“I would like that,” Skyler said, and there was that secret little smile on his face, the one that Craig knew most people didn’t see.
Skyler mounted him, straddling his hips and pushing himself all the way down onto Craig with a soft cry of pure delight, and it was every bit as perfect as Craig had known it would be.
The only thing that marred it was the thought that went through Craig’s head, a bitter, jealous one, that he had to push away or it might have ruined everything.
He’s mine. Not Matthew’s, mine. And I’ll kill that bastard if he tries to take him away from me.
Seventeen
Skyler
The whole talk didn’t go as badly as Skyler had thought it might.
It went worse—way, way worse.
Hannah hadn’t said anything. Not a single word. She had just burst into tears and walked away, leaving Skyler in the park where they had agreed to meet that morning. Part of him had thought that she would tell him that she didn’t believe him, that she would accuse him of lying, but she hadn’t.
And that, for some reason, was worse.
As he made his way slowly back to the hotel, his phone buzzed at him, in an offensively cheery tone, that he had a text. He didn’t check it. He found that he didn’t quite dare. Not until he was safely back in his hotel room and Craig and Jessica were right there.
The text was from his sister, and it was a very simple one, just three words.
The wedding’s off.
Without a word, he showed it to Jessica and Craig, and it was infinitely comforting to be pulled into their arms, both of them, and hugged tightly. He closed his eyes, not even sure that he deserved this comfort, filled with guilt and shame that he also wasn’t sure he deserved.
“I think we should go,” Jessica said when the embrace finally broke. “From what you said, your mother isn’t going to be that happy with you. And who knows how Matthew will react.”
“Uh, yeah,” Craig added. “I think it might be time to practice the better part of valor.”
Skyler nodded and then took a deep breath and raised his phone. He would go. It was probably a good idea. But first, he had to make sure of something.
Do you need anything from me?
The message was, of course, to his sister. And it probably only took her about thirty seconds to reply, but each of those seconds felt almost as long as hours as he stared, eyes on the screen, waiting for her return message.
No.
That was it. Skyler sighed and put his phone away. That seemed pretty clear to him. If she wanted to talk to anyone, it wasn’t him, and could he really blame her? It felt pretty strange just to leave her there, but at the same time, she had pushed him away. What else was he supposed to do? He had to respect her boundaries.
Besides, they had been apart for so long. She doubtless had a support system that had nothing to do with him. So he put his phone in his pocket and wordlessly turned to start packing up his things.
* * *
Not fast enough, though.
Jessica and Craig were inside, settling up the hotel bill, while Skyler waited outside, and that was where she found him.
Not Hannah, but their mother. And from the look on her face, she was utterly furious with him.
She looked the same as she always did. That was the really amazing part. Maybe a few lines were more deeply etched around her eyes, and at the corners of her mouth, but otherwise, she was the same tiny, imposing woman that she had always been. And, radiating fury as she was, the years rolled away and Skyler felt like a teenager all over again.
“How dare you?”
That was it, the very first words that she had said to him in person since the day that Skyler had walked out of the house. Oh, she had been trying to get him to come for Christmas ever since, and she called to whine at him every so often about ignoring her, but he had avoided her since then.
“Mom, we’re in a public place,” he protested, not that he thought she would care. And about that, he was completely correct. She didn’t so much as slow down.
