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“Yes, I’m sure.” Mrs. Birch pulled the strap of Luna’s backpack off my shoulder. “Go. Sleep.”
“Call me if she wakes up or needs anything.”
“She’ll be fine,” Mrs. Birch shooed me out of her house.
When the door shut, I had a moment of panic that I was doing the wrong thing, but then I pulled up the app on my phone and saw my baby girl, sound asleep, and Mrs. Birch setting up the cot beside her.
Taking a deep breath, I got in my car and told myself that this was the right thing to do. I trusted Mrs. Birch. I reminded myself that I wanted Luna to be fearless. If I was a helicopter mom, there was no way that she would be.
My pep talk did nothing to calm the restlessness I felt as I drove along the serene coastline. It wasn’t a big mystery why I was at loose ends. For the last five years and two nights I hadn’t been away from her at night. I had to admit, as much as I trusted and loved Mrs. Birch, it did make me feel better that I had a live feed to check on her anytime I wanted to. That was the only thing keeping me from turning the car around and going to pick up my baby girl, helicopter mom or not.
I turned onto the long drive that led to the back of the property and as I passed by Hank’s house, a ping of disappointment stabbed through my chest. There were no lights on.
It had been two days since I’d gone over to his house to thank him for the birthday party. Two days since I’d had the best sex of my life. Two days that my body had been craving his touch, pining for his kiss, hungering to feel his skin against mine.
He hadn’t come over since that night. I wondered if that was because my sister was still in town or if he just wasn’t that into me. A lot of the projects he’d been working on were complete now. Luna had asked about him more in the past forty-eight hours than she’d ever asked about her own father.
In the back of my mind, several questions kept niggling at me.
Had I made a mistake sleeping with him?
Would he have come over and things would still have been the same if I hadn’t crossed that line?
Was he avoiding me because he didn’t want me to get the wrong idea about his feelings, or lack thereof, for me?
Had I screwed this up, not just for myself, but for Luna?
Maybe I had. But even if that was the case, I still couldn’t bring myself to regret the time we’d spent together.
Even forty-eight hours later, my body was still alive with tingles. All I had to do was close my eyes and I could feel the roughened texture of his palms and the strength in his fingertips as they gripped my hips. I could still feel the heat of his breath as he whispered dirty nothings into my ear. I could still hear the growl in his voice as he told me exactly what he was going to do to me.
I’d never felt so in tune with another person.
Being with Hank had been more than just sex. It was something else. Besides the obvious pleasure he’d given me, being with him had opened up my eyes to a level of intimacy that I’d never known actually existed.
For those precious hours, he’d transported me to a different plane than the rest of the world. A world where only the two of us existed. It was transformative in the most beautiful way. Every time I closed my eyes, I was back there, in Hank’s bed, where I wished I was now.
As I walked up the front porch steps, my mind was totally preoccupied with visions of things a lot dirtier than sugar plums dancing in my head. I opened the door and was disappointed when I didn’t see any signs that he’d been over. I thought that maybe since Ashley was gone, he would’ve stopped by and left me a note but after checking the fridge, I knew that wasn’t the case.
I grabbed a carton of Ben & Jerry’s from the freezer and told myself that it was not because I was trying to eat my feelings. This middle-of-the-night splurge had nothing to do with the fact that I was feeling rejected and ignored by Hank.
It had been two days. Two days was nothing.
I’d almost convinced myself of that fact when I heard a sound like someone was at the front door.
Was Hank here?
Had he seen me come home?
Giddiness spread through me as I walked out of the kitchen expecting to see Hank standing on the porch, but when I looked out the sidelight window there was no one there.
That’s when I heard it.
Glass shattering in the sunroom.
Fear replaced the excitement I’d just felt.
Were they here?
Had whoever broken into my condo in Seattle found me?
I ran to my purse that was sitting on the kitchen island to grab my phone to call the police or Hank, Hank was closer, and when I did I saw a man in a hoodie at the kitchen door trying to open it.
“I’m calling the police!” I called out as I fumbled with my phone and it fell to the ground. I fell on my knees scrambling for my phone when I heard my name.
“Skylar! It’s me!”
I stilled when I heard my name coming from a voice I recognized. Slowly, I stood up and flipped on the light, and saw the last person I would have expected to see standing on my back steps.
“Richie?”
