“You think she’s cute,” Skylar taunted him.
“But…”She’s leaving soon. She wants to be a fancy chef. We barely know each other. Why can’t I stop thinking about her?“She’s way too young for me.”
Skylar crossed her arms. In her puffy pink coat, she looked like a pastel Michelin man. “How old is she?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“That’s no problem. She passes the half plus seven rule.”
Confused, Nick zeroed in on his niece. “The what?”
“You know, half your age, then add seven. That’s how young you can date. Everyone knows that.”
He’d never heard of it in his life. Nick started to do the math, but Skylar beat him to it first. “You can go as young as twenty-four and a half.”
Jesus!He’d overhear the young college kids blathering on about their profiles and bitcoins at the cafe, and it made Nick feel older than dust. “How come you can’t do geometry that fast?”
Skylar smiled wide and shrugged.
Twenty-four…really? No.She had her whole life ahead of her. Lots of time to screw up, start again. A busted-up vet running a coffee shop would only slow her down.
Wait. Half of seventeen plus seven was…? “Fifteen and a half!” Nick shouted.
Skylar frowned and shook her head. “What?”
“That’s how young a seventeen-year-old can date. Fifteen and a half by your whatever rule. You’re too young for the Ant guy.”
Fury erupted across her face. “That isn’t the same— It doesn’t work that way for boys. Girls mature faster.”
Nick sneered at that familiar line he’d heard too much…and used in his stupid youth. Rather than wade into that can of worms, he smugly slotted a log on the stump. “That’s your rule, not mine. You’re too young for a kid that can grow chest hair.”
“Ew!”
Boy was she too young. Nick had hoped she’d stay that way, but if she was already getting knock-kneed around a gangly kid with an accent he didn’t have long. Was that talk something he should leave to his brother? The thought of Pete having to responsibly explain anything, much less what could lead to his becoming a grandfather, sounded impossible.
Nick’s cheeks burned red hot at the thought of having to talk to Skylar about all of that. They’d both jump out of a window to avoid the subject.
“Why are you so mean?” she shouted, shifting back to the young girl he’d watched grow up. Absently, Nick touched his back pocket and the drawing Skylar had made on her first day in the coffee shop. Most of the bad memories had faded from the crayon doodles.
In a fury, she smashed her foot into the frozen ground. Nick winced, certain it had to hurt, but Skylar’s rage kept her moving. “Why do you have to ruin everything?”
Dropping the ax to the ground, Nick breathed in the cold air. “Maybe I’m trying to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
He wrung a hand over his forehead, surprised to find ice instead of sweat. Maybe he had been outside too long. Nick sighed. “From making the same stupid mistakes me and your dad did.”
“I’m nothing like you. You’re a coldhearted asshole.” After her venomous flurry, Skylar ran inside. No doubt she’d be crying big fat tears into her pillow while she told her diary how awful he was.
Nick kicked aside the log at his foot and picked up the box it’d been holding down. They were gonna wear blue and red aprons with yellow embroidery. He’d even had a local artist mock up a logo. It all went to hell before he’d finalized the menu board.
Placing the apron and hat on the stump, Nick raised the ax. Winds that smelled of snow buffeted his face. More of his sweat turned to ice as it stuck to his cheeks. He made his choice long ago and didn’t have time to regret it. With one fell swing, Nick sliced apart the hat, then he cut open the apron. More swings, more tears, that other life he nearly had ripping to nothing but thread and strings in the December wind.
“You’re right,” Nick said, dropping the ax. “I am.”
“WHEN ARE YOU getting here?”
Emma rocked back and forth on her feet, wishing she’d ‘accidentally’ turned her phone off. “Soon. In a few days.”
