One-Off (30 page)

I laughed, and before I could think about it, reached out to push my fingers through the silky mane. “It’s magnificent.”

She let out a shaky breath and looked like she was going to say something, but Poppy came racing back in and jumped onto the couch between us. She twirled to show off her new PJs.

“Ya look beautiful, wee lassie,” Ainsley thickened her accent.

“Mommy said you could read me my bedtime story. You and Auntie Skye both, ‘kay?”

Ainsley smiled and seemed to relax completely. There was nothing like reading a bedtime story to a preschooler to put your life into perspective.

Thirty-Nine

We stood at baggage claim. Their plane was late. More than an hour. I’d been checking the status all day, but it didn’t prevent us from having to stand here far longer than necessary.

“Are you sure they won’t mind that we came to pick them up?” Ainsley kept her eyes glued to the security exit area.

“Dallas won’t. I don’t know about Colin.”

“He won’t. I was worried about Dallas.” She turned a sheepish smile my way.

“I think they’ll be thrilled. Probably won’t want to do anything other than get home, but they’ll be happy we came to get them.”

A clump of people trudged their way through the exit. People all around us started shouting names and racing to hug their loved ones. I strained to find Dallas and Colin, hoping they hadn’t been stopped for photo requests. A second clump came through and Dallas’s golden brown hair was easily recognizable. Her gait was sluggish and Colin was nowhere to be seen. He might be in the restroom or purposely walking separately from her. Together they were twice as recognizable, and now that the marriage had been announced and played up on the network, their visibility increased.

It took a few seconds before Dallas’s height advantage allowed her to spot me. A smile broke across her face as she perked up and swept me into a hug. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you.”

“Welcome back. You didn’t leave your husband already, did you?”

“He stopped to get a hamburger because he says he’s been dying for one.” She waved an exasperated hand through the air and noticed my companion. “Hi, Ainsley. Your cousin is a hopeless American.”

“I remember.” She laughed. “He would beg Mum to take us into the city for McDonalds every week when he stayed for the summer.”

“Hey, cuz!” Colin exclaimed as he came up on us. He hugged Ainsley and said hello to me.

“Did you finish it already?” Dallas asked.

“I was starving. I told you.”

She rolled her eyes then pointed toward the baggage carousel. Colin turned and snagged her bag from the rack. He placed it beside us and went back to get his. Thirty seconds later, we were headed out to the parking garage.

We got a fraction of the trip details on our way home. I’d been getting texts and a few phone calls throughout, but it was nice to hear about the places they went and some of what they did. By the time I pulled into Dallas’s driveway, we’d heard the highlights.

“Did you need to pick up more stuff, babe?” Colin asked when he saw where we were.

“For where? We’re home.” Dallas made to get out of the car.

“We live in the loft.”

“What?” Dallas whirled on him. “No, we don’t. This is our home now.”

“Why would we live here? My place is closer to work.”

“Your place is a converted factory building. There are barely any walls, and it’s completely impersonal. I was here for every step of the renovation. Tell him, Skye.”

I swallowed hard, not wanting to get in the middle of this. Ainsley’s eyes shot to mine with trepidation. I cleared my throat and played the familiar role of negotiator. “Listen, it’s a minor misunderstanding, right? Let’s be realistic for now since Ainsley’s at your place, Colin. Stay here this week and you guys can talk through your living arrangements.”

Ainsley nodded and got out of the car to prompt their exit. She shot me a disbelieving look that was mirrored on my face. How could they not have discussed which house they’d move into?

“I can’t believe we never thought about this,” Colin said as soon as we all made it inside. “We stayed at my place so much more. I just assumed we’d move in there.”

“But you know how much I love my house. How much work I put into it.”

“I’m sorry, babe. We can talk more about it. Skye’s right. With Ains at my place, it’s best for us to stay here. We’ll figure it out.”

She moved into his arms and hugged him. It was good that he was willing to compromise, but it almost sounded like he would take the week to talk her into moving to his place. I wasn’t sure how they’d resolve that.

