Chapter 7 Noah
Chapter Seven
NOAH
I was an operator. A fucking good one, actually. Staying cool under pressure was what I did. That’s not to say I was never nervous or scared. I’d just learned to hide it well. And I never let it get the best of me. At least, I used to be.
Despite the fact that I had met Skylar the day before, I was still nervous as hell.
The girl I met was precocious and sassy.
She had no fear of saying what was on her mind.
And I had Everly to thank for that. I was glad my daughter had the confidence to be honest, and stand up for herself.
But, hell, if I didn’t find her intimidating.
“What if she doesn’t like me?”
Everly stifled a smile, but her eyes softened as she turned in the passenger’s seat to face me. “From what I understand, you two hit it off during that first water fight, yesterday.”
“Yesterday, we were not father and daughter. I was not a parent.”
Everly nodded as if she understood. “She’s a pre-teen girl. There’s a big chance you’re not going to like her a lot of the time.”
“What?” From the little time I’d spent with her that seemed unlikely. “She’s smart and funny. Why would I not like her?”
She didn’t roll her eyes exactly, but I could feel the condescension in her stare.
“She’s nearly thirteen, which means she knows everything.
The one thing she is passionate about, she happens to be really good at.
That brings with it a certain amount of arrogance.
Which can be really annoying when she’s right. ”
“Wow. Way to sell it to me.”
“And you’ll put up with it because you get days like yesterday when she is adorable and humble. A good friend and kind to the little ones. There are days when you can see the beautiful woman she’ll become, if you can just get past the moodiness and the tantrums.”
“Tantrums?”
“Oh, not the toddler kind. There’s no kicking and throwing herself on the floor. But there are tears and outbursts about me being the strictest mother in the school. I cannot imagine you’ll have it easier. Something tells me you’ll want to shelter her more than I do.”
“That stands to reason. Of course, we want to shelter her. We’re her parents.
” I paused for a moment. Oh, God. I was a parent.
If things went as they were supposed to, I was going to be the primary male role figure in her life.
As messed up as I was, that couldn’t be good for her.
I would need to get to know — wait. There were things I needed to know first.
“Are you seeing someone?” Not once did I take my eyes off the road. I really didn’t want to look at her when I asked that question.
“What?” Her voice had raised an octave. “Why is that relevant?”
“Does Skylar have a male role model in her life?”
“Oh.” Her features relaxed and once again those turquoise eyes softened. “No. In fact, until Cassie met Jake, she didn’t know many men, really.”
“Seriously?” Surely, she had family. “What about your dad? You don’t have siblings?” Surely, there was an uncle in the mix somewhere.
“Mason and Jake are more like uncles than my brothers ever were.” She pointed out the window. “Make a left there. The dance studio is in the gray building on the next corner. As for my dad? I try not to subject her to that unless it is absolutely necessary.”
I pulled into the parking on the side of the building. We were a little early, but Everly still got out of the car.
“Where are you going?”
“She doesn’t know this car.” I was still using Nick’s Escalade. I suppose I needed to get one of my own. And soon. “I want to make sure she sees us.”
I followed her lead and got out, as well. Standing alongside her, I continued our conversation. “What’s wrong with your father?”
I was prying and I didn’t care. If the man was in my daughter’s life, I needed to know about him.
“Well, my last conversation with him and my mom involved sending Skylar to private school. One that has boarding facilities.”
That wasn’t ideal. I didn’t want Skylar away from home. “Do you not like the school they had in mind?”
She sagged against the car door and folded her arms. “It's a great school. Except they have no dance program. If she was a border, she would have to give that up. My parents don’t want, and I quote, her to make the same mistakes career wise, as I did.”
Aah. “So, they want to control the two of you.”
“I think they’ve given up on me.” She looked up at me and there was no mistaking the sadness in her eyes. “But they never approved of me going into show business. It's worse that I am a performer. I think if I went into production, they could handle that.”
Wow… while my problem was the exact opposite of hers, it seemed we both had to deal with parental disapproval.
“And dancing makes her happy?” I didn’t want Skylar to feel that just because she was good at something that she was obligated to pursue it.
A smile lit up Everly’s face. “Her whole being brightens when she’s on stage.
She lights up when she thinks about choreography.
Of course she works hard at it, as well, and she’s really talented.
I don’t know if she’ll do it forever but if she wanted to, she’s the one in a million that could make a career out of it. ”
Everly pointed to the entrance of the building. “Here she comes. Shit, I forgot I’m dropping Jason at home.”
I looked at where she was pointing. Skylar looked very different in a pair of black sweats and a hoodie with her hair pulled back into a neat bun. Alongside her was a boy, probably about the same age as her and approximately the same height. He was also wearing a pair of sweats and a hoodie.
