Summer Sunsets (4 page)

“
No, I’m good,” she
announces and starts for the door again, ignoring me.

“
I can even give you a
piggy-back ride, if you want.” I offer in an overtly friendly
tone.

She jumps to the cement and
beams at me. “I’m good. See?” She waves at the pavement. “No ride
necessary.”

I’m tempted to hoist her on
my back just for the hell of it, but I see a large family heading
our way and figure I’ll save the horseplay for later. “So long as
you’re sure.”

“
Yep.” She starts walking
backwards so she can keep smirking at me.

Skye doesn’t see the people
she’s about to run into, so I grab her arm and tug her toward me to
free up some room on the path. Our bodies bump against each other,
and she inhales sharply.

“
Devin, what are you doing?”
Her dark eyes peer intently at me, and her hands splay at my
chest.

“
Trying to keep you from
walking into people.” I nod behind her as the family approaches,
getting close enough to pass us both. She looks over her shoulder
and shakes her head. “Chalk one up to the non-clumsy guy,” she
mutters and turns to me. “Thanks, by the way.”

“
You’re welcome.”

Although either of us could
easily pull back, we linger like this, our bodies entangled
familiarly. She stares at me and I stare at her, at least until the
people around us finally pass and we can walk to the door. The
setting sun catches the dark highlights in her hair and flashes off
it. She’s even got a few freckles on her face just like she had as
a teenager, and I feel myself smile.

“
What are you grinning at?”
she asks, slowly pulling away.

“
You still have
freckles.”

“
So?” she challenges. “I’ve
always had freckles.” She stares at the ground as though I’ve
embarrassed her.

“
I’d forgotten, that’s all.”
I start to reach for the door when I hear someone behind me call my
name. I turn and in my peripheral vision see Skye mimicking my
movements, her gaze ahead toward a petite blonde named Kimmie
Acres. In that instant, Skye folds her arms across her abdomen and
steps back as Kimmie steps towards me and wraps her tanned arms
around me before I can figure out a way to put some distance
between us. Yes, Kimmie’s beautiful if you like the whole Fatal
Attraction sort of thing, which I don’t.

“
It’s good to see you,” she
whispers in my ear. “I didn’t even know you were coming
here.”

There’s a good reason for
that
, I think and begin detangling myself
from her arms. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t sure myself.” I turn toward
Skye, planning on introducing her, only to find Skye has already
slipped into the building. “Look, Kimmie, it’s nice to see you, but
I’ve got someone waiting on me, so I’ve got to run.”

“
Okay.” She lifts her hand
and gives a little wave with her fingertips. “Bye.”

Tugging open the door, I
find Skye standing by a fish tank, staring straight ahead. “Hey, I
was wondering where you went,” I say, frowning.

“
Just thought I’d give you
some privacy.” She’s folded her arms across her abdomen again—for
Skye, a defensive stance.

“
Privacy?” I start to ask
more questions when a server appears to seat us.

We follow her back to a
corner table. I pull Skye’s chair out for her, and once she seats
herself, I find my own chair. Already she’s scanning the menu, and
her mouth is tight, as though something is bothering her. Getting
her to talk about it isn’t going to be easy. It never
is.

I pick up my own menu and
start to look at my choices, but the silence between us troubles
me. “So what’s going on, Skye?”

Her dark eyes flash toward
me. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“
What’s bothering you?” I
lean back in my seat, not caring about the menu or anything else,
just trying to pry the truth out. That’s what matters.

“
I’m not upset, just
hungry.”

“
How long have I known you?”
I reach across the table and take her hand. “Spit it
out.”

She says nothing. Then it
dawns on me: she’s thinking Kimmie and I have dated. That thought
makes me laugh because there’s no way in hell I’d go out with
Kimmie Acres. Of course, this really isn’t the best time to be
laughing, considering Skye has actually looked up and the frown has
deepened, as though she’s figured out I’ve figured out.

“
It’s Kimmie, isn’t
it?”

