Star Crossed (14 page)

“I do, too, so I can’t really blame you for that. Thank you for making sure he’s safe with me, it helps me know how to handle this.”

~~~

            Chris pulled up to Steve’s apartment and slung his helmet over the handlebars of the bike before bolting up the stairs. He probably would have wanted a shower before showing up here, ordinarily, and he probably should have shaved last time he had had the chance to. None of that mattered at the moment. Skylar was waiting for him and one of Steve’s later texts had warned that there was some sort of trouble. He didn’t know what sort of trouble required a call to the police but he didn’t like any of the implications.

            It felt like an eternity between the time that he knocked and when Steve answered the door to let him in. There was Skylar, sitting in the rumpled scrubs and hoodie she’d been wearing from work, her makeup all but gone since she’d apparently been wiping away tears with the pile of tissues sitting in a grocery bag next to her.

            She had never been more beautiful to him than in that moment. Not because of how she looked, but because of the way that she looked up at him when she realized he was in the room.

            He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her move as quickly before as she all but launched herself into his arms. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I should have told you. I should have told you everything,” she cried.

            Chris closed his eyes and focused on the feel of her as he held her back. She was soft in his arms and yet was holding onto him with such strength. He could spend a lifetime getting to know what she did to make that scent cling to her hair, and he vowed to himself as he kissed her forehead and soothingly pet her back that he would do just that. “It’s okay, we’ll figure it out. We’ll figure it all out, alright? Just breathe.”

            “I’m trying, it’s just hard.”

            “I know,” he said, thinking of his father and the trip he’d just come back from. He’d thought that he’d come to terms with his dad’s death before but it wasn’t until he had been gone for a few weeks before he’d truly felt at peace with it. “Sometimes these things take time.”

            She looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “Do you think we’ll have that kind of time?”

            He smiled softly and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Skylar Barnes, if I have anything to say about it, we’ll have all the time in the world.” Chris leaned in and kissed her, unable to quell the thrill of excitement he felt at the hesitant way that she pressed back against him. His hands ceased their absent petting in favor of keeping her still and close but he loosened his hold when Skylar gasped. “What is it?”

            She looked up at him wonderingly and smiled. “You’d let me go,” she observed, seeming mystified by this.

            Chris’s gaze sharpened but he chose not to ask yet. There was time enough to ask what had happened with Grayson to make her so nervous. “If you wanted me to.”

            “Never,” she said as she tightened her hold on him and kissed him once more. “I always want to stay like this.”

            “That would be awkward since this is our living room.”

            “Shut up, Steve,” Chris said dismissively, thoroughly content to mostly ignore his friend in favor of gazing adoringly at Skylar. “You know what she meant.”

            “Yeah, but- ouch, Anna!”

            Skylar giggled and rested her forehead on Chris’s so she could watch him adoringly. “I meant what I said earlier. I think I’ve loved you all along, I just didn’t want to get hurt.”

            “And I didn’t want you to think that I didn’t love you because I had so much work. I care too much to let you feel abandoned, and you always seemed so hurt when other boys missed a date. As absent-minded as I can be...”

            “I think I can manage not to be offended that you like books.”

            “Are you sure? Because he really- Anna, stop!”

            “Well, if you’d be a gentleman... oh, never mind, come on,” she said as she dragged him into another room.

            Chris’s gaze turned apologetic. “He can be a bit much.”

            “You know my friends. I’m used to getting a bit much from them.”

            “And from me?”

            “I think I can handle whatever you throw at me.”

            “Challenge accepted,” he purred as he kissed her gently once more.