My body tensed at seeing that kid smile and laugh with my daughter. I needed to know more about him.
“Who’s that?”
“Jason Wilder.” Everly didn’t sound concerned at all. “He’s her Ballroom and Latin dance partner. Like her, he also does ballet, tap, and hip hop.”
The kid sounded like an overachiever to me. “Dance partner?”
Everly turned to face me. She rushed her words, obviously not wanting the kids to hear her. “You will not intimidate that boy. They’re friends and dance partners and not at all interested in each other.”
Well, that was something. And if he was a dancer, chances are he had to put up with a fair amount of bullying. I was not going to make that kid’s life harder. “Fine, I’ll be nice. For now.”
“Hey, mom.” Skylar frowned between me and her mother. “Why are you and Noah fetching me together? And why are you using Nick’s car?”
“We’ll talk about that at home.” She looked over at the boy. “Hey, Jason.”
“Hey, Miss H.” Jason opened the back door and held it as Skylar stepped in.
I lifted a brow and did the same for Everly. No way was some twelve or thirteen-year-old going to show me up. Everly rolled her eyes but got into the car without a word.
In between Everly directing me to Jason’s house, the kids gave us a blow-by-blow of their dance class.
Apparently, Skylar’s idea to combine a song from The Sound of Music with one of Gwen Stefani’s songs was approved for some freestyle number.
Their ballet teacher would help them choreograph one part, and they’d already got the thumbs up from their hip-hop teacher.
By the time we’d dropped Jason at home, I understood the friendship a little more. Jason was just as passionate as Skylar was about dance. I guessed he didn’t have many guy friends and therefore his friendship with my daughter was very important to him. I was not going to interfere with that.
When I pulled into the driveway of the big house, I looked over at Everly. “This is where you live?”
Her eyes narrowed and that brow knitted. “Wait, you've been in Marina De Ferrier for weeks and you haven’t heard of Forte Femme?”
“I think we’ve established that a number of people have been careful with what they say around the two of us.”
“True.” She tilted her head to the side.
“Cassie rents it out like a boarding house of sorts. A few good women have lived here over the last few years. Bex Salinger rents one of the rooms at the moment. I, however, have rented the cottage at the back since Skylar was a baby. It has two bedrooms and it’s private. ”
Skylar opened the back door. “Enough chatter you two. Let’s get inside so you two can drop whatever bomb you think needs to be dropped.”
We both turned to her in the back seat. Everly was the one to speak up. “What makes you think we have a bomb to drop?”
“Please.” I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to roll their eyes any wider than Skylar at that moment. “If you think no one could feel the tension, you’re mistaken. Even Jason could feel it. And he's a boy, he doesn’t usually pick on these things.”
Well, she wasn’t wrong. Teenage boys were among the most clueless creatures on the planet.
“Let’s get inside.”
Skylar slid out of the backseat and walked along the path leading to the back of the house.
Her mother, however, turned to me and plastered on the biggest fakest smile I had ever seen. “She’s a delight, isn’t she?”
Well, I could see that Skylar had a little more attitude than I had anticipated. Still, it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.
A scream caught our attention, and I rushed out of the car. “Stay here,” I said to Everly. Fear like I had never known it gripped my heart and I couldn’t breathe. I followed the path Skylar had taken and found her frozen a few meters away from a black package.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
She pointed at the parcel. “That package made that weird rattling sound. I picked it up thinking it was another one from one of mom’s fans, but it made that noise, and I dropped it. I know what a rattlesnake sounds like.”
Everly came sprinting around the corner. “What is going on?”
“I told you to stay in the car, babe.” Reverting back to the nickname I gave her that weekend all those years ago, came far too naturally.
“My daughter was screaming, I wasn’t going to stay away.”
I didn’t even think before I spoke next. “She’s my daughter too and I was handling —”
“What?” Skylar’s eyes widened.
It took me a moment to process what I said, and blood drained from my face.
I turned to Everly who was just glaring at me. Her eyes softened as she turned to Skylar. “This is not how we wanted to tell you, honey.”
“Mom, there is no way you could soften this. Like I said, you had a bomb to drop.”
I stood alongside Everly. There was no way I would let her feel alone at a time like this.
“Let’s deal with one crisis at a time.” There was a package making a noise near my daughter.
That was one thing I could do something about.
“Sky, go with your mom back to the car. Ev, call Nick. I’ll check the parcel, if we’re overreacting, we can call him back.
Otherwise, I want to check for a note or something. ”
I waited for them to do as I asked before approaching the package. The barking inside the cottage drew my attention and was probably the reason the package was left so far from the door.
Skylar was right, it was rattling. I opened and then closed as soon as I spotted the red diamond rattlesnake. A note fell to the ground and I picked it up to read it.
You will not dismiss me. Now that you’ll be a star again, we’ll be together. G