Never Let Me Go (13 page)

“Sit
still,
Skylar Rose,” Hayden scolded, applying sunblock to Sky’s back, face, legs, neck, and arms. “I’m almost done and then we can go get in the water.”

“Daddy, I think I want just Michele to take me,” Skylar said, holding my hand.

She’d taken off her small sundress and she was wearing a Hello Kitty one-piece swimsuit. I was in my bikini, and we’d just finished building our sandcastle. Skylar had talked my ear off about her little sister and her bedroom at her mommy’s house and how she was gonna start preschool with her teacher Miss Haven but not until after her birthday and she wanted me to go to her birthday party because it was going to be an Alice in Wonderland party and she didn’t want me to get her a present she just wanted me to go because she just wanted me to go to her party. She was quite the adorable little girl, I had to admit.

“Are you sure baby?” Hayden asked, eyeing his daughter skeptically as he capped up the sunscreen.

“Yes. I want to go with Michele.”

Hayden smiled, and he kissed her on the head. “Okay. Have fun.”

I was surprised that after only spending an hour with the two of them, Skylar was warming up to me so quickly.

Her tiny hand fit perfectly in mine as I led her to the edge of the water. I looked down at her as she fingered the end of her braid, her eyes fixed fearfully on the giant wave that was headed our way. The water rolled over her feet and she leapt back, clutching on to my leg for dear life as another wave came.

“I think I don’t want to go in yet.” Her voice was small and timid. “I think I want to make another sandcastle.”

I squatted down in front of her, pulling her close and placing my hands on her shoulders. “Sky, what’s the matter?”

She looked at me through sad, amber eyes just like her father’s, and she shook her head as she fiddled with her braid once more.

“The water is too big and I’m too small.”

I laughed. “I know the feeling. You know your daddy is
this
much taller than me?” I held my hands up about a foot apart from each other. “So I know what it’s like to be small. I’ll tell you what, though. How about I carry you in there, and if you
still
wanna go back and make a sandcastle, we’ll make as many sandcastles as possible until your daddy tells us to leave? How does that sound?”

“Okay!”

Her eyes brightened up and she extended her arms to me. I lifted her up, propping the tiny girl on my hip and wading into the water slowly. Her arms wrapped around my neck and her legs dangled at my side as the waves came up and attacked my legs. I stumbled a little bit, eliciting a laugh from Skylar. I held her tightly, wincing a little bit as another wave—nearly twice as large as the previous one, came up and hit me at the waist. It was freezing cold, but incredibly refreshing on such a cold day.

“Michele, don’t drop me, okay? I don’t know how to swim.” Skylar honestly looked afraid. She buried her face in my neck and I looked down at her.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to yell at your daddy and get him to teach you this summer.”

At that, she giggled. She lifted her head just the tiniest bit. “You can’t yell at Daddy. He’s a growed up!”

I laughed, wading slightly deeper into the water. The waves crashed upon us, but I held onto Hayden’s daughter for dear life. She was trusting me implicitly—and I knew how blindly little kids gave their trust away—and I was
not
going to drop her or let the water scare her.

“Well, do you want to learn how to swim?” I tried to distract her from the fact that another wave was coming. Even though we were only in about three inches above my waist, I could feel her shaking against me.

“Yes. I don’t wanna be ‘fraid of the beach or the pool.”

I nodded, grabbing a handful of water with my free hand and sprinkling it over the top of her head, wetting her blond locks like my dad had shown me when I was little. He’d always told me to wet my hair as soon as I could to keep myself from getting sick.

“Okay, then I’ll make sure that you learn.” I sprinkled a little more water on top of her head, then adjusted her on my hip. “Since I can’t yell at your dad, then I’ll teach you if he doesn’t. Okay?”

She pursed her pink lips, her eyes never leaving mine.

“Will you teach me before my birthday?”

“I’ll teach you
and
I’ll buy you a new swimsuit before your birthday. Deal?”

“Deal.”

We stood in the water for a while, then I grabbed Skylar and laid her out flat atop my arms. She wriggled wildly, her expression morphing from surprise to fear quickly.

“No, no! Don’t put me down!” she screeched.

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling me up against me. “I’m not. I’m just going to help you float, but I’m not gonna let you go.”

Her eyes narrowed at me, and she cocked a brow skeptically. It was an expression that I’d seen on her father many times over the past few weeks. “You swear?”

I nodded, even though I wanted to hold out my pinky and pinky promise to her like I often did with Nickayla’s nieces, Emerson, Kenzie, and Callie. “I swear. I won’t let you go, Sky.”

She laid back, her little hand struggling to wrap around my wrist in an effort to make sure I wasn’t going to let her go. She laid back and stretched her legs out in front of her and I moved her back and forth in the water. She giggled in sheer delight as I told her to kick her legs quickly. I moved my hands beneath her, pretending that she was moving herself—there was
no
way I was teaching this kid to swim in beach water.

“Michele, I’m doing it! I’m swimming!” Her laughter was music to my ears. I made it a point to invite she and Hayden over to the house so that I could
actually
teach her in a pool.

“Yeah, you’ve got it, cutie!” I pulled her up and propped her up on my hip once more. “Let’s go see what Daddy’s doing, yeah?”

She nodded, clutching my neck again, her grin wider than I’d seen it the entire day.

When we got to a reasonable height of water, I set Skylar down and she ran toward the shore kicking up water as she did so.

Hayden was standing at the edge of the water, snapping pictures of his daughter with his cell phone. She giggled and posed and continued to kick at the waves, and Hayden laughed at her animation. She whipped around to face me and extended her hand to me.

