CHAPTER ELEVEN
WEST
“YOU LOOK FINE.”
“I do not look fine.” She pats along both sides of her nose gingerly, as though she’s making sure it hasn’t sprung a leak.
“Okay, you look fabulous.”
I get a scowl from beneath the brim of a spare Sparkly Turquoise Unicorns hat. “Nice try.”
I lean back in the metal chair to get a better look at her from across the table. It’s dimly lit on the floating dock at the Rose Hill Reach—the town’s waterfront pub—but the patio lanterns strung around the perimeter reflect off the water and cast a cozy glow.
Still, the sky is a dark cobalt, and it matches the bruising that’s cropping up on Skylar’s fancy face just perfectly.
If you ask me, she looks downright beautiful. I don’t tell her that, though.
“I have yet to meet a single person in the world who doesn’t look fabulous in a Sparkly Turquoise Unicorns hat,” I say.
Her lips twitch, but she still doesn’t break as she turns to gaze out over the inky water and back to the main bar, where she refused to have a drink because it was too well lit. There are other people at tables out here, but they don’t spare us a second glance.
Did I force her to come out for a drink with me?
Maybe.
Is it better than her sitting in the bunkhouse, spiraling about whether her
nose is broken?
Definitely.
And that’s exactly what she was doing when I went to check on her.
Skylar reaches up again, trailing the pad of her finger down the bridge of her nose. “Well, at least now when the tabloids say I’ve had a good nose job,
they’ll be telling the truth.”
“You don’t need a nose job.”
“You should write an article about that. Or maybe tweet it. People gobble up unsolicited opinions about me.”
She says it like it’s meant to be a joke, but I don’t find it especially funny.
“Why do you read that shit?”
She straightens, tipping her chin up. It’s hard to see her eyes from beneath her hat, but I have no doubt they’re flashing with defiance right now. She’s not the soft-spoken media darling everyone has come to know. No, there’s an edge to Skylar that someone’s tried to disguise with pretty paint and curtains.
But I see it all the same. And I like it.
“It’s part of my job to know how I’m perceived in the media.”
I furrow my brow. “No, it’s literally not. And who cares what they say about you? Are they right? Do they know you? Fuck ’em.”
Her amber irises widen at that.
“I’ve known you for less than forty-eight hours, and you’ve mentioned tabloids twice. Stop. Looking. Fuck ’em.”
“It’s hard.” Her voice is a whisper now. “It’s like I know it’s going to be made up and mean-spirited, but I check anyway, just so I know what’s being said.”
“Newsflash—people are going to say it whether or not you read it.”
Teeth clamp down onto her pillowy bottom lip as she gives one terse nod.
“And you looking doesn’t make it any truer. So what’s the point?”
Skylar glances away again, but this time it’s not to take in her surroundings. She’s avoiding making eye contact with me. And I don’t want to make her feel that way, so I drop it.
“Plus, your nose isn’t broken. I can tell. No nose job necessary.”
“Oh, are you a doctor now?” she snipes back.
I just laugh. I like her with her claws out. Seems more like the real Skylar to me.
“No, but I’ve had mine broken once and broke two others. Plus, I offered to take you to the ER and you said you didn’t want to be recognized, so I’m as close as you’re gonna get to an expert.”
Her jaw drops open, and she flattens her palms on the metal table.
“You’ve broken two people’s noses?”
I cross my arms, grinning back at her. “That I know of. A couple of people ran away before I could find out for sure.”
“Why?”
Now I scrub at my chin and turn to gaze out over the water. “Guess I had a bit of a rowdy streak growing up. Got a kick out of teaching lessons with my fists. I’ve outgrown it…mostly.”
The brim of her hat shadows her face and I can tell she’s about to say something, but our server walks up and interrupts.
“West, honey. How you doing tonight?” Doris props her tray against her hip and grins down at me with tobacco-stained teeth and permed hair that went out of style decades ago. The look she gives me is the same one she’s been giving me since I’d sneak in here underage.
“Real good, Doris. How about you?”
“Knees are sore. Otherwise, can’t complain. Got a roof over my head, food in my belly, and a husband with a big dick.”
Skylar makes a shocked choking noise from across the table right as I bark out a laugh. Good ol’ Doris. She never misses.
“On that note, what can I get ya?”
I wipe at my nose as I attempt to pull myself together. Usually, Doris’s shit wouldn’t land quite like that, but seeing the expression on Skylar’s face made it that much funnier.
