She blushed before she headed out of the room.
“Oh yeah, baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ about. Shake it a little more. Mmm. Mmm.
Damn, Sky, you are one smokin’ hot mama.”
She gifted him with a “come and get me” grin over her left shoulder.
“You’re gonna pay for that look, woman.”
“I can’t wait.”
Kade ditched the condom and tried to wrap his head around Skylar’s unmentioned marriage. These days it wasn’t a big deal to be divorced. They’d gone out a dozen times last year; it should’ve come up in conversation at least once. So why hadn’t she told him?
Why didn’t you tell her you were Kade, not Kane?
Shit. He hadn’t thought of that. Man, it seemed they were both good at telling half-truths. Haunted by memories they’d rather push aside than openly discuss.
It wasn’t the happiest time in my life.
He understood the desire to move on from the past. He’d done it, sending himself on a sabbatical to straighten out the mess his life had become. During the time away from family and friends, he decided he wasn’t going to live his life full of regret for time and opportunities lost. Nor would he wait around for happiness to float into his life. He was going after it like a rodeo junkie chases the gold buckle: full throttle.
Watching his cousins living the life of home and hearth, the life Kade had always wanted, made him more determined to make that happen for himself. On his terms. Yeah, he knew exactly what he wanted. And she walked in the room stark naked holding a bottle of wine and two glasses.
“What are you smiling at, Kade?”
“You. What a pretty picture you make completely buck-ass nekkid.”
She poured the glasses full of ruby-colored liquid, then sat on the opposite end of the couch with her knees tucked under her.
He didn’t comment when she downed nearly half the contents in one long swallow.
A couple of minutes passed before she spoke. “You know I grew up in California.
Graduated top of my college class. I scored a primo job at an ad agency in LA right out of college. Big money. Lots of prestige. I had my career all planned out. It never bothered me to be one of those women who are really successful in their work, but a total failure when it came to personal relationships.
“At a party I met this older guy named Ted. He was a real laid-back kind of guy, which was very appealing to me. We’d been dating for a month when my dad was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. Doctors told us he had less than three months to live. I’d always dreamed of my dad walking me down the aisle, and I was about to lose the chance forever. When Ted suggested we get married right away, I agreed.” She laughed bitterly. “It was the only impulsive thing I’d ever done in my life.”
Had she loved Ted? It tied a knot in his gut to think she’d married for less than the total love and adoration she deserved.
“Turns out my dad had less time. He died three weeks after the wedding.”
“Sky. I’m sorry.”
She knocked back a mouthful of wine. “Anyway, my mother went into a deep depression and decided to ‘find herself’ at a monastery on some damn island.”
“You’re shittin’ me.”
“Nope.”
“People really do that?”
“My mom was a bit of a free-spirit, hippie type. She could do pretty much whatever struck her fancy because my father had left us well off.” Her troubled gaze met his. “Very well off. She vanished and I didn’t hear a word from her for two years.”
Kade cringed. He’d essentially done the same thing, disappeared without a word. No wonder Skylar had sported the attitude that he might not care about Eliza’s existence. Or that he intended to become a permanent part of her life.
“At the time, India was a drug addict and a drunk, in and out of rehab. I’d used my grief to bury myself in work and advanced to the level of vice president. Ted had a fairly low-stress job so he handled everything.”
“Everything?”
“Yes.” Skylar closed her eyes. “All the finances, all the household stuff. Some nights I’d come home from the office an emotional basket case and he took care of me too. I trusted him. I let him have total control of every single thing in my life.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And he f**ked me over. Big time. I didn’t know he wasn’t who he said he was. Ted wasn’t a real estate developer as much as he was a con man.”
No wonder she’d freaked out so badly about him pretending to be Kane. No wonder she was taking her time on deciding whether she’d marry him.
“I also didn’t know he’d taken half of the inheritance from my father and squirreled it away somewhere. I didn’t know he’d helped himself to half my earnings over a two-year period. I only found out when he hit me with divorce papers. There were very little liquid assets, where we should’ve been drowning in them.
“California is a community property state, which entitled Ted to fifty percent of what I had. My house, my cars, my pension, my assets—assets that had dwindled to damn near nothing in the time we were married. Everything I’d worked for, all the money my dad left me…gone.”
“Oh baby, c’mere.” Kade put their wine glasses on the coffee table and enfolded her in his arms. She didn’t cry, this tough, independent woman who’d had every man in her life let her down. She just melted into him. That broke his damn heart. He didn’t speak, partially because he didn’t know what to say, but mostly because he now understood her need for absolute control.
“It was the most humiliating thing that’s ever happened to me. So yeah, I have some issues with trust.”
“I imagine so. Hell, I would too.”
An unwieldy pause lingered.
Finally, he said, “Can you tell me the rest of it?”
“When we were at the end of the divorce proceedings, my mother returned. I moved into her new place, which ended up being a good thing because not four months later she was diagnosed with uterine cancer.”
“Jesus. Are you serious?”
Sky nodded. “Sounds like a soap opera, doesn’t it? Of course, my mom had let her health insurance lapse while she was in seclusion, so all the payments to the hospital and doctors came out of her pocket. India actually cleaned up her act for a while and helped me care for Mom. My grandma, my mom’s mother, Elizabeth, came to help.”
A warm feeing unfurled in his chest. “Eliza was named after her, wasn’t she?”