Let It Be Me by Becky Wade (top young adult novels .TXT) 📕

“As sorry as I am to have missed your pre-party hissy fit—”

She sucked air through her teeth.

“—I had to work. I got in the car and drove here as soon as I could. Also, I brought you a gift.” He handed over the package. He’d convinced Markie to wrap it for him in gold paper with a big white bow.

After pulling free the wrapping paper, CeCe opened the box. Within lay a crystal wine glass.

“What!” she crowed. Her eyes rounded, and her lips formed a blazing smile. “It’s my holy grail!” She lifted it from the box and held it up like a trophy.

Before their wedding, CeCe had registered for twelve Alana crystal goblets by Waterford. Several years ago, when washing goblets after a baby shower, one had slipped and shattered. The Alana style was discontinued, and CeCe had been unable to purchase a replacement. She’d never gotten over it. Several times she’d complained loudly to Sebastian about having only eleven goblets. “An odd number! What on earth am I supposed to do with eleven goblets?”

“My holy grail!” she screeched again.

Sebastian grinned.

She whooped and danced in place while Hersh egged her on by clapping. “Where did you find this?” she asked.

“A website that brokers hard-to-find pieces of glassware. The Alana is a hot commodity. I set up an alert and asked to be notified whenever one became available. Even so, other buyers beat me to it the first five times.”

“You were at a disadvantage because you’re nowhere near your phone when you’re in surgery,” she said.

“Yeah,” Hersh murmured.

“This goblet became available at two a.m. a few weeks back, and it was immediately mine.”

“Immediately mine, you mean.” She held it against her heart. “Thank you, sweetie.”

“Love you, man.” Hersh patted him on the shoulder.

“You do know that this goblet isn’t going to get you out of the post-party cleanup chores, right?” CeCe asked.

“Right.”

“Hersh and I are going to be dog tired after all this, so we’ll be putting our feet up. We had kids and grandkids so we wouldn’t have to handle cleanup.” She bobbed her head toward the far side of the deck. “Did you see Ben? He invited that blond teacher he likes.”

Within Sebastian, something fundamental went completely still.

“When she showed up a few minutes ago,” Hersh commented, “he about wet his pants.”

Sebastian steeled himself and looked. Leah was talking with Ben. She wore a green cardigan over a blue-and-white sundress, which had a wide skirt that ended at her knees. The sight impacted him like a defensive tackle. He couldn’t think of anything to say.

He wished he’d had some warning. Ben hadn’t told him he’d invited Leah.

“Go see if you can help him out with her,” CeCe suggested.

“Okay.”

“Well.” She made a shooing motion. “Go on, then.”

“Happy anniversary.”

“Sure. Now go on.”

He moved in Ben’s direction as CeCe turned toward the interior of the house. He heard her yell, “My holy grail!” to her sister.

Ben’s older brother stopped Sebastian with a question about health insurance deductibles.

An aunt asked him who he was dating these days.

Finally, he approached Ben and Leah. Ben was smiling like it was winter and Leah was sunshine.

She stopped speaking mid-sentence as he drew near. “Sebastian,” she said warmly.

“Hey.”

Ben hugged him.

“I’m glad you came tonight,” Sebastian said to Leah. “Ben’s parents are great.”

“Don’t let them catch you calling them my parents,” Ben said. “Mom will hit the roof since she wants you to view them as your parents, too.”

“I’m fresh out of parents,” Leah said. “Can they be my parents?”

Ben’s face brightened. The comment could be taken to mean that she’d like Herschel and CeCe as her mother- and father-in-law. “Done!”

Leah looked pleased and so pretty that Sebastian forced down a swallow.

“We were discussing our summer plans when you walked over,” Leah told him.

“I know about Ben’s family trip to Florida,” Sebastian said, “because I’m joining them for part of that one.”

“We’re the unmarried uncles.” Ben swung his thumb back and forth between them. “Which means we’re the two adults who spend the most time playing with the kids.”

“Playing how?” she asked.

“They like to throw wet sand,” Ben answered, “and build sandcastles on the beach and go boogie boarding. For some reason, they also like us to get down on all fours so they can ride around on our backs and have sword fights with pool noodles.”

“They call that fighting horses.” Sebastian felt obligated to talk Ben up in front of Leah. “Ben’s better at all of it than I am.” He considered himself to be a decent uncle, but objectively, Ben was better. Ben would play those games with the kids for hours. Sebastian’s patience was limited, and he’d rather read a book with a kid than carry one around on all fours. . . .

As if thinking about the kids had called one to him, Hadley Jane, Ben’s three-year-old niece, ran in Sebastian’s direction with her arms lifted up.

He scooped her into the air and positioned her on his hip.

“Sebastian!” she sang, wrapping the hair at the back of his neck around one of her small fingers.

Until he’d had kids in his life to love, until he’d watched a child grow from an infant to a toddler to an elementary schooler, he hadn’t fully grasped what a child’s life was worth. Now he did, because of the Coleman grandkids. Which had made him a better doctor.

Hadley Jane shot Leah a look that said she believed Leah had come to the party as either a kidnapper or a burglar.

“Have you met Hadley Jane?” Sebastian asked Leah.

“I haven’t.”

“This is Miss Montgomery,” Sebastian said to the little girl.

“How do you do,” Hadley Jane said.

Ben chuckled with a fist in front of his mouth. “Who taught you that?”

She shrugged slyly.

“Your brother did,” Sebastian told Ben. Then, to Hadley Jane, “Miss Montgomery was about to tell us about her summer plans.”

“I’m taking my brother on a road trip to New England,” Leah told him. “We’ll be gone three weeks.”

“Where are you staying?” Sebastian asked.

“RV