“Seth…” I don’t know if I should hug him or not, so I just lean more heavily into his side.
“It’s okay. It has only been a few weeks, you know, and I can already feel her leaving.”
I don’t say anything because I’m not sure he wants me to.
“I thought it was bad when she was dying, but this saying good-bye to her afterwards…it’s the worst.”
“You don’t have to say good-bye,” I tell him.
“Every day, I have to remind myself she’s gone. I get up and I expect to find her in the kitchen working the crossword puzzle. Or cooking. Or dancing with Joey and Mellie. Or me.” He grins. “She loved to turn the music on and dance.”
He waits while I flip pages. I see my dad in a lot of them. And that makes an ache in my chest that I can’t get rid of.
“I can’t hear her voice anymore,” he whispers. “I want to hear her voice, Aunt Sky.” His own voice cracks, and he lays his forehead on my shoulder. A tremor runs through him.
Screw it. I turn and wrap my arms around him. I don’t know how to do this because I’ve never had anyone do it for me. He pulls me close to him and sobs into my shoulder.
When he’s finally quiet, I pat him on the back and sit back. I return to the album because he looks uncomfortable. “Life is like a book, Seth,” I tell him. “Just like the photo album. Pages go by, but you can turn back to them anytime, even when the last page has been read. All you have to do is open the book back up and pick a page to reread.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it sounds good.
“If you could reread any page in your book, Aunt Sky, which one would it be?” he asks me softly.
“This one,” I say. I’d relive this one over and over. I take his hand in mine and give it a squeeze. He doesn’t pull away.
Matt
I tug on my tie, trying to loosen the son of a bitch. I hate wearing a f**king tie. Logan pops his head into the room. “You about ready?” he asks.
Logan is decked out in Madison Avenue clothes, which Emily’s mom sent over for all of us. Her mom likes to dress us up. And since her dad owns the company, we take full advantage of it. Logan looks like he just walked off the page of a magazine. “Tell Emily to come tie this thing, will you?” I ask. He nods and goes to get her.
She comes into the room, looking like a million bucks. She cleans up nicely. Usually she’s in combat boots and jeans. I remember when I met her and she wore a catholic schoolgirl outfit every day and had a blue streak in her hair. Now she totters over on her four-inch heels until she’s standing right in front of me. “You sure you want to go to this wedding?” she asks me softly as she starts to knot my tie.
“I don’t see why not,” I say. I look down at her feet. “Are you sure you should be wearing those stilts? What if you trip?”
She snorts. “I’m pregnant, Matt, not dying. Stop worrying. I swear, you’re worse than Logan.”
“You want to put on some flatter shoes? It would make me feel better.”
She pulls my tie up tight against my neck. “Since when do I care about making you feel better?” she asks, but she’s smiling gently at me.
“Always. You started loving me the day you met me.”
“You mean when you were puking your guts out?” she tosses back at me. She’s the only one who knew how sick I was back then. Or at least I thought she was. It turned out that all my brothers knew; they were just trying to keep it from me.
“You brought me a bucket,” I remind her, and the thought makes me grin.
“And ginger ale.”
“And you snuggled with me on the couch.”
She looks into my eyes. “And I still would if you’d let me.”
“Em,” I groan.
She holds up a hand to stop me. “I get it. I really do.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Do you?”
She nods. “I do. And I’m so happy for you,” she says softly. “When do you go back for more blood work?” she asks. She’s the only one who has asked me this.
“Next month,” I tell her. “How did you know?” I look at her as I arrange items on my dresser. I just want to keep my hands busy. I hate talking about cancer. I hate that it’s such a big part of my life.
She shrugs. “I know you, Matt,” she says. “Do you want me to go with you?” she asks.
I shake my head. “It’s just blood work, Em,” I tell her. Scary, life-changing blood work, but just a needle stick in the grand scheme of things.
She nods. “Okay,” she says. “But tell me if you change your mind.”