“Boy, you’ve got the giggles. Who is this?” She points at Skylar.
That’s enough to make me straighten because gossip spreads like wildfire where locals are concerned, and I don’t want a parade of people approaching Skylar tonight.
Not when I’ve finally got her to myself.
“This is a friend. I’ll take a pint of Rose Hill Red and two cans of Buddyz Best. No glasses.”
Doris scribbles on her notepad. She didn’t use that when I was younger, but her memory isn’t what it once was. “Right, another one of your friends.
So help me, Weston, if I catch you shotgunning these cans out here…”
“Doris, my shotgunning days are over.”
The woman hits me with a droll look and my head tips from side to side.
“Mostly.”
She rolls her eyes and turns to Skylar. “Okay, friend. What can I get you?”
Skylar looks like a kid at the zoo for the first time—a little intimidated
and a little excited. “Chardonnay?”
“That a question?”
Skylar snorts. “I’ll have a chardonnay, please.”
Doris’s lips curve into a smile as she jots it down. Without looking at me, she mumbles, “This one’s smarter than the others,” before she stomps away on flat feet.
We watch her leave and turn back to face each other at the same time.
Skylar’s mouth opens like she’s going to say something, but she closes it.
Then again. Open. And closed.
“Cat got your tongue, fancy face?”
“I…” Her head joggles as she searches for what to say. “She’s amazing.”
I agree with a solemn nod. “Indeed, she is. A town mainstay. She owns the place.”
Skylar shifts her wide-eyed gaze back to the bar. “I need to channel her energy. Find my inner Doris.”
“Okay, well, you’ve got a roof over your head at the bunkhouse. I’m about to buy you a plate of wings. And I have a big dick, but I can’t marry you.”
She smirks at me, and just when I think she’s gonna give me hell about the bunkhouse barely constituting a roof, she surprises me by asking, “How big?”
I’m caught completely off guard. My face flushes red and my breath leaves me in a disbelieving huff. I stare at her slack-jawed for a few beats and then lick my lips as I regain my composure. “First, I am scandalized by that question. Second, I don’t like to talk about it because then people start asking to see it and shit just gets weird.”
She’s grinning as she shakes her head. But I don’t miss the way her eyes narrow. “Oh, do you not usually show your friends your dick?”
I bite down on my inner cheek and clench my biceps. “I have many friends. Of many sorts. I’m a friendly guy.”
She quirks an eyebrow at me.
“Spit it out, fancy face. Ask away.”
She shifts in her seat and links her fingers together on the table. “What did she mean when she called me another one of your friends?”
I look Skylar right in her bruised eyes. “It means she thinks I’m sleeping with you.”
Silence settles over us. I swear I can hear her tongue as it swipes across
her bottom lip. Even though with the hum of tables around us, that would be
impossible.
“Do you sleep with all your friends?”
“No. Only a few.”
Her eyes bug out comically now. “A few?”
“Not at once. But I’m not a monk, Skylar. I like to have some companionship, and I’m not set up for anything serious. Definitely not ready to add a relationship to the dynamic with my kids. I’m busy. Oliver has been improving slowly but surely, and I refuse to bring someone new into the fold and set him back. Especially since it took him so long to warm up to Brandon. So yes, since you’re being snoopy, I have friends with benefits because that is the least complicated solution to remaining single as a thirty- three-year-old man.”
She blinks. “Is it… Do you… Are you… You know what? Never mind.”
Now she’s flustered. She mirrors my position and crosses her arms, effectively shutting me out.
Since the silent drive over, our conversation has flowed easily, but it falls away. And I may not be in a relationship, but I’m not emotionally stunted either.
I’m not about to let her kill the ease between us.
“What’s got you all pissed at me, Skylar?”
The muscle in her jaw pops, and I can tell she’s grinding her teeth. “That stupid kiss,” she hisses while glancing around like someone might hear us. “I shouldn’t have done that. I feel like I kissed someone’s boyfriend.”
I bite back my chuckle, but it rumbles in my chest anyway. “Skylar, I am as single as they come.”
Her gaze moves from my hand clasped around my arm up to my face, and her attention stops me in my tracks for a moment.
Fuck, she’s pretty.
With a short shake of my head, I forge on. “And there was nothing stupid about that kiss. In fact —”
“Oh lordy, dropping and running. Pretend I was never here,” Doris grumbles as she sets our drinks on the table and bolts.
Saving me from saying something I definitely shouldn’t.