Chapter 4 – Skylar
SKYLAR
Iwake up with a headache that I’m not so affectionately naming Aston. I guess that’s what happens when you go to sleep annoyed.
After climbing out of bed, I use the bathroom and brush my teeth, all the while mentally ranting to myself.
But really, what does it matter if he’s going to be working with me?
He doesn’t seem to care about the kiss. He even called me immature for still lingering on it.
Maybe he’s right. I was a bit drunk that night.
I kissed a man whom I thought was a stranger in the dark. It turned out it wasn’t. Case closed.
I’m not going to let it have power over me. That’s become my mantra where men are concerned, and it’s now extending to Aston. You can’t have a new reality with an old mentality, so here I am. I’ll see him at work, and we’ll be indifferent, just as I told Braelyn we’d be, and that’s that.
With that mental declaration, I head downstairs.
The best part of no longer living with Josh is my freedom.
And the lack of constant fear. I was having eczema under my eyes, GI symptoms, back and neck pain, and occasionally palpitations.
I wasn’t sleeping and was jittery and nervous all the time.
Afraid to eat something I wanted or listen to music I liked or dress how I wanted or not wear makeup.
I was afraid of my boyfriend, and to have that behind me is the best feeling in the world.
Life of a Showgirl streams through the speakers because it’s that kind of morning.
I make myself scrambled eggs with turkey sausage and eat them while sipping on my second cup of coffee.
The moment I’m done with all of that and have cleaned up the kitchen, I plop my ass down on the sofa to eat my chocolates with a fire blazing in the fireplace and put on Kill Bill: Volume 1 with the intention of watching Volume 2 before this day is over.
“Just the three of us,” I sing to my candy and coffee, but then I hear an odd sound at the front door before the lock disengages.
I jump up and freeze with my arms and legs spread wide like that cat getting electrocuted in Christmas Vacation.
I search around for a weapon, wishing I had one of Uma Thurman’s swords, when the door opens.
My heart thunders. Who the hell is here?
People are talking. I grip my mug tighter, ready to chuck it at someone’s head if I must. The chocolates are useless.
But then two suitcases are shoved through the open door, rolling until they bump into the foyer’s wall, but I don’t notice them so much because now I’m staring at Aston and the small person who I suspect is his daughter.
“Hi,” I shriek, feeling like I got caught being somewhere I shouldn’t be, only to remember that I live here. “What are you doing here? How’d you get in?”
Aston looks like he’s been struck, blinking about five times.
He adjusts his backward navy baseball cap until it’s facing forward, with a 617 in a shamrock on the front.
So Boston, and it would turn me on if I hadn’t decided I hate him.
His gaze snags on my bare legs and oversized college shirt as he gives me a once-over similar to the way he did last night.
Only instead of a cute dress and hot-as-fuck platform heels that give my five-foot-two frame six or so extra inches, he’s getting me braless, wearing cream shearling Birkenstock slippers, no makeup, and a high, messy bun.
“Um.” He glances down at the little version of himself, who’s wearing a Disney’s Rapunzel dress, then back up at me. “What are you doing here?”
“I asked you first.”
He grunts, less than amused. “Micha offered for us to move in here since he’s likely not coming back anytime soon. And I’ve had a spare key to his place for years.”
Brothers. I fucking swear. “That’s hilarious since he told me I could move in here six weeks ago when I broke up with my boyfriend.” Then I remember a vague detail from last night before the martinis started pouring down my throat. “Forest said you were staying with your parents.”
“I was. I mean, we were. Then I spoke to Micha on Thursday, and he offered us his place.”
“But I live here,” I protest, sounding like I’m six and not caring in the slightest. The little girl is eyeing me like I’m a villain in her not-so-happily-ever-after, and I remember that her mom died.
“Hi,” I say, coming over to her and ignoring her father.
And the way I look because fuck him. No more fear. “I’m Skylar. You can call me Sky.”
She glances up at the ceiling before returning to me. “Sky? I’ve never heard that name before. Do you have rainbows? I like rainbows.”
I think I might love her. “All women have rainbows. We just have to find the sun through the rain in order to see them.”
“Are you a philosopher now?”
I covertly flip off her father without removing my eyes from her.
She studies me and sticks out her hand to me. “I’m Zoey.”
I shake her surprisingly firm grip. “Hi, Zoey. I’m Micha’s sister and hopefully the bane of your father’s existence.”