“I will.”
“So, you told Sky about April, right? She’s not going into tonight blind?”
I nod. “I told her about her.”
“And she’s okay with going to your ex’s wedding?”
“Closure,” I say. I put my wallet in the inner pocket of my suit coat.
“Closure,” she repeats. “You ready to go?” she asks. She looks me up and down. “You’re almost as handsome as Logan, you know?” She grins at me, and I put my arm around her and walk out of the bedroom.
“Get your hands off my baby mama,” Logan says.
I laugh because it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard come out of his mouth. “Make me,” I taunt.
He laughs, and we walk out the door together. They’re hand in hand, and I follow. We look ridiculous all dressed up in the neighborhood we’re from, and I’m afraid we’ll get mugged if we linger too long. But Emily’s father let us borrow his driver tonight—and his limo. It was pretty nice of him, and I get to spoil Sky a little.
We pull up to her apartment. She told me to text her when we were close, so she can meet us at the street, but I don’t. I go up to her apartment and knock. Seth opens the door. “Damn, dude,” he says. “You’re all dressed up.” He smiles. “I’m glad because so is she.”
He steps back, and it’s like he’s opening a curtain on Let’s Make a Deal. Sky steps out of her room and walks toward me. She’s in heels that look even higher than Emily’s, and she’s not a mom right now. She’s a classy lawyer who comes from money, and I could never, ever hope to live up to her.
She whistles at me. “You look handsome,” she says. She walks toward me with a necklace draped over her fingers. She presses it into my hands and turns her back to me. “Will you put that on me?” she asks. She lifts her hair, which is out of the ponytail I’ve gotten used to, and it hangs in artful waves down her back. She’s wearing a dress that clings to her figure. I know I’ve already seen everything that’s under that dress, but damn if my dick doesn’t get happy when she turns her back to me.
I clip her necklace around her neck and bend to kiss the soft skin. She purrs and turns toward me. “Thanks.”
“I am so glad you’re here,” Seth says. “I had to look at 452 dresses. And once she picked a dress, she had to do the shoe dance.”
I quirk my brow at him. “The shoe dance?”
He puts one foot on the floor and stands like a flamingo. He mimics a girl’s voice. “This shoe or this shoe?” he asks, as he switches from foot to foot.
Sky laughs and shoves his shoulder. “I wasn’t that bad.”
Seth rolls his eyes and goes to flop onto the couch. Mellie and Joey are in the floor playing with Barbies.
“You sure you’ll be okay, Seth?” she asks, but he’s grinning and typing into his phone. “Seth!” she calls loudly.
He looks up. “What?”
She rolls her eyes. “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
He hangs one arm over the back of the couch. The boy is all skinny arms and legs. “We’ll be fine,” he says. He goes back to his phone.
“Call if you need anything, okay? Anything at all.”
“Okay,” he says absently. Something is up, but I don’t know what.
“Are you having anybody over, Seth?” I ask.
He looks up, his face flushing. “No, she can’t come tonight.” He doesn’t realize his mistake for a second. Then he rushes on to say, “I mean he. Not she.”
Now I get it. He wanted to have a girl over.
“No girls,” Sky says. “I’m not ready to be a grandma yet.”
Seth doesn’t look up from his phone.
“Seth!” Sky cries.
He jerks his head up. “What?”
“No girls in the house unless they’re your sisters. Do you hear me?”
He salutes her. “I hear you.”
She goes and kisses Joey and Mellie on their heads, and I walk over to Seth. “You heard what she said, right?” I ask.
He looks a little contrite. “Yes.”
“Good.” I point my finger at him. “Behave yourself.”
“You, too,” he says with a grin. “What time will you be home?”
Sky opens her mouth, but I cut her off. “In a couple of hours.”
“That’s all?” Sky asks.
