Chapter 25
Skylar and Haven
“Welcome to my childhood home, Skylar.”
Haven couldn’t believe he was here. Of course, Gramma Dora’s house was not nearly as large as the one he had grown up in, but it had been filled with plenty of love, and there hadn’t been a day that her grandmother hadn’t made her feel special.
As special as Skylar had made her feel over the past four weeks.
Their weekend at the Grand Canyon had been something she’d remember forever.
And afterward, the time she spent with him was like something out of a dream.
News had spread quickly about the way Skylar had handled Chastain Gibbs.
Now, everyone, including Carolyn and Janice, were looking at her with a new level of respect.
Rumor had it that he had never claimed a woman as his before, and the fact that he’d done it, publicly, had to truly mean something.
Skylar had told her that it would be her decision when they shared a bed.
And she didn’t think it would be long. It was getting harder and harder to maintain control, especially those times when, after sitting in his lap, talking for hours, he’d have to leave her room late at night to return to his penthouse,
She had certainly learned a lot about him over the past week or so.
Then again, they’d spent most of their evenings together.
He’d told her that he’d often rolled up his sleeves to work in his company’s soup kitchens, that he enjoyed playing tennis, he didn’t know the first thing about cooking, and that he’d set up a scholarship in memory of his father, the same way she’d done for her grandmother.
And last weekend, he had asked her to go with him to check out his newest acquisition in Napa Valley.
The resort, surrounded by beautiful vineyards, was stunning.
It was currently undergoing extensive renovation and was expected to open for business next year.
She honestly hadn’t seen anything wrong with its present condition, but he had explained that he wanted to modernize the resort and give it a different look and feel.
And now, they were here. In Gramma Dora’s house.
“I’m happy to be here, Haven,” he said, crossing the threshold and closing the door behind him. After glancing around, he said, “I can feel the love. I bet there was a lot of it within these walls.”
“Yes, there was,” she said, coming to stand beside him. “Like with you and your dad, there was never a time I didn’t feel loved.”
When he took her back to Chicago on Friday, he would stay through the weekend. After that, they’d have to figure something out. Because she didn’t want to let him go for long.
She knew from what he had shared with her weeks earlier that holidays were now a bit lonely for him. Hoping to fix that, one holiday at a time, she asked about his plans for Thanksgiving.
Skylar had told her about the letter he had received from his mother asking for forgiveness, but that he wasn’t ready to go into detail about his dying mother’s request or the visit from his brother, who had also invited him to Thanksgiving dinner.
She understood Skylar had decisions to make, and he needed to make those decisions without her influence.
When he was ready to tell her more about the mother he didn’t know or the family Skylar wasn’t sure he’d accept, he would. Until then, she would give him whatever support he needed.
She gave him a tour of the house, and when she took him out back to see her grandmother’s flower garden, she saw a look of awe that crossed his features. That was enough to make her very glad that she paid a gardener to keep it flourishing.
So as not to disrespect her grandmother’s memory in any way by causing unnecessary neighborhood gossip, he suggested that he take a room at a nearby hotel.
She was grateful that, even in this, he was looking out for her.
When they returned to the house after looking at the gardens, he pulled her into his arms and asked, “So, what have you planned for us this week, sweetheart?”
“Umm, first, I think a couple of cooking lessons are in order. Then at some point, we can play tennis.”
He tilted his head, giving her a quizzical look. “You know how to play tennis?”
“Yes. In fact, I was a member of the Yale tennis team. I began taking lessons in high school.”
“You never told me that,” he said, smiling.
“You mean that wasn’t in Dante’s investigative report?” she asked, grinning.
He threw his head back and laughed. “If it was, I missed it. Is this where you confess to being part of Yale’s equestrian team, too?”
“No. Riding a horse is something I’ve never tried, but I look forward to you showing me how it’s done, Mr. Kingston,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“I can’t resist an eager student, Ms. McGuire,” he replied, then moved in for a kiss.