Page 56 of Artfully Wild
“Hey, don’t jinx that,” I interrupt.
“Sorry.” He puts his hands up in defense and chuckles. “Skylar Waters and Jacob Sinclair. Finally together after all these years.”
He looks over at me, a smile of pure warmth and pride shining on his face. An ache blooms in my chest at the thought of Ty halfway across the world once again, away from his family. His son. It’s been a month since I have heard from him. Really, I could call him too, but I just don’t. I open the lockbox I keep just for him in my head and shove the thought of him in, slamming it shut and locking the padlock that’ll inevitably break open later.
I return his smile and try to hide the blush I feel burning on my skin. “Yeah,” I look down at my hands, missing the feeling of her fingers tangled with mine. “We finally are.”
His sudden laugh startles me. Shoving my shoulder, he pulls me back into a one-armed hug. “That’s my boy!” he shouts, my eardrum ringing from his booming voice—his booming, very un-Frank like voice. “There was never beating the two of you, no matter how many people both of you tried to date in the past.”
He raises his eyebrows, waiting for me to deny it. I don’t.
“My relationships weren’t all bad,” is all I say.
“No,” he agrees. “But none of them were Skylar.”
“No…none of them were Skylar.”
He claps his hands together and stands again, this time to lean over his desk and put a finger into Frank’s cage to pet his feathers. Clearly, he isn’t trying to hide the way he actually feels about this damn parrot.
“What are we doing with this one here?”
“Well, I was hoping you could take him for the weekend? If I leave him at home, the cats will work together to get him out of the cage and I’ll more than likely come home to a murder scene.”
He doesn’t even hesitate. “Yeah, I guess he can hang around with me.” Opening the cage, he gently coaxes Frank out until he is attached to his finger. He leads him to his shoulder, where he perches in the place I am sure he is going to be all weekend. Parrot Frank has always hated that I have him in a cage, but I have no choice with the cats at home. They wouldn’t hesitate to try to catch him for a snack if they were given even the slightest chance.
I clap him on the shoulder and give it a small squeeze. “I really appreciate it, Frank.”
“Anything for you, son.”
I smile at the phrase. It’s something he has said over and over to me every time I thanked him for something or came to ask him for his advice. He might seem quiet and grumpy, but he’s lived a full life and he has actually given me sound advice from time to time.
“Have you ever been in love, Frank?” I blurt out even though I think I already know the answer.
A sad smile forms and he shoves his hands back into his pockets. “Mhm. Once. Possibly twice.”
“What happened?”
“I never got the chance to find out.”
“Why?” When I was a kid, I would never dare to ask himabout his personal life, but now that I’m an adult, we are more on a friendly level sometimes. And in a rare moment, I can catch him willing to open up.
He lets out a sigh and reaches out a hand to stroke Frank’s feathers as he settles himself on his shoulder. “I was an idiot who was too afraid to admit to anyone how I felt, so I missed my chance to find out how she felt about me. I was too scared to know. Too scared she’d not feel the same and reject me. I still don’t know if she would have. And she went on to have this amazing life with a man who loved her and who she loved more than I think she ever could have loved me.”
As much as I want to ask more about who the woman was, I don’t want to push my luck. And I don’t think I want confirmation on the identity of Frank’s lost love.
“But that’s in the past. We are both living happy lives. I may live alone, but I like the solitude. I don’t know if I would have fared well being anyone’s husband,” he jokes. “My one piece of advice, J?”
I raise my eyebrows expectantly, waiting for him to go on.
“Don’t be an idiot.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
SKYLAR
We pull up to the resort two hours later than planned. There may have been a few detours along the way—we pulled over twice to fool around in the back. But being late was definitely worth the multiple orgasms my body is now deliciously weak from.
Jacob gives me a smirk as I slowly walk down the few stairs to exit the RV. Swatting his arm as I pass him, he chuckles and smacks my ass, a squeal leaving my lips before I have the chance to stop it.
