His eyes widened. “Holy fuck!”
“Quite. And if I remember correctly, that’s what I said at the time.”
He gave a happy shout of laughter and picked me up in his arms, whirling me around. Then he put me down as carefully as if he were handling glass.
“Fuck me, you’re amazing!”
“You’re pretty amazing yourself, Sebastian. You’re so great with Marco and Sofia. You think you can handle another one?” I laughed a little anxiously. “Three kids under the age of five.”
“Yeah, that’s really something.”
He shook his head disbelievingly. “Everything’s changing so fast.”
My heart clenched painfully.
“Too fast?”
“Fuck, no! It’s just more … more than I ever dared dream of. You, Marco, and then Sofia. Now this. It’s so fucking amazing, it scares me. I feel like I don’t deserve to be such a lucky bastard.”
That was so typical of him, and I was going to spend the rest of my life proving that he deserved every good thing that happened to him—to us.
“You’re everything I ever wanted, Sebastian. Thank you for giving me this wonderful life.”
His eyes became glassy, and his arms tightened around me.
“I love you, Caro.”
“And I love you, Sebastian. Sempre e per sempre.”
It was time to begin the next chapter in our lives.
THE END
Thank you for reading Sebastian & Caroline’s story.
I hope you enjoyed the ride.
JHB
BONUS CHapters
First time
The first four chapters of The Education of Sebastian, told from Sebastian’s point of view
Long Time Living
Caroline has left San Diego. The story continues…
Twenty-One
Sebastian’s twenty-first birthday
The Best Man
Ches’s bachelor party and wedding
In Geneva
The first two chapters of The Education of Caroline, told from Sebastian’s point of view.
first time
I was bored out of my brain, idly wondering if Ches had any weed left from the weekend. Studying was so damn tedious. Yeah, I knew I needed to get good grades and that my AP courses were important, but I’d much rather have been at the beach—or with Caroline.
Caroline.
God, seeing her again—it was like a dream.
When dad casually mentioned that the Wilsons were moving back to San Diego, I thought I was going to freak out. So many times, so many times, I’d thought about her over the years: wondering what she was doing, where she was living. Remembering all the stuff we’d talked about when I was a kid. She used to just talk to me, I mean really talk to me. And she was beautiful, so goddamn beautiful. At least, she was in my memory. I’d never had a picture of her, and I hadn’t seen her in nine years.
I was going crazy wanting to ask dad more questions: when would she (they) be coming back? Where would she (they) live?
Most of all I wondered: would she remember me?
I’d had a thing for brunettes ever since, which was kind of funny because Brenda, my ex-girlfriend, was a blonde. I’d dated a couple of times in high school, but Brenda and I had gone out for nearly nine months. I’d sort of thought I was in love with her, until Ches told me that she’d been screwing Jack fucking Sullivan behind my back. Turned out I wasn’t as much in love with her as I’d thought. Turned out I didn’t give a shit when we broke up. Not really, but still fucking humiliating.
Afterwards, I hadn’t had much interest in dating anyone else.
And then I heard Caroline was coming back. I really wanted to see her, to find out if she lived up to my memory of her. I didn’t think that would be possible; I mean, she must have changed. It had been nine years: she must have changed, right? For all I knew, she was fat and had kids. Even so, I’d been desperate to think of a way to see her, and find out once and for all. She probably didn’t even remember me: I was just some kid that she’d taken pity on.
And then I’d seen her at the beach, and she’d taken my breath away. She was so beautiful. She had the same long, brown hair that looked almost auburn in the sun; and her eyes were almost hazel and her skin was all glowing and tan, looking fucking delicious.
She was so beautiful lying there in that bikini; I got hard just looking at her, and my eyes damn near dropped out of my head and rolled down the beach. It really made me pissed to think that the other guys were probably thinking the same thing. I’d had to hold my surfboard in front of me, so she couldn’t tell how I was feeling. How fucking embarrassing was that?
When she sat up and I could see her breasts, I nearly came on the spot. Ugh, God!
At first, she hadn’t recognized me. I was shocked by how much that hurt; but then I told her who I was and she smiled at me. Her smile fucking knocked me out.