CHAPTER SIX
Aiden didn't quite know what had compelled him to request a conversation with Skylar, but he was glad she’d agreed. The rollercoaster of emotions over the past hour or so had been crazy.
The first time he’d laid eyes on her in his office, he’d been so stunned by her sudden return to his life that he couldn't truly take her in. Now, he had the chance to observe her more attentively. He looked for traces of the woman he had once loved, but it was difficult to spot any.
She held herself with a sophistication and elegance that she hadn't shown as a teenager. Her dark hair was styled in a sleek twist away from her face, and her makeup was understated.
As a teenager, she’d preferred jeans or leggings paired with a sweatshirt or T-shirt. Her hair had usually been pulled back in a ponytail, and she’d rarely worn much makeup.
That day, however, she stood before him in black slacks, heels, and a red blouse, giving off a professional vibe. It made him curious about her occupation.
“Thanks for agreeing to speak with me,” Aiden said, sliding his hands into his pockets. “You’d be well within your rights to refuse.”
She shrugged. “I figured that maybe it was time.”
“Will you tell me more about our daughter now that I’ve signed the papers?” he asked.
“Again… she isn’t our daughter. She’s the daughter of the couple who adopted her. You really need to start thinking of her like that.”
Aiden nodded, though it pained him to have to accept that. “Sorry. This is all so new to me.”
“The sooner you accept that, the easier it will be.”
“Do you have a picture of her?” he asked. “Will you tell me her name?”
“Her name is Shiloh,” she said after a brief hesitation. “I can show you a picture. I don’t have a really recent one, though.”
Aiden was willing to accept anything at that point. He just wanted to be able to put a face to the daughter he’d never known. Given what he’d told Skylar to do with the baby years ago, he was grateful for even an older picture of her.
“This was her when she was around three,” Skylar said, holding her phone out so he could see the screen.
Aiden stepped closer, bending his head to look at the phone without taking it from Skylar. On the screen was a toddler with a big grin, her face framed by dark curls. Her brown eyes weren’t quite as dark as Skylar’s, but they sparkled with delight. Clearly, she was a happy child.
He searched for something of him in her features, but he couldn’t pinpoint anything.
“Here’s one taken a couple of years later,” Skylar said as she showed him another photo on her phone.
In that picture, Shiloh looked to be a bit younger than Willow was now, and he could see a resemblance between them. So perhaps there was something of him in Shiloh after all.
It was hard seeing her healthy and happy, knowing that wasn’t the case anymore. His heart clenched at the idea of her in pain and suffering.
“So you’ve spoken to her adoptive parents about me?” he asked, looking up at Skylar.
“Yes.” She stared at him for a long moment, her brown gaze unreadable. “Just so you know, all of this is pretty much my worst nightmare. Not just Shiloh’s health, but also you being back in my life and hers.”
Shame and regret flooded Aiden. He’d spent most of the days since their breakup trying not to think about Skylar. Given what he’d done to her, it was actually a surprise that she’d agreed to any of this.
He slid his hands into his pants pockets, dipping his head a bit, though he still held her gaze. “I really am sorry for all of that.”
Her eyes narrowed briefly, and in that moment, he understood that she might never forgive him. And he couldn’t blame her for that. She owed him nothing, while he owed her everything.
“Anyway… Her parents are Charli and Blake,” Skylar said.
Aiden straightened in surprise. “Like your sister, Charli?”
“Yes. She and Blake agreed to adopt her when I asked them to, once I realized you weren’t interested in being a part of my life or hers.”
The relief he felt at knowing who had been raising his daughter was immense. “I bet they’ve been great parents to her.”
“They have. When I made the decision to give Shiloh up, I knew I could only do it if it was to someone I already knew and trusted.”
“I’m glad they stepped up,” he said. “When I didn’t.”
“I don’t want to disrupt her life anymore than the cancer already has,” Skylar said. “But Charli and Blake don’t seem to have a problem with telling her who we are.”
“So she doesn’t know who you are?”
Skylar shook her head. “I’ve always just been Auntie Sky to her.”
