AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 39
Skylar
“Made for You” by Jake Owen played softly through the speakers and Luna snored beside me. She’d only made it thirty minutes into The Goonies. A fresh, ocean breeze was flowing in through the open window as I gazed out at the surface of the Atlantic shimmering like diamonds reflecting the full moon shining down on it.
I breathed in the salty sea air and tried to identify what I was feeling. It took me longer than it probably should have to realize that it was several emotions I wasn’t familiar with.
I tried to put my finger on it, but there wasn’t a word for the opposite of loneliness. But that’s what I felt.
Contentment.
Safety.
Happiness.
Not that I wasn’t happy before now. I had been. I loved being a mom. I’d loved my job. I’d loved my condo. And I loved the few friends that were part of my tribe in Seattle.
But this was different. For the first time since I’d taken custody of Ashley, I didn’t feel alone. I felt like part of a team. I knew that I might be jumping the gun a little. Or a lot. But I couldn’t help how I felt.
When Hank showed up on my doorstep tonight, I figured he was just there to fix the window Richie had broken, which, that alone, was more than he needed to do. But when he asked if us ladies would like to go on a date to the drive-in movie, I couldn’t believe after all he’d done for me the night before and the fact he hadn’t slept that he’d want to go out.
While Luna ran to her room to change for the movie, I voiced my concern and he’d hugged me and told me he was fine and that we needed a night of fun. I’d said that he’d reached his fun-providing quota for the year when he’d thrown a huge party not three days earlier. He told me that had been for Luna, tonight was for me, then he bent down and kissed my forehead. I’d melted like the Wicked Witch of the West into a puddle of swoon.
“Everything okay?” Hank asked, his deep voice was quiet so as not to disturb Luna but it filled the cabin completely, wrapping me up like a warm blanket.
“Yeah. Great.” I nodded, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.
“You seem…quiet.”
My brows lifted. Hank was one of the least talkative people I’d ever known, and if what people said was true, he talked more around Luna and me than he did anyone else.
“I know, but you’re not me,” he responded perfectly to my unspoken thoughts.
He had a habit of doing that and it was unnerving.
“Can you read my mind?” I asked, only half teasing.
“No.” He pulled up to a stop sign and looked over at me as the truck idled. “But I wish I could.”
What he said wasn’t technically a compliment, but that was exactly how my heart and hormones were interpreting it. They were doing a happy dance. I felt downright giddy.
“What do you want to know?” I asked, my words coming out a little breathier than they’d been just a moment before.
“Everything.” His voice was so deep his words were practically a growl.
His darkened gaze remained trained on me for another few moments before he turned it back to the road and began driving again.
It was only then that I let out a breath I hadn’t even noticed I’d been holding.
Oh my. I was glad that I was seated because if I wasn’t, I’d most definitely need a swoon couch. Hank had a way of taking me to Swoon City with just a word, a look, a touch.
I placed my hand over my stomach and then remembered what Luna had told him about me eating butterflies. She’d casually mentioned their conversation when I was cleaning up her room and picked up a Dr. Seuss book. I’d been mortified.
Someday, when she was a teenager most likely, I was going to remind her of what she’d done and tell her that turn-about was fair play. I’d never follow through on my threat, of course, but it would be fun to tease her.
As I looked down at my baby girl, sleeping snuggled up between Hank and me, I wondered if there was any possibility that Hank might still be around when that time came. Would he be there for her first date? For braces? For the first time she snuck out or teaching her how to drive a car? I hoped so. So much. Too much.
It hit me then that I’d never wondered those things about Richie. And I certainly never wished that he would be. By the time I gave birth to Luna, he’d proven himself as unreliable and I’d switched to a single mom mindset. I’d always felt like it was just me and Luna taking on the world. And Ashley of course. But Ashley was going to have her own family someday, in the distant, distant future hopefully.
