Tobias laughs, picks up the book and sits on the bed next to Skyler. “All right.”
I walk around the bed and sit on Skyler’s other side. There’s hardly any room, but I sit on the sliver of bed that’s left and cozy up to Skyler.
We take turns reading pages, which evolves into a contest to see who can read with the funniest voices and make Skyler laugh the most. We end up reading five books because Skyler keeps asking for more, and neither of us can tell her no. My sides hurt from laughing so much.
Tobias finally stands up. “Time for bed, Little Pup.” He ruffles Skyler’s hair, and I follow him out of her room.
I join Tobias going down the stairs. Today was a good day. I felt a connection with Tobias, and I don’t want that to end. I should head to bed and distance myself from him, but I can’t. I miss our closeness. I regret telling him I can’t have a relationship with him.
I feel terrible for pushing him away. He’s such a good man. He’s the perfect father for Skyler. And he’s so kind to me, even though I don’t deserve it. I suddenly want that closeness back. I wanthim.
Before I can think better of it, I say, “I was thinking of making some coffee cake tonight. We can have it for breakfast. Do you want to help me?”
He looks at me, taking me in for a moment before nodding. “Sure. Sounds good.”
A zing of electricity shoots through me, and I give him a small smile. He smiles back, and I have a hard time pulling in another breath. That dimple. It’s killing me. Why is it that he looks more and more handsome each day? He’s wearing a plain white T-shirt and jeans, and he looks like he stepped off a movie poster.
We enter the kitchen. To distract myself I Google the recipe on my phone, selecting one that sounds good.
“Tell me what you need. I’ll grab the ingredients,” he says.
I scroll until I come to the actual recipe. “Okay.” I list out the things we need for the crumble toping and the coffee cake itself, and Tobias puts them on the counter. He gets out two bowls and some measuring cups and spoons.
“What temperature should I pre-heat the oven for?” he asks.
“Three-fifty.”
Tobias fiddles with the knobs on the oven, then comes over to stand beside me. My heart is having a difficult time beating out a simple rhythm.
“So, you’ve lived on this island your whole life?” I ask as I open the flour container to make the crumble.
“Yes.”
“What’s your favorite childhood memory?” I scoop out a cup of flour and dump it into the bowl.
He rubs his neck. “That’s a tough question. I have lots of great childhood memories here.”
“Do tell. I want to hear some stories. Did you and your brothers ever get into trouble?”
Tobias leans on the counter next to me, grinning. “Oh, all the time. Noah and I once decided we were going to go fishing, but we didn’t have fishing poles, so we took sticks and string and improvised. We didn’t have hooks. We grabbed forks from the kitchen and bent them into hooks. They were Mom’s good silver, too.”
I gasp. “I bet your mom was mad.”
Tobias chuckles and shakes his head. “We buried the forks in the sand. She never found out what happened to her missing forks.”
“No way!” I touch his arm, which I know I shouldn’t do, but I can’t stop myself. “Did you put any bait on the makeshift hooks?”
Tobias glances at my hand on his arm, and I know he’s silently questioning what I’m doing, but I no longer care. I want back what I cut off. He grins at me. “Yes. Hotdogs.”
I laugh at the image of two little boys trying to fish with hotdogs on bent forks they stole from their mother’s good silverware. “That’s priceless.”
“Then one time Levi and I went ghost hunting in the old graveyard on Fifth Street. We snuck out of the house and took my dad’s video camera, sure that we’d see ghosts there late at night.”
I put the crumble into the fridge and start on the cake mix. “Did you find any?”
He has a hard time speaking because he’s laughing so hard. “No. We just scared each other so much I dropped Dad’s camcorder and broke it.”
His laugh is contagious, and I join him. “Wow, you guys did get into trouble. How old were you?”
