“I ordered pizza.”
“Wow. Her sister is one of the best cooks around, and you order pizza. You really don’t think some days.”
“What’s going on with you two?” Damon asked, coming inside the room. “Neat, you created a little fort. Didn’t you two realize that you’re like, old now?”
“Told ya,” Paul said.
“Damon, if a woman you really want to be with told you that she had never been to a sleepover before, and you want to make her wishes come true, what would you do?” Leo asked.
Damon tilted his head to the side, pursed his lips, and nodded. “Yep, I’d do what Leo was doing, Paul. Sorry, man, it’s a neat fort. This for Skylar?”
“Yep. She’s never had a sleepover before, and I wanted to, you know, make it special, and memorable.”
“I know she’s working hard at the diner tonight. She may not be such good company.”
“Leo tipped water over her mattress. Staring at this, it makes me wonder if you planned it,” Paul said, brow raised.
Holding his hands out trying to look innocent, he smiled at his friend. “I’m just trying to help.”
“You little sneak,” Damon said. “Good luck, boys. I hope you get the girl.”
Once they were alone, Leo stepped back and was more than pleased with his job. “I did good.”
“Did you go to many sleepovers growing up?” Paul asked.
“Nope. You?”
“Nope. I have a feeling her issues are with her mother.” Paul pulled out a picture. “I found this in Teri’s bedroom drawer.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “You’re sneaking around now.”
“I was doing laundry, and this was poking out of a drawer.”
Leo took the picture from his friend, and looked at it. There was no mistaking Teri, nor Skylar.
Standing behind Skylar was a hideous-looking woman, and even as he looked at the picture, he saw the woman held onto Skylar rather tightly.
“That’s her mother,” Paul said, taking the picture, and flipping it over.
On the back, it named “mother, father, Skylar, and me”.
“She called out for her mother last night,” Leo said. “Teri told us she had nothing to do with her parents. Do you think Skylar’s in touch with them?”
“No. Last night she pleaded for her mother to stop, Leo. She didn’t beg her mom for help. It wasn’t that kind of cry.”
Leo sighed, feeling an overwhelming sadness consume him. “You’ve got to stop looking at shit like this. Skylar will tell us in her own time. Between this and the apartment renting, you could cost us this woman. I don’t want to lose her.”
Paul took the picture. “I think this is going to be amazing.”
“That is the hope. If only you would stop being so nosy.”
Paul held his hands up. “I can’t help it. I want to know everything, and I’ve never had the best patience.”
“Don’t I know it? Now, stop snooping.”
He watched his friend walk away, and Leo frowned. If Skylar was hurt by her mother, would she ever talk about it? Teri wouldn’t, and he had seen the guilt inside her eyes when she spoke.
Running fingers through his hair, he decided to put it to the back of his mind. Time to go and collect his woman.