“It’s okay, you can curse this time.”
“Shit!”
“That wasn’t the one I expected, but—”
Skylar shook her head and stared at him. “All this time, he was supposed to be sending you money. He said he was.”
Nick didn’t answer but looked away, which told her enough. “Pete’s in a halfway house, barely making ends meet. Even if he sent whatever was left over…”
“I knew the Christmas and birthday presents were really from you—”
“You did?”
Skylar stared him dead in the eye. “I see your handwriting every day, Uncle Nick. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who put ‘To Skylar’ on them.”
Damn, he didn’t think of that.
She squeezed her eyes tight and slumped against the truck. “He really fucked everything up, didn’t he? His life, mine, yours.”
“No.” Nick wiped his hand against her cheek, smearing her tears. “Pete made a lot of bad choices, and it’s been hard fixing them, but having you in my life is a blessing.”
She glared at him. “Come on.”
“Okay,” he laughed. “Some days it’s a challenge, and others I want to ship you to the moon, but most of the time, I can’t imagine being without you.”
“Even if…you’ve been alone because of me?”
How is she this smart?Nick bit his lip and shook his head. “No, I haven’t. And, anyway, maybe that’ll change. She…she’s back.”
“Why?” Skylar’s hopeful tears dropped to teenage sass in an instant.
The mistletoe latte had her thinking about the past? Of course. “I bet she’s Miss B. What if Rachel wrote about the old mistletoe latte we’d invented to see if I’d bring it back?”To see if I still wanted her.
His niece stared at him like he was the dumbest man alive. “No, she isn’t.”
“It all makes sense. She had the pictures. She knew the legend. She shows back up here, she…”
“It was me!” Skylar screamed to the snowing heavens.
“What?”
“I sent in those old pictures. I emailed a bunch of different food bloggers. It was me, not her. Not the woman that ran out on you. Me!”
Nick’s tiny hope that Rachel came back for him was snuffed out. All he could do was stare at Skylar. “Why?”
“Because I needed you to make it again. I figured if I could get him to drink the latte, then we’d kiss under the mistletoe, and he’d…be my boyfriend.”
“He who? That seventeen-year-old?”
“Oh my god, I splashed coffee onto him!” Skylar shrieked.
“It was more like a caffeinated baptism.”
“He’s never gonna want to talk to me again. What have I done?”
Nick hated the kid with all his being, but he swept a hand around Skylar’s shoulders and told her, “If he won’t talk to you for that, a simple accident, then he’s not worth having as a boyfriend.”
“So you’re saying I can date him?”
