CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Aiden reluctantly rolled out of bed, letting out a deep groan as the sound of his alarm sliced through the quiet morning. After shutting it off, he cast a glance toward the other bed, where Cole lay sleeping. In the dim light of his phone, all he could make out was a large, motionless lump beneath the crumpled blankets.
“Time to get up, bro,” he called out, his voice cutting through the silence. “We’ve got to hit the road.”
His muscles protested with every movement, a reminder of the previous day's exhausting efforts. He and Cole had spent hours lifting and hauling, their bodies strained from the relentless work. A few extra sets of hands would have been a blessing, but somehow, they had managed to accomplish the task on their own.
Cole had muttered a few times about how he should have just hired someone to pack everything up for Skylar. He’d even discreetly called up a couple of places to see if they had anyone available, but with such short notice, everyone had said they couldn’t help.
“Ugh.” Cole shifted on the bed, his arms breaking free of the lump of covers to stretch into the air.
“I’m turning on a light, so cover your eyes,” Aiden advised.
After he’d switched on the lamp beside his bed, he shuffled to where he’d left his bag the night before.
“I could use a couple more hours of sleep. Or a long soak in a hot tub.”
“Sorry, dude,” Aiden said as he rummaged through his things for some clean clothes and his toiletry bag. “Neither is an option today. We’ve got a long drive to take care of.”
“Why did we decide to do this all in one day?” Cole groused as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, rubbing his face before dragging his hands through his hair.
“I didn’t take tomorrow off,” Aiden reminded him. “So I’ve got to be back in Coeur d’Alene tonight.”
“You should come work for me,” Cole said, as he had many times before.
“Not gonna happen,” Aiden said over his shoulder as he headed into the small bathroom to change and freshen up for the day.
When he came back out, Cole was on his feet at the small coffee maker, staring down at it. The aroma of brewing coffee grew stronger as Aiden returned the clothes he’d slept in and his toiletries to his duffle bag.
“Are you planning to grab breakfast here?” Aiden asked, referring to the breakfast offered by the hotel.
“Yes. I’m starving.” Cole turned with a cup of coffee in his hand. “We can head down once I’m dressed.”
While Cole got ready, Aiden made himself a cup of coffee. It wasn’t the best he’d ever tasted, but it would help him wake up. After a couple of sips, he picked up his phone and sent a quick message to Skylar.
Are you awake? We’re getting ready to head down for some breakfast.
It took a couple of minutes, but soon a reply came.
Skylar: Yep. I’m ready. Just putting the last things into my bag.
She’d turned the apartment keys in the night before, and as she’d stood looking at the empty space just before they left, Aiden had wondered if she would miss her life there. But once they’d left, she’d seemed fine.
They’d had dinner at a nearby restaurant after their long day of packing and loading the moving truck. But since they were all exhausted, they hadn’t stayed up late.
Aiden hadn’t had a chance to talk to Skylar about anything that wasn’t related to the move in the time they’d been together. That was fine, however, because he was sure that he’d have lots of time with her during the long drive home.
Why don’t you come by our room when you’re ready?
When Skylar sent a thumbs up in reply, Aiden set his phone down and took his cup of coffee over to the window. Pushing back the curtain, he stared out at the scenery around the hotel.
The sun was still working to fully push back the darkness, but it looked like it was going to be a sunny day. Not his favorite type of day for driving, but it was better than rain or snow.
Cole had just come out of the bathroom when there was a rap on the door.
“It’s Skylar,” Aiden said when Cole gave him a questioning look. He went to open it, greeting her with a smile.
Though it was early, she didn’t look as tired as he felt. The T-shirt and leggings she wore looked like they’d be comfortable for the trip ahead.
“Morning,” he said as he held the door open for her to come in. She had a duffle bag on one shoulder and a smaller bag on the other.
“It certainly is,” she agreed as she dumped the duffle bag on the floor next to his.
“Ready to get some breakfast?” Cole asked. “We should probably get on the road in the next half hour or so.”
“I’m not super hungry, but I’ll eat something, so I’m not starving in a couple of hours.”
The three of them left the room and headed down to the main floor where the hotel had a small cafe style space that was set up to serve the breakfast. Cole headed directly to where someone was cooking what looked like eggs, bacon, and sausage.
Aiden and Skylar wandered by the other parts of the buffet before Aiden joined Cole. After ordering some eggs and bacon for himself, he went to where a toaster and a few varieties of bread had been set out. After making his choice, he put the bread into the toaster.
Five minutes later, the three of them were seated at a small round table in the corner of the room. It was only them and a couple of other people there so early in the morning.
Skylar had opted for a bagel with cream cheese and some fruit. Cole’s plate was piled high with eggs, bacon, sausage, and some fruit.
