Montana Skies (You, Me and the Kids) (Harlequin Superromance, No 1395) (4 page)

“No, hon. I wouldn't mind at all.”

 

S
KYLAR STARED UP
at the cloud-spotted sky and tried to figure out why her mom liked being up there so much.

“Come on, it's your turn.”

“Quit bugging me. I don't want to play.” She ignored the way her cousin Maura's little girl pouted, and shifted in the rocking chair, noting the cute guy by the barn shoveling manure into the back of the truck. She'd seen him somewhere before. At school maybe?

“Who's that?” she asked Lexi, trying to act casual in case he looked their way. It took the little girl forever just to glance in the right direction without her having to point him out.

“That's just Marcus. Come on, Skylar, play with me now. Please?”

“No.” Maura's husband, Jake, had seen her walking around by the horses and asked her to keep an eye on his kid so he could help his brother in the paddock. She'd wanted to say no, but like the first time she'd seen him a week ago when they'd arrived at the ranch, Jake had that
dad
way of looking at her and making her feel like she had to do what he asked.

She knew Jake and Maura had done a nice thing by inviting them to stay at the ranch until her mom found another fly-job, but she still didn't like it here. She missed the noise of the city. The stuff to do. Here there was nothing to do but sit and think about how bored she was.

“But I got the cards all set up,” Lexi groused. “Please, please,
please?
”

“Play solitaire.”

“Will you show me how?”

She slowly banged her head against the back of the rocker three times.

“Why're you doing that?”

“Because I don't want to play. Count the cards or something and leave me alone.” After all, she was busy staring at
Marcus
.

“But Daddy said—”

Skylar grabbed the deck of cards out of the kid's hand. “Give me the rest of them.”

“What are you gonna do?” Lexi asked suspiciously.

Smart kid. Skylar was tempted to teach her 52-card pickup, but hesitated. The kid was bored, too, and who could blame her?

She felt a prickling sensation and glanced up, meeting Marcus-the-shit-shoveler's gaze. He smiled and lifted his head in greeting before he leaned the shovel against the barn and climbed into the truck. Cute, maybe, but there wasn't enough showering in the world that would erase that smell. She wanted to hold her nose every time the wind blew a certain way.

“Skylar? Skylar, come on, give 'em back.”

“Do you want to see a trick or not?” she demanded when the truck disappeared down the road.

Lexi nodded and quickly gathered up the rest of the cards she'd spread out on the porch floor. “Here.”

Skylar rolled her eyes, unable to believe she had to play with a five-year-old when she was going to be fifteen in a few months. “Listen up and do what I tell you.” She quickly shuffled and spread the cards. “Pick one, but don't show me.”

It was a stupid trick. One her dad had shown her when she was a kid. Something to keep
her
quiet when she'd bugged him. Sudden tears stung her eyes and she blinked. PMS sucked. Made her all teary and emotional. Tears were for people who couldn't fight back.

“I got one.”

Skylar folded the cards in on themselves. “Now put that one on top, but don't forget what it is.”

“Okay.”

Lexi did as ordered and Skylar gently bent the tip with her nail so that she'd know which card was the right one. She shuffled them again, counted off the cards and then asked, “This it?”

Lexi's whole face lit up in surprise. Just like hers probably had when her dad had performed the trick for her. Over and over and over again until he'd look at his watch and say he had to go.

Did he have a mistress back then, too? When she was little? How many times had he cheated on her mom?

“How'd you do that?”

Skylar shrugged, ignoring the memories because she kind of liked how Lexi looked at her as if she were someone important. She got out of the chair and lowered herself onto the porch. “I know a couple more. Want to see?”

“Yes, please.”

Lexi reminded her of her used-to-be friend Nicole's little sister. She'd been polite, too, even when Nic called Skylar names because her dad had screwed Nic's mom. Nic's little sister hadn't blamed her, but Nicole had.

