Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
SKYE
Isigh and roll my eyes toward the ceiling as Daniel checks under my bed.
Why he thinks a demon might hide there—or at all—I have no fucking clue.
I also don’t know what he plans to do if he finds one.
But he insisted on checking the place, even though I could have grabbed my shirt and been gone by now if he’d just let me. So annoying.
And sweet.
No, annoying.
(Sweet.)
“Okay,” he says, standing and dusting off his hands. I wince and try not to think about how long it’s been since I ran the vacuum. “Looks like it’s all clear. Grab what you need—I’m going down to the bakery real quick. Do you want anything?”
I make for the closet, shaking my head. “I’ll meet you there.
This will only take a second.” From my position deep in the closet—hah!
Like I’ve ever been there—I hear his footsteps and then the door closing.
I find my extra shirt, grab another cravat just for good measure, and head out the door.
Daniel’s likely just reached the bakery, but the last thing I need is him freaking out over how long I’m taking and charging in to rescue me from my closet.
Down the stairs, along the alley to the street, and I can see Daniel through the bakery window. He’s—
“Oof!” I stagger back two steps. Dammit. I should have been watching where I was going. “I’m so sorry, I— Oh.”
My mom looks back at me, rubbing her nose, which I’m pretty sure collided with my skull. Is it petty and wrong that I’m not sorry?
Yes. Shame on me.
“Skye,” she says before I can apologize again and leave. “I’m glad to see you.”
I bite back the urge to say she could have seen me anytime in the past twenty years of my life if she’d wanted to. I don’t want to argue with her. I don’t want to talk to her at all. That means being polite and leaving ASAP.
“I’m kind of in a hurry,” I say, not as politely as I’d meant to. Okay, so polite is going to be a work in progress. I didn’t swear or anything, so I’m counting this as a win.
“I just want a second,” she rushes out, and I make myself still, studying the slightly anxious expression on her face that’s a lot like mine.
I haven’t seen her since I was a kid, sure, but there’s something different about her face.
It’s… strained? Maybe she really is dying of cancer or something.
I don’t want to spend the rest of my life regretting the fact that I didn’t listen for five minutes.
And hey, she might apologize. That would be worth it.
So I nod. “Sure.” I can’t quite manage a smile, but at least I’m not frowning.
“I came back because of you.”
Hope I didn’t know I still had soars inside me.
Is she sorry she left me? Is she going to apologize?
A kaleidoscope of possibilities whirs through my brain: weekly phone calls, occasional weekends in Chicago together—maybe a show or a gallery, dinner and cocktails—me trying to find the right card on Mother’s Day, Christmas visits…
all the things I never realized I wanted so badly.
“Oh?” I choke out. From the corner of my eye, I can see Daniel walking toward the door. This private moment is nearly over. Though I’m sure Dan will give us space.
She nods, her hair swinging the same way mine does. I look a bit like my dad, enough that I forgot just how much I look like my mom. “I spoke to my parents last month. They mentioned that you’re still working at Mannix Estate, and I just couldn’t get you out of my mind.”
I swallow hard.
“Skye, you have to break free of this place. How can you ever amount to anything working a dead-end job in the middle of nowhere?”
Crash. My hopes and dreams shatter like crystal.
“What?” The word scrapes along my dry throat, and my eyes sting.
“You have so much potential! You need to get out of here and experience what the world has to offer.”
She… Did she seriously come back here for this?
“I like my life.” Strength comes back to my voice. Fuck her.
She scoffs. “That can’t possibly be true. You’ve just been brainwashed by your father and this town to think—”
“Do not speak about my father.”
Mom falters, then changes tack. “You’re angry, but you won’t be when you realize what I’m saying is true.
You’ve never left here, Skye. Never gone to college.
Never lived in a city. You’re rainbow hair, and this place is beige!
You don’t even have a boyfriend—and how could you?
The dating pool is limited enough, but for someone like you? You don’t belong here.”
Every word is a fucking knife to the chest. How is it that a woman who hasn’t seen me in twenty years can so accurately hit all my insecurities?
An arm slides around my waist. “You couldn’t be more wrong.”
Startled, I look up at Dan’s set, angry face. I want to ask him what he’s doing, but he’s still talking.
“Skye belongs here just as much as any of us. He’s a loved and valued member of this community, which you probably don’t understand. He’s in high demand as a boyfriend, but they can all suck eggs, because he’s mine.”
What?
I replay that. Does he mean I’m his friend?
“I’m proud to be his boyfriend.”
Nope, not his friend. And who just gasped?
I turn my head and see Teri, Jennie, and Lenore from the B&B standing there.
Oh my god.
“Who are you?” Mom asks, and I jump in before Daniel can make this worse.
“This is Daniel. He’s—”
“I’m his honey.”
Holy Jesus Christ.
“We work together at the estate,” I add desperately.
“That’s how we met.”
Well, that’s true.
“We were drawn together from the beginning.”
That’s true-ish. We did get along well right away.
“And now we’re together. And plan to stay that way.”
Yeah, that’s a lie.
“You’re not from around here,” Mom says, eyeing him.
“I’ve lived here for nearly seven years. Which means I’ve known Skye for as long as you did before you left.”
Everyone gasps, me included. Who knew affable, easygoing Daniel knew how to deliver a burn like that?
“How dare you,” Mom starts, but he cuts in.
“I dare because I love Skye, and you don’t get to keep hurting him. How dare you come here and criticize him like you have any right to?”
“Aww.”
I’m pretty sure that was Teri. I turn my head to check and see Jennie has her phone to her ear. Fuck. It’s going to be all over town in two minutes that I turned Daniel gay and we’ve been secretly dating.
