“Bye, Uncle Micha.”
“Bye, Zoey-Zo.”
Zoey scampers off to the playroom we set up for her, and now it’s down to us.
“Sky, you’re there too?”
“I’m here.”
“Great! How are things?”
“Well, I’m pregnant with Josh’s baby, and Aston and I got married on Friday.”
I throw hera what the fucklook, and she returns it with anit was going to come out anyway, might as well rip off the Band-Aidlook.
“I’m sorry. What? None of that made any sense. It’s probably the satellite phone acting up.”
Skylar launches into an account of the last however many days it’s been, while Micha sits silently on the phone.
“So… let me… fuck. Jesus fuck, are you kidding me? Aston is now my fake and temporary brother-in-law, and I’m going to be an uncle and likely have to stay in Sudan forever so I can fight extradition for murder?”
“You can’t kill Aston,” Skylar protests. “He’s helping me.”
Something warm and inappropriately comfortable rolls through me. Skylar just defended me. I’m almost tempted to look out the window to see if pigs are flying.
“I wasn’t talking about him, Sky. I was talking about the asshole who shall not be named. Fuck. Aston, take me off speaker. You and I need a man-to-man, brother.”
My stomach sinks, and I throw Skylar a fleeting glance as I walk into the gym Micha has off the main room.
“If you’re going to yell at me?—”
“Are you sleeping with my sister?”
“No,” I answer easily as I sit down on the weight bench. I tuck the phone against my ear and pick up a twenty-five-pound dumbbell I have on the floor that I never put away after I used it last. I do bicep curls as I talk.
“So, you’re really just helping her out in exchange for her helping you with Zoey?”
He’s incredulous. I got this from my father last night, too. Because the truth is, if I had asked Skylar to help out with Zoey, Micha’s goddaughter, I’m pretty positive she would have said yes. That’s who she is. Everyone knows it. Skylar has a heart of gold and magic.
But I didn’t do that. I didn’t even offer to simply help her with Josh.
I asked her to marry me.
“He’s not a safe guy,” is my answer.
He sighs audibly into the phone. “I never liked him. He was the sort of guy who was combative for the sake of being combative while also trying to pretend he was your best friend and you could trust him. I can’t explain it beyond that. But he was controlling while calling it love. He was critical while calling it constructive. All of those things I saw. What I didn’t see and only heard about later was the behind the scenes. The things he’d say and do to her turned my blood cold. A lot of women would have stayed, but Skylar was brave and strong enough not to. If you feel that marrying her to protect her was the right call, then I trust you.”
His trust is somehow a sucker punch, and I drop the barbell with a heavy clang on the rubber mat. Because I made his sister come on the kitchen counter and then was a dick to her after. I’ve kissed her and meant it too. I also think about her in ways that would have Micha seeing red.
It sits all wrong with me. And yet, I am protecting her. Even if it’s not because Micha is my best friend and I’m playing the role of big brother in his absence.
“I’m on it,” is how I reply.
“Good. Thanks. I appreciate it more than you know. Weird though, man. You’ve always been my brother, and now you are for real. And I’m going to be an uncle. I’ll have to come homefor that. I want to see her pregnant, but I also want to see the baby.” He laughs with something akin to wonder and excitement in his voice. “Josh still doesn’t know?”
“No. He doesn’t.”
“People will think the kid is yours.”
