Skye kept telling me that what I felt wasn’t real, but it was. How had Naomi known that?
So, my gift to you, son, is to challenge you to be as fearless and resilient in your personal life as you have been in business. If you can do that, then I know your life will be everything I’ve always wished it to be, and when it comes to the end, you will have no regrets. That is all I could ever wish for you.
I love you forever,
Mom
I stared down at the words on the page. I thought about what my mom had challenged me to be.
Was I fearless and resilient in my personal life?
I hadn’t even told Skye that I loved her, so, no. No, I wasn’t. But I could be.
I checked the time and saw that I had an hour before I was due to pick Bella up from Maddox’s house. If I was late, I knew he wouldn’t mind, and this couldn’t wait.
After grabbing my keys, I was out of the house in record time. I was on a mission to tell Skye how I felt about her, something I still hadn’t done. When we spoke last week, I’d wanted to see her, but as soon as she started talking about how we met and that what we had wasn’t real, I backed off.
I wasn’t fearless or relentless in my personal life.
I’d been scared of rejection. Of real rejection. But fuck it. I was miserable already. I could barely eat and couldn’t sleep. Would I feel any different if I told her that I loved her and wanted to be with her and got the same answer?
Maybe, but I didn’t know.
When I was an intern at the radio station, I got told no more times than I could remember. I asked to fill in the morning drive spot. No. I asked to be a producer on the weeknight call-in show. No. I asked to be hired in the marketing department. No.
But I never let it deter me, and I never took it personally.
In my private life, things were different. I didn’t let anyone get close enough to hurt me. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, so looking back, I could see that my never committing to anyone meant that I couldn’t really get hurt. No one could leave me or decide they didn’t want me.
That ended today.
Skye was worth the risk.
I pulled up in front of Skye’s building, and thankfully, an older man in a fedora was walking out.
“Hold the door.” I shouted as I ran up to catch it.
“Whoa, slow down, son.” He stopped in the doorway. “Where are you headed?”
“Twelfth floor.”
He gave me a once over. “Who are you here to see?”
“Skye Taylor.”
“And you are?”
“Nicholas Locke.”
“Leonard Jenkins. Nice to meet you.”
“You too, sir.” Normally, I loved making small talk with strangers, but right now, I just wanted to get upstairs.
He gave me an assessing once over before asking, “Now, Mr. Locke, what business do you have with Miss Taylor?”
“I need to tell her that I love her.”
A wide smile split on his face as he tipped his hat and stepped to the side. “Well, son, good luck.”