“This is a pretty decent breakfast,” Cole commented as they began to eat.
“It’s great,” Aiden said. “Lots of selection.”
Cole had gotten another cup of coffee and took a sip. “Should keep us going for awhile.”
They didn’t talk much, focusing on their food, since they wanted to get on the road soon. Once they’d finished eating, they returned to their rooms to get their bags, then they checked out.
“I can drive your car for a bit, Sky,” Aiden offered as they approached the part of the lot where they’d parked her car and the moving truck the night before.
“Sure. That works for me.”
“Are you going to ride with me or Aiden?” Cole asked as he opened the door of the truck.
“Aiden,” Skylar said. “Unless you want me to ride with you. I think the car will be more comfortable.”
“No doubt.” Cole pulled out his phone and held it up. “I’ve got a long audiobook I plan to listen to on this trip, so I’m fine on my own.”
“Guess it’s settled then.”
Skylar unlocked the car with her fob, then handed the keys to Aiden. “You have your walkie talkie set to the right frequency, Cole?”
“Yep. I set them up when I bought them.” He grinned. “I can’t wait to use them. It’ll be fun.”
Aiden hadn’t thought they were necessary, but then he realized it would be easier to just pick up one of the walkie talkies to contact the other vehicle rather than having to place a call on their phones.
Cole had picked a hotel along the highway leading out of Vegas, so it didn’t take long to get onto the road they needed. They’d decided that Cole would lead and set the pace in the truck, and they’d follow in the car.
As they left Vegas behind, heading north, Skylar let out a long sigh. Aiden glanced over at her. “Everything okay?”
“Yep. It’s just weird to think I’m closing this chapter of my life so completely.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m not just leaving Vegas, where I’ve lived for the past few years, I’m also leaving behind the career I’ve had for almost a decade.”
“Did you work private jets that whole time?”
“No. I started out working on commercial flights.”
“Which did you like better?”
“I would say the private ones,” she said. “It was less stressful to only have to deal with a handful of people rather than a whole plane load of sometimes…ofttimes… cranky people.”
“Do you have any regrets about this change in your life?” He knew she was sacrificing a lot, so he figured she’d have some regrets about having to make these changes.
“No,” she said, without any hesitation. “It’s time. I’ve had the chance to see parts of the world I wouldn’t have otherwise. I’ve experienced independence living on my own, in a city where I didn’t know anyone. I’m not leaving here wishing I could do more.”
“I’m glad.”
She was quiet for a minute, then said, “I’m ready for what lays ahead now. I’m ready to make peace with the past and to look forward.”
Aiden’s heart lifted at the statement. “That’s a good outlook to have.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask if that included a second chance for them. But he kept the question to himself. He’d told her that if she needed time, she could have as much as she needed.
Thankfully, his ability to be patient had grown over the past several years. He’d had to learn to be patient in dealing with people on the projects at work. And though she was an angel most of the time, there were moments when Willow tested the limits of his patience, forcing him to dig deep for more.
Still, being patient with Skylar was the hardest thing in the world. But he needed her to see that he was as good as his word.
“Have you had any responses to your applications?”
“Yes. One company called me to set up an interview for Wednesday.”
“An interior design place?”
“Yep. I haven’t applied to places that aren’t interior design related. I figured that I’ll save those to apply to if I’ve exhausted these places with no luck.”
“How about a place to stay?”
“I haven’t looked around too much. Until I know what my salary is going to be, I’m not sure what my budget is for rent.”
Aiden told her a bit about what he knew of the different areas in Coeur d’Alene as he followed Cole down the highway.
The landscape was quite different from the verdant surroundings of his Idaho home, yet the desert terrain near Vegas had its own charm. Distant mountains loomed, shrouded in a hazy glow under the intense sunlight.
He didn’t think he’d enjoy living in the stark, hot environment of Vegas, but apparently Skylar had liked it enough to remain there for several years.
Skylar shifted beside him, and when he glanced over at her, he saw that she’d angled herself to face him more fully. “Are you able to drive and have a conversation at the same time?”
Aiden gave a huff of laughter. “I thought we were already doing that.”
“A serious conversation.”
At that comment, he instantly sobered. He had mixed feelings about having a serious conversation with her, presumably about their future, because it could go either way. She hadn’t given him any indication over the past few days of what she was thinking.
“Yes. I can have a serious conversation with you while I drive,” Aiden said. “In fact, there’s nothing I want more.”
“Nothing?” she asked.
