Page 12 of Skylar

“Hello?” she said as she answered the call and tapped for the speakerphone before setting the phone on the bathroom counter.

After they’d exchanged greetings, Aiden said, “I’d like to ask you a few more questions about the situation.”

“Okay?”

“First, what is the baby’s name?”

Skylar hesitated, not sure where Aiden was going. “I’m afraid that I’m not comfortable sharing that information at the moment.”

“Why?” Aiden was direct in a way he hadn’t been as a teen.

“Because I don’t trust you.” She could also be direct in that way. “Oh, and I also don’t like you.”

There was a long beat of silence before Aiden chuckled. “Well, you’re certainly not pulling your punches these days.”

“Why should I?” she asked. “You certainly didn’t nine years ago.”

She heard the heavy sigh through the speaker of the phone. “Fair enough.”

“So, no name. Next question?”

As she dumped facial cleanser onto a cotton pad, she heard Aiden say, “What are the chances that I’d get to meet her? Should I decide I want that?”

Skylar’s stomach sank, and her fingers squeezed the cotton pad until the liquid pressed against her palm. “Zero chances.”

“Is thatyouranswer or the adoptive parents’ answer?”

She wanted to say it was both of theirs, but she honestly didn’t know for certain how Charli and Blake felt about it. Charli had been after her for the last couple of years to let them tell Shiloh that Skylar was her birth mother.

So far, she’d resisted the idea. It was entirely possible that they might be open to the idea of telling Shiloh who her father was.

“It’s mine, definitely,” Skylar admitted. “But it’s also possibly the adoptive parents’ as well.”

“I would like to know for sure that they feel that way.”

She wanted to tell him she wouldn’t ask them. Instead, she said, “I can ask them, but there’s no guarantee they’ll say yes.”

“And no guarantee that you’d tell me even if they did.”

She let her silence speak for her. “Next question. Or rather, last question.”

“When do we need to come for testing?”

“I’ll ask my dad for the specifics and text you the information.”

Aiden might phone like some uncouth person, but she was polite enough to text.

“Appreciate that,” he said. “Are you living in Serenity now?”

“You’re not entitled to another question,” she told him. “But I’ll answer it, anyway. No, I don’t live in Serenity.”

She could tell he really wanted to ask where she lived, but to his credit—not that she wanted to give him credit for anything—he didn’t.

“Well, I’ll let you go,” he said. “Look forward to your text. Have a good night.”

“You too,” Skylar replied, trying to be polite in a way she hadn’t been earlier.

After she hung up, she puffed out her cheeks with a breath and stared at herself in the mirror. Tilting her head, she gazed into her own eyes.

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