by Angel Steel
“Weren’t you listening to me before? Jesus.” Chantal crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at her.
Skylar laughed. “I was just pulling your chain, sweetie. Once I get out of here, we’ll go shopping for some things, but not everything. I want Nate to be a part of this, since he is the father. So, either he’ll come shopping or help design the room, okay?”
“I know, Skylar. I’m not taking over his part, just being there for you.”
“I know,” Skylar answered.
“So what did the cops have to say when they saw you?” Chantal asked.
Sitting up slightly and trying not to groan at the pain she was in was proving a difficult task. “They wanted to know exactly how it all happened. I explained everything to them that I could, and what I went through with Lucas last year. One of them got away and they have a warrant out for his arrest, and Adam is in custody. He will be charged with rape, kidnapping and grievous bodily harm.”
“I can’t believe they did that to you, Sky.” Reaching for her hand and holding it tight.
“I’m fine, Chan. It’s over and I never have to worry about Lucas again. All I need to do is sit down and talk to a counsellor then I can move on with my life.”
“I’m so happy that you are ok.”
“So am I.”
“I’m going to go and let you rest for a bit and catch up with Dom. I’ll come back up later. Do you need anything?” she asked.
“Surprise me,” was the only thing she said to her.
She laughed. “Okay, see you later.”
Skylar watched as Chantal left the room. Skylar thought about ringing Nate to find out what was going on with him, but she didn’t know where her phone was. She’d ask Chantal about it when she came back, and then she’d call him. That seemed to be the best idea so far. She decided to get some sleep, rolling over onto her side carefully.
* * *
After Nate returned home to grab some things, he made his way to the supermarket to grab items he knew he needed. It was only an hour away from his home. He could still get back in time if something happened. That’s why his parents had bought the cabin in the first place. At least he could get away at any time from his hectic life, and one of those moments was now. He stocked up on all the essentials; meat, veggies, ice cream, bread, beer, and toiletries. When all the items were in his truck, he drove towards the cabin. It had been years since he was last up there, but this time he was going alone.
The last time he was at the cabin was with Natalie, Greg, and his now sister-in-law, Nikki. Those were the good old days. The four of them did a lot together, but after his split with Natalie, that was the last time. She was the only one he had ever brought up there. He had a feeling she wasn’t into camping, although they were all in the cozy cabin. How much can one person complain about the outdoors? It wasn’t that bad, they all had a comfortable bed, hot water, and a proper bloody roof over their heads. So, why would one person complain so much? He was really glad that they weren’t in a tent. There was no way he could have handled that. If one person could bitch a lot about a cabin, which for him was romantic, a tent would have been much worse. He would have left the same day they arrived, as that was the idea of going up there in the first place, to get away from civilization.
He didn’t want to think about the past anymore; pushing all those thoughts aside, he grabbed the bags full of groceries and put them away. Grabbing a beer, he sat down on the back porch. Nate knew he should have said more to Skylar instead of running away from her. But every time he thought about her, all he saw was what that guy was doing to her in that room while the others watched. He couldn’t understand how sick some people were, but now he knew. Reaching for his phone, he noticed that he had at least ten messages and more in voice mails. Sighing, he placed his phone back in his pocket. He would go through all the messages tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep.
Chapter 27
It had been three weeks since Skylar left the hospital. She hadn’t heard from Nate since then. She missed him; even their arguments. She still couldn’t understand what was going on with him, or where he was. No one had seen or heard from him since he sent Dom that text about borrowing his truck from the hospital.
Maybe he did hear what the doctor told her about the baby, and he really didn’t want any children. Or maybe he didn’t want any children with her. Well, if that was the case, he could go to hell. She could do this all by herself, though she knew she wouldn’t since she had Chantal, Alex and Craig to help her out; even Dom would help her, but it wouldn’t be the same. Nate should be the one to go through everything with her considering it took both of them to create this miracle she was carrying.
Chantal would be arriving soon; they were going shopping to start designing the spare room and grab her first baby items. Although it was early in the pregnancy, she wanted to be prepared.
“Are you ready yet?” Chantal yelled from the hallway.
She made her way out to where she was in the lounge. “Do you really think I would keep you waiting any longer?” Skylar answered.
“Something this important, yes, you would.”
Skylar couldn’t help. “Let’s go, before you have a heart attack. I might decide to change my clothes, again.” She knew Chantal was giving her the death stare, which put an even bigger smile on her face.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Chantal growled.
“Try me.” She giggled. Making their way towards her car, she caught Chantal looking over towards Nate’s house.
“So, has he replied to any of your text messages or voice mails yet?” Chantal asked, as she hopped into the driver’s side.