He grunts, but I continue to ignore him.
“Why are you in our new house?”
“That’s my question.” I glare at her father. “My question for you. Do you have a middle name?”
“Huh?” he blusters at the random question.
“A middle name,” I repeat.
“Oliver.”
I snort a laugh. “You’re kidding me? Your middle name is after my uncle Oliver?”
He shrugs.
“I can’t name my headache Aston Oliver Hughes.”
“What?”
He’s looking at me like I’m crazy. Right now, I might be.
He sighs and shifts his weight, releasing his daughter’s hand to pull out his phone. He puts it on speakerphone as he dials up my brother’s number, and it does that wacky international ring with an elongated beep and a click about five times before Micha picks up.
“Hey!” he greets Aston. “Any trouble getting in?”
“You mean other than the fact that your sister is squatting here?”
“I am not squatting!” I snap indignantly.
“Oh, shit.”
“Uncle Micha!” Zoey scolds.
“Sorry! Crap. Take me off speaker and hand me to my sister.”
Aston does exactly that, and I snatch the phone and turn my back to them as I head into the kitchen so they can’t hear me eviscerate my brother. “What in the absolute fuck did you do?”
“I messed up. I told Aston that he and Zoey could live in my house because it’s unoccupied.”
“It’s not unoccupied!”
“Yes. That’s where I messed up. I completely and totally forgot you moved in after you broke up with Dickface.”
“So, what am I supposed to do? Move out? I have to move out?”
“Nooooo. Don’t move out. You can’t. You have to stay.”
My hand flails about. “How?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t kick out my sister, who just broke up with an abusive man, or my best friend and godchild, who just lost her mother.”
“This doesn’t work. Not even a little.” And he doesn’t even know the half of it. I lean my hip against the counter and change the phone to my other ear. “It’s weird, Micha. I can’t live here with Aston and his daughter.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t even like him!”
“I heard that,” Aston yells.
“You’re not supposed to be listening,” I fire back. “See what I mean,” I say, returning to Micha as I walk in a circle between the stove and the island. “I can’t live with him!”
Except Micha’s laughing. “Why don’t you like him?”
Um, how about because he called me immature and a mistake? I go with the second half of my truth. “Because he’s an insufferable, arrogant dick and always has been.”
He sighs. “Sky, Zoey already has a bedroom at my house, and it’s near her preschool.”
Hmm. I was wondering why one of the bedrooms had a pink princess theme, but then again, this is Micha we’re talking about, and I assumed it had been there when he bought the place and was too lazy to redo it.
“There are three bedrooms, so it’s not like you’ll have to share. You can still do whatever it is you do, as long as it’s not an asshole or a rando in my house.”
“Tell me you’re kidding.”
“On that, no.”
I stop my circling. “I’m twenty-five. Like you weren’t screwing random women at my age.”
“That’s not up for discussion.”
“Micha!”
“Fine. You’re twenty-five. I respect that. Kind of. Not really. You’re still my baby sister and should be a virgin until marriage or death. But I won’t have to worry about that because Aston will be there, and he’ll be my chastity policeman for you on my behalf.”
“Micha!”
“Stop saying my name like that. Come on, Sky. Aston will be doing his single-dad doctor thing, and you’ll be doing your single-girl nursing thing. You’ll hardly overlap. It’s not good to live in such a big place by yourself. It’ll make me feel better to know you’re not living there alone.”
“You didn’t even remember I was living here.”
“That’s because I work sixteen-hour shifts in ridiculous conditions, and some days I barely remember my name, let alone what a hot shower feels like. I messed up. But this could be beneficial for everyone. What do you care if Aston and his daughter live there with you?”
Um, how about a lot? I care a lot. But hell, I can’t say that now, can I? He thinks Aston and I are indifferent or simply prickly toward each other because that’s exactly what we’re supposed to be and always have been since I accidentally threw up on him and he treated me like a brat.
“I’m sure he won’t be an asshole. In fact, I’ll tell him not to be. It’ll be good for Zoey to have another female around. She just lost her mother.”
I can’t live with Aston, but what freaking choice do I have short of moving out today, which isn’t exactly possible?
And what would be my excuse for running out so fast, especially when he’s asking me to be there for a little girl who just lost her mother?
Maybe I’m the one making too big a deal out of the kiss.
It was two years ago, and he didn’t seem flustered by it.
Not the least bit rattled. To him, it was a mistake and nothing more.