Page 24 of Choosing Skyler

“Yeah. She’s like a mom to me. Closer to what I imagined a mom to be than mine ever has been,” I reply a little sadly.

Now, I feel like a complete asshole because Brady doesn’t have his mom anymore. Not to mention, the reason I just called Chelsea was to be there for him while he tries to protect her estate.Great girlfriend you are, Skyler.

“Hey, don’t feel bad for caring about someoneorhaving someone care about you. I’d never wish my heartache on anyone. Especially you.” He kisses the top of my head and settles in to go back to sleep.

I raise my head to look at him. “How did you know? What I was thinking, I mean.”

“Because you did that thing where you look down and chew on your bottom lip,” he says running his finger over my lip to make his point. “You only do that when you are down on yourself and that’s the only thing it could be. I’m no mind reader like Devon, but I’m getting pretty good at readingyou, Beautiful.”

I feel my cheeks heat at the nickname. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that. I hope I don’t. It feels amazing to be seen that way by someone like Brady. I tuck my head under his chin and snuggle into him.

“Thank you,” I tell him.

“For what?” he asks.

“For seeing me. For…choosingto see me,” I tell him honestly.

“I’ll always choose you, Beautiful. Now let’s go back to sleep. It’s not even daylight yet.”

“Okay,” I reply, already on my way back to sleep in his arms.

Brady

I run my hand down Skyler’s back as she drifts back to sleep in my arms. I can’t believe she called into work just to support me today. I guess I’ve never had anyonechooseme either—other than my mom and Devon. It makes my heart melt to know that I have her unwavering support after such a short time. It’s only been days, but I already know that I’m falling in love with her, hard and fast. I’ll never be able to look at love and relationships the same way again.

I’m dreading the phone call I’ll have to make later today. I can’t believe the audacity of myfather. He decided when I was three that being a husband and a father was too much responsibility for him. He left my mom after she caught him sleeping with his assistant at IBM where they both worked. He was a sales executive and she was a programmer. She decided to leave the office and take a remote job where she could work from home.

She needed a third bedroom to set up as a home office and decided to buy the house that I would grow up in. She also worked as a consulting contractor for several software companies, debugging their programs. She was brilliant when it came to computer programming and she inspired my love of technology. Graphic design is my favorite, but programming runs a close second. That was how she paid for everything we had. Eric never paid a penny in child support, and she didn’t press the matter. He was out of sight and out of mind for both of us.

Now, thisassholewants to come in and take what she worked so hard for without any help from him. I will not stand by and watch him take her home,myhome, away from me. I’d rather burn it to the ground than see him step foot inside that house and tarnish all of our memories. He chose to be absent all these years. He should have just stayed gone.

I realize I’m getting worked up when my breathing picks up pace. I close my eyes and concentrate on Skyler’s calmness as she sleeps. She is becoming a touch stone for me. I don’t ever want her to feel like I’m a burden she has to take care of. I want to take care ofher, or at least for us to take care of each other, equally. I want us to start our senior year of college, work on projects together, go to parties and to just be a normal college kid for the year we have left before graduation. Is that really too much to ask?

Breathe with me,I remember Skyler telling me.Stay with me. Choose me.And so, I do. I calm myself down by matching my breaths to hers. I breathe in the citrus smell of her hair and hold her a little tighter so that I can feel her heartbeat against my chest. Then, I doze back off with her wrapped in my arms.

When I wake again, the sun is shining through the window. Though, it isn’t too bright. I look at the clock to see that it’s just past eight. I hear a quiet beeping sound and look around, trying to figure out where it’s coming from. Just then, Skyler starts to shift in my arms, and I realize it must be her alarm.How in the world does something so quiet wake her up?I think as I try to squeeze out of bed to silence the alarm before it wakes her up. Just as I reach the clock, the sound gets louder, and Skyler groans from the bed behind me. I hit the snooze button on top until I can find the off switch. But the snooze button doesn’t stop the alarm. It makes it even louder. Skyler jumps up, seems to sleepwalk to the alarm clock, and reaches for the switch in the back.

“It won’t shut up until it’s switched off. If it did, I’d snooze it and never be on time,” she says sleepily.

“I was trying to switch it off before it woke you up. I’m sorry, Beautiful,” I tell her, pulling her to me and kissing her forehead.

“I should have turned it off when I called Chelsea earlier. I just didn’t think about it. I’m sorry,” she mumbles.

“Don’t be. I’m just glad I got to wake up with you. Twice in one morning. I’m a lucky bastard.” I chuckle.

She wraps her arms around my waist and lays her head on my bare chest. “I’m the lucky one,” she murmurs, kissing my chest. Then, she looks up at me. “Do you want to lay back down for a while? It’s still early and we don’t really have to be anywhere.”

“You want to go back to bed? I’d love to, but I don’t think we’ll be going back to sleep,” I whisper huskily.

“That sounds like a great plan.” She grins up at me. “Except, Devon will be up any minute and I guarantee I cannot keep him out of here two mornings in a row.” She giggles.

Like she conjured him out of thin air, Devon comes barreling into the bedroom and does a body dive onto the bed. Then, he looks around like he’s confused until he spots us standing by the dresser.

“Aww, man. I thought I’d dive in for some snuggles before work, but you’re both up,” he whines and then grins devilishly. “Glad I didn’tinterruptanything.”

“Whatever, Devon. You knew what you were doing.Trust me! I would have locked the door before you could have possiblyinterruptedanything fun.” Skyler laughs, sticking her tongue out at our crazy ass best friend.

“Whatever, whatever. Like you two are getting up to any hanky-panky already anyways,” he replies, rolling his eyes. Then, his gaze narrows on Skyler’s face when she blushes. “Youdidn’t?!”

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