Page 56 of No Apologies
Chapter Eleven
Fuck, she’d been crying.
That was his first thought when Skylar walked through the busted front door of her salon. She’d been crying. She’d tried to cover it up and she’d done a good job but he knew her too well not to recognize the signs. Her eyelids were puffy and the blue of her eyes was stark against the slight redness. She’d been crying and he was the cause.
He was a bastard. He knew that. He’d known it all his life. But he’d never felt quite so much like the worthless piece of shit everyone in this town thought he was until right at that moment.
Colt had tried to keep himself busy after that awkward phone call with Skylar and it hadn’t been hard. Her shop, like his, was a mess. The guys that had thrown bricks through the storefronts hadn’t stopped there. His side looked like a disaster area and the only thing keeping him remotely calm was the fact that Skylar’s place was undisturbed minus the windows, which meant they hadn’t intended to include her in their destructive raid.
He’d been attempting to catalog all of the damage in his shop when Remy showed up and said there was a girl standing on the street shivering like a leaf and staring at Split Ends busted front door. From the description alone he’d known that it wasn’t Skylar but he’d still sent his brother back out to deal with the girl in case Skylar was inside. He’d hoped to avoid her but of course, when Remy had come back to tell him that the only person over there was a shy little thing that seemed nervous being alone with him, he’d forced himself to man up and go over to the salon.
He would have had to deal with Skylar eventually. That’s what he’d told himself. Best to rip the Band-Aid off now and see what kind of permanent and lasting damage he had done. If it turned out that he’d inflicted a deep gash in their friendship then he would just have to deal with that and he’d sworn, repeatedly, that if Skylar said she wanted a complete amputation, him out of her life for good, then he would find a way to live with that too.
He thought he had prepared himself. He’d thought he knew what to expect. But when Skylar walked through those doors looking every bit like the same sexy, beautiful woman that he had spent the night holding and then forced himself to leave just before dawn, looking as if she’d cried when she woke up alone, and thensmiledat him, his entire world blew apart.
“Hey! You’re still here. Thanks for coming over to help clean up.”
A smile? He blinked as she swept into the room, carefully avoiding as much glass as possible, tossing her purse down on a counter and then continuing towards him with that dazzling smile firmly in place. She was smiling at him, talking to him, thanking him and he had no idea how he was supposed to respond so he didn’t.
He stared at her and tried to figure out how much trouble he was in. There was no anger in her eyes or her voice. She wasn’t preparing to yell at him from the look of it. She was talking to him, looking at him, not shutting him out or avoiding him like she’d done for the past few weeks when she was mad at him. He would have at least known how to proceed if she’d reacted to him with either of those extremes but this… the smile and the welcome completely threw him for a loop.
And it made something in his chest hurt. Pain ripped through him. His guts twisted and he felt sick to his stomach. Dread and something else, something he thought was disappointment, ricocheted through him.
She was acting as if nothing had happened between them. Like nothing had changed. Like they were still just two good friends that hadn’t spent the past twelve hours wrapped around each other’s naked bodies. Like the single best night of his life had never even happened.
“Colt?” Skylar stopped in front of him, her hands on her hips, her head tilted slightly and he realized she’d said something to him that he had completely missed.
“Uh, sorry, what?”
“I asked what I need to be doing.” She looked around and sighed heavily, “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Well, the cops are on their way. Rachel called them before I got here.” He scowled at the idea of dealing with the police, “They said not to clean up until they get here to take some photos I think.”
Skylar glanced around the empty salon, “Speaking of, where is Rachel?”
“Oh, she cut her hand trying to pick up some glass. Remy is bandaging it up for her. They’re in the back looking for disinfect…”
“Rachel’s with Remy?” Skylar’s eyes went wide as she cut him off and grabbed his arm.
“Uh, yeah.” He tried to ignore the tingle that radiated from the place she touched him.
“Are you insane?” She glanced at her hand and then dropped it back to her side.
Since he was fairly certain the answer to that was yes, he remained quiet. He’d clearly lost his mind yesterday when he crossed the line and touched her, when he went to her place and took her to bed. And considering that all he wanted was to reach for her now, to pull her into his arms and kiss her instead of dealing with this mess, he figured he was certifiable. He was so lost in that fantasy it took him a minute to catch what else she was saying.
“You know how Rachel gets around men! It took her months to get comfortable being in the shop with male customers. You should know. She used to shiver like a tree in a tornado every time you walked in the door. She still stutters just saying hi to you and you left her with Remy? Remy!”
She wasn’t yelling at him but the hissed whisper was almost worse because as soon as she said it, he realized just how distracted he’d been all morning. He knew better and Skylar was right, he hadn’t been thinking. He should have put it together as soon as Remy came back and said there was a scared girl alone at Split Ends but he hadn’t.
Rachel Grant was the complete opposite of Skylar. She was quiet and shy and withdrawn. She rarely spoke and when she did she had a tendency to stammer over her words. Colt didn’t know her well. Hell, he barely knew her name. He didn’t even know how the girl had come to work for Skylar, but he did know that she always looked at him like he was the big, bad wolf.
And he’d sent Remy to the back to help her. Remy. His big brother that made intimidation look like an art form. Jesus, if Rachel looked at him and saw trouble she probably looked at Remy and saw the boogeyman come to life.
He winced, “Shit.”
“Yeah, shit.” Skylar started to step past him and raised her voice, “Rach? It’s Sky. I got your message. I’m here.”
“Hey, I didn’t think.” Colt reached out and caught her arm, “I’m sorry.”
