Please see chapter one for all warnings etc…

Make My Heart Start Beating

22

I'm arguing with myself the next morning as to whether I should go over and check on him or just wait for his call when my phone finally beeps and it's an unknown number.

'Tiger, well I'm awake, and someone broke in to leave me soup and a pear. S xxx'

Yes I have his number and he sent me kisses. Quickly typing a reply I send him, 'You should be careful I hear there have been a spate of soup leaving crimes in your area, maybe you should come over so I can protect you. K xxx.'

Grinning I snag some breakfast and sit at the table, a table both David and Kyle keep staring at. I stick my tongue out at them. Turning to dad and Carole I mention, "Sebastian might be coming over today."

"Yeah?" Dad's not that impressed with him.

"Yes and I would appreciate you not polishing your shotgun in front of him while hinting you know how to hide bodies," I glare at him.

"He won't," Carole adds, "He'll be busy working on all the wonderful paperwork that builds up," he grimaces, "So you and your Sebastian can do what you want."

"Thank you Carole," I start to clear the table and lean over to kiss her cheek, "You're the best step mom on the world, I don't know how I got so lucky."

And with perfect timing my boyfriend knocks on the door. I feed him breakfast which gets inhaled by him and then as everyone is staring at him I drag him out of the door for a walk.

Holding his hand I slide my sunglasses on and walk next to him just enjoying the sunshine and a day off from the garage. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, I only woke up just before I sent that text, I had enough time to shower and then I left to flee to the safety of my boyfriend's protection," he teases me, "I wouldn't want to meet the dangerous soup leaving crimelord on my own."

"Don't worry you're safe with me," I tell him and squeeze his hand. "So are you finished with your writing for a while? I'm sorry but I don't even know what you do."

"That's because I haven't told you," he shrugs, "I have a few novels published but under a different name," and he's looking uncomfortable which intrigues me. "I have a few short stories published and I'm a freelancer for a couple of online magazines. I do pretty much anything or any genre. The writing is fun but doesn't really pay that well, and as dad and mom have cut me off for not following either one of their life plans for me I'm stuck making it on my own."

That's probably the most information I've gotten out of him since I met him all those years ago, "Hmm well you seem to be doing well at making it on your own," he gives me a sarcastic look, "No really, you have a roof over your head, I'm assuming you're eating and you have work, it might not pay well but you have it."

"I do don't I," his hand tightens on mine for a moment, "Thanks," he's thoughtful.

"You know I'm leaving the Lima Bean? Well I only did the hours no one else wanted to do and frankly the pay is rubbish, but you might want to give it a go," now I get a full on incredulous look, "I'm serious Sebastian, it's low steady pay, it's not hugely difficult but I've been told you need to have good customer service skills."

"Oh in that case, if you can get a job there I can," he snipes with a smirk.

"I think you'll find I've got great customer service skills," I sniff.

"Really? An interesting interpretation of customer service, I'll take that on board. So what about you?"

"What about me?" I ask.

"Well you know about my career in writing and my possible fledgling one in coffee serving, what about your many many careers?" He lets go of my hand and rests his arm around my shoulders, taking that as an invitation I slide an arm around his waist and we synchronise our walk.

I tell him about the garage, the bar job at Scandals, and the Lima Bean. "I volunteer at most of the schools, I've been police checked so many times but I'm there more to help the bullied and bullies. To protect the former and educate the latter."

"Does it work? I always found teenagers to be particularly stupid, I never could stand being around them," he mentions.

"You know you were one right?" I'm amused at his shudder.

"Please, I couldn't stand myself either," and it has a ring of truth, with my arm around him I have to hold it there and I decide to cheat pushing a thumb into his jeans hooking my hand there in the process.

"Well luckily you grew out of it, imagine if you'd been stuck there like a permanent teenage version of Peter Pan?" He pulls a face and I laugh at him, "Ah poor Sebastian."

"So, you mentioned classes?" He hints.

Back to me then, and I expand on my tentative plans for my future, "The annoying thing is I like working in the garage, it's satisfying to fix broken things and listen to them purr as they pull away. If only I could do away with the necessity of wearing overalls and the disgusting grease and oil."

"Well I have to say I'm impressed, I can barely change a tyre if I get a flat, I'd be helpless without guys like you. And don't you know the sex appeal of the overalls? On you with that damn blue T I keep seeing in my head I am learning I have quite the kink for them," his leer makes me blush.

"Maybe if you ask nicely I'll borrow a clean pair and we could, maybe, have dessert again?" I bite my lip and look away.

"I'd like that," he kisses my cheek and I gaze at him happily. "But not before we've had a few dates first, you have to wine and dine me properly, you're the one with the boyfriend experience I'm relying on you to help me get through it."

"Oh, okay," and then my mind goes blank, "I can't think of anything."

A shrug from him, "That's fine, I believe there was a walk in the park on your list and I'm fairly certain we're supposed to have a grown up dinner out one evening, and possibly dancing, if you still dance…?"

"I think you could tempt me into dancing," I daringly rub a circle on his hip with my thumb and he jumps slightly.

"Good, so we have a list to work our way through. That means this dating thing is a go. Hmm this is much easier than I thought it would be," he admits.

"It's supposed to be easy," I tilt my head so it rests on his shoulder, "It's when life gets in the way you have to remember to work for it, to put the effort in," and that's where things tend to go wrong and I realise I'm expecting him to run at that point.

"Pull together," he startles me with his comment.

"Yes," I sneak a kiss onto his jaw, "You have to pull together and not apart, to compromise on all the important things, to be there for the other one."

"Okay, we'll give that a go too," he says and then he's suddenly grinning and waving. It's our evil next-door neighbour, we've circled the block and we're back again, she's glaring at me and then catches sight of Sebastian, and the crazy woman dimples and waves back.

He shamelessly blows her a kiss, giggling she turns away giving me a look that wishes me a thousand pain filled deaths.

"Evil woman," I hiss under my breath.

"Really? She seemed nice," Sebastian says.

"You didn't have to stand there helplessly and watch her stab Finn's balls with her scissors one summer while he cried," I mutter.

A/N: Sorry for any and all mistakes, I've tried to catch those I could, but I'm only human.