Mom is sputtering, but Daniel’s not having it. Honestly, if it weren’t for our audience currently activating the gossip phone tree, I’d be enjoying this a lot.
“…so you can take your sanctimonious attitude and shove it—”
The blare of a siren cuts him off as a police cruiser coasts to a stop at the curb. This is bad. The only way it could be worse is if—
Patrick gets out, and I sigh.
Yep. It’s been that kind of week.
My stepdad takes in the scene, and his mouth tightens. I can practically hear what he’s thinking. No matter how he handles this, the town is going to be talking about it—the chief of police, his lover’s ex-wife, and the kid he helped raise.
“Jennie, you called about a disturbance?” is all he says.
Jennie frowns. “Is that what Glenda said? I told her it was harassment.”
There’s a sudden stabbing pain behind my left eye. It gets worse when I notice how many people have seen or heard the police car and come out of the nearby shops to gawk.
“That’s not important right now,” Patrick says patiently. “What’s going on here?”
“Nothing,” Mom says, rolling her eyes. “I was just talking to my son. There was no need for anyone to call the police. Thanks for coming, Officer, and sorry you’ve been inconvenienced.”
With a start, I realize she doesn’t know who Patrick is. My grandparents might have told her Dad’s with the chief of police now—or maybe they haven’t—but she doesn’t know that’s who she’s talking to.
I can see the moment Patrick comes to the same realization and gives everyone assembled a stern glance. He’s dreaming if he thinks that will keep them quiet.
“Skye?” he asks. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s fine,” I say quickly. “We were talking, but this conversation is definitely over, never to be revisited, and I was just about to leave.”
Patrick studies my face, and damn all those years of teen angst that mean he definitely knows when I’m upset. His gaze drops to the crumpled fabric clenched in my hands, then goes to where Daniel’s hand is resting on my hip. He lingers there for a moment, then turns to Jennie.
“It seems like this situation has been resolved,” he says, and I sag against Daniel in relief. Then straighten quickly before anyone can get the wrong idea. Or the wrong-er idea.
“It has not,” Jennie declares, and Teri and Lenore nod emphatically. “We came out because this woman had accosted Skye, and we could see he was upset. Look!” She points at me. “He needs his boyfriend to support him!”
I swear, the shocked sound the onlookers make almost drowns out Patrick’s exclamation of “His boyfriend?”
I lean up to whisper in Daniel’s ear, “I’m going to kill you.”
In response, he kisses the side of my head and says, loud enough for everyone to hear, “We’ll be done soon, honey. I want to get home too.”
Heat races through my body, and I close my eyes.
It’s so wrong that those words can make me react this way, especially with so many people watching and the knowledge of just how big a clusterfuck this is.
But I can’t help the yearning feeling, the sense of rightness that having Daniel’s arm around me brings.
That’s why I can’t make myself say the words that would end this.
Well… that and the fact I don’t want my mom to know she’s right.
I don’t have a boyfriend. I am working a dead-end job.
I don’t have an education. I’ve never lived outside this tiny town in the middle of the state.
And I am different from most people here.
Do I really belong? Or have I been fooling myself because I’m too scared to leave my comfort zone?
“Skye and I are seeing each other,” Daniel tells Patrick. “We were trying to keep it quiet for now… you know what gossip is like around here. We just wanted some time to enjoy it.”
“But you’re straight!” someone calls before I can decide whether I want to melt into a puddle on the sidewalk or scatter into a million pieces. Patrick’s gotta know this isn’t real. Even if we were trying to keep things quiet, I’d still tell him and my dad, right?
From the look on his face, he’s not so convinced of that.
“Bisexuality is a thing, you know,” Daniel declares with enough attitude to take down an elephant. “I can’t believe you’re being so small-minded.”
Whoever it was—I scan the crowd, trying to see—sputters. “But you’ve only ever dated women!”
“All the women,” someone else adds. It’s a dig at the fact that Daniel dates but doesn’t do relationships.
“Some people realize later than others,” he argues. “I love Skye—who wouldn’t?—and it took me a while to understand that my feelings were more than just friendship.”
To my surprise, a low murmur of agreement runs through the crowd.
“Skye is special,” Lenore says, and there’s another murmur of agreement, this one louder.
Kill me now.
Though, I am touched.
I turn pleading eyes to Patrick. “This has just been a misunderstanding.” In more ways than one. “Please, can we go?”
As though he knows how close I am to the end of my tether, Daniel tightens his arm around me. It feels good. It helps. I hate it.
Patrick’s gaze bores into me as though he’s trying to read my mind, but finally he nods. “If you don’t want to make a complaint…?” He tips his head toward Mom.
“No! No complaint. I’m sure she’s leaving town tomorrow anyway.” Now that she’s ruined my life like she came to.
“Actually, I thought I’d stick around for a few weeks,” Mom says, her voice even. “I miss this place sometimes.”
The audacity of that statement takes my breath away, and Daniel shifts his grip and tightens it as if to stop me from lunging at her. I can’t deny the thought crossed my mind.
“Whatever,” I say. “Granddad and Grandma will be glad to see you.” I look up at Daniel, putting all my trust in him. I need to get away from here, now. “Let’s go.”
He gets it and immediately starts steering me toward the car. Patrick steps aside.
“I’ll call,” I mouth to him. I don’t want to say it aloud in case she guesses who he is.
He nods, and I’m almost to safety when Mom calls, “I hope you’ll think about what I said, Skye.”
As if I’ll be able to stop.