We went into the living room, and Dallas shrieked when she saw my wedding gift. Several black and white photos from their wedding now hung to the left and right of her fireplace and a large blowup of a candid shot of them together outside the church was above the mantel. The photographer had captured a private moment between them when they were gazing at each other. Dallas’s hand was on his chest and his arm was looped around her waist. The others were candid shots of their family and some friends.

“You did this?” She looked at me.

“It’s your wedding gift.”

She slung an arm around my shoulders. “We agreed that your wedding gift and Ainsley’s would be all the work you had to do to help plan the wedding.”

“It’s just a few framed pictures.”

“How many?” Colin stepped up to the one of him and his groomsmen and woman.

“What you see here, the digital frame on the bookcase, and a couple up in your bedroom. I also had him print the color versions if you like color better.”

“They’re fantastic. He knows what he’s doing, doesn’t he?” Dallas inspected the one of her and her family. “Thank you, Skye. This is the best present ever. I can’t wait to go through the rest of them.”

“We went through them.” I gestured to Ainsley. “There were over a thousand, so we thought you might want them grouped. Your family, Colin’s family, the wedding party, people from work, friends from college, groups like that.”

“We picked the best of each person and placed several similar shots in a folder to discard once you’ve looked them over,” Ainsley said. Her eyes were on the photo of the wedding party. I’d chosen the one that I thought she looked best in. Logan’s hair was a bit mussed, but she looked gorgeous in it. I was at least passable, no noticeable flaws anyway.

“What would we have done without you?” Dallas asked.

“Glad you didn’t have to find out,” I said.

“Really, Ains, Skye, you kicked ass on our wedding. We never could have gotten married without your help. So thanks.” Colin squeezed Ainsley’s shoulder and put his hand up for a high five from me.

“You’re welcome, for the last time,” I said.

“We got you presents, but we’ll have to dig through our luggage to get them. I’ll give it to you the next time we see each other.”

“How does it feel to be back?” Ainsley asked.

“I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed.”

“And have burgers and milkshakes for breakfast if I want,” Colin inserted.

“We’ll get out of your hair so you can enjoy your first evening home as a married couple,” Ainsley said.

“When you get settled in later this week, give a call,” I said.

“A bell,” Ainsley corrected with a smirk.

I pulled in my smile and sassed back, “What are you on about?”

That got a full smile from her and that pesky flutter was back. Some British phrases were delightful to mimic, especially if they pulled a smile from her.

“At least they haven’t killed each other yet,” Colin joked, winking at his wife.

“
Yer bum’s oot the windae
,” she accused him, pulling on the deepest accent she could manage.

Colin and I laughed, but Dallas said, “What?”

“He’s not making sense,” I translated for her.

Dallas gave me a questioning glance. I nodded my head toward the door to escape before she could pull me into a room and grill me about this past month with Ainsley. We made our goodbyes with the newlyweds before they dropped from exhaustion.

Once in the car, we drove a block in silence. I was about to comment when Ainsley beat me to it. “How did they not know where they were going to live?”

My head nodded on its own. “Isn’t that the first thing you talk about after whether or not you want a wedding and kids?”

“I would have.”

“I’m not marrying either one of them, but I knew Dallas would want to live in her house, want a big wedding, and wants two kids.”

“And Colin likes his loft but doesn’t seem to love it as much as Dallas loves her house. He definitely wanted a wedding, maybe not as big as it got, and he wants at least two kids.”

“See? That took ten seconds. Spend some time with someone and these things come out.” I glanced over at her and started talking before I thought better of it. “I know you want a wedding. A small one and you want both your parents to walk you down the aisle.”

Her eyes rounded as she faced me. “How do you know?”

“Because your mum shouldn’t be left out of that honor. You and she already buck tradition with your last name.” I caught her giving me a thoughtful smile. “I assume you’d want to stay at your place in Bathgate, but maybe you have your eye on another house in Edinburgh or Glasgow. I don’t know about kids, though. Are they in your future?”