“Have you spent a lot of time with her over the years?”
“No. I’ve just seen her at Christmas and if there was a family wedding during the year. It was the only way I could separate my feelings about her being their daughter and not mine.”
Aiden could see the toll that had taken on her in the haunted expression in her eyes. “Are you going to try to keep your distance even after she knows who you are?”
“That would be my preference, but I doubt that I’ll be able to.”
“Are you going to be in Serenity for awhile?”
“I’m not sure. At the moment, I have another week off, with the option of taking more, if needed.”
“So I’ll see you again?”
Aiden wasn’t sure why he’d said that. He was probably the last person she wanted to see again.
“Probably.” Naturally, she didn’t sound enthused by the idea. “We’ll see how things go.”
Aiden understood that the family was dealing with more than his desire to get to know his daughter. They had a fight on their hands.
“I’d better go,” Skylar said as she turned toward the door.
They joined the others in the waiting room, then the five of them left the building. After saying goodbye to the Halversons, Aiden and Dennis walked to where he’d parked earlier.
“Everything else okay?” Dennis asked once they were at his car. The man had been a family friend, and he’d done his best to take care of them legally and more since Aiden’s dad had passed away.
“Yep. Things are going fine.”
“Well, keep me posted about this situation,” Dennis said. “And give my regards to your mom.”
“I will.” After shaking the man’s hand, Aiden got into his car and left the parking lot.
Rather than head home, he went to the park near Harrison Slough, not far from downtown Coeur d’Alene. He needed to have a few minutes to process everything.
After taking off his suit coat, Aiden headed for a bench near the sand. The water sparkled in the sunlight, making him wish he’d grabbed his sunglasses.
Given it was the middle of a workday afternoon, the area wasn’t very busy. Willow loved coming to the beach, so maybe he’d bring her on the weekend and give his mom a few hours to herself.
Letting out a long exhale, Aiden leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his thighs. He let his head fall forward and stared at the ground between his feet.
“Missing you a whole lot today, Dad,” he murmured. “I hope I’m doing the right thing, and that you’d be proud of me.”
Even as he said the words, Aiden knew that he wouldn’t be proud of Aiden’s behavior with Skylar back when they’d been dating. His parents had been very disappointed when things hadn’t worked out between them. His dad had asked him what he’d done, but Aiden had brushed it off as a mutual decision, made because a long distance relationship was too hard to maintain.
His parents had met in high school and, by all accounts, had been happily married up until the day of his dad’s death. They wouldn’t have understood Aiden’s need to see if there was life beyond Serenity. Beyond Skylar.
Yeah. They would have been very disappointed at the time if they’d known the truth. Looking back at his actions, Aiden was disappointed in himself.
His current life would probably be a whole lot different had he made better decisions in the past. But there was no going back. Only moving forward and doing what he could for Skylar now. Which included getting tested.
It was nearly five by the time he pulled into the parking lot behind the clinic. There were a few cars there, but he suspected others would come once it was past five.
He and his mom got out, then he helped Willow out of the car seat in the back. They each took one of her hands and walked along the sidewalk that ran beside the building to the front.
Though he felt nervous about seeing more of Skylar’s family, he tried his best to keep his nervousness hidden, especially from his mom and Willow. As they reached the front door, he pulled it open and allowed them to precede him into the building.
The small group of people standing at the reception desk turned as they walked in.
“Aiden?”
While he didn’t know them all, he did recognize Janessa. “Hi, Janessa.”
“Come to get your blood drawn for the testing?”
“Yep. Both Mom and I are here for that.”
“Hi, Mrs. McIntyre,” Janessa said as she approached his mom and gave her a hug. “I was sorry to hear about your husband and Bethany.”
“Thank you.” His mom smiled at her. “It’s good to see you again.”
“You too.” Janessa turned her attention to Willow. “And who is this beautiful little girl?”
“This is my granddaughter, Willow.”
Janessa held out her hand. “Hi, Willow. My name is Janessa. It’s nice to meet you.”
Willow smiled up at Janessa as she took her hand. “Nice to meet you too!”
