Page 71 of Heartsick & Lipsticks
Holy shit.Had I just said that? That had not been the plan when I’d driven over here.
“What?” Skye looked up at me, her brow furrowing in the center. “Where?”
“With me… I mean, with us. With Bella, and Naomi, and me.” Talking was my occupation, but around Skye, I found it hard to express myself. “You can stay at my house.”
All three Taylor women spoke at the same time.
“No!” Skye exclaimed in horror.
“Yes!” Callie squealed at the same time.
“We’d love to!” Lola chirped.
The four of us all stared at one another, and I wasn’t sure what the next move should be.
“Why don’t we let your mom and Nick talk?” Ri grabbed both Lola and Callie by the arms and jerked them inside. “Bye, Nick!”
“But Mom, there’s only one bathroom here, and I have to sleep on the floor!” Callie pleaded as the door was shutting while Lola waved at me.
“I’ll be right in,” Skye assured her.
When it was just the two of us, she looked up at me, and I wasn’t sure if she was going to yell or cry. I knew that I’d just fucked up and I had no idea how to make it right. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…I shouldn’t have offered that without talking to you first.”
“It’s okay. I just, I can’t move in with you.”
“Why not?” I countered. “I have the space. And it would cut down on the commute.”
Her lips turned up in a grin, and the knot that had been tied in my chest loosened. “Listen, I appreciate you coming over and thank you for the offer. But you don’t have to do this just because of…you know…last night.”
“I’m not. Honestly, that’s not why I’m doing this. I just… I know what it feels like to be displaced, to not have a home, and I just want to help.”
I’d never played the ‘grew up in foster care, was homeless for a year’ card before. I’d never had to. It felt a little shitty using it now, but it was the truth. I hadn’t lied to her. I did know what it was like not to have a place to call your own. And I did want to help.
Skye bit her lip, and I could see that she was considering my offer. I’d always been good at closing a deal. “You can’t stay here with one bathroom. Callie’s sleeping on the floor.”
“I can get a long-term rental.”
“In the summer? In the city?” San Francisco was a hotspot for tourism. Airbnb’s were hard to come by, at least in safe neighborhoods. And finding one that you could rent for more than a week was nearly impossible. Not to mention expensive.
“Just think of it as a mini-vacation for Callie and your mom. There’s a pool, the beach, a game room, and a media room. She’ll have the best summer ever.”
Again, it felt a little shitty to use her daughter because I knew that would be the way to Skye’s heart. My methods were suspect, but my intentions were good. I wanted her and her family safe, and they would be under my roof.
She took a deep breath and then spoke barely above a whisper. “If I agree to this, then I just want to make it clear thatnothingis going to happen between us. I mean, last night was great, but itcannothappen again. No one can know about what happened. Ever.”
“Okay,” I agreed, trying not to take it personally that she was so adamant about keeping what had happened between us a secret. I wasn’t usually someone who people were ashamed of; the opposite actually.
“I’m serious. If I do move in, it has to be completely professional.” She pointed her finger. “No funny business.”
I couldn’t help but smile at her pointed finger and use of the phrasefunny business. She was fucking adorable. Any offense I might have taken from her insistence on our night together being top secret melted away. If that’s the assurance she needed to be okay with moving in, then she would get it.
“No funny business.” I lifted my hand with my pinky extended, and she gave me a strange look before hooking her pinky in mine. The moment our fingers intertwined, tingles rushed up my arm, but I forced myself to appear unaffected as I said, “Pinky promise.”
She let out a small laugh, and dropped her hand. “But I am serious. No one can know.”
“I’ll sign whatever NDA you want.”
That got another laugh and when I heard the sound I exhaled, letting out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding since I’d found out she’d had to evacuate her building. I may not have all the answers to the questions haunting me, but I did know that for the next few weeks at least, Skye would be under my roof.
I was taking that as a win.