I nod. But that’s not all. I put my hand at her lower back and lead her out of the room after she kisses Seth on the forehead. He scrunches up his face and then goes back to his phone.
“Really, just a couple of hours?” she asks as the door closes.
“No,” I say. “I just said that so he’ll have no idea when we’ll be home. He’ll be less likely to have that girl over that way.”
She smiles. “Oh, very good idea.”
“Three younger brothers,” I remind her. I look her up and down. “You are so beautiful,” I tell her.
Her cheeks get all rosy. “Thank you,” she says. She dips her head. “You could have just texted me when you got here. I’d have met you downstairs.”
“My mother would roll over in her grave if I didn’t pick you up at your door.” It’s the truth. She would hate it. I adjust my suit coat. “She raised five gentlemen.” I lift my nose in the air, being silly.
Sky looks at me. “Yes, I think she did,” she says softly.
I hook an arm around her waist and pull her against me as the elevator doors close. I touch my lips to hers. “I’m going to mess up your lipstick,” I warn.
“I have more,” she breathes softly. Then she throws her arms around my neck and kisses me. I palm her ass and lift her against me. She doesn’t seem to mind. She makes a little noise against my lips that shoots straight to my heart.
The doors open, and I pull back. She wipes my lips with her thumb. I take my handkerchief out and swipe my face. “All good?” I ask.
I wipe the corner of her mouth where I smudged her. “Me?” she asks.
“Beautiful,” I say.
I take her hand and lead her out of the building. She’s so f**king beautiful that I want the whole world to see her. And what makes it even better is she’s mine.
She stops short when she sees the limo. “That’s for us?” she asks.
I nod and usher her into the car when the driver opens the door. She slides in next to Emily, and Em gives her a glass of champagne. She takes it in one hand and the other lands on my leg after I get in beside her. Her fingertips draw lazy circles on my thigh. I lay my hand over hers so she’ll stop. She looks up at me confused, but it only takes one touch from her to make my dick hard.
Logan laughs from the other side of the car. “Shut it,” I say, and I sign it at the same time.
He just laughs a little louder.
Skylar
Matt knows everyone at the wedding, apparently. It’s being held at a swanky hotel, and it’s truly beautiful. The bride was lovely, and I even felt myself tearing up when she started down the aisle. Matt just squirmed as the ceremony went on, and I guess it was because he’s not used to the wearing a suit. Now it’s time for the reception, which is a sit-down dinner that I wasn’t expecting. And then dancing. Matt introduces me to people as they walk up. There are so many of them that I can’t even hope to keep up with all the names.
The best man gives a toast that makes the room roar with laughter, and even Matt chuckles and raises his glass in the bride and groom’s direction. He leans into me and whispers close to my ear. “Last night, you made this noise on the phone that I can’t get out of my head,” he says.
My belly flips. “What noise?” I ask. I lean over and kiss his cheek. I just can’t help it.
“I can’t describe it,” he says absently. “But it was when you came.”
I choke on my own spit, and he laughs. His hand lands on my thigh.
“I want to hear it again,” he says, his words hot on the shell of my ear.
I lay my hand on his inner thigh and hitch it higher. It’s a bold move but so is the way he’s talking to me. “Stop teasing,” I warn.
“Who’s teasing?” he asks. He looks into my eyes.
“You going to stay over tonight?” I ask. I raise my brows at him.
He shakes his head. “Seth,” he says.
“Now who’s teasing?” I ask. I lean into him, and my breast touches his arm. He lifts a finger to lightly trace the underside of it. I press my legs together to ease the sudden, pounding ache.
He gets up and takes my hand, then pulls me to my feet. “Come on,” he says.
“Where are we going?” I ask as he drags me behind him. I run on my tiptoes in my too-tall shoes. He doesn’t slow down. We start down a corridor, and he tests doors until he finds one that’s unlocked. When one opens, he pulls me inside and immediately backs me against the wall. It’s a supply closet. And I don’t care.