“Well, we’re closed for the day, so let’s head back to the staff room,” Janessa said as one of the women locked the front door. “The technicians are set up there. Dad pulled some strings or greased some palms or something to have this testing done here after hours.”
Aiden trailed behind his mom, Willow, Janessa, and the other women as they walked down the hallway to the back of the building. They preceded him into the break room, and Aiden heard Skylar’s mom greet his.
Before he stepped into the break room, the back door opened, and Wilder walked in with a beautiful woman at his side.
When Wilder’s gaze landed on him, he came to a stop, his eyes narrowing. “Aiden.”
Aiden gave him a nod. “Wilder.”
“Does Skylar know you’re here?”
“Of course. She’s the one who told me the time and place.”
Wilder advanced on him. “If I had known what you did back then, you’d have been sporting a shiner.”
“You can give me one now if it’ll make you feel better.”
“Well, since you’re offering…”
Wilder pulled his arm back, eliciting a startled yelp from the woman at his side. She clutched at his arm. “Wilder!”
“I wasn’t really going to hit him.” Wilder grinned at her. “I just wanted to scare him a little.”
“Well, you scared me .”
He pressed a kiss to her head. “Sorry, babe.”
“You should be,” the woman said. “That wasn’t nice.”
“What Aiden did wasn’t nice,” Wilder told her with another glare at Aiden. “In fact, what he did was far worse. He deserves quite a few scares.”
“He’s right,” Aiden told the woman. “I do.”
“While I understand Wilder’s sentiment, let’s move along,” Janessa suggested from the doorway, then turned to lead the way into the staff room.
As soon as he stepped through into the room, Aiden glanced around to see if Skylar was there. He spotted her talking to his mom, but he’d only taken one step in their direction when someone said his name, stopping him in his tracks.
“Aiden.” The all-too-familiar voice made Aiden wince.
He’d tried not to think about coming face to face with the man who had spent so much time not just coaching him and his teammates on basketball, but coaching them on how to be gentlemen. How to treat people respectfully. Especially the women in their lives. The women they dated.
Turning, Aiden came face to face with the tall figure of Jay Halverson. “Hi, Coach.”
“Don’t hi coach me, Aiden.”
Aiden pulled his shoulders back to keep them from slumping under the weight of the man’s disappointment and anger. It was all he could do to hold the imposing man’s stare. He could manage disappointment and anger from most people, but there were a few it was harder to stomach it from. Jay Halverson, being one of them.
“Sorry about that, Coach.”
Jay placed a hand on each of his shoulders. “I thought I taught you better than that. And even if I didn’t, I know your dad and mom did.”
Aiden nodded. “They did. And you did too. I just… Well, there’s really no excuse beyond immaturity and selfishness for what I did.”
“It was definitely both of those things,” Jay agreed. “I can’t believe that you didn’t tell Cole. I mean, he knows now, but he was clueless back then.”
Aiden’s stomach sank. It had been stupid of him not to think that someone would let Cole know. He should have told him himself, but he’d been worried that he’d lose his best friend. Cole might have other people he considered his best friend now, but he was still Aiden’s number one.
“Jay, it’s your turn.”
Aiden turned to see Cathy gesturing for Jay to come to where the technician was set up at the table.
“I’ll talk to you more in a minute,” he said.
Whether that was a threat or a promise, Aiden wasn’t sure. But he wasn’t going to run off, even if it was a threat. He knew he deserved everything that Jay dished out to him.
While the man went to do his test, Aiden made his way to where his mom, Cathy, and Skylar stood talking. Skylar was dressed in a pair of black shorts and a white T-shirt with a floral pattern on the front. She wore flat black sandals, and her hair was pulled back in a braid.
The small diamond studs in her ears reminded him of the pair of earrings he’d given her for her birthday one year while they were dating. He wondered what she’d done with them and the other things he’d bought her.
He kind of hoped that she’d thrown them away, because that’s what he’d done with her gifts to him back when he was being immature and selfish.
Her gaze met his for a moment, and his heart skipped a beat. It shocked him enough that he lifted a hand to rub at his chest before he realized what he was doing.
