11. Skylar
I wake in the darkness,feeling hollow and cold. I look up, expecting to see the moonlight highlighting the cracks in the ceiling like it always does, but instead, I see the outline of a figure standing above me.
I try to scream, but a rough hand presses over my mouth, stifling my cry.
I’m about to panic, but then I recognize the scent.
Cade.
“It’s just me, angel,” he whispers. “Don’t make too much noise. Your dad is asleep in his room.”
What is he doing here? My heart is racing from the jolt of the scare, and adrenaline is coursing through my body from the fright, but he slowly slips his hand from my mouth and wraps me in his arms. I don’t know how to react or what’s happening, so my body remains tense.
I hate feeling like this around him. I should feel warm and happy in his embrace. Instead, I feel as though Cade is an intruder in my home–in my bedroom, which is my sacred space only meant for me.
There may have been a point where I would have been happy to invite him into it, but that time is not now. Right now, having him here feels wrong.
“What the hell, Cade?” I hiss. “You can’t just sneak in here while I’m sleeping! You can’t knock on the window? You can’t call?”
“Okay, I did knock on the window,” he replies, a tiny smirk on his face. I’m trying to ignore just how handsome he is. “But you sleep like a rock, you know that? And I lost my phone and I don’t have your number memorized, okay? Now can we just go outside and talk before we wake up your dad, please?”
What he’s saying is making sense, but I’m also still pouty and upset, so I glare back at him for a moment until he asks again.
“Please, angel?”
“Fine,” I reply. “I’m giving you two minutes. And don’t call me angel. You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
“Fair enough,” he says as he easily slips out the window and outside.
He holds out his arms to help me. I desperately want to refuse and manage on my own, but it’s too high and I don’t want to stumble and make an ass out of myself, so I let him take me by the waist with his huge hands and lower me to the ground.
I hate the fact that I like being manhandled by him too. I’m supposed to be angry with him. I’m supposed to hate him. This man lied to me. He seduced my aunt and is marrying her and moving to California with her. I don’t even know why I’m talking to her or why he’s here to talk to me.
This whole thing is one huge clusterfuck.
I walk quickly away from him over to the trees where Daddy won’t hear us, then turn to face him.
“Well, I guess some congratulations are in order.”
He frowns. “Congratulations?”
“On your engagement.”
His frown deepens and he cocks his head to the side. “Engagement? To who?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Cade. Just tell me what you want so we can get this over with. Your two minutes are ticking down. You’re probably down to a minute and a half now.”
Cade shakes his head, confused. “Wait, what are you talking about, Sky? Engaged to who?”
“My aunt, asshole!” I blurt out. “Don’t play dumb with me. I know all about it! She told me how you have been trying to seduce her and my daddy just told me this evening how you two are engaged and moving to California tomorrow!”
“Oh, Christ…” Cade groans, putting his hands to his head. “I was hoping I could get to you before she did.”
“You know, you really made me believe you loved me, Cade,” I cry, feeling the tears fall from my eyes once again. “I let you be my first, and this whole time you were just using me for my aunt’s money–”
Cade rushes in and wraps his arms around me. I struggle against him, but he is much too strong. It’s hopeless. It’s like fighting against iron chains.
“Don’t say that, Sky! Don’t say that!” he says, his voice soft and low, contrasting his immense strength. “I do love you. I love you with all my heart. Everything your aunt has said to you–to your father–is all bullshit!”
“Don’t lie to me!” I cry.
“I’m not, Sky! I would never lie to you, my sweet little angel.”
“You’re engaged to her! You’re leaving for California tomorrow!” I sob, feeling every fiber in my body fall apart and my heart deflate.
“I’m not, Sky. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I tried to call you!” I whimper as the tears soak my cheeks. “Your phone was disconnected. Or you blocked me or something.”
“My phone is missing,” Cade explains. “I’m pretty sure Beatrice stole it when she called me over to her house. I couldn’t find it, so I got this.”
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a new phone and slips it into my hand.
“I want you to take this and call your phone so I have your number, okay?”
The whole world feels like a tornado of fire and ice. I don’t know what to believe anymore, but there’s a glimmer of hope in my chest that wasn’t there moments ago. I look into his eyes and allow myself to see something there–the way he looked at me that always made me feel loved–like this is the man I was meant to be with.
But he still has so much more explaining to do.
I take the phone and dial my number and hand it back to him.
“My aunt said you’d seen her naked. Is that true?”
Cade groans. I already know the answer before he replies. “Yep.” He nods. My stomach twists as I start imagining all the possible scenarios that could have led to that happening.
“But it’s not what you think.”
“Well what is it, then?”
“She asked me to come into the house to fix a pipe that I’m ninety-nine percent sure she rigged to be leaky, and when I turned around, she had let her robe fall off.”
“Are you fucking kidding?” I gasp.
“Nope.” He shakes his head. “Sky, your aunt has been trying to hit on me for a while now. That’s why I’ve moved all my work to the outskirts of her property and had the other guys working close to the house–so she wouldn’t have a chance to get me alone again.”
That glimmer of hope is starting to grow inside me.
I can totally see Beatrice behaving this way, especially after our encounter when she told me to stay away from Cade and slammed the door in my face.
“You said she called you over to her house?” I ask.
Cade nods. “She is moving to California. She bought a house, and she offered me triple my salary to move with her and be her live-in lawn-care worker basically.”
“What? And what did you say to her?”
“I told her I couldn’t do that but I’d gladly stay here and maintain this house while she’s gone.”
Could this be true?
Could what Cade is saying be what actually happened?
I look up at him and feel the flow of my tears slow, the pace of my heart lessens.
“So…you didn’t try to seduce my aunt?” I ask, my lips trembling as the words pass through them.
