Page 25 of Skylar

“Yep. Both Mom and I are here for that.”

“Hi, Mrs. McIntyre,” Janessa said as she approached his mom and gave her a hug. “I was sorry to hear about your husband and Bethany.”

“Thank you.” His mom smiled at her. “It’s good to see you again.”

“You too.” Janessa turned her attention to Willow. “And who is this beautiful little girl?”

“This is my granddaughter, Willow.”

Janessa held out her hand. “Hi, Willow. My name is Janessa. It’s nice to meet you.”

Willow smiled up at Janessa as she took her hand. “Nice to meet you too!”

“Well, we’re closed for the day, so let’s head back to the staff room,” Janessa said as one of the women locked the front door. “The technicians are set up there. Dad pulled some strings or greased some palms or something to have this testing done here after hours.”

Aiden trailed behind his mom, Willow, Janessa, and the other women as they walked down the hallway to the back of the building. They preceded him into the break room, and Aiden heard Skylar’s mom greet his.

Before he stepped into the break room, the back door opened, and Wilder walked in with a beautiful woman at his side.

When Wilder’s gaze landed on him, he came to a stop, his eyes narrowing. “Aiden.”

Aiden gave him a nod. “Wilder.”

“Does Skylar know you’re here?”

“Of course. She’s the one who told me the time and place.”

Wilder advanced on him. “If I had known what you did back then, you’d have been sporting a shiner.”

“You can give me one now if it’ll make you feel better.”

“Well, since you’re offering…”

Wilder pulled his arm back, eliciting a startled yelp from the woman at his side. She clutched at his arm. “Wilder!”

“I wasn’t really going to hit him.” Wilder grinned at her. “I just wanted to scare him a little.”

“Well, you scaredme.”

He pressed a kiss to her head. “Sorry, babe.”

“You should be,” the woman said. “That wasn’t nice.”

“What Aiden did wasn’t nice,” Wilder told her with another glare at Aiden. “In fact, what he did was far worse. He deserves quite a few scares.”

“He’s right,” Aiden told the woman. “I do.”

“While I understand Wilder’s sentiment, let’s move along,” Janessa suggested from the doorway, then turned to lead the way into the staff room.

As soon as he stepped through into the room, Aiden glanced around to see if Skylar was there. He spotted her talking to his mom, but he’d only taken one step in their direction when someone said his name, stopping him in his tracks.

“Aiden.” The all-too-familiar voice made Aiden wince.

He’d tried not to think about coming face to face with the man who had spent so much time not just coaching him andhis teammates on basketball, but coaching them on how to be gentlemen. How to treat people respectfully. Especially the women in their lives. The women they dated.

Turning, Aiden came face to face with the tall figure of Jay Halverson. “Hi, Coach.”

“Don’thi coachme, Aiden.”

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