Another thing he sounded way too fucking familiar with.
“Sometimes, but I don’t think she has much of a choice.” I tapped my thumb on the steering wheel, taking deep breaths to even myself out. “Worse, I started asking questions and found out that the guy who runs the place may or may not be a skeevy asshole who’s looking for a way to make a thirteen-year-old beholden to him.”
Skylar clenched his jaw.
After a moment, he said, “You know, I get called a lot of things because I’ve got a sugar daddy. But with guys like that crawling all over the neighborhood, I decided I’d rather be beholden to a sugar daddy than some meth-dealing creep. While I was and am grateful that I’d found a genuinely sweet daddy that first time around, I’d only graduated high school the week before.”
Fuck. Dammit, Skylar.
“I didn’t wanna leave them there,” I admitted, nearly choking on the guilt. “I swear, I just wanted to kidnap both of them and figure it out later.”
Sky’s understanding smile about killed me. “You cannot kidnap a family, Rowd.”
“I know that, man. I just feel like everything I did was so...ineffective.”
Skylar smacked my arm.
“Ouch. Why did you hit me?”
He raised a perfectly sculpted brow. “Do you know what it would’ve meant to me back then to have someone—anyone—take even the smallest crumb of interest in my well-being? You are changing that kid’s life. You are changing his mom’s life. Just by being there. You showed up, Rowd. And no one shows up for people like us, so don’t you dare diminish what you did,” he said, turning to look out the window.
The silence that followed drove me crazy.
“Sky? You okay?”
Taking a deep breath, he sent me a glance, his eyes rimmed red. “I am fine. I promise. But I got tofineall by myself, and I would never wish that on anyone.”
“Well. Shit.” I held out my hand.
He took it and we stayed that way until we got past the city. By the time we got to my place, we had settled, but so had my resolve.
12
KESS
I was eatingmy single-guy dinner at my massive kitchen island looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows into Rowdy’s cabin. He hadn’t been home this entire afternoon, and I was waiting for him to show up with Skylar.
The conversation I’d had with Emery had sent my thoughts into a tailspin. Did Rowdy actually like me? Why couldn’t I find the right words to say to him? What didn’t I—thank God, they just pulled up.
I whipped out my phone, opened my camera app, and zoomed in. Rowdy and Skylar linked arms as they climbed the steps to Rowdy’s front porch and entered the cabin, laughing the entire time.
What. The. Fuck.
Also, how was I supposed to see anything when my camera only zoomed to 25x?Jesus, Apple. Get your shit together.I walked up to the window as I pulled up sports store website and overnighted a 300x pair of binoculars to myself, then refocused on what little I could see through his partially opened blinds.
Rowdy was gesturing to various things in his place while Skylar rubbed his chin and nodded along. Rowdy then pulled out his phone and pointed to the bed and?—
Fuck.Get out of the way, you stupid curly horned beast.
I set aside the phone and placed my hands on the window, trying to see if there was an angle past the damned antelope. Just my luck, one of the bigger antelopes approached the smaller one and...Oh.
Oh.
I dropped my eyes to give them privacy. Was this even mating season for antelopes? I gave the copulating couple another glance andholy hell.
Jeez, buddy. Go easy on the girl—she’s your mate, not some glory hole in a truck stop bathroom.
And with that, I realized I was standing there with my nose pressed against the massive pane of glass as I dragged my grubby palms along the surface. It took me an embarrassingly long time to recognize that this was not a good look.
