Felt the childish impulse well within her.
Fifteen minutes later, her freshly showered hair dripped onto her robe as she shut the door of her house and crossed the road to her parents’, the green silk jumpsuit draped over one arm.
***
An hour later, Skye glanced at the window as her eyes caught the headlights of Theo’s Tesla passing on the road. She pulled the barrel out of her hair and let the last curl drift off the roll. Her mother stood in the doorway of the small bathroom, watching Skye with eyes bright as a baby doe’s.
“I’m about to have to go, Mom. Thanks for this.”
“Oh, honey, anytime.An-y-time.”
Skye felt like she was getting ready for prom.
Her mother didn’t have to say it. It was as clear as the spotless glass on the bathroom window that she was pleased as punch about exactly everything that was happening in that moment. Her daughter going on a date with Theo. Her daughter walking across the road to ask to borrow her irons and makeup. Her daughter evenlivingacross the road so she could walk across it and ask for irons and makeup.
The smile on her mother’s face was one of pure happiness. As it had been every day since her daughter had stepped off that plane three months ago.
It was moments like this that reminded Skye she’d made the right decision to move back. Not just to ensure her family was going to be okay financially, but to see her mother so happy.
Skye put the cap on her mother’s lipstick tube and set it back in the neat row within the medicine cabinet.
“I think I know what I’ll be getting you for Christmas,” her mother said, nodding at the curling iron cooling off on the vanity. “And look at you. You look justradiant.”
“You should’ve seen me an hour ago,” Skye said, deflectingthe compliment but still smiling. “Where’s Dad? You guys have anything going on tonight?”
Her mother shifted in the doorway. “Oh. He went out an hour or so ago to run some errands. He said he’d be back soon.”
“I thought he wasn’t supposed to be driving with his shoulder.”
“Yes, well,” her mother said, her smile tightening as she smoothed down her robe, “you know your father. He’s as stubborn as an ox.”
“But you’re more,” Skye said, shutting the medicine cabinet and turning to her. “I have no doubt you could take the keys from him. You always win.”
“But first one must know which battles to fight.”
Skye saw the fiery twinkle in her mother’s eyes. A moment later she patted her daughter’s hand. “Now, you go off and enjoy your evening. I look forward to hearing all about it when you can.”
“Right.” Skye took a breath. Moved a curly lock out of her eyes. Glanced back to her mother. She couldn’t say it. Couldn’t ask the question about her father and Theo she’d been dying to ask since that day. So she said, “You really think this is a good idea?”
Her mother took Skye’s hand. Squeezed it. “Honey, I’ve been waiting since the two of you toddled down the gravel road together at four years old, you holding his hand and tugging him through the fields to pick out your favorite Christmas tree, for precisely this moment.”
Chapter 13
Theo
A frothy seascape in the paintings across the room watched over him as he cooked. Tie flipped over one shoulder, Theo stirred the pot and lifted a spoonful of the concoction to his nose. The savory scent filled his senses. He dipped a silver spoon in the pot and tasted.Sublime.
He turned to the kitchen sink, his back to the row of Seattle-coastline paintings.
It was remarkable how the day had transformed his emotions.
What had started that morning as a coffee mug full of nervous anticipation had become an uncontainable energy. It leaked out in the lightness of his step as he moved from stainless steel refrigerator to oven range. In the swiftness of his hands as he bounced from replying to a client’s email to ripping open a bag. He was almost sure what he needed to do.
Almost.
Theo snapped the last container shut and placed it in the bulging cooler. He withdrew the chilled glasses from the freezer and set them carefully inside.
With one last glance at the centermost painting, a rocky boulder shrouded by mist and pines in the middle of the ocean, he picked up the cooler.
