“No one should have to be spoken to as she did you.”
“I’ve dealt with worse.”
“When?”
The spotlight swiveled, so she felt it burning her face, and swallowed past a knot in her throat. “My turn, huh?”
“It seems only fair.”
Skye reached for a piece of bread, generously spreading it with butter.
“When I moved to Sydney,” she admitted, finally.
“You were how old?”
“Fourteen, and awkward as anything,” she grimaced. “My father had died eighteen months earlier and let’s just say I ate my feelings,” she explained. “I felt so incredibly isolated. I was heartbroken.” Her voice cracked. “We were very close. And then, my mum met Aaron, my stepdad, and within months the farm was on the market, and we were moving to Sydney.”
“And you felt like you didn’t fit in?”
“Oh,” she laughed. “I didn’t fit in, make no mistake about it. Come on, Matthieu, look at me. I’m a country girl, through and through. I have simple tastes and no interest in any of the girly stuff. My stepsisters, Mia and Sal, were the total opposites.”
“Did they bully you for your differences?”
“Mia and Sal? Oh, gosh, no. They’re the most beautiful girls, inside and out. They were always lovely to me. So welcoming and kind. They tried to ‘help’ me to adapt, but you can’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse. Maybe I could have tried harder, but I think on some level—,” her voice tapered off.
“You saw your country girl image as an intrinsic connection to your father, and didn’t want to betray him?”
Her lips parted at his perceptive interpretation.
“Yes.”
“So it was others who were unkind to you?”
“Girls at school,” she confirmed with a tight nod. “I was sent to one of the most elite schools for girls in Australia. Let’s just say I stuck out like a sore thumb,” she grimaced. “I’d never even blow-dried my hair before. I just wanted, desperately, to get back home. I’d fall asleep each night dreaming of open spaces and skies filled with stars, and the smell of gum leaves in the air, the sound of tractors. I even missed the smell of cow pats,” she laughed. “I was miserable.”
“It’s a lot for a young person to deal with, in such a short time.”
She pulled a face. “I was angry at my mum, back then. I felt like she’d forgotten all about dad. And then, one day, many years later, she told me that it was the strength of her love for dad that had made it possible for her to love Aaron again. She said her love with dad was so perfect and so complete that nothing could ever damage it nor change it. She would always love him, just as she had when he was alive. What she felt for Aaron was completely different, like a whole other bubble, quite separate to what she felt for dad. And most importantly, she told me Aaron understood. He didn’t want my mum to forget about dad.” Her smile was wistful. “Looking back, Aaron was actually amazing. He always took me out on dad’s birthday. The first year I thought it was an accident, until at the end of the meal, he got a cupcake and said we should share it, for dad.” Her voice cracked. “Aaron found lots of little ways to honour him.”
“He sounds like a great guy.”
Skye looked towards the terrace, shielding her face from Matthieu and anyone else who might care to look at them, as her eyes were moistened by emotion. “Yeah.” It was all she could say.
“And I am even more glad that you stayed exactly as you are. Why should you change because others decided you did not fit their idea of what you should be?” The question was cool, but she heard something in his tone, and undercurrent that made her wonder.
“I guess, as I’ve got older, I’ve learned that there is no one way to be. I found people who were like me. People who appreciated me for who I am.”
“Such as?”
“Friends. My sisters. I’ve come to accept that even though we’re like chalk and cheese, that doesn’t mean they don’t love me. I guess you could say I’m more comfortable in my own skin.”
He looked as though he wanted to say something, something important, but then he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it, murmuring against her flesh, “Your skin is one of the things I like most about you,” so her heart went squishy and her tummy rolled and every bit of pain she’d ever felt in life was fast forgotten. For so very long, she’d felt as though she didn’t belong, Skye hadn’t really realized that for the past month, she’d started to feel as though she were just exactly where she needed to be.