She pulls her hand back and
grips the menu with it. Her charm bracelet jangles as she moves. “I
don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t even know who Kimmie
is.”

I nod back toward the door.
“The blonde who stopped me on our way in. That’s Kimmie. And
you’re…jealous?” While I’m not sure that’s right, I don’t know what
other word would describe her behavior.

“
Don’t be ridiculous,” she
scoffs. “I’m not jealous.”

I fold my across my chest
and narrow my eyes. “Really? Strangely enough, you were fine until
I ran into Kimmie. Then suddenly your whole demeanor
shifted.”

“
It’s not like I care who
you date,” she says, taking a sip of water as the waiter approached
to take our order.

I feel my body tense, and I
want to ask, “Don’t you?” but don’t. First of all, the waiter is
there, and challenging Skye on this could lead to unpredictable
results. Second, even though I suspect how she feels, what if I’m
wrong? So instead of rocking the boat, I listen to her order and
tell the waiter what I want to eat. After he leaves, I look at
her.

“
How’s your mom?” I figure
that’s a safe enough question until I figure out how to navigate
through the more difficult conversational waters.

“
She’s good. She and Warren
are going back to Vegas in a few months to renew their wedding vows
and take a real honeymoon, the one they didn’t get the first
time.”

“
That wasn’t your fault, and
you know it.”

She looks down. “Sometimes
I’m not sure what I know, Devin.”

“
You’ll figure it out,” I
say softly. “You always do.”

Her gaze meets mine, and
for an instant I see beyond the walls and armor Skye has built so
the fear is right there. I just wish I knew how to make things less
rocky for her.

The rest of the meal passes
in small talk, and some part of me wonders if Skye is thinking
about Kimmie. I know I’m not. It would be pretty near impossible
for me to think about someone so surface-level when Skye is sitting
right here, even if she
is
distant.

By the time we leave, a
cold wind has picked up, gusting inland. Looking at the sky, I
realize it’s probably going to storm soon. Skye crosses her arms
over her abdomen, and I can see her shiver. To me the wind feels
good, so I pull off the long-sleeved button-down I wore over a
white tee and say, “Here.” I gesture for her to hold out an arm. I
slip the shirt on her.

“
Thanks.”

Lightning arcs across the
sky, and the wind starts to pick up slightly, tousling her hair.
“Better?” I ask.

“
Yeah. It stops the wind.”
We both look at the heavens. “Storm’s coming.”

I nod. “Yeah. We’ll be
lucky if we make it back to the house before the sky opens up.
C’mon.” I grab her arm to up her pace.

We’ve only taken a few
steps when the deluge begins, a cold rain so thick it’s like a
curtain of water. The wind tries to push us backwards. Sensing Skye
is struggling to maintain her footing, I wrap my arm around her and
propel us both onward. It takes about five minutes before we even
see the house. We’re almost on top of it by then, and we’re both
completely soaked.

I pull her onto the porch
and unlock the door. I hear her teeth chattering noisily, and I
nudge her inside as I flip on the lights. The white sundress has
molded itself to her lithe figure, and the storm has pushed her
dark hair from her face in soft waves that shimmer down her back.
She’s breath-taking, and I can’t help but stare at her, amazed at
how the water beading on her skin seems to accentuate every line
and arc of her body.

“
What are you looking at?”
she asks, running her fingers through her hair.

“
You’re soaked,” I manage,
feeling my throat constricting with desire.

She turns towards the
window and shakes her head. “Great.”

“
What’s wrong?” I ask,
walking to the bathroom and grabbing two towels, one of which I
give to her.

“
The only outfit I brought
in is the one I’m wearing.” She looks ruefully at her
dress.

I squeeze her shoulder.
“I’ll get you something you can wear until tomorrow. I don’t think
either of us wants to go out in the rain.”

“
No,” she sighs. “Not
especially.”

