Neither of them moved for several minutes and when the alarm went off again, Skye turned it off and slowly climbed from the bed without a word. He watched as she padded to the bathroom and shut the door, and then promised himself he’d just close his eyes for a minute.
“Elliott?”
“Hmm?”
“You need to wake up,” she said, shaking him slightly. “It’s getting late.”
Late? It had only been a minute, maybe two…
Then he turned and focused on the clock and saw it was after seven. That had him sitting straight up and when he looked at Skye, he saw that she showered, put on makeup, did her hair, and got dressed. “Why did you let me sleep?” he asked, scrambling from the bed.
“I didn’t let you sleep,” she replied tartly, “I was getting ready for work! I thought you would get up on your own!”
Well…shit. She had him there. He totally should have.
He walked naked from her bedroom and out to the living room to get his clothes and heard Skye in the kitchen. When he joined her, he was dressed and doing his best to wake up a bit more. Without a word, she handed him a travel mug of coffee.
“Thanks.” Stepping around her, he added milk and sugar and took a sip. “So, what time do you have to be in?”
“Eight,” she said as she continued to move around the kitchen, cleaning things up from their escapades in there the night before. When he tried to help her, she told him it wasn’t necessary. “You probably need to go home and shower and change, right?”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out she was pushing him out the door.
“Yeah,” he murmured before taking another sip of his coffee. “Can I see you this weekend?”
She stopped and looked at him oddly. “Um…”
“I know you mentioned you had a couple of events, but I have no idea what that means in terms of your time, so…”
Combing her hair behind her ear, she seemed flustered. “It’s going to be a pretty hectic weekend, Elliott. I’m not going to have any free time. I’m sorry.”
It was probably for the best because he didn’t want to push too much where she was concerned. Besides, this was probably a good time for him to start going out with the guys again.
It was time.
With nothing left to do or say–not really–he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “Not a problem. Don’t work too hard and tell my sister I said hello.”
Skye’s eyes went a little wide–like she was expecting him to argue a little more about the weekend or…
“I can’t tell Josie you said hello! Then she’ll want to know where I saw you and why I saw you and...”
“Okay, okay, okay,” he said calmly, trying to soothe her. Without thinking, he wrapped her in his arms and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “I wasn’t thinking.”
She nodded and when he let her go a minute later and walked out the door, he felt a little out of sorts–like leaving her like that felt wrong.
But this was who he was now. He wasn’t looking to get involved or committed or date or whatever you wanted to call it. Even if there wasn’t an embargo, he wasn’t that guy anymore.
But as he pulled out of Skye’s driveway, he wondered if he was only fooling himself.
Chapter 9
Sometimes you have to forget what you feel and remember what you deserve.
Unknown
Monday morning, Skye finished her second cup of coffee and was already pouring her third when Leanna peeked into the office. “They’re here,” she said cheerily before walking away.
This was the meeting with Josie’s grandparents and as much as she knew it was going to be a very sweet meeting, she was still battling some exhaustion from the weekend. Three events that all ran long meant she had very little sleep and add that to her night with Elliott and…yeah…she needed a few days off to get caught up.
With her coffee in one hand and her tablet in the other, she made her way to their consultation suite and froze.
Josie’s entire family was there.
Including Elliott.
He caught her eye and raised his coffee mug to her with a smile, and she knew she had to just smile in return and take a seat or someone would accuse her of acting weird.
Which…she was.
So, with a smile, she walked into the room and took her seat–on the opposite side of the table from Elliot–and then said her hellos to everyone. Josie sat at the head of the table and began the meeting.
“Okay,” she said, smiling from ear to ear. “Nana and Pop-Pop, tell us what you envision for your party.”
“Whatever my Millie wants, we’re going to do,” her grandfather said, holding his wife’s hand. “She’s given me the best years of my life and I want her to have the perfect day.”
Skye found herself getting a little teary by that sweet declaration and carefully dabbed at her eyes without being too obvious.
Except when she looked up, Elliott was watching her and gave her a smile that told her he had seen it.
Refusing to focus on that, she turned her attention back to his grandmother and what she was describing for her day–lots of her favorite foods, all their friends and family, some of Leanna’s most famous cakes, and music so everyone could dance. She wasn’t overly specific and that’s where Josie chimed in with suggestions before Leanna gave them a list of dessert selections. Honestly, Skye wasn’t particularly needed here, but it would look strange for her to excuse herself so…she sat and listened and made notes to refer back to later.
Before she knew it, Josie was wrapping things up. “I hope none of you have plans for lunch, because I have food being brought in and Leanna has a selection of cupcakes for us! So just give me a few minutes and we’ll have everything set up in the tasting room!”
This was Skye’s chance to leave, but she got caught up talking to Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan, then Leanna asked her to help set up the dessert, and the next thing she knew, she was sitting in the tasting room and had a plate full of food in front of her–compliments of Elliott.
Dammit.
“You looked ready to bolt so…I brought food,” he said with an easy grin as he sat beside her.
“If you knew I wanted to leave, why make me the plate?” she asked quietly–and possibly with a little more snark than needed.
His laugh was low and throaty and shouldn’t have been even the least bit sexy, but…it was.
“Because everyone would wonder why you left and I figured you wouldn’t want to answer those questions.”
“Maybe I have someplace I need to be,” she quipped, even as she took a bite of potato salad.
That seemed to bring him up short. “Oh, um…I didn’t think of that. I just thought you were maybe trying to avoid me or something because…well…you know.”
Seriously, was he trying to draw attention to them? “Elliott,” she hissed, leaning in close even as she felt her face heat up. “Can you just not say stuff like that?”
“What? I technically didn’t say anything. I was just implying or hinting at…”
“Just stop doing that!” she cried, and everyone stopped and stared at them.