Page 87 of Hate Me

“No. I’ll let him come to me when he’s ready.”

“Jeez, so much walking on eggshells lately.”

“I agree. Although, I do believe the snail’s pace is a positive thing for you. It’s giving you time to adjust to all these changes, and basically forcing you to take it slow with allowing Skylar close again.”

He had a very good point there. The first time around had been far too much of a crazy fucking whirlwind.

“Yeah,” I murmured.

It wasn’t like it could be any other way at the moment with how Sky was.

We spent the rest of our meal prep keeping to much more lighthearted topics like his burgeoning real estate dealings, his growing interest in the show we’d been watching every night since that last time, how close I was to completing my final project at Luxe, as well as a tour I had coming up soon of Serenity Group.

We were just finishing up plating the meal when the patio doors slid open and Sky and Cal walked back in.

The sound that filled the kitchen had both Cas and me stilling in some major surprise.

Laughing.

Sky was actually laughing.

Caleb winked at us when he saw us notice and recognize how startling it was.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, grinning as her laughter turned to giggles.

She couldn’t speak through it, so Caleb told us. “I was just regaling her with some of my more humorous tales from the last two years.”

“Like you hustling an entire bar at pool by pretending you couldn’t handle your liquor?” I asked. “Or drinking a shitload of frat boys under the table, while really knocking back non-alcoholic beer?”

Cal eyed Cas. “You told him all that? You knew about all that, is the more pertinent question. How invasive was your research? Jesus.”

“Aww, lovely, only my very best for you,” Cas teased.

Caleb went to him and kissed his cheek, nuzzling against him for a moment, before he wrapped his arm around me. “It wasn’t any of that, B.” He grinned out at Sky. “Tell him, darling.”

“It involved him running naked through the city screaming out “I’m the king of the castle AND the dirty rascal!” over and over. It happened to be near the college part of the city and a bunch of frat and sorority students ended up joining in and it caused a massive public spectacle that required police intervention.”

“Wow,” I breathed, eyeing him at my shoulder. “Of course you split just in time before the cops showed up, right?”

“Would you expect anything less from my suave ass?”

Cas was the one laughing then. “I’ve missed this side of you.”

“Well, it is my job to bring the humor.” He gestured at Sky. “Am I right, darling? We need it with these two overly serious and often maudlin fuckers, yeah?”

She looked between us. “Uh uh. Don’t put me in the middle. That’s not a good place to be.”

“Well, that’s not entirely true, is it now?” I put to her with a sly curve of my lips.

A thrill went through me as her cheeks heated in that cute way they sometimes did when things got sexually graphic outside of the bedroom when she wasn’t expecting it. It was a callback to the former version of her before all the tragedy and loss. It was also very real hope, demonstrating that it was still in her, the woman I’d fallen in love with, the woman we wanted with us forevermore, the one we were trying to bring back to us now.

The hope that her reaction had inspired became more than a spark when she moved past the blushing and the surprise of my comment and grinned out at the three of us. “Not in that way, no. That’s definitely the exception.”

That grin was still in place as she took what had become her usual seat at the island and noticeably relaxed, taking everything in with a gleam of excitement, which definitely boded well with the demoralized way she’d been since we’d brought her back here.

Cal whispered at my ear, “Figured I’d try bringing the humor to thaw the ice a little and break through the doom and gloom.”

“Good call.” He smiled as I kissed his cheek, looking so happy with himself.

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