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But how could I have ever known that Skye would be gone when I got back home?
I finally answered Seth’s question. “I don’t think I ever got over her.”
“Then ask her why she left,” he suggested. “You don’t need a letter. She’s here.”
Maybe so, but Skye had a history of running, just like she’d done tonight. “I tried. She seems to think she has a reason to be angry. That’s why I wish I had read her letter. I have no idea what she’s mad about. I didn’t leave her. She left me.”
“Try again. Get her someplace where she can’t run away. I don’t think you’re ever going to move on until you get your questions answered. I wish I hadn’t destroyed that letter. I wish that you would have had those answers years ago.”
I nodded. “I have to know.”
Seth grinned. “How long are you going to stay pissed off at me?”
I probably would have punched him out if my siblings and I hadn’t learned very early on that we couldn’t afford to have one less ally. Growing up, we’d been taught not to alienate each other, even if we were furious with one of our brothers or sisters. All we’d had was each other. And Seth and Noah were protective of me since I was younger than they were.
“I’m not going to get over this anytime soon,” I warned him. “I was twenty-four years old. You were barely a year older. It wasn’t necessary to protect me like I was a teenager.”
“That instinct is never going to go away, and you know it. Jade is twenty-seven, and I still want to shake her and make sure she’s marrying the right guy.”
“We all like Eli,” I reminded him. “Hell, he’s our biggest investor and advisor in Sinclair Properties.”
“That doesn’t mean I trust him with my sister,” Seth grumbled.
It wasn’t like I didn’t understand exactly what my brother was telling me. We’d grown up protecting Brooke, Jade, and Owen. So it wasn’t easy to let go. “She’s happy.”
Seth nodded. “Which is the only reason I’m okay with her marrying Eli Stone.”
“He better make sure he keeps her that way,” I added.
Seth and I understood each other perfectly . . . when it came to our younger sisters and brother.
“So a week? Two? A month? Give me some kind of guide as to when you’re going to forget that I did something stupid,” Seth requested.
I shot him a dirty look. We’d all done dumb things to each other at one time or another. But we were Sinclairs. We stuck together. “I’ll let you know,” I grumbled.
He folded his arms in front of himself stubbornly. “We are in business together. It would be kind of nice to know when I can speak to you without risking getting my head taken off.”
Seth and I had moved our real-estate-developing company to what was now called the Sinclair Building in downtown Citrus Beach. It had been easier than operating from our home offices, since the company was exploding. Eli spent his weekends and other time off here in Citrus Beach, and we took all the advice we could get from our biggest investor. Eli Stone had been instrumental in helping the development company grow so quickly. Seth and I had been more than happy to let Eli invest, especially since he brought so many nonmonetary resources along with him.
“I’ll be in on Monday,” I informed him grimly. Seth was my best friend. Not that I’d completely forget that he’d screwed me when he’d taken that letter. But he was my brother.
It was Friday night, so I’d have a few days to calm down.
I dug my keys out from the pocket of my jeans and walked away without looking back at Seth.
I planned on using the next few days to figure out the mystery of why Skye thought she had a right to be angry at me.
Seth was right.
There was no way I was going to be able to look at Skye as just a small part of my history until I knew the truth.
CHAPTER 3
SKYE
The next morning, I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Aiden didn’t know that he was Maya’s father.
Really, it had been so much easier to think that he knew but just didn’t give a damn, and had never let any of his siblings know that they had a niece.
Jade would have said something if she’d known that Maya was her blood.
“Mommy, if I did something bad, should I tell you?” my daughter asked me in a very grave tone.
I smiled at her as I watched her devour her breakfast at the small table we’d claimed when I’d opened the café.
I had plenty of weekend help, but since most of them were college students, I still opened and closed the restaurant on the weekends, too. And since I brought Maya with me, I generally fed her breakfast here on Saturday and Sunday.
It was the beginning of spring, so only a few of the other tables were occupied. It would get busier later, but it was still early in the season. So there weren’t that many tourists in this smaller coastal city.
“What did you do wrong?” I asked, trying not to laugh at my daughter’s serious expression. She’d gotten my attention by calling me Mommy, something she rarely did anymore unless she was in trouble.
It was hard to believe my beautiful girl could do anything all that bad. Usually, she was a quiet, thoughtful child. She was a gifted reader and writer, and she could breeze through books meant for high-school kids. Not that I let her read them all. Even though she was capable, Maya was very much a child and couldn’t understand some of the complex emotional subjects, even if she could read them cover-to-cover.
She was brilliant, but her mind still thought like an eight-year-old.
My daughter looked so much like her father that my heart squeezed inside my chest. It was a miracle that nobody had ever really seemed to notice. Her dark hair and blue eyes were like copies of Aiden’s.
“I really wanted to find my real dad,” she said hesitantly.
My heart tripped as I looked at her sad expression. Maya had always known that Marco wasn’t her biological father. I’d made it a point to tell her as soon as she was old enough to understand, since my ex-husband had treated my daughter like she didn’t exist. Still, I guess I hadn’t realized how curious she was about the man who was her real biological father.
“I didn’t know you wanted to find him,” I answered.
She nodded slowly. “I did. I just didn’t want you to be sad.”
I wasn’t shocked that she’d picked up on my emotions. But I was surprised that I’d shown any reaction. I’d pretty much learned to bury most of my feelings.
“So what did you do, then? Tell me.”
“I got my DNA tested. I have an aunt right here in Citrus Beach. Somebody matched. She wrote to me and told me she lives here, and that I have a bunch of other aunts and uncles, too. But I didn’t write back to her because I had to cancel my membership. I didn’t have money to extend it.”
Jade? She’d matched with Jade?
It made sense, since the DNA site was the way Jade had found her long-lost family on the East Coast, and had subsequently gotten her siblings their share of the enormous inheritance they were entitled to.
But . . . “How did you ever manage to get the tests done? You have to be eighteen, right?” I asked Maya nervously.
