Page 65 of Rebooked For Us
“So, this is how it’s gonna be?” she said. “You can kiss me, but you can’t talk to me?”
“You spent plenty of years not talking to me. You don’t get to rush me now.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Fair?” I huffed, the sound closer to a scoff than anything with humor in it. “Don’t talk to me about fair, Skye. You got me fucked up.”
She pressed her lips together and held my eyes in the glass, and for a second, I almost gave in. I almost spun her back around and let all this heat go where my body wanted it to. She wanted it too. I could see it. But I wasn’t about to let her fix this with her body the same way she tried to manage everything else. Not this time.
I stepped back.
“Sit down. Buckle up. We’ll be wheels down soon.”
She stood there a beat, stunned, then her face hardened.
“You’re really not gonna touch me or talk to me.”
“Not like this. Not yet.”
I left her in that back room and went back to my seat.
Bianca showing up had ruined the whole fuckin mood and vibe of our time together. But this, the cold, the distance, that was on me, and I was choosing it. For now.
Skye made it back and plopped down in the seat with her arms crossed. Brat shit. Shit, I didn’t have time for.
The last twenty minutes of the flight made my nerves bad. Not about Skye. About what was on the other side of the landing. A daughter. A whole person who’d been alive for six years that I was about to be responsible for. I’d built a career on walking into rooms unbothered, and now my hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
We landed. Skye stayed quiet, which was smart. I moved us through the airport on autopilot, phone already going, Lola and Devon both needing things, the machine starting back up around me.
Kareem was already at the curb when we came through arrivals, black SUV running. He stood at the door with his hands folded, and the second he saw who was next to me, his whole face changed.
“Skye?” He said it like he couldn’t believe it. “Man, get over here.”
He pulled her into a hug before she could say a word. Skye laughed into his shoulder, surprised, hugging him back.
“Kareem. Oh my god. You’re still putting up with him?”
“Ten years and counting.” He held her out by the shoulders, looking at her like a missing piece had walked back in. “I’m glad you’re back. I mean that.”
I stood there watching my driver of ten years hug my wife like she was his long-lost daughter. Ain’t this some shit. I pay this man.
He caught my eye over her head, and there was a whole conversation in it. He remembered. He’d been in the front seat through all of it, the good and the years of nothing after. I knew that. Didn’t mean I appreciated him grinning all up in her face like he forgot whose paycheck he was on.
“You done?” I said.
“Nah, give me a minute, this is a reunion.” He didn’t even look at me.
Skye laughed.
Traitor. Both of them.
“Welcome back, Cane,” he said, finally, opening the door. He looked at Skye one more time, smiling. “Ma’am.”
Skye slid in next to me, the smile still on her face from Kareem. I didn’t give her one back, but I didn’t have it in me to be cold about it either. I just looked out the window and let Kareem pull us into traffic.
“Kareem is now you and Sugar’s driver. Is she in school already?”
She turned her head. “Excuse me?”