Her eyes flicked up in thought. “I don’t know myself. I haven’t thought to have them, but I can see myself with them. I liked watching that film with Poppy the other night and reading her bedtime stories. She’s a lot of energy, though. What about you?”

I could give her the same answer I give everyone else, but I didn’t want to treat her like anyone else. “I don’t know either. I like kids. Don’t know if I want to physically have them. Adoption is the likely route if I go for it.”

“But you don’t want a wedding and you want to live in your house.”

That was right, but it suddenly ached to admit it. “Seeing as I already live there and marriage isn’t in the cards, yeah.”

“Maybe some woman will make you change your mind.” She turned from looking out the window and focused her blue gaze on me. “You never know. You could meet your one-off and everything changes for you.”

“You never know,” I agreed and the ache seemed to dissipate for a moment.

Forty

Spin class this time felt entirely different from the last one. Dallas was beside me and Blair in front. We were giggling at something Blair said about the too perky instructor. She had an amusing way of putting words to our exhaustion that would keep us going.

“Cool down, guys!” Perky called out. Not for the first time I wondered what kind of person it would take to be an exercise instructor. Did she like getting in workouts for free? Was she secretly a motivational speaker? Was she a sadist?

“I shouldn’t have taken that last week off,” Dallas groaned, easing off the seat and almost buckling onto the floor.

“You got in some other exercise, girlie.” Blair elbowed her.

“What must it be like to live in your mind?” Dallas joked back.

“I’d be happy to show you, sexy.” Blair worked in permanent flirtation mode.

“You oversexed little hussy,” Dallas teased, never seeming to mind when Blair turned the full blast of her flirtation at her.

Blair waved her hand toward me. “Talk about hussies, one of them came on to our girl here and she turned her down. Hot, sexy hussy, ready for action, and our celibate friend turns her down. You need to work on her, Dallas.”

“Hey,” I objected and looked around for the hot, sexy hussy being talked about.

“What?” Dallas rounded on me. “Which one?” she asked Blair.

“Hey,” I objected again. Every once in a while Dallas got on a kick to get me dating more. She understood that we felt differently about dating and it wasn’t just our sexual preferences. She was the kind of woman who was almost always with someone. I was the kind of woman who was almost always alone. But put her with flirty Blair, who rarely spent a night alone, and they’d start ganging up on me.

“She’s not here tonight.”

“Are you forgetting to tell her that my turning her down allowed you to score that night?”

Blair grinned widely and bounced in place. “You missed out.”

“Perv,” I accused.

“Perv who gets some on a regular basis, unlike you.”

Dallas pursed her lips to hold in her smile. “We need to do something about that.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Blair agreed.

“God,” I groaned and started for the door. They could follow or not. At this point, I didn’t care. “See you later.”

“Hold up.” Dallas caught up with me and tried valiantly to pull in her teasing grin. “No more analyzing your sex life. I promise.”

“So kind of you.” The sarcasm earned a punch to my shoulder. “Are we getting dinner or are you running back to the hubby?”

“Dinner,” she rushed to say. “I need to talk.”

My head cocked at her tone. She did this occasionally when things frustrated her and she needed to voice those frustrations. I could just start talking, but she would tell me she needed to talk and often hedge with other subjects before just spitting it out.

“Want to go back to my place?”

“Now you’re talking,” Blair teased as she skirted past us. “Get your freak on with the married chick.”

My hand whipped out, but Blair managed to dodge the smack as she disappeared into the locker room. “Blair’s in fine form tonight. Let’s avoid the locker room. You can use my guest bath.”

Fifteen minutes later we were pulling into the alleyway behind my house and parking in the carport. I thought again how I needed to call a contractor to get the carport converted into a garage. Now that I was past the steep part of the learning curve for my job, making twice what I used to, and wasn’t planning a wedding, I should really get that last project done.

Beating Dallas to the kitchen after my shower, I looked through the refrigerator for something to fix. Before I settled on something, Dallas was there and saying “Let’s do breakfast for dinner, please?”

I sat back against the counter. This was serious if she needed breakfast foods for comfort. “Pancakes, omelets, or waffles.”