“Watch,” she ordered, her voice raspy. Who cared what Nic thought? She hadn't been all that great of a friend anyway. But it didn't keep Skylar from wondering how many of her friends' moms her dad had slept with. Was that why the moms liked it when she came over? Because they hoped to see her dad?

Skylar lost count and had to start over again. Lexi followed the movements of her hands, her head sliding back and forth with every card she dropped onto the porch.

“How come you wear so many rings? And how come you wear black all the time?”

“Because I like it.”

“Aren't you hot?”

Skylar kept counting.

“Why do you paint a tear on your face?”

“It's symbolic.”

“Oh… What's symbolic?”

“It means it means something.”

“But what?”

Skylar tossed the cards down. “Why don't you go see if your dad is done yet?”

“Is it 'cause you don't have a dad?”

She sucked in a sharp breath and glared at the kid. So much for being polite. “Don't you know it's rude to say things like that to people?”

“Sorry.”

“You don't sound it.”

“I am,” Lexi argued, her ponytail bobbing. “Really. I'm sorry.” Big tears trickled down the kid's cheeks.

Skylar rolled her eyes. “Oh, give me a break. Don't be such a crybaby.”

“I'm not!”

“Then why are you crying?”

“Because it's sad.”

“
What
's sad?” she demanded, her patience gone.
When
were her mom and Maura going to get home?

“You're sad,” Lexi stated firmly. “Aren't you? When Grace first came here she was sad, too.”

Grace was sad? Skylar remembered thinking how cool Grace Rowland had looked the first time she'd seen her. Maura was introducing them to everyone, and Grace had jogged up the road toward them like running five miles was no big deal. Tall and strong, her head high. Like one of those women you see on television, like Oprah or somebody.

“What was Grace sad about?”

Lexi frowned, her tears drying up now that the subject had changed. “Somebody mean hurt her and she had bad dreams. A
lot
of bad dreams. I heard her sometimes when I was supposed to be asleep.” The little girl leaned over her crossed ankles and patted her hand. “Don't worry. We made Grace happy, and we'll make you happy, too.”

“And if you can't?” Skylar challenged, just because.

“I don't know. But why would you want to be sad forever?”

 

“T
AKE IT ALL AWAY
. The clothes, the makeup—”

“If she gets desperate enough, she might steal to get it back,” Grace murmured, interrupting Maura long enough to slide a warning look over her shoulder to where Rissa sat in the back. “Or she could finally come to terms with you regaining control. Her reaction to you doing something that drastic would be a crapshoot you'd need to prepare yourself for.”

Rissa leaned back between the two car seats, careful not to jar them. The twins had fallen asleep two seconds after being strapped in, tired from their adventure in town.

Considering what had happened last year when Skylar had taken her credit card and shopped like only a teenager can, she didn't want to tempt Skylar to steal to get her things back. There had to be other options, other ways.

“Okay, she started wearing the makeup and clothes when?” Maura asked for the second time.

“Right after Larry died.”

“And the professionals think it's based solely on her dad's death?” Grace added, her tone thoughtful.

Rissa nodded. “Because of the timing. But there's something else…I don't know what,” she told them. “Something I can't put my finger on. It's sad and horrible and I ache for her, but…something's not right. Sky's always been a little more mature than the other kids. I honestly would've thought she'd handle Larry's death better given time…which makes me think something else happened, something she hasn't told me.”

“And maybe in hiding it, she's hiding herself?”

Rissa glanced at Grace, confused. “I don't understand.”

Maura and Grace exchanged a look.

“What?”

“Rissa, I love you, you know that,” Maura told her firmly.

“And I've learned to love Grace, too. She's a great sister-in-law and a wonderful friend and…I hope you don't mind that I've told her a bit about you and Larry…that you had problems before he died and…such.”

Rissa nodded hesitantly. She and Maura had been close growing up. Inseparable when their fathers were stationed on the same military base, pen pals when they weren't. Maura had seen her through dating, her mom's death, flight training and childbirth—and a cheating husband. Nearly all of it handled through long-distance phone calls and e-mail. Maybe that was the key, though. Sitting there three feet from her cousin, it was a lot harder to talk about all the problems she faced.