Skylar looked over towards the house again, and sighed, “No.”
“Well, he better have a really damn good excuse for his actions and not answering anyone.”
Skylar agreed. She wasn’t going to tell him over the phone; first she wanted to hear what he wanted out of this relationship, if there still was one. She didn’t want him to commit to her just because she was carrying his baby. Skylar wanted much more than that.
“So, where do you want to head first?” Chantal asked, pulling Skylar out of her thoughts.
“Um, I think we should go to that new decorating place over on the south side. We can get some ideas from what they have and work from that. Then we’ll head over towards Babies Galore. Sound good to you?” she asked Chantal.
“I’m fine with whatever you want to do, as long as we get to pick out some really cute baby stuff.”
“Deal,” she replied.
Leaning back, she watched as cars flew by them, wondering if she would see Dom’s truck heading back to Nate’s house.
* * *
Driving down his street, Nate couldn’t believe that he had been away from civilization for three weeks. He needed to get his head on straight. Now that he had, he could deal with whatever was at home. He had sent Dom a text about his business, asking him to hire someone to help him while he was gone. He knew Dom would love being the boss for a change, ordering someone around. He smiled to himself. He didn’t want to know anything as long as his business was still running. He’d sort out everything else once he got home.
Pulling up beside his shed, he turned off the truck and looked over towards Skylar’s house. He knew he had to explain his absence to her. He had read every text message and listened to every voice mail she had left him, but still couldn’t reply to any of them. He wanted to tell her in person, not over the phone.
During his time away, he had made his decision about their relationship, hoping she would agree to it as well. Reaching back, he grabbed his bag and jumped out of his truck. Once inside his house, he dropped his bag in the laundry, grabbed a bottle of water and made his way out back to his work shed to see how Dom had handled the past three weeks.
“Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in,” Dom said in a sarcastic tone.
He had prepared himself for what was to come from everyone for his actions. “How has
everything been?” he asked him, making his way to his office.
“The business? Or what you did to Skylar?” he said, stomping after him.
“I deserve that,” Nate whispered.
“Do you have any idea what that did to her, Nate? What were you thinking? You left her in the bloody hospital a couple of hours after what she went through? Jesus!” Dom yelled at him.
Nate knew he fucked up by leaving her in there after what happened, but he couldn’t deal with it then, especially after seeing what they did to her. He had nightmares every bloody night for fuck’s sake. “I know what I did was wrong, but…”
Dom snorted.
“I have thought about it a lot and I’ve decided what I want.”
“Really, it took you that long to find an answer? You shouldn’t have needed any time away to answer that question yourself, Nate. It’s easy. What if what you want is nothing like what she wants, Nate? Have you thought of that?” Dom asked him.
“Yeah I have, and if Skylar doesn’t want the same as me, I’ll deal with that myself.”
“Whatever. You’re on your own with that one. Since you’re here now, I’m heading out. I guess you remember how to close up.” Dom yanked his keys from the desk and stormed out the door.
“Yeah,” Nate replied. Sitting in his chair, he rubbed his hand over his face. He knew Dom would be pissed at him for what he did. If Dom was this pissed about what happened, dealing with whatever Skylar had to throw at him was going to be like walking into a bloody tornado. He deserved every bit she threw at him. Now he just had to suck it up, be a man and go over and see her.
* * *
After an hour or so at the decorating place, she still hadn’t decided how she wanted to decorate the room. She really wished Nate was there with her so they could decide together. The only thing she could think of was stripping the room fully, and repainting it a neutral colour for now. Maybe she would start tonight. It would give her something to do besides think of Nate.
Maybe he didn’t want anything to do with her after what happened, but that’s no excuse for what he did. It happened to her, not him. She was the one that went through it, not him. She really had to stop thinking about it. She placed her hand over her belly; finding it hard to believe that she was pregnant.
“I can’t believe how much stuff you need when you’re having a baby. I had an idea but, Jesus, I can’t get my head around it,” Chantal said.
She knew what she needed after seeing her sister go through it. Maybe she should ask Clint if he would go shopping with her since he had been through it with her sister.
“If I were pregnant, I’d be bankrupt before the baby was due. There are so many things that are so cute. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from buying everything.” Chantal laughed.
“I know what you mean, I really wanted to buy that chest of drawers and changing table we saw. I think I might ring Clint and see if he could come with me and give me his input, or ask the boys since Craig has two nephews. I’m sure he helped his sister-in-law with the shopping.” That wasn’t a bad idea, she thought. She really wanted to buy a few items of clothing but she really didn’t want to rush into it. She needed to do the room first before she bought anything at all, or she could get the stuff and leave it in the box it came in, she thought.
