Skye
After almost a month off, being back in the air felt so damn good. But like always, I was itching to get home to my favorite girl. And now her father.
This whole thing was a mess, but it was getting less tense by the day.
Ducane in our home felt natural. Leaving Cadence with him felt natural.
The only thing that didn’t was the careful distance he kept between us, like he hadn’t decided whether he was staying all the way or keeping one foot in the hall.
I missed my husband. I was respecting his space and going at his pace, but I wished the table would tip back in my favor just once. This felt like watching somebody eat your whole plate and leave you the little corner.
He’d said it himself on the phone, though.
I wanna pick my wife up from work. Heat climbed up my neck when he said wife.
But I wasn’t holding my breath. The man had been all over the place since that beach, one minute claiming me, the next sleeping three doors down like a roommate who didn’t pay rent.
Still. A girl could hope.
Fee had called the second I powered my phone back on, and I had her in my ear the whole walk through the terminal, my feet screaming, my MustHaveJoy tote bag cutting into my shoulder.
“Girl, there’s nothing to report,” I said, answering the call.
“Damn, no hello, kiss my ass, or nothing rude. And nothing to report is a lie. You left Sugar with him.”
“He’s a good father. That’s it. That’s the update.”
“Shit, we knew that. So y’all still ain’t, you know?”
“Not since the island. And it’s fine, Fee. He can take his time. I knew it would be like this when he found out, so I’m not about to sit around pressed about a man who—”
I looked through the front windows as the black truck pulled into the parking lot.
“Hold on.”
“What?”
“My ride’s here.”
A beat.
“Your ride?” Fee asked.
I smiled, pulling my tote closer.
“Girl, Ducane insisted we have a driver. At least it’s Kareem.”
Fee was quiet for a second.
“That’s a husband move, and I know that’s right. He’d better show out about his family.”
“No.” I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. “That’s a father move.”
“You really believe that?”
I looked out through the airport windows.
“I don’t know what I believe anymore.”
Silence settled between us.
“I’m just...tired.”
My tote slipped farther down my shoulder, and I hitched it back up.
“I waited all these years because I believed if we ever found our way back, everything else would make sense.” My voice cracked before I could stop it. “And now I don’t know where I fit. Maybe this is...”
“Don’t finish that damn sentence. Don’t do it.”
I closed my eyes.
“Ducane has always adored you. He may be upset, but he wants his family. I can’t allow my hopeless romantic ass to believe anything else.”
I laughed, hoping she was right.
“I hope you’re right, sis. I gotta go.”
I ended the call and exited through the airport doors.
This would take some getting used to again, but I was so happy I didn’t have to drive thirty minutes home at midnight. I just wouldn’t tell Ducane that.
“Reem, can you get me home in twenty minu—”
“Ducane?”
He filled up the doorway in a hoodie and sweats, and tucked against his chest, knocked all the way out, mouth open, bonnet crooked, was our daughter.
He’d actually come. With her. At damn near midnight.
Every smart thing I’d been saying to Fee left my head.
He slid over with Cadence in his lap. I climbed in, trying to hide how giddy and emotional I suddenly felt.
I moved Cadence’s feet into my lap and looked out the window. I needed a moment. A lot of moments. Then Ducane’s hand came up soft against my face, and I turned to him.
“What’s gotten into you?”
He didn’t answer right away. His thumb moved slowly along my cheek, his eyes on Cadence sleeping between us before they came back to me.
“Do you think he knew?”
I blinked. “Do I think who knew what?”
“My father.” His jaw tightened around the word. “About her. About Cadence. All this time.” He looked down at our daughter, her bonnet sliding off, her little chest rising and falling against him. “Carter thinks he knew.”
“Cane, what does it matter?” I said, when he didn’t answer. “You can’t keep searching for somebody else to be mad at. We did this. I did this.”
“Skye, you know it’s more than that.” He looked away for a second, jaw tight, before it came out of him. “Why does he hate me so much, huh?”
“I don’t know, love. I really don’t, because he’s missed out on the best parts of you.” I softened, then made myself hold the line. “But again. We did this. We own this. I take accountability for my part.”
“And what part is that, Skye? Because at the heart of all this, for me, is you saying you needed more than my words. I married you. Made you my wife. What else needed to be said?”
“And you believed that meant they’d respect us. That they’d just get over it.” I shook my head. “That was a risk I wasn’t going to take. Now what?”
