Page 17 of Heartsick & Lipsticks
Why did I feel like I hadn’t had a choice in where I went in my own home?
I stopped before the door that was cracked open. From where I stood, I could see my mother lying in her bed. She had oxygen tubes on her face, and her eyes were closed. Before I left for my meeting, I’d stopped by her room. Bella and Parker, her manny, were in the room coloring with her. I said goodbye and told them that I would be out for the evening. That was it. I’d barely spoken to her.
All my life, I’ve had so many questions for her. The day I’d gone to visit her, the week after I turned eighteen, I’d tried to ask them, but she’d avoided answering. After that, she refused to see me. With the time that she had left, I hoped to get some of those questions answered.
But that wasn’t why I was standing at the door now. I was being pulled like a magnet toward Skye. I couldn’t explain it, but it was happening.
I lifted my hand to the door, intending to push it open quietly, when it opened by itself. Well, not by itself. Skye appeared in the doorway; her head was down and she was watching something on her phone. I reached out and touched her arm so that she didn’t walk straight into me. When my fingers grazed her, she looked up and jumped about an inch in the air. Her eyes widened in surprise as her fingers curled into a fist.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” I quickly whispered. “I was just… I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. That you didn’t need anything.”
One of her hands rested on her chest, and as she let out a huff of air, a small smile tilted on the side of her mouth. The sight caused a tingling feeling to stir in my chest. She took a deep breath and quietly shut the door behind her.
The light in the hallway was dim, but still, the gold flecks floating in her hazel eyes shimmered as she looked up at me beneath thick, dark lashes. We stood about a foot and a half apart in the confined space. The energy between us was even more potent than it had been in the kitchen. I assumed it was because we were in a confined space.
“Are you okay?” I asked. “Do you need anything?”
She shook her head and lifted up her phone. “I just needed to make a quick call.”
“To your husband?” I wasn’t sure why that question had come out of my mouth. Actually, I did know. I wanted to know if she was married.
Her brow furrowed.
“Or wife?” I amended.
“I’m not married.”
Thank god.
“Boyfriend, then? Girlfriend?”
Her brow furrowed slightly. “I’m on a break.”
“LikeFriends?” I asked.
“Friends?”
“Friends.You know, like Ross and Rachel were on a break.” She still looked confused. “You said you were on a break, so I said, likeFriends?”
Internally, I did a face palm. Everyone knows that jokes are always better when you have to explain them. I couldn’t believe how badly I was bombing. I’d always been able to talk to people. Especially women. But Skye was different. She was kryptonite to my superpower of charm.
“Oh, I thought you were asking about me making a personal call, so I was just saying I’m on a break.”
Fuck. She’d completely gotten the wrong idea.
“Sorry, that’s not why I was asking. I was just…curious.” Was that inappropriate? It probably was. She didn’t work directly for me, but sort of.
Had I just made her feel uncomfortable?
“Oh, okay.” Her cheeks flushed, and the tip of her tongue slid along the seam of her mouth. I was sure that it was a nervous tic, but that didn’t stop my eyes from locking on her perfect lips, wishing that I was the one licking them. “I’m calling my mom.”
It was three o’clock in the morning. I wondered if it was some sort of emergency. “Is everything okay?”
Her shoulders dropped slightly. “It will be.”
I stepped to the side, and she walked past me into the foyer. After a few seconds, I heard her softly but firmly say, “He needs to go homenow.”
I knew it was wrong to be eavesdropping, but not so wrong that I stopped.
