Theo squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to process what she was saying. Rubbed his temple. “You think that I would do that?”
She put her hands on her hips. “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”
He pressed his lips together, put his hands on his hips. Everything was becoming clear. The anger and distrust that had been hidden behind her eyes all along. This wasn’t just about what had happened fourteen years ago. It was about now. Then and now.
All those comments about his organic Peruvian coffee beans and how her father worked so hard.
“You think I would pay your father so little—”
“That they would still be living in their double-wide driving that same thirty-year-old truck with the broken AC? Yeah, Theo. Yeah, I do. What evidence do I have to tell me otherwise?”
Theo pressed his hand to his chest. “Me, Skye. I would hope you’d know the truth because you know me.”
They stared at each other wordlessly as Ashleigh’s headlights fell between them and the car backed swiftly down the lane. By the time the lights swerved onto the road and dissipated through the trees, the moment held the feel of a punctured balloon, slowly deflating into a small mass on the floor.
He wasn’t sure if he or she turned away first, but moments later they were moving in separate directions, each trudging slowly beneath a pale moon and its electric sky of stars.
Chapter 14
Skye
Skye’s heels sank into the mossy ground with each step. Her fingernails bit into her closed palms as she marched through the small patch of woods and came out at the greenhouse on the other side.
She felt like she’d been tossed underwater. Like she’d been invited to a nice waterfront restaurant and was sitting on a fine patio drinking champagne one moment, clinking her glass with a man beneath a string of hanging lights, and the next was falling backward out of her chair into the water.
It was startling. Infuriating. Confusing.
But what rubbed her raw was a slimy feeling in the pit of her stomach she couldn’t quite shake. The feeling that he wasn’t entirely to blame for what had just happened.
And worse than the feeling of being furious at him for his mistakes was the feeling of being furious at herself for the possibility of hers. She had to know. Right then. She had to talk to her mother.
Skye marched through her side yard without stopping and walked across the bridge. Two knocks on her mom’s door, and her mother appeared.
She took in Skye’s expression and then opened the door wide. “Oh, honey. What happened?”
“Well, to cut to the chase,” Skye said, peeling off her sodden heels at the threshold and stepping barefoot inside. “We were about to start a lovely meal when Theo’s newly departed girlfriend showed up.”
“Oh no.” Her mother shut the door, her hand pressing against her chest and the faded stripes of her apron. The air smelled of sautéed garlic and onions.
Skye’s fists tightened. “Yes.”
She took Skye by the shoulder and guided her to the kitchen. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
Skye followed her into the yellow-wallpapered kitchen and sat in one of the three chairs surrounding the breakfast table. She put her elbows on the table. Raked her hands through her hair. Her mother set a glass of milk in front of her and moved back to the stove.
Skye picked up the glass numbly. “I don’t even think I know what I’m supposed to think here.”
“I’m sure it’s all very confusing for the both of you,” her mother said softly, sliding a bowl of soup in front of her. “But then, you both have had entirely separate lives until yesterday.”
Skye frowned.
“Did he say how long he’d been detached from this other woman?” her mother asked, setting a stainless steel spoon beside the bowl and slipping into the chair beside her.
“Hours.” Skye exhaled, turning the glass in her hand. “Apparently somewhere in our day together he stole away long enough to break up with her.”
“And then she came to see him, probably to try to make amends, and it threw a wrench in his well-planned date,” she mused aloud.
Skye saw where this was going and frowned. “You’re taking his side.”
“Of course not,” her mother said, taking her hand. “I’m on your side. I’m on both your sides. Although, I wonder . . .” Her mother stood and returned to the stove.
Skye watched her mother stir the pot, saying nothing more.
“What? You wonder what?”
“If you’re not being a bit too hard on him.”
That was it. She had to know.
“Why do you like him so much?” Skye set her glass down. “How can you stick up for Theo when he pays Dad what he does? How does that not infuriate you? Dad, you—you’re both worth ten times this.” She waved at the wallpaper. “And Theo could give that. Theo should give Dad a decent wage.”
Her mother’s ladle slowed to a stop.
“Where did you get this information?” she said quietly. “Did Theo talk with you?”
Skye pressed her lips. Shook her head. “No. I saw the letter in a drawer.”
She saw her mother’s expression and felt an inward quake. This was why she’d never brought it up. This shame that crossed her mother’s face was the reason Skye had kept it to herself.
“I’m sorry,” Skye continued, then waved at the counter. “It was lying in a drawer I looked through while I was making cookies. I didn’t mean to pry.”
Her mother nodded. “Well, I can most certainly understand why you’re confused.” She turned back to the soup. “There’s a reason the Watkins family has agreed to pay your father that salary. A few reasons, actually, for why they agreed to my request to lower it.”
“Lower it?” Skye said. “You requested to lower it?”
“Theo’s letter was just confirming our verbal arrangement.” Her mother nodded. “About this time last year, shortly after”—she hesitated, turned—“the Bristol casino opened. I realized I had no other choice. I drove down to Theo’s office and spoke to him in person.”
“You went down to Theo and asked him to lower Dad’s salary? Why?”
Skye halted, felt her breath quake. “How bad is it, Mom?”
She hesitated. “Bad enough I needed Theo’s help.”
“But how does lowering his salary help anything? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” Skye looked around, realizing all too suddenly the television made no noise. “So is that where he is right now? The casino?” She gripped the corner of the table, her voice rising. “Is that the ‘errand’ he was talking about?”
Her mother didn’t move. “That’s where he said he wouldn’t be. But time will tell.”
Skye felt the punch in her gut as she stared into the face of her mother. Her peaceful, placid mother in her apron, soup ladle in hand. “And you’re just going to stand there? And let him throw all your money down the garbage chute?”
At this, for the first time, her mother smiled. “Thankfully, honey, this house isn’t fancy enough for a garbage chute. And yes, in my own way, I’m doing everything I can to help him.”