She steeled herself against looking back.
Fortunately, a taxi turned onto the street just then. She whistled, and it stopped to pick her up. Skylar didn’t chase after her to make sure she was okay about being dumped. The taxi took her straight home. Somehow she managed to hold it together until she got inside and closed the front door.
That’s when it hit her.
She burst into tears. The sounds of her heart breaking echoed in the large foyer, bouncing off the vaulted ceiling and tall walls. She slid down the door. It hurt so badly that she thought she’d probably die. She wouldn’t have to go to work then. She wouldn’t have to face the pitying glances or the possibility that she’d run into Skylar.
A person couldn’t avoid seeing their boss for long.
Part of her, a tiny sliver thought he would call her and say it was a mistake. She cried for the family she wouldn’t have with him. Another part of her thought he might come to the door, show up in person and declare his love for her. Maybe he’d realize he loved her now that she was gone. She cried over losing the Griffin family, people she’d come to love and think of asherfamily.
By the time the sun went down she stopped believing Skylar would come for her.
When Christmas morning arrived, she stopped crying. Her head throbbed painfully, and her mouth was desert dry. She made what she thought was a healthy decision. In fact, it was the only logical decision. She needed to get a new job and put Skylar Griffin in her rear-view mirror.
♥♥♥
Skylar didn’t tell his mother or sister that he’d said goodbye to Anna until his father was sitting up and talking again. He didn’t say anything until the pinched look around his mother’s mouth softened and she started smiling again. He didn’t tell them until his mother had him drive her back to his place. She’d spent every moment, day and night with his father until the worst was over.
The day they returned home from the hospital his mother and grandmother spent all morning in the kitchen cooking his father’s favorites. They planned to freeze them until he was ready to eat real food again. He needed to stick close to Boston, close to his doctor for a while. They were going to find a temporary place, but he insisted they stay with him.
No one mentioned Anna until they sat down for lunch. It was just the three of them. Becca had returned to her home in Connecticut with Joey and Kyle. Out of the blue, his mother said, “Now that we’re nearly back to normal you should invite Anna over. I haven’t seen her since the night your father had his... went to the hospital. How is she doing?”
“I gave her her freedom.”
His mother scowled. “What does that mean?”
“She wanted to return to her old life, so I let her.”
“And how do you know what she wanted? Did you ask her?”
He hissed between his teeth. “I offered to give her back her life, the one she had before me, and she jumped at the chance. If she wanted to be with me, Mother, she would have said so.”
Grandma Dot made a clicking sound with her tongue. “Oh, Skylar. What have you done?”
“Don’t start with me. You didn’t even want us together. You kept trying to catch us in a lie. Well, congratulations. You were right.”
“But you love her,” Grandma Dot said.
He scoffed. “Wrong.”
“And she loves you.”
“Now I know you’ve been in the liquor cabinet.”
Joann slapped her palm against the table to stop their arguing. They both shut their mouths. She placed her hand on top of his. “Skylar, you know I love you, but you have really messed up this time. You found the perfect girl for you, but you let her go.”
“Let her go?” Grandma Dot made a rude noise. “He chased her away, pushed her out the door, gave her her walking papers, told her to hit the curb, gave her the—”
“Enough!” Skylar raked a hand through his hair. “If this family wasn’t so pushy and into my business, I wouldn’t have felt the need to fake an engagement in the first place.”
“I still can’t believe you did that.” Joann shook her head at her firstborn. “And to drag that poor girl into it. She lost her family when she was a child. Don’t you think it was cruel to dangle our family in front of her like a carrot and then yank it away?”
He sighed. “I didn’t know about her past when I asked her to help me with my plan.”
“Well, now you do know. What are you going to do about it?”
“Leave me alone, Mother.” He got up and slammed out of the apartment. If Anna wanted to be with him, she would have argued with him. Wasn’t that her usual move?
But she’d walked away. Hell, she’d almost run down the street to get back to her old life. That was not something a woman in love did. She didn’t love him, and that was fine. He didn’t deserve her love.