and say goodbye.”

“Thank you, Miss Laura! Thank you, Miss Rosa! Thank you, Mr. Rhett!”

They all waved goodbye but as they walked slowly to the door, she seemed to be lagging behind.

Sebastian asked her if she wanted to be picked up and carried.

“Yeah.” She yawned. “I’m tired. They made me work extra hard today.”

“Okay, kiddo. Maybe you can get a nap when we get back to the shop.”

“Wanna spend time with you,” she mumbled, her face pressed against his neck and he hugged her tighter, smiling.