Arriving home, she grabbed the bag of sample cards the salesperson gave her so she could get an idea of what she wanted in the room, but she really needed to do a base coat first before anything. Walking inside and making her way into the kitchen, she said, “I’m thinking of clearing out the second room and doing a base coat, do you want to help?”
Turning the kettle on, she turned and faced Chantal. “Sure, just let me go home and grab some things.”
“Okay.”
“Bye,” she yelled, as she made her way out the door.
Skylar walked into her room and pulled on an old pair of shorts and singlet. On her way out of her room, Skylar went into the kitchen and pulled out the cleaning products.
Heading back, she turned her CD player on, so she had something to listen to instead of silence.
After fifteen minutes of moving the lighter items in the room and cleaning some of the walls, Skylar wondered where Chantal was. Checking her watch, it was only 5:40 p.m. Maybe she got a phone call, or ran into someone. It didn’t matter; she would be back when she was ready. Skylar wouldn’t start the painting until she returned. Reaching for the bucket, she grabbed the cloth and started cleaning the last wall.
* * *
After closing up his shop, Nate made his way towards Skylar’s house. Breathing in slowly, he knocked on the door, and waited. He knew she was home as he had seen Chantal leave close to an hour ago. Several minutes had gone by and still no answer. He could hear music coming from somewhere in the house, so someone was home. He reached for the door handle to see if it was locked. It wasn’t. Opening it slowly, he made his way.
“Hello,” Nate called out.
No one replied. He made his way to where the music was coming from. Standing outside the second room in her house, he pushed it opened and sucked in a breath. There was Skylar up a ladder cleaning the wall. What did she think she was doing? She shouldn’t be doing anything. Didn’t the doctor tell her to take it easy after what she went through? The only thing she should be doing was relaxing. Not cleaning bloody walls.
Walking towards her, he growled, “What the hell are you doing?”
Skylar screamed, losing her balance on the ladder. Nate watched as she let go of the ladder and fell backwards. Moving forward quickly, he reached for her before she hit the ground.
Chapter 28
Skylar only had one wall to go. Once the bottom half of the wall was done, she needed to do the top half. Grabbing the ladder, she set it up and reached for her cloth. She climbed up and started at the top. After several minutes, she was nearly finished with the last wall. Skylar wondered where the hell Chantal was. She thought she should give her a call, but before she started to descend down the ladder someone startled her.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Skylar screamed. Losing her balance on the ladder and letting go, she fell backwards. She waited to hit the floor, but it never arrived. Someone had caught her. Breathing heavily, she looked up to see who it was, and lost her breath when she noticed it was Nate; he was here and she was in his arms. But that didn’t make her happy at all.
“Let me go,” she said, pushing at his chest. Nate placed her carefully on her feet and waited until she got her bearings. Skylar backed away from him, trying to calm herself down, and failed miserably. How dare he, she thought.
Nate frowned at her, “What do you think you’re doing? You shouldn’t be doing anything. Didn’t the doctor tell you that you needed to rest?”
Skylar looked at him in shock. Why the hell was he growling at her? She should be the one doing that at him. “I can do whatever the hell I want, Nate. And what the hell are you doing here anyway?” she demanded right back at him. She watched as he ran his hand over his face and took a breath. This should be good, she thought, waiting for his reply.
“We need to talk, Sky,” he said softly. He started to move towards her, but he stopped when she took a step back from him.
“Really, about what Nate?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Can we please have a civilized conversation?” Nate asked, watching as she took in what he said.
“You want to have a civilized conversation? Fine, I can do that. Why the fuck did you leave me in the hospital? You just got up and left. I thought you cared about me,” Skylar screamed at him. How dare he ask for that; he had no right whatsoever.
Nate had a feeling she would be pissed, but this was worse than expected. Nate moved towards her and watched her back away from him into the wall, but that didn’t stop him. He had been away from her for three weeks and that had nearly killed him. He needed to kiss her badly. Nate grabbed her and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her flush aga
inst him. Skylar looked up as she pushed against his chest, and he looked down into her eyes before he crashed his mouth to hers.
Skylar sucked in a breath just before his mouth was on hers. She was angry with him, but it felt so good to have his mouth on hers. She whimpered as he slipped his tongue into her mouth; she couldn’t help but suck on it. Nate moaned, grinding his hips into her lower stomach. She could feel his erection, hard and pulsing against her and felt her core clenching at the feel of it. So close, but so far away from where she wanted it to be. She needed to know why he left her. Breaking the kiss, she pushed Nate away from her, trying to catch her breath. Looking up at him again, she asked, “Why did you leave, Nate?”
