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“I’m wily?” I raise my eyebrows. “You meddlesome people are the ones who set us up for our A-frame…one-on-one.”
I blush spectacularly as Dad coughs into his fist, grinning. He’s blushing, too. “Well, Sigrid, it was all your mother’s idea. She said sometimes people need time to come to their senses, but sometimes, they need the time to come for them to see sense.”
I laugh. “Sounds like Mom.”
Like she’s realized we’re talking about her, Mom glances over her shoulder and narrows her eyes playfully. Dad smiles at her in a way that makes Mom grin deviously, then turn back to where she sits beside Rooney on her far side, then Frankie on the other, lounging like a queen on the chaise portion, root beer float propped on her big belly as she sips from a giant bendy straw.
I’m going to be an aunt again in just a month from now, and I can’t wait. Frankie’s spectacular puke at the preseason game that Sebastian told me all about, and her odd comment plus fantastic boobs at Halloween made a lot more sense once she and Ren told us the good news: baby Zeferino-Bergman is on their way, this May.
“I like him so much,” my dad says, breaking my thoughts. “He’s a good man.”
I peer up at Dad and knock shoulders with him, then glance out to the yard, where, beside a smiling Ren, Sebastian stands, handsome in a soft gray T-shirt, a pair of chambray shorts that hug his fantastic butt, gently tossing a bocce ball. He’s got a blue ball cap on, tugged low over his dark hair whose disheveled state I’m entirely responsible for. He watches me, gray eyes piercing and lovely, a pleased, hungry smile warming his face. I’m wearing that same smile, too.
“I know he is,” I tell my dad. “But…not too good.”
Dad gives me a conspiratorial smile. “What fun would that be if he was?”
“Precisely.”
“Besides, he’d never survive in the Bergman family, if he was.” Dad nods to the yard, where Sebastian is now in a mutual headlock with Viggo, who shouts a laugh as Sebastian nails his tickle spot. They both collapse to the grass.
“Aunt Ziggy!” Linnie tugs at my soft persimmon sundress swinging above my knees.
I crouch to meet her eyes. “Linnie, what’s up?”
“I want music.” She bounces up and down. “Swingy music.”
“Oooh.” I raise my eyebrows. “Swing dance music?”
“Yes!” she shrieks. “You can twirl me.”
“I’d be honored. Give me one sec.”
Dashing across the deck, I pick up my phone, which is synched to the speakers mounted around us, and pick Linnie’s favorite song, fast and happy, though, what swing dance song isn’t?
As the opening bars hit the air, Linnie runs toward me and I lift her up, earning her bright, squealing laugh. “Again, Aunt Ziggy!”
“Basics, first!” I set her down and hold her hand as we do the steps I taught her—
“Triple step,” she hollers, moving to my right, then to my left. “And triple step again!”
I laugh. I’m sensitive to noise, but I love how loud this little girl is, her unbridled joy. I hope she never loses it. I’m going to do everything I can to make sure she doesn’t.
“Rock step!” she shrieks, hopping back on her heel, then forward.
“Hey now.” Sebastian jogs up the stairs to the deck, spinning his ball cap backward so he can see us easier. “Who’s swing dancing without me?”
Linnie gapes up at him. “Trouble, you know swingy dance?”
“I do,” he says.
I gape at him, too.
“What?” He gives me a coy look, then lowers his voice, leaning in. “You said you loved swing dancing. It would involve me touching you a lot. I watched a few videos when I was in hotels for away games, because I was absolutely going to be prepared to swing dance if you asked me to. I even had plans to ask you to go swing dancing, but this darn hockey season got in my way.”
“Well,” I sigh dreamily, “you’ve got a little time until you’re back for the playoffs. I suppose I could take you up on your offer until then.”
Sebastian gives me a slow, knowing smile, as he slips a hand around my back and pulls me close. “Sigrid. I plan to be dancing with you for a lot longer than that.”
As the big band music swells in the speakers, I smile up at him and take his hand with mine. “How perfect.” I steal a kiss, then let myself spin, free and safe in his arms. “That was my plan, too.”
THE END
