“Little girl, it takes a lot more than a city boy to knock me down. The little son of a bitch got the jump on me,” he said.
“Daddy, you think you can watch Tyler while Cody and I talk?” she asked.
“Well, little girl, it’s about time you talked to this boy. You not gonna run off this time?”
“No, Daddy, no running this time,” she replied. Skye turned to Cody and said, “Well, where should we go?”
“Let’s go to where it all ended,” Cody said.
“You wanna go to the bunkhouse?” she said.
“Yep. Or are you afraid of being alone with me?” he asked as he grabbed her hand and they walked out the door.
“We won’t wait up, Skye. Take your time. Right, Tyler? How about you and I go to breakfast over to the diner?” Ross asked Tyler.
“Grandpa, can we go buy a cowboy hat and boots?” “Well, Santa’s coming tonight. Why don’t we go see Santa and ask him to bring you them under the Christmas tree?” Ross replied.
“Momma, can we?” Tyler said
“Yes, baby we can go later today.”
“Yeah!” he yelled as he ran out the door.
Chapter Six
It felt like yesterday that she had walked up these stairs and into the bunkhouse; it hadn’t changed in ten years. Cody had gone out to get some firewood to start the fire, as it was cold and the fireplace was the only thing that kept the place warm. As she walked around the old place, she walked over and ran her hand along the mantel until her fingers caught on something. Looking, she noticed a nail, then she realized it was the nail that she had put the note on that she’d left for Cody all those years ago. That nail had changed her life forever. As she sucked the blood from her finger, all those past feelings came flooding back. Had she ever quit loving Cody? Was that the reason she could never commit to Parker? Looking back now at the day’s events, it was probably a good thing she never committed to him. When she thought about it as she got comfortable on the couch in front of the fireplace, she realized after all these years she was still in love with Cody Tyler Wilson. Now she just needed to tell Cody and hope that he could forgive her for ever doubting his love, his devotion, and his loyalty to her. They did have a lot to talk about, and what better time than the day of Christ’s birth—Christmas Eve?
Cody kicked the door, hoping it would get Skye’s attention. She promptly got up and opened the door. Cody’s arms were loaded down with wood for the fireplace. He winked and said, “Well, darlin’, glad ya didn’t make me wait that long this time. Ten years is a mighty long time to wait to get you back in this bunkhouse, but it was worth it.” He smiled, anticipating Skye’s reaction, but she smiled and apologized, then sat down on the couch. Cody dropped the wood in front of the fireplace and began to stack the wood and start the fire.
“I’ve missed the smell of a wood-burning fireplace. My place in New York has a gas fireplace, and it’s just not the same,” she said, watching Cody as he stoked the fire with the poker, then sat down on the couch next to her.
Leaning back on the couch, he looked over at her and said, “Well, it seems there’s a lot I don’t know and a lot you need to explain to me, wouldn’t ya say?”
Skye looked down at her lap, her hands clasped together, wringing them as anxiety coursed through her. Her mind raced, and she feared that he might leave when she explained everything. It was a mess for sure, but she had finally come to realize that she owed it to Cody, not just because he had saved her, her daddy, and their son, but because despite everything, she had always loved him and hoped he still loved her.
“Forgiveness is sometimes a hard pill to swallow, but I hope that you can forgive me in time,” she said as she raised her chin to look him squarely in the eyes.
Those eyes, she thought as she tried to remain focused on what she was trying to do.
“I tell you what. Why don’t we start from the beginning and work ourselves to the present? We got all day,” he said.
“Not all day…I still have to shop for Tyler. Tomorrow is Christmas, and I—well, we—can’t have our son wake up on Christmas Day without presents from Santa Claus.”
“All right, not all day, but you’re stalling, Skye. It may have been ten years, but you haven’t changed when it comes to talking about something that makes you uncomfortable. So spill it. I’m not the teenaged kid you left behind. I’m a man who apparently is also a father,” he said, smiling. “Me, a dad—I never imagined. I hoped one day but never thought…” But before he could get all the words out, Skye kissed him. Not a peck on the cheek or a peck on the lips, but a steamy, hot, tongue-dancing kiss.
Cody took her kisses in like the air around them; he couldn’t stop himself. He knew he should, he knew he needed to, but this was Skye, the woman he had loved his entire life, and they were alone in the bunkhouse that they had made love in so many other times almost a lifetime ago. And despite everything, he wanted her more now than he did as an eighteen-year-old boy. He wasn’t that kid anymore, and Skye wasn’t that girl; she was a woman and the mother of his son. As their kiss deepened, and before he let their animal instincts take over, he stopped and pushed her away. “Skye, darlin’, before we go too far, I need to know what happened. Why did you leave? Why did you leave me…us?” he begged.
“Does it matter, Cody?”
“Yeah, it does to me,” he replied.
“I’m afraid to tell you.”
Cody took his hand and cupped her cheek, pulling her in closer. “Skye, you don’t have to be scared to tell me anything. I promise whatever your reason was, I will understand. We were both young and impulsive. So please tell me,” he said, looking into her dark brown eyes.
Skye took a deep breath and organized her thoughts, then proceeded with her story. “The night I left I just wanted to die. My heart ached, and all I wanted to do was get out of town. When I saw you with Dee Dee Freeman, and she was hanging all over you and kissing you, my heart broke, and I died inside. I just wanted to run away. I couldn’t stand to see you holding her. All I wanted was to be your wife and make a life with you, so when I saw you holding her, I just had to leave.”
“Skye, sweetie, you didn’t see everything. You didn’t see me push her away, and you didn’t hear me tell her I was in love with you and that we were running away to get married. You didn’t hear me tell her she was drunk, and you didn’t see me load her into my truck and take her home to her daddy so she wouldn’t be driving drunk,” Cody explained as he placed his hand on hers.
“Cody, I know that now. I didn’t know it then. It wasn’t until I was on the phone with Cassie Reinhardt. She told me everything when I called 911. I had no idea. My heart sank when she told me. She also said that you had been injured in Afghanistan. She mentioned you just got home not long ago and that you’ve been helping my daddy on the ranch.”
“That’s all true. I joined the Army not long after you left. I couldn’t stand staying in town. It reminded me too much of you, of us, so I left. Joined the same unit that your daddy was in. When you left, he and I had a lot of long talks and, well, none of us knew where you went off to, and he knew I was hurting, so I did what I thought could help me ease the pain of losing you, of living out my life without you. I think that was the worst. I volunteered for every mission and every detail just to keep myself as busy as possible, because when I was alone, lying in my bunk, I always thought of you. Where you were, what you were doing. In the ten years I was gone, I never came back. I hired hands to help my daddy and yours on the ranches, and I finally decided it was time after I was medically retired. So in these ten years, what have you been up to? Besides giving birth to our son,” he said as he smiled back at her, her eyes filled with tears.