So that meant we were alone. The teens were down in the basement. Our mothers were on the other side of the house. I took a step toward her, and her breath caught as she looked up at me. Golden flecks swam in her hazel eyes. I wanted to pick her up and set her on the island. I knew I shouldn’t, but that was what I wanted to do. Before I could act on my impulse, she turned suddenly and headed to the other side of the kitchen.
I tried not to take it personally. Logically, I knew that any second someone could walk in, but my dick didn’t really run on logic.
Clearing my throat, I changed the subject. “I talked to my mom, to Naomi today.”
Skye turned back to me, and her face lit up like the sky on the 4th of July. “You did?”
“Yeah. I asked her all the questions I’ve had, and she answered them. All of them.”
“How are you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, It was….” Emotion welled in my eyes, and I wiped beneath my lids with my thumb and forefinger. Skye must have noticed because she wrapped her arms around me. As soon as she did, I pulled her tight against me. My heart thudded in my chest as I inhaled the fruity, fresh scent of her shampoo and her curves molded into me.
This was what I’d needed all day. To hold Skye in my arms. I exhaled, and all the tension, all the stress, all the anxiety I’d been holding in for… my whole life drained out of me, and my entire body relaxed. It wasn’t just the physical reaction I was having. This embrace soothed my soul. A wave of peace washed over me like a cool breeze on a sweltering day. I continued to hold her even after her arms loosened their hold around me, indicating this hug was over.
Not wanting to let her go, I held her tighter as I rasped, “Skye.”
Her head lifted, and her eyes met mine. She licked her lips nervously, and my gaze automatically fell to her full mouth.
“I really want to kiss you right now,” I admitted.
Her eyelids slowly closed and taking that as a green light, my head slowly lowered. I felt her breath fan my face a second before she stepped back, out of my arms.
“I’m, sorry. We can’t.”
Disappointment bloomed in my chest, despite knowing that was a boundary I shouldn’t have crossed. “I know. I’m sorry.”
We stood staring at one another for what could have been a few seconds or a minute; I wasn’t sure. Time didn’t feel linear when I was with Skye. It was as if it stood still and went at the speed of light simultaneously.
The silent bubble we’d been floating in burst when we both spoke at the same time.
“You know my—”
“I got a ca—”
We smiled at each other.
“I’m sorry, go ahead,” I prompted.
“No, what were you going to say?” she countered.
Normally, I would insist on ladies first, but in this case, I feared I would lose my nerve. “You know my friend Alex?”
She nodded.
“He’s getting married in two weeks, on Saturday, and I was wondering if you’d like to go as my date.” I’d never asked a woman to go to a wedding before. I’d been a firm believer in not bringing sand to the beach. The thing was, since meeting Skye, I wasn’t interested in any other sand. The only sand I wanted to play with was her.
She blinked at me several times before she shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Is it because of your rule not to date? We can just go as friends.” I knew that I was grasping at straws here, but straws were all I had.
My chest felt like it was being squeezed in a tourniquet as I waited with bated breath for her reply.
“No, it’s not that.”
I felt like an asshole for putting her in the position of having to turn me down. She’d made her boundaries clear, and I was not respecting them. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have crossed that line.”
“No, it’s not… You don’t need to apologize.” She took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I promise. It’s just… I can’t. We can’t.”
There was a finality to her statement that shattered my heart into a million pieces. The flame of secret hope I’d been harboring that something would happen between us was extinguished. Two words doused it with their ice-cold reality. We would never be together.
Not wanting her to see the effect her rejection had on me, I did my best to sound unaffected as I asked, “What were you going to say?”
“Huh?” Her brows furrowed.
“Before, what were you going to say?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, um. I haven’t told anyone yet; I wanted to wait until after the party. But I got a call from my landlord yesterday morning. The building will be ready for occupancy on Friday, so I’ll, we’ll be out of your hair.”
I’d thought that her turning down my invitation for the wedding and then making it clear there was no future for us would be the most devasting part of our conversation. I was wrong.
