Summer Sunsets (21 page)

While Helen busies herself
with getting Skye’s breakfast, I sit at the table next to her while
Warren goes to the refrigerator and gets a glass of orange juice
before settling in the chair next to Skye.

Although I’m expecting
Helen to give Skye a bowl of cereal, she also brings me one and
sets it on the table with a spoon. “That should take both of you.”
She leans against the table and yawns. “I’m pretty tired. Warren
and I have been up all night, so I think I’m going to lie down and
get some rest. Otherwise, this headache might just blossom into a
migraine.” She gives Skye a pointed look. “Will you be all
right?”

“
Fine, Mom. I’ll be fine
with Devin.” Instead of looking at either Helen or me, Skye focuses
on her cereal, and I can tell by her unhappy expression she really
doesn’t want to eat.

Helen, unsure, looks at me,
and I nod to tell her I’ve got it covered. Finally, she slips out
of the room and heads toward her bedroom.

“
I think I’m going to go,
too,” Warren calls, following. “Just yell if you need
anything.”

“
Will do,” I reply, and wait
until they both head out of sight, pretending I have more interest
in my cereal than talking, but once we’re alone, I lean back in my
seat and level a stare at her I know she feels through and
through.

“
What are you looking at?”
she asks, pushing the bowl away.

“
You, pretending nothing’s
wrong, that nothing bothers you when I know better. I just wish
you’d be honest and let me know what’s going on now.” I wait,
hoping that will prompt her into talking. No go. Skye is the most
stubborn person I’ve ever met, hands down.

“
I wish everyone would stop
walking on eggshells around me. I’m not going to break!” She starts
to rise and walk, but her ankle, still tender, collapses under her,
and my hands are the only things that keep her from
falling.

“
Skye, it doesn’t take much
to know you’re under stress. We just want to help.”

For once, she looks me
straight in the eye. “You can’t help, Devin. Sometimes no one can
help.”

I know that should make me
back off, but it doesn’t. “Then I guess you’re going to have to
settle for us hovering because even if we can’t help, according to
you, it doesn’t mean we’re going to back off and let you
flounder.”

With that, I pick her up
and carry her to the sofa. “Maybe you should just stay while I go
and get a pair of crutches for you.”

“
No, I want to go.” She
tries to get around me, but I block her at every turn.

“
You can’t even walk, Skye.
The last thing you need to do is hobble into a Walgreens and damage
your ankle even worse than it already is.”

She grits her teeth. “Look,
Devin, there’s something I need to get.”

“
Just tell me and I’ll pick
it up for you.” I rake my fingers through my hair.

“
I want to get it myself,”
she says, looking beyond me. She always does that when she and I
don’t see eye-to-eye on something.

“
Fine, whatever.” I glance
towards the front door, where a pair of Skye’s shoes wait. “I’ll
get your shoes.”

“
Thank you.”

I get the brown flip flops
and hand them to her. She slides into the first one easily, but
when it comes to her injured foot, she’s slower and more careful.
Once she’s set, I turn and bend. “Let’s go.”

She wraps her arms around
my neck and eases herself onto my back so I can carry her out to
the car. The whole way to Walgreens we’re quiet, and she stares out
the window absently.

“
I’m glad your mom and
Warren made it back,” I say, more to try to draw conversation out
of her than anything.

“
Me, too,” she agrees, and
silence resumes, telling me she really doesn’t want to
talk.

The Walgreen’s lot is
half-empty, which makes it easy to get Skye inside without running
into anybody. Now, if we had gone to Wal-mart, that would
definitely be a different story. I take her to the crutches and
find a pair that’s appropriate for Skye’s height.

Skye nods towards the pain
reliever aisle. Could you go find some Tylenol, please?” When I
look in that direction, I see about fifteen people—probably pretty
much every customer in the store—which makes me wonder if Skye
really wants drugs for pain relief or just wants me out of the way
for some reason. She’s acting funny.

“
Of course.” I’m guessing it
doesn’t matter either way so I walk down the aisle, knowing
whenever Skye is ready to talk about this, we will. There’s no
point in trying to force her hand. It will only backfire and push
her that much farther away.

With all the people in my
way, it seems to take forever to find the Tylenol, and more than
once I glance at Skye. At first, she’s grabbed the crutches and
then, before I can even get back to her, she’s hobbled toward a
register to pay, which makes no sense.

I scrabble to grab the pain
reliever and get back to her, but I see her give the clerk money
and get change as he hands her a bag.

“
Didn’t you want these?” I
ask, waving the bottle at her. “Perhaps your Oldtimers is acting up
again?” I suggest.

“
Sorry.” She watches me hand
the bottle to the clerk to pay and starts to offer money, but I
shake my head.

“
I think I’ve got this. You
focus on driving your crutches.”

“
Thanks.” She rolls her
eyes.

“
Don’t mention
it.”

A few seconds later, we
leave the store. She’s already adapting to the crutches, and she
seems to like the independence they offer better than climbing on
my back. Typical Skye.

The only thing that even
seems difficult for her is clutching the small bag in her hand
while trying to grip the crutches. I start to take it from her, but
she jerks both the crutch and her hand back, almost causing her to
fall.

“
Skye, you can’t exactly
walk and carry that. Just let me take it.”

She shakes her head. “I’m
fine, Devin. Really.”

“
No, you’re stubborn as
hell, and you know it.” I correct and hover closer so if she does
fall, I’m within catching distance.

We finally make it to the
Jeep, and I unlock the door for her, still pondering why her
actions have been so secretive. This is one of the many times I
wish I had the ability to read Skye like I used to. After all,
while I might be able to guess her emotions any day of the week, I
damned sure can’t figure out what her thoughts are most of the
time.