“Are you upset with me?”

Maura only tried to help and she loved her for it. “Of course not. It's all history, and at this point, I'll take all the help and advice I can get.” She looked to Grace. “But are you sure you want to get in on this?”

Grace laughed softly. “Trust me, we've all got skele
tons and secrets hidden away in closets. Don't feel bad or embarrassed. I'd love to help if I can.”

“Okay,” Maura said, her tone stating she was taking them back to the subject at hand, “just remember that what we're about to say is based on the three of us sitting here, driving back to the ranch tossing ideas around about Skylar's behavior. Okay?”

She shrugged. “Okay.”

“Grace?”

Grace shifted sideways to better see her. “So…what if Skylar is hiding herself?” she repeated. “You said her behavior changed with her dad's death?”

“Yes, at least—” She bit her lip, frowning. Trying to remember and think of what it was that bugged her about the days before the accident. “Near there. After she told me about Larry's affair, I have to admit…I'm a little blurry on some things. I was in a fog, hurt. It took everything I had to function and a lot of times I just went through the motions. The tension got to us all. Skylar especially, since she'd told on her dad. She became really quiet after that, moodier. She…she didn't talk to either of us nearly as much as she used to, and she spent a lot of time at her friends' houses. I don't think she liked living in our house then and I really can't blame her. It wasn't pleasant.”

“But that could've been a combination of things. Teenage hormones, the affair, the problems she had with her friend—what was her name again?” Maura asked.

“Nicole. Nicole Denniston. Her mother was the, um, woman Skylar caught Larry with.”

“Then Skylar's behavior technically changed after telling the truth about the affair, not the accident.”

“I suppose…” she agreed. “But she didn't go Goth
then. That wasn't until after I brought her home from the hospital. I thought she was asleep upstairs, and didn't find out until right before she came home looking like a monster with my credit card in her hand that she'd even gone out. I couldn't believe it. The funeral was the next day, too.”

“Then whatever it was she felt,
feels
, whatever it was that drove her to stay out of the house and away from you and Larry was probably affected even more by Larry's death.”

Maura hit the turn signal to pull off the road onto the long drive leading to the ranch.

“Or, maybe it's a bad case of survivor's guilt like the doctors have told you,” Maura added softly. “Maybe she feels guilty because she lived through the accident and her dad died.”

Grace nodded. “If you and Larry had a rough spot, got back together and made up, maybe Skylar thinks you'd be happier if he'd lived instead of her, and in her mind, she believes that girl died with Larry. It's been proven that teenagers are known to have a fixation with death at this stage of their lives.”

The air left Rissa's lungs. “One of the shrinks mentioned that, and we discussed it in a session. Granted I did more talking than she did, but I think Skylar knows better than to think…I've told her so many times how happy and thankful I am she's okay.”

“Then maybe it is a coincidence in timing.” Maura's tone was soothing. “You know, girls also want to find themselves at her age. Establish a ‘look' and be trendy. Maybe the crash acted like a near-death thing and the change is based on that and nothing else. It's possible, right?”

“Maybe.” But she doubted it. Skylar's behavior was more than establishing a look, and her head hurt thinking about all the possibilities. Why couldn't Skylar be easy to read like the sheriff's daughter back at the little shop? Blushing over bra sizes and embarrassing questions about how one should fit.

Self-reproach slammed into her. Her daughter had been the sole survivor of a major car accident. She shouldn't compare her to anyone else, no matter what.

“We're here. Look, Rissa, she's outside and not at your cabin brooding. That's a good sign, right?”

Rissa leaned forward to look out the windshield where Grace discreetly pointed. Skylar slouched by the paddock, Lexi at her side talking animatedly.

Maura drove the vehicle up to the bunkhouse and parked next to the large kitchen and dining area that had been added onto the building during the renovations. They'd unload the groceries into the multiple refrigerators and freezers, and wait for the delivery trucks to bring the rest of the requested specialty items later in the week.