Page 38 of Skylar

“Ready to go?” her dad asked as he came out of the kitchen, her mom trailing him.

“Are you coming too, Mom?”

“Of course!”

Skylar laughed, in spite of her frustration and pain. “Anything medical, huh, Mom?”

“You know it,” she said. “And lucky you, getting three doctors’ opinions for the price of free.”

Skylar knew that sometimes having three doctors available for opinions wasn’t all that great. There had been heated discussions among her parents and brother sometimes. Not usually of a patient of theirs or a family member, but rather some medical case that one of them had read about and had passed on to the other two.

As they drove to the clinic, her mom talked about the people she was messaging with news of Skylar’s mishap. Thankfully, it was just family members.

Her accident and the meltdown that followed had served to shock her out of the emotional tailspin she’d been in since the previous night. Not that she thought those emotions were gone. But at least, for the moment, she had something else to focus on.

CHAPTER NINE

His co-worker immediately followed up his knock on Aiden’s door by opening it and stepping inside his office. Normally, that would have aggravated Aiden, but he had been expecting this visit, and he and Devon always operated with an open-door policy between them.

Aiden watched as the man he was closest to in the company—and considered a close friend—walked toward him, then took a seat on the opposite side of the desk.

“So, what’s up?”

He and Devon had started at the company around the same time, with Aiden beating him for seniority by two weeks. While some people might be competitive with someone who was at their same level within a company, he and Devon had chosen a different approach.

They’d been assigned to a couple of projects together, and they’d worked super well as a team. It was something the project manager had also noticed, and that had led to them both being assigned to most of the same projects over the past couple of years.

When the owner of the company decided to promote them to managing their own projects, he’d talked with them to see if they’d be willing to co-manage the projects. In the end, they’d agreed and decided to alternate taking the lead on projects.

Their current project was their biggest one yet, and Aiden had the responsibility of taking the lead on it. Except he was preparing to pass that lead to Devon.

“I have a bunch of stuff going on in my personal life that is demanding a lot of my time and attention. I’ve talked to George, and he agreed that I could pass the lead to you so I could step back a bit.”

Devon frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Very sure.” He’d been thinking a lot about it as the situation with Shiloh and Skylar had begun to take up more of his time and thoughts.

Normally, he’d still work on—or at least think about—the project during evenings and weekends. But since everything had unfolded recently, he’d spent relatively little time working on the project outside of work hours, which wasn’t going to lead to the success of it.

Aiden shared what had been going on, and Devon listened patiently and with a concerned expression. He didn’t usually talk a lot about his personal life at the office, but Devon was someone he’d spent time with outside of work hours.

“I’m sorry to hear about your daughter,” Devon said. “I can’t even imagine what you’re feeling.”

“It’s been quite the experience, that’s for sure,” Aiden told him. “I’m just glad that they’re willing to let me have a role in Shiloh’s life. They certainly didn’t have to do that.”

“You’re fortunate, because I’m not sure that everyone would have reacted the way they did.”

“I’m pretty that Skylar doesn’t agree with what her sister and brother-in-law have decided regarding me knowing about Shiloh.”

“Sounds like she hates you,” Devon said.

Aiden couldn’t really blame her if she did, but his heart hoped that she didn’t. For some reason, it felt as important to have some sort of relationship with Skylar as it did with Shiloh.

“She’s certainly not happy with me,” Aiden agreed. “But she’s still talking to me, so that’s something.”

“Well, I’m happy to take the lead if you need to step back.”

“I really appreciate that.”

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