“Hey,” he said, giving her a small smile as he tried to get his heart to behave itself.
Was he having this reaction to her because of their past relationship? Or was there something about her now that resonated with his heart?
“Hi.” She shifted closer to her mom to give him space to join their group.
Cathy greeted him with a smile, and when Willow lifted her arms to him, Aiden picked her up with ease, settling her on his forearm as she hooked her arm around his neck.
He saw that Skylar’s gaze was on Willow, and he was once again left to wonder what was going through her mind. Cathy, however, smiled at Willow, her feelings clear.
Aiden wished they could see Shiloh, but she’d been admitted to the hospital and had had her first treatment earlier that day. He didn’t expect that any of Shiloh’s family would show up at the clinic.
“How did Shiloh do today?” Aiden asked.
Cathy’s smile slid away. “Charli texted me a little while ago and told me that she was feeling quite sick after the treatment.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Aiden said, his heart sinking at the news of his daughter suffering like that.
“It was expected,” Cathy explained. “But it’s still hard to see in reality.”
“Oh, Blake made it after all,” Skylar said, her gaze going to the door.
Aiden turned to see a tall, solidly built man holding the hand of a young boy. There were three other children with him, and he assumed that the dark-haired teen was Layla. The last time he’d seen the girl, she’d been just a few years older than Willow. She might even have been the age that Shiloh was now.
Thinking about that was kind of depressing. Time passed so quickly. And so much had changed since he’d last been surrounded by the Halverson family.
It made him realize just how many years he’d missed of his daughter’s life. Even if he’d only seen her once or twice a year like Skylar had, it would have been something. By his own actions, he’d robbed himself of that.
Of course, if they’d stayed together, it was unlikely that they would have given the baby up for adoption. He would have been in Shiloh’s life all these years.
Blake gazed around the room, and when he saw their group, he headed in their direction, the other kids following him.
“Hi, darling,” Cathy said, as she gave Blake a hug. “I’m glad you made it.”
She greeted each of the children with a hug before gesturing at Aiden. “This is Aiden, his mom, and niece, Willow.”
Blake greeted Willow and Aiden’s mom, then turned to Aiden. Aiden held out his hand and Blake took it. The man looked like he could crush Aiden’s hand, but while his grip was firm, Blake didn’t squeeze only hard.
“Aiden,” Blake said with a nod of his head. “Good to meet you finally.”
Though Blake and Charli had been dating back when he and Skylar were together, Aiden had been away at school most of the time, so he hadn’t met Blake then.
“Good to meet you too,” Aiden said, meaning every word of it.
Blake laid a hand on each kid’s shoulder as he introduced them to Aiden.
“I know him already,” Layla said. “I used to hang out with him and Skylar all the time. And Cole too.”
“You’ve grown up,” Aiden told her.
“You’ve gotten older.”
Aiden’s mouth quirked at the starchiness in her voice. She was definitely on Skylar’s side. As she should be.
“I definitely have,” he agreed with a nod.
Layla went to Skylar and gave her a hug. The other kids followed, and after they’d all greeted their aunt, they headed off to talk to the others in the room.
Blake crossed his arms as he braced his feet. Aiden prepared himself for what was to come. He had no idea what Blake’s reaction to him and his request was going to be.
“I understand that you’d like to meet Shiloh,” Blake said.
Aiden nodded. “I would, and my mom and Willow would too. If you’d be okay with that.”
Blake regarded him for a long moment. “With her being in the hospital, I think it would be best if it’s just you for now.”
“That’s understandable,” Aiden said, trying not to show his excitement at the prospect of finally meeting Shiloh.
“Perhaps you and Skylar could come together,” Blake suggested. “I think Shiloh would like that.”
Aiden glanced over at Skylar. She didn’t look like she would like that.
“We can talk about it and let you know,” Aiden said, not wanting to upset Skylar by agreeing to something she may not want.
Blake glanced over at where the technicians were just finishing up with a couple more people. “I’m going to see if they’re ready for us.”
When it was just the four of them, Cathy said, “I think it would be a great idea for the two of you to see her together.”
