Page 33 of Skylar

Aiden nodded, then waited for them to arrange themselves next to the bed. Shiloh smiled widely, and it lit up her whole face. Charli and Blake’s smiles were a little more strained.

“Can we take one of me with Uncle Aiden and Auntie Sky, too?”

Aiden looked at Charli, since he found he was loath to overstep his bounds. They’d been so accepting of his appearance in Shiloh’s life. He wasn’t going to repay that by making things difficult for them.

“Let me take that for you,” Charli said, holding out her hand for the phone. “Get over here, Sky.”

Skylar was a little slow to move, but soon Charli was organizing them for the shot. She had them on opposite sides of the bed, then they bent closer to Shiloh. Without any prompting, Shiloh wrapped her thin arms around each one of theirs. “Cheese!”

Aiden grinned, appreciating Shiloh’s enthusiastic approach to things. He was glad to see that she hadn’t completely lost her childish enthusiasm to all the medical procedures she was going through.

He needed to figure out how to address Shiloh’s health with Willow. They’d told her that her cousin was sick, but beyond that, they hadn’t given her many details. The video and thephotos would show how fragile and unwell she was, and Willow might have questions. He’d just have to be honest with her.

He didn’t like to think about it, but the reality was that Shiloh was a very sick little girl. There was no guarantee that the treatments would work. And there was every possibility that he’d just met his daughter, only to have to say goodbye.

Aiden swallowed against the emotion that thickened in his throat. He couldn’t think about that. Couldn’t allow himself to grieve before he needed to. He needed to focus on her in the present, cherishing each moment he had with her.

Over the next little while, Shiloh entertained them all with stories about school, her friends, and the figure skating lessons she’d been taking with Wilder’s wife, Lexi, before she’d gotten sick.

As he continued to observe her, Aiden finally saw glimpses of himself. Much like Willow had dark hair and eyes that must have come from her father’s side, Skylar’s genes had definitely dominated in that department with Shiloh.

Her enthusiastic approach to things reminded him so much of how Skylar had been as a teen, and he wondered if, outside their current situation, she was still that way.

That hadn’t been apparent in any of their interactions so far. But given how unhappy she’d been when he’d come back into her life, he wasn’t surprised.

Soon though, Shiloh began to fade, exhaustion revealing itself in her eyes’ weighted blinks.

“Well, sweetie, I think it’s time for Skylar and Aiden to go,” Charli said around seven-thirty.

“Will I see them again soon?” Shiloh asked, gesturing to him and Skylar.

“Of course. Skylar is your aunt, so she’ll be around, and Aiden lives nearby, so you’ll see him too, I’m sure.”

“Auntie Sky hardly ever comes to visit, though,” Shiloh said with a small pout.

“Maybe she’ll come more,” Charli said with a glance at her sister who sat expressionless in her chair.

Shiloh looked at Skylar. “Maybe you should move here, then I could see you all the time.”

Skylar’s expression tightened. “I don’t know if I could do that. But I’ll try to visit more often.”

For a moment, Shiloh just stared at her, then she nodded. “Okay.”

With that settled, Aiden and Skylar said goodbye to Shiloh, as well as Charli and Blake. It was hard to step out of the room, and even harder to walk down the hallway to the elevator that would take them to the main floor and exit. Skylar was silent through it all.

As they stepped out of the hospital, they moved to the side, and Aiden stopped and stared up at the sky. Though it had been hard to see Shiloh struggling with her health, he was relieved that the visit had gone so well. He glanced at Skylar to see what she thought.

She stood with her arms crossed, her gaze distant, leaving him to wonder what was going through her mind.

“I think that went pretty good,” he said. “Didn’t it?”

Her lips tightened, then she turned her gaze to him, and Aiden felt like he’d been stabbed in the heart. The absolute devastation on her face took his breath away.

“Skylar?” He didn’t know what to say or do at that moment.

She took two steps toward him and thumped her fists on his chest. “Why couldn’t you have been the man you were supposed to be? Why couldn’t you have loved me enough to build a family and a future with me? She could have been ours. She could have been… mine…”

Her voice cracked on the last word as her devastation spilled out all over Aiden.

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