I go to one of the dresser
drawers and start to grab a tee shirt when I see the ring. For a
moment, I pick it up and stare at the diamond. I think about giving
it to her when the power suddenly goes off, which is probably a
sign on more than one level, so I put it back and find a pair of
drawstring shorts to go with the shirt. Then I fumble my way back
to Skye as she stands before the window. When my hand touches her
shoulder, she jumps, whirling.

“
Crap! You scared
me.”

“
Who did you expect it to
be?” I ask. “The Staypuff Marshmallow Man?”

“
Funny,” she snaps, taking
the clothes I offer. Then she asks, “Can you turn around? I don’t
really want to try fumbling in the dark right now.”

“
Okay.” I turn away. In
spite of my racing heart, I hear her tug the zipper of the sundress
down and the fabric rustles to the floor. I swallow hard, the
sounds burning themselves into my brain. I tell myself to focus on
something else, anything else—until she says, “Okay, I’m good. You
can turn back now.”

I slowly face her. A jagged
clip of lightning arcs across the sky, silhouetting her figure, now
covered in my clothing, which is baggy on her. She towels the
length of her hair, trying to dry it, and the moisture curls it
into loose ringlets.

“
I’m gonna go change,” I
tell her, and slip off to the bedroom, where I strip and towel off
before putting on clean, dry clothes and stepping back into the
living room where Skye waits, still trying to dry her
hair.

“
I’ll get some candles from
the kitchen. Stay put.” Without waiting for her answer, I drift
into the kitchen and begin searching for the candles I’ve seen
recently. At first, I don’t remember which cabinet, and my
searching fingers keep missing them. Then, as I think back, I head
to another cabinet and find them, as well as the
matches.

Lighting the candles, I
take a deep breath as the storm rages around us. The wind has now
picked up to even more violent gusts, whirling sand into mad
dervishes along the beach. The air carries a brittle coolness not
customary for this time of summer. I carry one of the candles into
the living room and set it on the table so Skye has something to
break the darkness with before I go back and get a few
more.

When I return, she’s
sitting on the couch, her knees drawn to her chest as though she’s
trying to glean some kind of body warmth. A smile tugs at her
lips.

“
What’s so funny?” I ask,
setting the other candles next to the first one. I sit on the couch
beside her.

“
I used to think rain and
candlelight were romantic, and on the day I first made love to a
guy, it would be like this.” She looks at the roof, listening to
the rain pound the shingles. A nervous hand shoves a strand of hair
behind her ear. “Silly, isn’t it?”

“
It’s not,” I tell her,
knowing any other guy would take what she’s saying for an open
invitation. They’d be mistaken. Skye doesn’t work that way. “It
would be nice to be close to somebody during a storm.”

“
You have to say that,” she
argues, pointing a finger at me. “You’re my best
friend.”

Leaning back, I give her one
of the looks that tells her she’s deluded. “I don’t
have
to do anything,
Skye—so don’t flatter yourself.”

“
Your hair’s messed up.” She
leans towards me and runs her fingers through it, as though she
thinks she’ll somehow be able to tame it. Yeah, right.

I let her play with my hair
for a minute before I catch her hand and look her dead in the eye.
“So can we have a serious moment here to talk?” I give her fingers
a gentle squeeze before turning them loose. Already, I feel my body
stiffening, anticipating the conversation going south as it easily
could.

She averts her eyes. “Okay.
What do you want to talk about.”

“
How you’re
doing.”

Her shoulders sink, and I
can tell that’s really the last thing she wants to talk about. She
hates to be vulnerable even with me. “I’m fine. I told you
that.”

I arch an eyebrow, which
forces her to rethink the story she’s telling me. “Okay, there’re
times I still suffer from the stupid PTSD. It’s no biggie. The
therapist from high school said it might always be with me, and
that I just needed to learn how to manage it. So that’s what I’m
doing.” She folds her arms across her chest sullenly. “Don’t worry.
I won’t call you out of the blue anymore with stupid fears about
some guy.”