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CHAPTER 41
Skylar
“Is your hand shaking, Momma?” Luna asked with worry in her voice as she held out her forefinger.
“No, Lu Lu, it isn’t,” I assured her.
“Cause sometimes it shakes when Mr. Hank is here.”
I knew that my observant child was stalling, but she wasn’t wrong. It did shake when Mr. Hank was around. And so did the rest of my body.
“Mr. Hank isn’t here,” I reminded her, and myself.
He’s at his house with his ex. Or at least I assumed she was still there. I’d resisted the urge to spy on him from the kitchen window to see if I could spot her car or not.
“You ready?” I asked as I lowered the sanitized needle to her skin.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she held Princess Penelope Pineapple tight and nodded.
Luna had been “working on the house” just like Mr. Hank and had gotten a splinter. I was performing “surgery” to extract the piece of wood.
Calling on the skills I’d employed as the reigning undefeated Operation champion, I managed to easily extract the wood from beneath the surface of the skin and grab the tip with tweezers before removing it completely and setting it on the kitchen counter.
“Okay, all done,” I announced as I held Luna’s finger over the sink and poured hydrogen peroxide over the wound.
“It is?” Her eyes flew open and she looked down at her hand in disbelief.
“Yep.” I dabbed the area with Neosporin and wrapped it with a Peppa Pig Band-Aid.
“Can we go see Hank? I want to show him.” Luna held up her wrapped, battle-scarred finger proudly.
I wish. Was it wrong that I wanted to use my child as an excuse to show up on his doorstep? Probably. But sometimes being wrong felt really right.
Unfortunately, no matter how right it felt, it would be impossible. “We can’t. We’re late for your art class.”
We were meeting Mrs. Birch downtown at the art class that she’d given Luna as a birthday present. So far she’d only attended one but she’d loved it and I had an original Luna Thompson hanging in my bedroom to show for it.
“Okay, but can we show him after the class?”
“Maybe.” I gave her a non-answer as we rushed out the door and got in the SUV.
Luna buckled herself in and I climbed into the driver’s side repeating a silent mantra as I backed out and started down the drive.
I’m not going to look. I’m not going to look. I’m not going to look.
It had worked when I was making breakfast and taking out the trash. But apparently, proximity affected my self-control. As we passed his house, my head turned to the side. It was just in time for me to see his ex lift up on her tiptoes and kiss him. On the mouth.
Luna rolled her window down. “Hi, Mr. Hank!”
In the rearview mirror, I saw the look on his face as he lifted his hand and waved. I tried to see if there was even an ounce of guilt but his expression was blank.
I turned on Radio Disney so Luna would sing. There was no way that I could field any questions right now. Not after what I’d just seen.
Melody had obviously spent the night. She was wearing the same white sweater and jeans I’d seen her sitting on the porch in. Her waist-length hair was pulled up in a ponytail instead of hanging down and I wondered if she’d had to put it up to combat sex head.
As emotions like jealousy and betrayal both stirred inside of me, I tried to remind myself that Hank and I were not together. Just like I’d been telling everyone who asked about us. We’d never had a talk about what we were, which meant we were nothing.
We’d had sex a few times and we were friends. We were friends with benefits. I’d fallen in love with a friend-with-benefits. I was the women that I pitied on reality dating shows. I’d read into all of his behavior and created a mythical future instead of creating emotional boundaries for myself.
