Page 29 of Skylar

Though Aiden might have liked to talk more with Skylar, she didn’t seem inclined to have a conversation with him. Instead, he went to where his mom was, and the two of them said goodbye to the Halverson family members gathered there.

It had gone pretty well, in Aiden’s estimation, and it seemed that his mom felt the same way. Before heading back to Coeur d’Alene, they went to the house and checked it over, then went to the local diner for dinner.

No one had punched him. They’d gotten tested. All in all, it had been a good day for him.

However, his thoughts kept going to Shiloh and how this was most likely not a very good day for her. He hoped that she would have a restful night, and that the treatments she was undergoing would be what led to her regaining her health.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“I’ll be praying for you,” Aiden’s mom said as he prepared to leave for the hospital. “That everything goes smoothly.”

“Thanks, Mom.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek, then walked to where Willow sat at the table with a coloring book and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Take care of Grandma, okay?”

She smiled up at him. “I will.”

“You’ll probably be asleep when I get home, so you can tell me two jokes tomorrow when we’re eating breakfast, okay?”

She held out her hand. “Deal.”

After they shook on it, Aiden left the house and climbed into his car. He was full of nerves as he anticipated meeting his daughter for the first time. Willow and his mom had gone out and bought a coloring book, a bunch of crayons, and a stuffed unicorn for him to give Shiloh.

He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for the Halverson parents to chew him out for what he’d done to their daughter. Skylar certainly had. Maybe they figured that was enough.

There were still ten minutes to spare when he pulled into a parking spot at the hospital. Rather than get out and go wait in the hospital, he sat in the car for a few minutes. He wished he had someone to talk to about all of this, but the one person he usually confided in was Cole.

He hadn’t heard from his friend, but then he hadn’t called him either. The silence between them was rather deafening and made him worried that this would impact their friendship to the point where it would no longer exist. He didn’t think it wouldcome to that… but anything was possible in this mess he’d created.

But he’d get that sorted out after this meeting with his daughter.

Picking up the gift bag, he left the car and headed into the hospital. It took him a bit to locate the waiting room where Charli and Blake had told him to go, and when he found it, he saw Skylar was already seated there.

“Hi,” he said as he sat down, leaving a chair empty between them.

She glanced at him as she uncrossed her legs and crossed them again in the opposite direction. “Hey.”

It was hard not to recall the times when she had greeted him with much more enthusiasm. But he couldn’t claim to miss those times since he’d been the one to toss them away.

He wanted to ask her if she was nervous. From the way her foot tapped the air, and how she crossed her arms tightly across her waist, it seemed like she might be. She wasn’t meeting Shiloh for the first time like he was, but she was seeing her for the first time after Shiloh had learned Skylar’s true identity.

“Are you doing okay?” he asked.

It took her a long moment to respond, which Aiden figured was an answer in itself.

“I guess. I just hope this is the right thing for Shiloh.”

“Charli and Blake seem to think it is.”

She nodded. “And maybe I’m scared to see my little dau—my little niece sick with cancer.”

“Yeah.” Aiden sighed as he leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his thighs as he stared at his hands. “I wish there wasmore I could do for her. But there’s nothing beyond getting the test and hoping I’m a match.”

“She’s such a sweet kid,” Skylar said, her voice tight. “She doesn’t deserve this.”

“I felt that way about what happened to Willow. She lost her mom and her papa in such a short period of time.”

“You’re good with her,” Skylar told him.

“After Bethany died, I moved back to Coeur d’Alene to help my mom out,” he said. “Since we’ve been living together for almost awhile now, we’ve gotten close.”

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