“She already knows me,” Skylar said.
Cathy gave her daughter a gentle smile. “Yes, but she doesn’t know you as her birth mom.”
Skylar’s lips tightened, then she gave a single nod. Looking at Aiden, she said, “We’ll talk about it.”
Aiden knew this meant that even when Shiloh was ready for visitors, Skylar’s mood was still going to have to be considered.
She looked a bit ruffled by it all.
He was sure that she hoped to keep most of her emotions under wraps, just like he did, but there were moments when things slipped through. And in those moments, he just wanted to do something to soothe her.
However, he knew any such efforts would be totally rebuffed.
“Have they told Shiloh about us?” Aiden asked.
“Yes. They told her last night. They wanted to give her something positive to look forward to.”
“Did Charli say how she took the news?” his mom asked.
“Oh, she was surprised,” Cathy said. “But also excited. And she was happy to hear she has another grandma and a cousin close to her age.”
Aiden’s mom smiled. “That’s good. I look forward to meeting her someday. In the meantime, I will be praying for her.”
Cathy’s smile trembled a bit. “We sure appreciate that.”
Janessa came over to them. “You four ready?”
They had to wait for the technicians to finish up with the kids, then Cathy and his mom had their turn. Willow watched intently as the woman inserted the needle into her grandma’s arm.
Her arm tightened around Aiden’s neck. “Does it hurt?”
“A teeny tiny bit,” he said. “Kind of like a mosquito bite.”
Willow didn’t seem reassured by his words. Her eyes widened as she saw the blood flow into the tube. Meanwhile, his mom was chatting with the technician, not paying any attention to what was happening with the needle in her arm.
“Are they going to do that to you too?” Willow asked, turning her wide-eyed gaze towards him.
“Yep, but it’ll be fine.”
Willow encircled his neck with both her arms and pressed her cheek to his. “I hope it doesn’t hurt you.”
“I’ll be fine, princess,” he said, rubbing a hand up and down her back to reassure her. “Look, Grandma is all done, and she didn’t cry. I won’t either.”
He moved around the table to take his mom’s seat, while Skylar settled into the seat vacated by Cathy. Aiden tried to set Willow down, but she insisted on sitting on his leg with his arm around her.
The technician pushed his sleeve up and began the process of prepping his arm for the needle. Another person in a lab coat was labelling vials and putting them into a stand.
Aiden didn’t focus on the needle, not really being a fan of them himself. However, Willow kept a close eye on what was happening. And not just with Aiden, but with Skylar as well.
When it was done, Aiden got to his feet, keeping Willow with him.
“Did it hurt her?” Willow asked, pointing to where Skylar still sat.
It appeared that the tech was having a bit of trouble finding a vein, but Skylar didn’t look upset, so he felt safe saying, “No. She’s fine.”
When the tech finally had things working, Skylar looked up and nodded. “Yep. I’m fine.”
Her gaze lingered on Willow before meeting Aiden’s briefly.
“All done,” the tech said to her after she’d put a strip of tape over a cotton ball on the needle prick.
Skylar got up and moved away from the table. Aiden moved to follow her, but a hand on his arm stopped him.
Jay again.
“Out of respect for your niece, we won’t have a conversation here,” he said. “But I’d still like to have a chat.”
“Okay. Skylar has my number, so you can get it from her.”
“I will.” Jay smiled at Willow, then looked back at Aiden. “Regardless, it’s been good to see you again.”
“You too, Coach.”
Though Aiden might have liked to talk more with Skylar, she didn’t seem inclined to have a conversation with him. Instead, he went to where his mom was, and the two of them said goodbye to the Halverson family members gathered there.
It had gone pretty well, in Aiden’s estimation, and it seemed that his mom felt the same way. Before heading back to Coeur d’Alene, they went to the house and checked it over, then went to the local diner for dinner.
No one had punched him. They’d gotten tested. All in all, it had been a good day for him.
However, his thoughts kept going to Shiloh and how this was most likely not a very good day for her. He hoped that she would have a restful night, and that the treatments she was undergoing would be what led to her regaining her health.