“Yeah.” I nodded. “Sorry, that t-shirt reminded me of my time in Palm Bonita.”
“Oh.” She looked down at the graphic of a lone palm tree and the caption ‘No man is alone in Palm Bonita.’ “Did you get this while you were there?”
“Yeah. A friend gave it to me.” I turned around. “I’ll be back. I just need to go to the bathroom.” I hurried to the bathroom and closed the door and poured some water on my flushed face. “Stupid idiot.” I muttered to myself as I pissed. “Why don’t you just tell her that she’s wearing the t-shirt your ex-girlfriend gave you? The same t-shirt that she used to wear after you f**ked her senseless?”
“You okay, Noah?” Robin knocked on the bathroom door, and I froze. How loud had I been?
“Yeah, coming.” I washed my hands and walked out of the bathroom and looked at Robin’s worried face. “What’s wrong?”
“You seem like you got upset.” She looked up at me with a concerned face. “I guess you have bad memories about your time in Palm Bonita, huh?”
“I guess,” I mumbled, wanting to change the subject but not knowing how.
“What was it like?” She walked back to the bed with me and we sat down. “I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but I’d love to know more about it.”
“It was a small town.” I sighed and leaned back on the bed. “It was full of criminals. A lot of bad people.”
“Wow, how bad were they?”
“Pretty bad.” I shrugged. “Murderers, thieves, tax evaders. Anyone who wanted to get away from mainstream society and didn’t want to be found moved to Palm Bonita.”
“Eww, that sounds horrible. No wonder you have bad memories of the place. Were there any good people?”
“There was one.” I started and my eyes lit up at the memory of Skylar. “Out of everyone that I met, there was one person who was an angel with a heart of gold.”
“A girl?” Robin’s tone was light, but her eyes looked at me with deep interest.
“Yeah. She was my little princess.” I stared at Robin and sighed. “She was a beautiful light in that town of darkness.”
“I didn’t realize that you had someone special there.”
“Sorry,” I shook my head. “I didn’t mean to or want to talk about this. It’s not something I like to dwell upon.”
“Do you miss her?” Robin’s tone sounded jealous, and I felt worry fill me.
“Let’s not talk about it.” I grabbed her hands. “Let’s just think about us.” I pulled her against my chest and stroked her head, but all I could think was, ‘What if I am successful in bringing Skylar to Los Angeles? What am I going to tell Robin?’
Chapter 11
“What’s your favorite flavor ice cream?” Skylar grinned at me as she licked her ice cream cone eagerly. “I think mine is chocolate, but I love strawberry cheesecake and mint choc chip as well. Oh, and vanilla.” She giggled. “I guess I love a lot of them.”
“I think mine would have to be rum raisin.” I smiled at the joy in her eyes, and felt a surge of happiness inside. It was a rare occasion to see her so happy.
“What’s rum raisin?”
“It’s not a popular flavor.” I laughed. “And it’s not one you should eat.”
“Why not?” She frowned. “I want to try it.”
“It’s high in alcohol.”
“I like alcohol.” She licked her lips and I shook my head at her, trying to hide the sorrow in my gaze.
“Alcohol is bad.” I grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s go bowling.”
“I’ve never been bowling before.” She paused to bite off a big chuck of her wafer cone. “Is it hard?”
“You’ve never been bowling before?” I forgot to hide my surprise and I saw her react to my statement. She looked a little bit sad and worried and I wanted to slap myself for making her feel bad. “No worries, it’s not hard and I can teach you.”
“You should be a teacher.” She smiled at me, happy again.
“I don’t think I would be a good teacher. You’re the only one I like teaching.”
“That’s because I’m your favorite.” She nodded happily. “And you’re mine.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“You’re my most favorite person ever.” Skylar’s eyes were wide open as she stared at me with her innocent beautiful face. “I never want you to leave.”
“I never want to leave, either.” I bit my lip and looked away, not knowing how to tell her that one day I was going to have to leave.
“Promise you will never leave me.” Her eyes were earnest as she spoke the words so simply.
“I don’t know if I can promise that.” I paused and looked down at her. “You know I love you very much, but I don’t know that I can promise that I’ll never leave.”
“If you leave, you have to take me with you.” She gulped and started breathing fast. “You have to.” Tears starting building up in her eyes and they quickly became moist. “You can’t leave me here.”
“Let’s not talk about it now, Skylar.” I pulled her towards me and hugged her hard.
“You can’t leave me, Noah. Please never leave me. Promise me.” She whispered as I held her and I felt my heart freeze over at the sound of her voice pleading with me. I wanted to tell her that I would never leave, but I knew that was one promise I couldn’t make.
“You’re up early.” Lucky walked into the kitchen as I was making coffee. “Early night?”
“Not really.” I smiled at her and turned back to the French press. I groaned as I saw Zane walk into the kitchen behind her. He looked me up and down and frowned at my half naked body. All I was wearing was a pair of boxer briefs and I knew he was not happy to see me that way in his kitchen.
“Morning, Noah. Were you hot last night?” Zane gave me a look and I shook my head.
“No, not really.”
“What did you do last night?” Lucky spoke up, obviously sensing that Zane was going to continue to go on about my appearance passive aggressively.
“Watched a movie.” I grinned, thinking about all the hot sex before and after the movie. “What about you two?”
“Zane and I went down to Santa Monica to an art show, then we had dinner at a new Italian place and talked.”