Cade laughs tenderly and threads his callused fingers through my hair. My body comes alive as he caresses my scalp.
“Never. I love you, Sky. You are my angel. There is no other woman in this entire Earth I would rather be with.” And here come the tears again. “In fact, it wasn’t just to clear up all this crap your aunt has been saying that I came here tonight. There was another reason…”
Cade takes my hand in his and drops to one knee.
My heart nearly leaps from my chest.
“Wh–what are you doing?”
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a tiny velvet blue box. I gasp and cover my mouth with my other hand.
Is this seriously happening right now? I’m in my pajamas in the middle of a trailer park!
He pops open the box and to reveal the ring: white-gold with a perfectly sized diamond, cut with just the right shape as though I was right there picking it out with him when he bought it.
I absolutely love it.
“Skylar, will you marry me?”
The air is electric. I can’t speak. A moment passes as I stare down at the gorgeous man in front of me, kneeling with my hand in his and a ring held up to me, his face filled with a love that I fully believe.
“You know that if I marry you, my aunt won’t leave me a dime, right?” I ask.
Cade grins. “You know that I don’t care, right?”
And then it hits me. A revelation in my chest that should have never taken me this long to fully connect to.
“I know,” I say, so happy I can speak the words.
“So is that a yes?” he asks.
I’m about to speak, but before I can, I hear the sound of screeching tires and spin to see blaring headlights speeding toward me. Cade quickly stands and pulls me out of the way as a Mercedes G-Wagon comes rocketing past us and skids to a halt just a few feet from where we were standing.
“Is that–?”
The door opens, and my Aunt Beatrice leaps out, her hair an absolute frizzy mess, her clothes a wreck like I’ve never seen her before. She marches toward us both, pointing a finger at me like the last time she threatened me.
“Oh, I knew it!” she screeches, her voice like a squawking vulture. “You didn’t turn me down because you wanted to stay here. You turned me down because of her!”
“Beatrice, maybe you should calm down–” Cade starts to say, but Beatrice turns her eyes on me.
“And you! You little bitch. I told you to stay away from him!”
She rushes me like she’s going to grab me and choke me, but Cade steps in the way and grabs both of her wrists and pins them behind her back.
“Easy there. Easy,” he says. “Let’s just calm down.”
“What the hell is going on out here!?” I turn and see my dad stepping out of the trailer and wish I could just shrink myself into a Lego-sized version of myself and hide until this is all over.
“Hey there, Mr. Parks!” Cade calls out, doing his best to be a gentleman while keeping my crazy aunt at bay. “Just a little situation here. Maybe you could help me out?”
My dad looks completely shocked as he quickly jogs over and takes my aunt from Cade and holds on to one of her wrists.
“Beatrice, what are you doing?”
“She tried to run us over, Daddy!” I cry out. “She’s lost her damn mind!”
Beatrice tries to tear herself away from Daddy’s grip, but she’s not strong enough to do something like that. He holds on as she screeches again, howling like a banshee as outside lights across the trailer park come on.
“She stole him from me!” she hisses, pointing her finger at me. “That bitch daughter of yours!”
Cade glares back at her, stalwart and poised, as though nothing could break him.
“Nobody stole me from you, Beatrice. I was never yours to steal.” I feel my heart melting as he wraps my hand in his and holds it tightly. He turns and brings those beautiful eyes to bear on me. “My heart belongs to her.”
“You’ll regret this,” Beatrice snarls. “Both of you!”
I hear hushed voices from behind us. This is going to be talked about all over the park tomorrow morning.
“I think it’s time you leave, Beatrice,” my dad says calmly. “Before someone decides to call the police.”
He releases her, and I take a step back, shielding myself behind my tall, handsome warrior. But to my surprise, Beatrice doesn’t rush at me. She gasps for air and looks around at all of us with disgust.
“Peasants,” she sneers. “You’ll get what you deserve. Which is nothing!”
“We don’t need your money!” I snap back. “We don’t want it!”
“Good!” she shouts. “Because you won’t get a dime!”
And with that, she jumps back in her car, slams her foot on the gas, and kicks up rocks as she speeds away.
We all watch until she’s gone. Only then does the tension fully dissipate from the air.
“Well that was exciting!” my dad says with a laugh, walking over to Cade and me.
“That’s one way of putting it,” I sigh.
I turn back to look at Cade and see he is holding the ring box in in his hand. My heart jumps as I remember just where we were when my aunt came blazing in here like a missile.
“Um, Daddy?” I say, turning around. “Would you mind giving Cade and me a minute?”
He stops in his tracks and looks at me, and I give him the look that only daughters and their dads understand, letting him know that he needs to go away because it’s one of those private things that I just need a little space for.
“Oh, of course, puddin’. I’ll just…be inside for when you need me.”
He smiles and walks quickly away, leaving me with Cade, who is doing a wonderful job of holding himself together. I’m sure this is not what he had in mind when he came here tonight looking to propose.
“So.” I smile. “Where were we?”
Cade grins and gets back down on one knee. He opens the box again and shows me the ring, and everything inside me lights up.
My pulse quickens, my heart warms and begins to race, and I feel my cheeks begin to blush.
I can’t believe this is actually happening.
“Skylar Parks,” he says softly. “I love you so much. I’m not a writer; I’m just a guy who works with his hands for a living, so I don’t know how to put into words how much I care about you. But if you let me put this ring on your finger, I promise that I will spend the rest of my life showing you how much you mean to me.”
Here come the tears again.
Someone from across the park hoots, and although my dad said he was going inside, I didn’t hear the door close–I’m pretty sure he’s watching from the steps.
“Will you marry me, Sky?”
I choke up a happy sob as my body feels like it’s taking off and soaring into the sky.
I smile and nod and extend my hand.
“Yes!”