Page 61 of Season's Schemings
“How long have you been standing there?” I ask, abject awkwardness scraping through me at the thought of his overhearing this screwed up mother-daughter conversation.
“Long enough,” he says simply, giving me a quick look up and down—as if checking me for physical injuries—before turning back to Mom. “I’m not going to hurt Maddie,” he tells her, his voice slightly thick. “I could never hurt Maddie.”
Mom attempts another laugh, but it comes out sounding more like a cough. “You really mean that?” she taunts.
“I always say what I mean, and mean what I say.”
His words give me life. His very presence gives me life. Because once again, he’s shown up for me without me even having to say anything. He justknows.
Seb looks at Mom for a long time, unblinking and unyielding in his stance, and something must transpire between them, because eventually, Mom sucks in a breath through her nose. “Okay.”
Seb nods back at her, and then he reaches for me. “Come on, Maddie. We’ve got a holiday to celebrate.”
23
MADDIE
After the showdown with my mom on the balcony, the rest of Christmas Day is much less eventful. We play board games, eat until we’re stuffed, and welcome multiple groups of carolers at the front door.
Seb is by my side the whole time, almost protective in the way he holds my hand, slips his arm around my waist, puts a reassuring palm on my thigh under the table when Adam brings up his and Elizabeth’s upcoming nuptials over turkey and ham.
But at the same time, there are moments where he’s not quite present. He’s physically close, but his mind seems to be elsewhere. There’s a tension to him that normally isn’t there.
I don’t blame him—it’s an awful lot of high-intensity family time with a bunch of people who are total strangers to him. And he’s gone above and beyond for me at every turn. Poor guy probably needs a mental break.
At around 8pm, everyone is cozy in the living room—save for Dot, who’s gone to bed early after the day’s excitement, and Jax, who’s wandered back into the forest to play with wolves or whatever the hell he does in his free time. The parents are playing mahjong around the card table, Adam’s waxing eloquent about some new type of confectioner's sugar he’s importing from France or Zanzibar or something, and Elizabeth’s pretending to listen while playing Wordle on her phone.
Which is the first thing I’ve found I have in common with her. Two things, in fact—I love Wordle, and often feigned interest in Adam’s monologues when we were together.
Seb, though seated next to me on the sofa, still seems far away. His brows are drawn over his eyes and his mouth is twisted down in one corner as he stares out the window.
“Hey,” I whisper to him, and he starts a little before his eyes meet mine. “Wanna sneak off and go in the hot tub or something?”
I can’t quite believe I’m proposing this. The thought of Seb the Specimen of Human Perfection seeing me, Maddie Grainger, in a bikini, is a little frightening.
But after today, I’m choosing to believe in myself.
His eyes darken at my suggestion, making my stomach fill with butterflies once again. “Hell yeah, I do.”
And if that enthusiastic response doesn’t quell my worries, I don’t know what in the world would.
We manage to creep out of the living room together without garnering more than an annoyed mid-monologue glance from Adam.
Upstairs, I dig two plush robes out of the closet, and then grab my swimsuit. “I’ll get changed in the bathroom and meet you out there.”
That trademark Seb smirk is back in place. “You can get changed wherever you want, Maddie.”
“Perv.” I swat him on the arm with a giggle and then duck out to the bathroom.
“Can’t a man admire his wife’s body anymore?” he calls after me.
This makes me really laugh.
In the little hallway bathroom, I change into my bikini. It’s not the sexiest bikini in the world, but it’s cute—midnight blue with criss-cross straps on the back and little bows on the sides of the bottoms.
I scoop my hair up into a bun on top of my head, pull on my robe, and pad downstairs to the side deck, where the hot tub’s located.
I slide open the door and squeak as the frigid air fills my lungs. Seb’s already soaking in the tub, sitting contentedly in the billowing steam and laughing at my current grave peril. “Hurry up, slowpoke! You’ll freeze!”