“You so damn stubborn and nonchalant about robbing me of time with my daughter.”
“That’s your pride talking. Please.”
“Yeah, you right. It is.” He didn’t even fight me on it. “You wouldn’t even let me protect y’all. My family. And that’s on me, because I was blind to the snake that raised me. I’m fucked up about that.”
He sighed. I reclined back with a sigh of my own.
For a second, neither of us said anything. Then I gave him the truth I’d been sitting on.
“He knew, Ducane.”
His head turned with flexing fists.
“Of course, he knew. Where do you think Bianca got the information from?” I let that settle.
“I’ve been asking myself for weeks how a woman just stumbles onto a secret I kept locked down like Fort Knox.
She didn’t. Somebody handed it to her. And there’s only one person with the reach to find it and the reason to use it like a weapon.
” I held his eyes. “That’s my opinion. But you know I’m right. ”
He was quiet, but moving Cadence between us, careful not to wake her.
“And for the record,” I added, “I’m not afraid of your father anymore. Not even a little. Truthfully, I wouldn’t piss on that man if he were on fire.”
That pulled a short laugh out of him, but it was gone before I could bask in it.
“Where is all of this coming from, Ducane?” I asked, softer now. “The real reason. Not Ruben.”
He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Cadence showed me something today. By accident. She got her tablet out to show me baby pictures, and I ended up playing your videos.”
The videos. Shit. I’d forgotten they were even on her tablet.
When I started recording for him, I was positive I would show him one day.
But as time went on, I wondered if they would just make things worse.
Now they were out in the world without my permission, and I had no idea if that was the worst thing that could have happened or exactly what needed to happen.
“Ducane—”
“I appreciate that shit, Skye.” He reached down and lifted my feet into his lap before I could pull them away. “Lately, I’ve been wrestling with not being around and her having everyone but me. But I felt like I was there today. I needed that.”
His thumb pressed into the arch of my foot, and I bit back a sound.
“And life ain’t over. There are more memories to make.
A whole lifetime of them.” He kept working my feet, his eyes down on what he was doing.
“I can’t make any of those holding a grudge or straddling the fence.
I’ve been doing both since we made it back, and I’m tired of pretending I don’t know what I want. ”
“And what’s that?” I asked, quieter than I meant to.
He looked up at me then.
“You. Same as day one. You’ve been my moon and my sky since I followed your smart mouth out of that classroom, and I’m done acting like that ain’t still true.
” He shrugged, like it was simple, like it hadn’t taken us years and a whole secret to get here.
“I don’t know how to make this work yet.
I just know I want out of the guest room so we can figure it out. Together.”
I didn’t have a single smart thing to say back.
His thumb dug into a knot in my heel, and I forgot all about being emotional.
“Ouuu,” I moaned, my head dropping back against the seat.
He cleared his throat, low.
“Chill out. My baby’s in here.”
“You started it.” I kicked at him with my free foot.
He put Cadence back into his lap and patted the seat. I scooted over, resting my head on his shoulder, breathing him in for the first time in weeks. He smelled like home. He always had.
“So.” I kept my eyes forward. “I just want to hear you say it. Where do we stand?”
I felt him shift, then his hand was under my chin, turning my face toward him.
The look in his eyes stole my breath.
“Skye...we’ve been married.”
He reached for my left hand and turned it over in his.
His thumb brushed over my ring finger.
“You’ve always been my wife. Clear?”
“Crystal.”
“Goofy.” He laughed, settled back, and tucked me into his side. “Reem, hurry up and get us home.”
Being back home felt so good. The living room was a mess, but I didn’t expect anything less. I dropped my bags at the door and kicked off my shoes, untying my hair as I went.
He came up behind me, Cadence still knocked out against his shoulder and pressed a kiss to the side of my neck.
“Go shower,” he whispered. “I’ll lay her down and clean up our mess.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
I put on an R&B playlist, stripped down to nothing, and stepped under the water. I stayed under the water until the airports, time zones, and years of bracing came off me, or close enough. By the time I got out, the house was quiet. He’d put our girl to bed without an issue.
I wrapped a towel around myself, twisted my hair up, and headed out of the bathroom.
Ducane was already under the covers, that muscular chest on full display. So damn fine it wasn’t even fair.
“You can put something else on if you want,” I said, reaching for my body oil, letting my towel drop to the floor.
“Yeah.” His eyes moved down my body, gradually. “I plan to.”