Skye chuckled. “Yeah, Mom’s tough like that. She also was looking after our cousin Hunter too, so technically five kids. We were all crammed in this tiny apartment. Tess and I shared a bedroom, the boys another one, and Mom slept on a pullout couch in the living room. We used to pretend the fire escape was our domain, gave the neighbors hell traipsing all around it.”
“How did your mom cope with the divorce?”
“I don’t think she did, honestly. The first few weeks after Dad left, she cried for hours every day. Things got a bit better after we moved to New York. I think the change in scenery helped. But there were still these moments when I could tell Mom was just gone, disappearing into her grief again. She’d stare into space, and her eyes were glassy. Tess and I learned to read those signs, and we’d quietly go with the boys to another room, to give her some space. Or... we plied her with ice cream. We adapted depending on the supplies in the freezer. But I think that time wasn’t all bad, you know? We grew very close together, and it made us appreciate every little thing we had.” With a grin, she added, “Cole and Ryker invented their own games that made no sense to me and Tess, but we pretended to go along with it. Anyway, I do have lots of good memories from those years.”
I liked that she saw the positive side in everything. She was
a dreamer but a fighter too.
Smiling, she sank lower in the chair, closing her eyes again. “This is such a gorgeous day.”
“Do you have plans right now?” I asked.
She opened an eye. “I should get on with my Pilates. Have anything else in mind?”
“A few things.”
She opened the other eye too, smiling. “I’m all ears. Oh, before I forget, there’s a show on Broadway I want to see. I’m going with Tess and probably our almost-sister-in-law. I’m going to buy tickets on Monday. Interested?”
Pulling out her phone, she showed me the synopsis. It was an obscure one I hadn’t heard about, which explained why there were still tickets available.
I kissed her forehead, then sat in the chair next to her. “Restaurant Days is coming up, so I’ll barely see you for the next two weeks.”
It was a fourteen-day-long festival where restaurants in New York showcased special menus to attract new clientele.
“Oh? You need to be there personally?”
“With my deadbeat of an ex-in-law quitting, it’ll be good for me to be seen, give interviews, just generally be in the restaurants and greet critics.”
“Makes sense.”
“I’ll probably sleep in Manhattan at a hotel.”
“Boooo. So I won’t see you run anymore?”
“It’s gonna be tough to make it work.”
She pouted, rising from her seat and grabbing her empty cup of coffee. “I need more of this.”
“Me too. Let’s go inside.”
“So, what exactly did you have in mind for today?” she asked in between yawns while the coffee machine filled our cups.
I wiggled my eyebrows. “We could both go on a run. The adrenaline will wake us up.”
“Pffft... that’s a firm no.”
“I have another proposition.”
“Unfortunately, you missed your chance to impress me.”
I stepped right in front of her, so close that her breasts pressed against me. I had her trapped.
“Doesn’t seem like that to me.”
“You just caught me by surprise.”
“And that blush is because you’re surprised, or because you can’t wait?”