The whole drive back to the
house is quiet, yet another sign Skye is thinking about something,
and I don’t have any landmarks to guide me. Back at her house, I
get out of the Jeep, ready to help her, but she’s already getting
herself out, that small bag clenched tightly in one hand in spite
of the crutch. So I walk beside her up to the door.

Inside, she hustles up to
her room and then the bathroom. I wait on the bed, still not sure
what’s going on. Her behavior makes no sense, and yet I feel like
if I draw attention to it, it’s only going to make it worse
somehow, so I figure I’ll give her a little bit to work through
it.

She’s gone for a few
minutes, and I’m wondering if she’s feeling sick again. When she
returns to her room, her face is pasty and she won’t look me in the
eye.

I stand and edge from the
bed. “Skye? Is something wrong?”

She blinks a few times like
she doesn’t know what else to do. “No, there’s nothing. I just
don’t feel well, that’s it.” She looks straight ahead, almost like
I’m not even there, and I wait for something else to come out,
something I can puzzle into the truth behind all of
this.

She hobbles past and sinks
into the rolling chair by her desk before setting the crutches
aside. “I think I’m going to take a nap and see if I feel
better.”

“
Okay.” I shove my hands in
my pockets, wondering what to do now, wishing I knew what was going
on. I hang there for a moment, giving her a chance to talk to me,
but nothing comes out, just this awkward distance lingering between
us.

Yet she is my everything.
She always has been, always will be.

I lick my lips and pull out
my keys. “Give me a call when you get up.”

I know I shouldn’t, but I
can’t seem to help myself as I get up and walk over to her so I can
bend and kiss her forehead. Although I feel her stiffen, I try to
tell myself I’m imagining things. If only I believed
that.

Chapter
Sixteen

Skye doesn’t call me that
afternoon, and she doesn’t take my calls. They go straight to her
voicemail, and even though I leave five messages, she doesn’t call
me back. It’s close to nine p.m. I’m just about to go over there
when my phone rings. I flip open my phone and look at the display.
It’s Warren.

What is going on
now?

“
Hello?” I force myself to
smile, knowing Warren will be able to tell there’s something wrong
if I’m not careful.

“
Hey, Devin. Is Skye with
you, by chance?”

Okay, the smile’s gone.
“Uh, no. She was tired and wanted to take a nap earlier, so I left.
Isn’t she at the house?” I start pacing the room, suddenly more
worried than ever. I wasn’t sure that was possible.

“
No, she isn’t.” He pauses,
and I sense more coming--more that I’m so not going to like. “She
must have left while Helen and I were trying to get rested up. She
left a note propped on the kitchen table, telling us she was going
to be gone for a few days.”

I stop walking in
mid-stride. “Did you try calling her?”

“
I’ve tried. Helen has
tried. More than once. Every call goes to voicemail.”

Okay, this is far worse.
What the hell is going on with Skye, and why didn’t she at least
tell someone where she was going? It makes no sense. I walk to the
bed, trying to wrap my head around this one.

“
Devin?” Warren prompts.
“Are you there?”

“
Yeah, I’m here.” I shake my
head, wondering where she would go, especially for a few days. “How
long has she been gone? Do you know?”

“
A few hours at
least.”

I grit my teeth. I
shouldn’t be so tense because it’s not as bad as it could be. I
just have to figure things out. “Give me a little while to think it
over, and I’ll see if I can come up with some ideas where she might
have gone.”

“
I’m worried, Devin.”
Warren’s tone tells me just how worried he is.

“
I’ll find her,” I promise.
Right now, I’m not sure how I’m going to keep my word, but I will.
Skye is far too important to lose, and somehow I sense that
whatever is bothering her is the ultimate test to getting behind
her defenses. Failure isn’t an option.

“
All right,” he finally
agrees. “Call me when you figure things out. I’ll do my best to
keep Helen calm while she’s gone.”

I snap the phone shut and
start pacing again. Now to figure out the possibilities. She didn’t
talk about any close friends she made in college, and Skye’s pretty
much a loner, so I don’t see that as a place she’d go back to.
There’s no place around here she liked that well. The only spot she
ever seemed to enjoy was the beach.

The beach….

I nod, suddenly getting it.
That’s why she’s going to be gone so long. She’s driving back to
the beach, probably the same one where we stayed at.

That in mind, I consider
calling Skye. I even flip open the phone before the thought dawns
on me that if I warn her I’m coming, she might actually run again
and try to hide better. No, she doesn’t get to know I’m
coming.

With that thought, I go to
my dresser and throw some clothes into my duffle, not really caring
how I cram things in, and I look at my watch. I know what time it
is, so it’s more just something to distract me from the nervous
feeling bottoming out my stomach.

Once I get things packed, I
start heading through the house. My mom is in the kitchen and she
spots me at the front door.

“
Devin, where are you
going?” She wipes her hands on a dishtowel and walks towards me,
frowning.

Here’s where I have two
options. First, I can tell the truth and watch my mom freak out—her
natural response, unfortunately—or I can lie and make her think
nothing is wrong. In the end, I’m probably stupid, but I decide on
the truth.

“
Warren just called and he
doesn’t know where Skye is. She just left a note saying she’d be
back in a few days, so I’m going to find her.”

Mom folds her arms across
her stomach. “Devin, maybe this time you should just let Warren and
Helen handle this.” She licks her lips nervously, knowing that no
matter how much she wants me to agree, I’m not going to. She’s
still got to try.

“
I know you think Skye is
more than I can handle, but you’re wrong. I have to find her.” I
pull my cell out of my pocket. “I’ve got my phone, and if you call,
I’ll answer, but you have to understand, Mom. She needs me, and I
love her. I’m always going to love her no matter what
happens.”