“Okay. I’d like for Shiloh to be completely healed,” he said. “But having a serious conversation with you is right after that for what I want.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
Bringing up Shiloh seemed to cast a shadow over everything. Aiden disliked that every time he thought of Shiloh, her cancer came up in his mind too. He wished he could associate her with only positive thoughts. However, sadly, he had no recollections of a time with her that didn't involve her illness.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Aiden asked.
“I had a conversation with Charli the other day that helped bring some clarity to things in my life and how I’ve dealt with stuff that’s happened.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Yes. Very good. I think it’s necessary for me to face those truths in order to move forward.”
Aiden pulled out to pass a slow-moving trailer, following not far behind Cole, who had also passed the vehicle.
Once they were back in the right-hand lane, free of the slower traffic, Skylar said, “I owe you an apology.”
Aiden glanced over at her. “Say what?”
“Ever since the day of our breakup, I’ve blamed you for the unhappiness in my life. I blamed you for the fact that I had to give Shiloh up to Charli and Blake.”
“That’s understandable,” Aiden said, not quite grasping what she was getting at.
“Going back to that summer before we broke up, I made the decision to sleep with you,” she said. “Because of that, I also have a responsibility for the pregnancy that resulted.”
What she said made sense, but he still felt that he bore more of the responsibility for what happened. He’d slept with her, knowing that he wasn’t as committed to their relationship as he’d been in the past. And definitely not as committed as she’d been.
“Then, I got pregnant with Shiloh and gave her up, feeling like I had to because you weren’t with me.”
“Raising her on your own would have been difficult,” Aiden said.
“But realistically, I wouldn’t have been on my own.” Skylar fell silent for a moment. “I would have had it better than a lot of other single mothers who manage to do it on their own. My family would have helped me, just like they helped Charli. I didn’t have to give her up. But I told myself I did, and it was because you weren’t there.”
Aiden was not sure how to respond, but it seemed perhaps she didn’t need responses from him yet.
“Talking to Charli helped me to see that in all of this, I wasn’t taking responsibility for my own unhappiness and the decisions I’d made. I was putting all of that on you. Blaming you for everything that happened back then.”
She hadn’t been the only one blaming him. He’d blamed himself.
“You aren’t to blame for everything,” she said. “You made some mistakes, and so did I. Though I’m coming to understand that giving up Shiloh wasn’t one of them. It was truly best for her to be with Charli and Blake.”
“I feel like my mistakes were worse than yours,” Aiden told her.
She reached out to put her hand on his arm, making Aiden wish he could concentrate on her rather than on the road. Maybe he wasn’t able to have this conversation while driving after all.
“We can both take responsibility for what happened back then, but I think it’s time that we both forgive each other and ourselves.”
“Yes. We should.” Aiden glanced over at her again. “But can you do that?”
“Right now, it almost feels easier to forgive you than to forgive myself.”
“Yeah. I agree.”
“But I want us to do that, because I agree with Charli that we need to build a strong foundation. And in order to do that, we need to bulldoze the old foundation that we had. Bulldoze and clear it all away to make room for something new. Something strong because of our love for each other and our faith in God.”
Aiden’s heart swelled with the knowledge that she wanted a relationship with him. “But the pieces will all still be there. We won’t forget.”
“True, but we can use them to remind us how far we’ve come. And of the mess we make when we wander off the path God wants for us.”
“So you’re willing to make that effort?” Aiden was all in, but she needed to be all in, too.
“I am.” Her hand tightened on his arm. “I’ve been scared to risk it again. But now that I’ve changed how I view the past, I’ve realized that there will always be a risk. The only love that doesn’t require a risk is God’s love. So, in loving you again… in loving anyone, really… I’m taking a risk. Even loving Shiloh comes with the risk of heartbreak.”
Aiden nodded. “I’ve already experienced that, having lost two loved ones.”
She rubbed his arm gently. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“Thanks.” He cleared his throat. “Even though I understand there’s a risk, I also want you to know that I will do my best to show that you can trust me. I don’t want to hurt you. I never want to do that again.”
“I don’t want to hurt you either,” Skylar said. “But I’m sure I have with some of what I’ve said to you since we’ve reconnected.”
Aiden couldn’t deny that, but he also felt that he’d deserved it.
“So I’m sorry about that.”
“You don’t have to ap—”
Skylar’s fingers tightened on his arm as she said, “Stop.” He glanced over to see her glaring at him. “You have apologized to me for what you felt you needed to. Now, let me do the same.”
“Okay. You’re right.”
Skylar gave a little chuckle. “I never would have thought I’d be asking someone to let me apologize to them like this.”
Aiden tossed her a grin. “Yeah. It feels a bit crazy.”
“It does.”
"Well, I forgive you," Aiden said, looking at her briefly. "Just as you forgave me when I apologized."
