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CHAPTER 43
Skylar
Ishut the door as quietly as I possibly could. It was a strange feeling knowing that I was the second choice for story time, but since Hank came into our lives, that’s the position I held.
Hank.
Just thinking his name had my heart racing in my chest. It had only been one week since I walked out of his office but it felt like a lifetime ago. When he’d shown up at Southern Comfort and told me that he loved me and what we had was real, I’d been scared but I’d also felt empowered when I’d told him goodbye.
It had been right out of a movie.
But normally, after that line was delivered, an inspiring anthem was played as the heroine walks into her new life feeling free and independent.
That wasn’t quite how the reality of saying that movie-worthy line had played out. I’d walked back into the bar and had a black and tan spilled down my shirt from a drunk vacationer that was trying to hit on me.
I sighed as I walked into the kitchen. I missed him. A lot more than I’d thought I would. I missed him more than I ever thought it was physically possible to miss him. And I wasn’t talking about the aching for him, this wasn’t wanting a fix, this was wanting to see his face. To hear his voice. To watch him walk. That was how much I missed him, I would gladly sit and watch him walk around in a circle for hours.
Typically, when I made a decision, it was final and I didn’t waste time looking back.
Just like the decision to move to Firefly. After I’d done it, there was no second-guessing my decision. I didn’t waste any brainpower agonizing over whether or not it was the right thing to do. Leaving Richie had been the same. He was not the man I was going to spend my life with. From the time I put my engagement ring on the nightstand and moved to my own place when I was eight months pregnant, I hadn’t looked back.
Once my mind was made up, that was it. For better or worse, I committed to my choices.
But this was one time in my life that I was second, third, fourth, and fifth guessing. Had I done the right thing for Luna? Had I done the right thing for me? Or had I just been trying to protect myself?
I hadn’t seen him at all this week and the void that he’d left in his absence was paralyzing. I didn’t even know what to do with myself.
There’d been some activity at his house, trucks parked outside, but I’d done my best not to look when I drove by. Out of pride, mainly.
But I wasn’t sure if that pride would crumble when I saw him face to face which would be happening tomorrow at the wedding. Billy and Reagan had graciously invited both me and Luna. I’d even bought us new dresses for the occasion.
I wondered if there would be dancing. If there was, would Hank ask me to dance? Would he ask Luna to dance?
Picturing the two of them on the dance floor, Luna in her brand new “princess” dress and Hank dressed in a tux, had my ovaries tingling. He was going to make someone an amazing husband and father someday.
Someone could be you, my sister’s voice piped up in my head.
No sooner had she invaded my inner thoughts than the phone buzzed and I looked down and saw that it was her calling.
“Hey Ash,” I answered as I stepped out into the sunroom.
The Edison lights he’d hung gave the room a romantic glow. I’d mentioned that I was thinking about putting them up in passing a few weeks ago, and not two days later they were up. That was the thing about Hank, he was a doer. A fixer. An everything-I-ever-wanted-in-a-man-er.
“I’m leaving school,” she skipped the greetings getting right to the point.
“No. You’re not.” I stated calmly since clearly she was having some sort of early-twenties crisis.
“I mean, I’m leaving this school. I’m going to transfer to SCAD.”
The Savannah College of Art and Design was a school that Ashley had considered after graduation. But once she got into SFAI she decided to stay on the West Coast.
“You are?”
“Yep. I’m finishing out this semester and then I’m transferring. I love Firefly. I know I was only there for the weekend, but I love it there.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with Harlan, does it?” I only half-teased.
Harlan Mitchell had been chatting Ashley up when she came into Southern Comfort the night I was working. The two of them had danced and played pool. During the game, Skittles kept calling her “pretty girl” which she’d eaten up.