“Michele, take a picture with me. Take a picture with me!” I took her hand and she dragged me to the shore. “Look, Daddy, I’m gonna smile real big ‘cus Michele is here!”

I stooped down onto one knee, pulling Skylar in and wrapping her in a light hug as we both looked up at Hayden. He smiled widely at me and mouthed a “thank you” before he snapped the picture.

We stepped out of the water hand in hand, and Hayden scooped his daughter up in her Hello Kitty towel. He held her upside down, racing back toward our spot in the sand as she laughed uncontrollably.

I didn’t race after him, though. I simply admired how fun and carefree he was when Skylar was around, and I hoped that I’d be able to see more of that as time went on. She was clearly the center of his universe, and he was the center of hers. It was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen.

He plopped her down in a beach chair, handing her a juice box and opening the cooler of food in front of him.

“Sky, honey, do you want a PB and J sandwich?” he asked, looking up.

She shook her head, the straw to her juice box still in her mouth. “I want what Michele wants.”

I blushed, looking at Hayden as his eyebrows shot up in surprise. He narrowed his eyes and cocked an eyebrow at his daughter. “Don’t talk with things in your mouth. Take that out and then answer me.”

She sighed with a roll of her eyes—which, if it were someone other than Skylar, I’d consider disrespectful—and pulled the straw out of her mouth. “I want what Michele wants.”

He reached into the ice chest and handed me a smoked turkey sandwich and then handed the same thing to his daughter. Skylar eyed the sandwich like it was something that was poisoned. She took off the plastic wrap and then took a small bite.

“How is it?” Hayden asked, looking to me for a moment.

Skylar held her finger up, closing her eyes as she chewed the bite of the sandwich. Her brows furrowed and then raised as she continued to chew. She opened her eyes, one at a time, swallowed the bite of food and then smiled. “It’s good!”

I laughed, taking her word for it and unwrapping my own sandwich. Skylar only ate half of hers before she handed it to her dad and went back to her sandcastle-making. I moved over on the blanket that I was sitting on with Hayden, so that I was closer to him. He grinned at me as he took a bite of his sandwich.

“I think she likes you,” Hayden said, nodding in his daughter’s direction. She was digging in the sand with her bare hands, and Hayden laughed as she finally realized that there was a shovel right beside her.

“Really?” I was intrigued, honestly. I’d only been around her for a day and I wasn’t sure how to read her exactly.

“Oh, yeah.” He placed his hand on my knee and squeezed. “She’s normally
extremely
picky, and she
despises
strangers. So the fact that she asked for only you to take her in the water and the fact that she asked for something out of the ordinary to eat…that shows me that she likes you.”

I couldn’t conceal my excitement.

“That’s good to know,” I said. “Because I want to spend a
lot
more time getting to know her.” I paused, nudging Hayden lightly. “And spending time with her daddy’s just a bonus.”

Chapter Nine

We’d spent the entire day at the beach. It wasn’t until Skylar fell asleep in her blanket on the sand right before the sun set that Hayden decided it was time to head out. We drove to his house, where I’d decided to stay with him until one of us got tired and then call Colin or Rory to pick me up since I hadn’t driven.

I was standing in the doorway of Skylar’s room, watching as Hayden tucked her in and kissed her on the forehead. He’d changed her out of her swimsuit and brushed out her hair, then he’d laid her in her bed and handed his daughter her favorite stuffed animal. Her eyes were heavy and lidded—I could tell by the way that she was struggling to keep them open.

“’Night, Daddy,” Skylar muttered sleepily amid a yawn.

“Goodnight, Sky,” Hayden said, turning on her nightlight and turning off the actual light in her room. He gestured for me to leave through the open door, and he followed behind me, blowing his daughter a kiss before he closed the door.

His hand found the small of my back as he led me downstairs.

His house was a large three bedroom—which I assumed was due to the fact that he’d started a business with his sisters at the age of twenty-one. The outside of the house had been stunning. On the outskirts of Big Springs and nearly in Chapel Hill, he owned his own land about five miles away from the closest neighbor. He had an above-ground pool in his backyard and a large patio that apparently he loved to sit at and watch the stars with Skylar. I could see myself spending a lot of time at the Jax house, and I hoped that I would.

“So, now that you’ve got me here, what are you going to do with me?” I asked, wagging my eyebrows as Hayden eyed me from the other side of the island in the kitchen.

He chuckled, sitting at one of the chairs there and folding his arms atop the counter. “I dunno. I’m actually pretty hungry, but I don’t feel like cooking. Would you be okay with me ordering pizza?”

I hopped up on the island, sitting on the counter so that I was beside him but his face was adjacent to my thighs.

“Would you be okay with me
paying
for the pizza?” I was trying to break him of his habit of paying for everything every time we were together.

“Nope.” His expression was stern, his lips forming a thin tight line.

I crossed my legs, thankful that I’d brought a pair of jeans with me to the beach.

“Then I guess I’m not okay with you ordering me food.”

“Then I guess you’re going to starve tonight,” he deadpanned.

I raised an eyebrow, giving him my best smirk. “You’re really going to not let me eat?”

He scooted his chair backward, moving away from me and folding his arms across his chest. He leaned back in the chair, his legs wide as he brought a hand up and stroked his chin with his thumb.

“It was your suggestion, not mine.”

I hopped down off the island, sashaying over to him slowly and seductively, knowing full well that my midriff had been showing all day. I threw one of my legs over his lap and straddled him, twining my fingers behind his neck as his hands grasped my lower back.

“If I have to starve, so do
you
, Hayden Jax,” I said, kissing his neck.

He groaned lightly, throwing his head back. His hair moved backward, and I noticed for the first time how curly it actually was. I ran my hands through it and tugged it backward so that he was forced to look at me.