Suddenly he felt something press against his shoulder and realized that Skylar had leaned forward to rest her cheek on his upper arm. “Maybe this would have been a conversation better had out of the car.”
“Why?”
“I want to give you a hug,” Skylar said. “But I can’t.”
“I’ll take an IOU until we get to our next stop.”
Skylar straightened with a laugh. “That works.”
Keeping one hand on the wheel, he took hers with his other, wanting to have physical contact with her. “So where do we go on our first date this time around?”
For the next few hours, they discussed not only their first date but also their future together as a couple. This was a conversation he had been eager to have for some time, and it brought him a sense of relief and hopefulness.
They’d been on the road about three hours when the walkie talkie crackled to life.
“Let’s pull in up here,” Cole said. “Need gas and would like to stretch my legs.”
“Sounds good,” Skylar replied into the walkie talkie. “We’ll follow you off.”
Five minutes later, they were pulling up to the pumps at a truck stop just off the highway. Before he did anything with the gas pump, Aiden got out of the car and circled around the hood to open the door for Skylar.
Once she was on her feet outside the car, Aiden took her into his arms and picked her up, spinning her in a gentle circle before setting her down. “Just had to do that.”
As he kept his arms wrapped around her, the world seemed to fall away, leaving just the two of them in a universe of their own. The rumble of engines. The smell of oil and gas. The murmur of voices. None of it was present in that moment between them.
Standing there, wrapped in each other's arms, time seemed to slow. The scent of her hair, a delicate blend of jasmine and vanilla, enveloped him, drawing him closer as if to merge their very hearts together. He felt the soft rise and fall of her chest against his, a gentle rhythm that spoke of life and love intertwined.
He pulled back slightly, just enough to gaze into her eyes. Those eyes that had once looked at him with anger, hurt, and disappointment now shimmered with unshed tears of joy and forgiveness.
"I never thought..." he began, his voice barely above a whisper, thick with emotion. "I never dared to hope that we'd be at this point in our lives again."
She smiled, a small, tremulous thing that spoke of her own disbelief and wonder. "Neither did I," she admitted, her fingers moving to cup his face, thumbs gently stroking his cheeks. "But here we are."
He leaned into her touch, savoring the softness of her skin against his. His heart swelled with gratitude, threatening to burst from the sheer magnitude of the second chance she had granted him. He vowed silently to himself that he would spend every day proving himself worthy of her love and trust.
With a bright smile and a sparkle in her eyes, Skylar gazed up at him. "I love you, Aiden."
"I love you too," he said, lowering his head to kiss her but then pulling back. "I'd rather our first kiss not happen beside gas pumps."
Skylar moved her hands from his cheeks to clasp them behind his neck. "I don't mind where we are," she replied.
"In that case..." Aiden leaned in and gently kissed Skylar's lips. At first, it was a soft touch, reminiscent of the many kisses they had exchanged over the years.
Yet, as the kiss lingered, it felt different... new...
Within the warmth of their embrace, the tentative hope Aiden had had for a future with Skylar gave way to the assurance of what was to come as they built a life together.
As they held each other, Aiden's mind wandered to the possibilities that lay ahead. He imagined lazy Saturday mornings, the sunlight streaming through their bedroom window as they lingered over coffee and shared dreams. He pictured holidays spent with both their families, the laughter and love filling their home as they created new traditions together.
Skylar's gentle breathing against his chest grounded him in the present, even as his heart soared with visions of their future.
Their journey hadn't been easy. Years of hurt and betrayal had nearly derailed their chance at happiness.
But God had other plans, gently guiding them back to each other when they had least expected it. Now, as they stood entwined in this moment of quiet joy, Aiden felt a peace he'd never known before.
Their tender moment was interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing nearby. Aiden and Skylar reluctantly broke apart to see Cole standing there with an amused smirk.
"As touching as this reunion is, we should probably get moving if we want to make it back tonight," he said, gesturing to the gas pumps.
Aiden nodded, feeling a flush creep up his neck. "Right, of course." He turned to Skylar with an apologetic smile. "I'll fill up the car.”
Skylar went into the store to get some snacks as he pumped the gas. Soon, however, they were back in their seats, ready to continue the trip.
As he pulled back onto the highway behind the truck, Skylar reached over and laced her fingers through his.
"Ready for the next leg of the journey?" she asked, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.
Aiden smiled, his eyes were fixed on the road ahead, but his heart was full of love for the woman beside him. "With you? I'm ready for anything."
As they drove on, following Cole in the moving truck, Aiden felt a deep sense of peace. Whatever lay ahead, he knew that God would lead them through it, just as He’d already led Aiden through some of the most difficult times in his life.
But this time, he’d have Skylar by his side.