Nodding at the bag, he asks, “What’s in there?”
“Not sure yet.”
I dig out the first item, right on top, and gasp with delight. It’s a white satin robe similar to mine, but the back says “the bride.”
“Look, look, look,” I say, holding it up to show him.
He’s already over the gifts and onto Skylar, getting down on the floor and picking her up off the pillow I propped her up on. He transfers her to his chest and she coos at him in approval.
The next item must be the gift Mia was talking about—I don’t show that to Sin, just yet. While he’s distracted with Skylar, I set it aside. It’s black, sexy, and sheer, so I’ll surprise him with that later.
There’s still more in the bag though. I nearly die when I pull out the cutest little pink and blue baby swimsuit with a matching pink sun hat. It’s exactly the kind of adorable thing I envisioned when I had my daydreams of taking the baby in the pool, but this is obviously for a girl. The last thing in the bag is another adorable baby girl outfit in Skylar’s size.
“Not sure if Mia is super sure we’re having a girl, or she thinks we’re keeping Skylar.”
I glance up at Sin and see Skylar playing with his face again, him gazing down at her tenderly. Uh oh. Not sure if Sin thinks we’re keeping Skylar.
“Any word from Rafe about who might be taking care of Skylar now?” I ask, wondering if he knows something I don’t. It would be just like him to go and agree to raise a kid without telling me.
“Not yet,” he says, unconcerned. Then he plays like he’s going to eat Skylar’s fingers and she squeals, delighted.
I think I have lost my fiancé to a much younger woman. Smiling faintly, I take the pink sun hat and crawl over to join them on the floor. “Lookie what Aunt Mia sent you. Is that pretty?”
“I think she’s a second cousin by marriage,” Sin says.
“Second cousin Mia sounds weird, we’ll go with Aunt Mia,” I say, fitting the little hat on Skylar’s head. She tries to look up and the hat falls off, so I put it back on. “I mentioned my pool fantasy to Mia, so she sent me a bathing suit for Skylar. She’s an enabler.”
“Well, she’s happily married to Mateo, so I would have guessed that,” Sin reasons.
I crawl back over to grab my phone. “Hang on, I have to send her a picture.”
Sin turns her around so I can get a picture. I take advantage of the opportunity to take his picture, too. Mia asked a long time ago what he looked like, and I never got to show her.
She immediately texts back somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 heart-eyed emojis.
Looking up at them over there playing, I can’t help feeling a little heart-eyed, myself.
I don’t know if Sin is angry because we are at Rafe’s house to hand off Skylar and he’s not ready, or if he’s angry that this dude and his wife are currently complaining about having to go back to caring for a baby in diapers now that theirs are finally potty-trained.
It might be both. He’s got her snug against his chest like he’s not going to give her up. I’m low key preparing for him to get up and storm out with her, the same way he did with my purse the night I met him.
Apparently, Vince has a much older sister. He has never once mentioned her, only his sister Cherie, but Rafe tells me the woman who agreed to take Skylar in is Vince’s half-sister. She’s 37 and married—and her husband is an asshole, if this first impression is an accurate picture of him. But she’s Skylar’s family, in the strictest technical sense. Sin doesn’t seem to think that’s important. I get it. Better that she is with someone who will happily take care of her than someone who happens to share some common ancestry. I’m not going to tell Rafe how to run his family though, not in this regard.
It doesn’t help Sin’s mood that when Roseanna and her husband were offered Skylar, they said things like, “Of course no one wants to take her, she’s just a girl.” Even Sin with his oppressive caveman bullshit looked like he wanted to punch these people in the face with a brick.
He’s a ticking time bomb, and I’m just sitting here waiting for him to go off.
I don’t have to wait long. When Roseanna comes over to retrieve Skylar, the moment I knew was coming finally arrives.
“Nope,” Sin says firmly.
The woman frowns. “Excuse me?”
Sin shakes his head, pushing up off the couch. “Nope. I’m not giving her to you. You don’t even want her.”
“Well, someone killed her parents,” the husband says pointedly. “So now somebody has to take her in.”
“That’s right, but it doesn’t have to be you.”