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CHAPTER 7
Hank
Skylar brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear, exposing the delicate slope of her neck and the sight made my mouth water as I held the door open and we exited the bar. “Thanks for walking us out.”
“No problem.”
“And thanks, again, for watching her.” She motioned to Luna who had run in front of us across the parking lot.
“Anytime.” I wasn’t just saying that. I really liked spending time with the kid. She was funny and sweet, and she didn’t look at me like I was Hank Comfort.
All my life, people had known who I was and they’d judged me for it. When I was a baby they’d talked because I was a boy and would carry on the Comfort curse. As I got older, they talked because my mama wasn’t exactly June Cleaver and Pops sure as hell wasn’t Ward Cleaver.
After Mama was gone, people just looked at me with pity or judgment. Sure, I was no angel. But I was a kid. Lookin’ back at all the pressures and responsibility I’d been carrying after I lost my mom, it was surprising I only ended up putting one person in the ICU. And he’d had it comin’.
“And thanks for the job,” Skylar smiled widely.
“That was all Billy.” I had no problem taking credit where credit was due, but other than having a vision or a premonition of Skylar tending bar, I’d had nothing to do with her getting hired. Well, not directly anyway. I wouldn’t put it past my brother to hire her just so he could sit back and watch the show. He seemed to find the situation pretty damn amusing.
Luna bounced up and down as she stood beside their white Explorer. “Mr. Hank, do you want to go on the trolley with us?”
“Oh, no!” Skylar rushed out. “I’m sure Hank has better things to do than—”
“I’d love to go.” Although the invitation had technically been extended from Luna, I still felt like I was inviting myself, which was extremely out of character for me.
I tended to avoid all things social and I hadn’t ridden the trolley since before my mama passed. It was primarily a tourist attraction. Locals didn’t ride it. But that hadn’t stopped Sabrina Comfort. She didn’t care what people thought about her.
She loved the trolley. And after every ride, we’d go to Main Street Scoops for ice cream. When I was little, we’d done it every Saturday. But after Billy was born, and then Cheyenne and Jimmy, it turned into more of a special occasion event.
“Are you sure?” Skylar shook her head back and forth. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to.”
I could see her uncertainty. As much as I wanted to go, the last thing I’d ever want to do was make her uncomfortable. What if she didn’t want me to go? I needed to give her an out.
“Unless…I don’t want to intrude on your girl time.”
“Oh no! It’s not that,” she quickly clarified. “I just didn’t want you to feel obligated or anything.”
“I don’t.”
“Are you sure?” Skylar asked me for the second time.
I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. “Yes.”
When she shrugged I knew her answer.
“Okay. Let’s go.” Skylar pressed the button on her fob and it chirped. “We’ll meet you there.”
“It’s only a couple of blocks. We could walk,” I suggested.
It was only a few blocks away but I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to spend as much time with Skylar as possible and walking would add an extra ten minutes at least, five there and five back.
“Lead the way.” Skylar locked her car again.
Luna talked non-stop on the five-minute walk just like she had when she’d helped me repair the pen when she explained to me that Kevin looked exactly like her pig Princess Penelope Pineapple. Her favorite food was macaroni and cheese. Luna’s that is. Princess Penelope Pineapple’s favorite food was peanut butter and jelly. I also learned that Skylar always read four books to Luna at bedtime. It used to be three, but when Luna turned four she got her mom to up it to her age. Her plan was to negotiate and add another one when she turned five in a few weeks.
When she’d mentioned her age, I acted confused because I thought she’d told me she was ten. She blinked, stared at me for a second and then told me that it wasn’t polite to ask a lady about her age.
