Page 12 of The Third Girl

“Yes, girl! Kick his ass!”

I almost snort-laugh.Ah, Jackie.But I stop chuckling the second Matt crawls between my legs again, needing to take a deep breath.

As he kneels over me, he gives me a quick refresher. “Remember, isolate my arm, grab my shoulder, put your foot to my hip, swing the other leg to my shoulder, and then kick over my head with the first leg. Then you can use your position to your advantage and knock me over. If you hold onto my arm, you’ll really have me in a bind.”

“Okay.” I take a few steadying breaths once I have his arm where I want it, then like lightning, I go through the steps until I flip him right off me. He lands with a thud on the mat and lies there as the class goes nuts.

Jackson throws his arms into the air and booms, “Yes! You’re a fucking ninja, Skylar!”

I offer Matt a hand to help him off the floor. As he comes to his feet, he gives me a small smile. “Good job. You picked that up quickly.” His eyes roam over my face, but before I can say anything, Jackson’s asking for us to break into pairs again to practice.

* * *

At the end of class, I slowly gather my things. Laney, Jackie, and Kennedy had to take off quickly, leaving me with Lucy and Mia, her sister-in-law. Mick’s sister is really nice; though I didn’t know her at all before she came to paint night with us a while back, we’ve been hanging out every weekend at our self-defense class, and I love how down-to-earth she is.

“That was quite the show you put on out there.” Mia grins, plopping down on the bench next to me. “Expert-level ninja stuff, like Jackson said.”

“Ha-ha. Thanks. It was fun, I guess.”

Lucy joins us, stopping in front of me. “So, that was one way to get to know your potential employer.” Her brow arches as she stifles a laugh. “Have you talked to Matt yet?”

Mia’s eyes travel between us. “What did I miss? Potential employer?”

“Our girl might be watching my sweet niece for Matt.”

I bite my lip. “Is it weird?”

“Only if you make it that way. Um—” Lucy jerks to a stop, and from the odd look on her face, I feel like she’s debating whether to say whatever it is that she was going to. “So, he told me earlier that he’d be talking to you today. It’s… um.” She looks me square in the eye. “Skylar, it’s the anniversary of his wife’s death.”

My face falls. “Oh, shit.” It’d been obvious to me that something wasn’t right, but I thought he was simply having a bad day. Now I know—he’s having the worst kind of day. And I get that. Been there. Never want to go there again.

Mia wrinkles her nose. “I knew he seemed moody when we were talking earlier. That must have been it. It was like he couldn’t focus, and he was frustrated with himself.”

“Yeah.” Lucy releases a heavy sigh and pats my arm. “Look, don’t bring it up. I just didn’t want you to be blindsided in case he’s not his usual self. Mia, you ready? We’ve got to get to work.”

Once they leave, I take a minute to collect my thoughts. The anniversary of such a huge, life-changing event definitely explains why Matt had been staring off into space earlier. Every year on the fifth of October, I behave similarly. It’s ugly, but I’ve learned to deal with it. But Matt? Even though it’s been a full year, he’s still in the early stages of processing what happened. Loss wounds eternally. Grief is unending. It remains, hanging over our heads, casting a dark shadow on our lives. It morphs into a new, more complicated beast with each heart-wrenching moment that person isn’t present. I let out a nervous sigh, get up, and sling my bag over my head.

Leaving the classroom, I look around for Matt, but don’t spot him right away. When I finally do, he’s sitting on a bench near the room that’s available for childcare. There’s a window where parents can watch their kid and that appears to be what he’s doing. Until his head drops into his hands. His broad back moves with the inhalations and exhalations, each breath he takes looks ragged and painful.

My heart goes out to him, and I consider leaving him to do what he has to in order to make it through the day without bothering him. But then as I consider that, it hits me that the biggest part of Matt’s life is his daughter and how hard it must be as a single parent to make sure she’s cared for.

And that’s where I’d come in. I want nothing more than to help take one worry off his mind, if that’s at all possible.Don’t let him down.

“Matt?”

His body jerks at the sound of my voice, but he lifts his head and turns around. “Yeah?” His eyes find mine, but it’s clear it’s not clicking why I’m here.

I become self-conscious of the red curls trying to escape the messy bun on top of my head and the sweat from our workout glistening on my brow. Maybe I should have taken a shower. No time to second-guess myself now. “Did you still want to talk about your daughter?”

“Right. Fuck.” He glances at me. “Sorry.” He heaves out a breath. “I’m sorry. It’s a really bad day.”

My lips press together as I take a seat next to him. “We can talk about it another time. Specifics and all that.” I draw in a breath before letting words spill out of my mouth that I sure as hell didn’t hear coming. “I want to help you.” I pause. “I’ll help you.” From the corner of my eye, I watch his brow furrow, and he cocks his head to the side, almost as if in disbelief of what I’ve just said.

“You’re serious?”

I bite my lip and turn to stare into his pain-filled eyes. “It seems like you could use something going right today. We can figure everything out later. Now, which one is yours?” I gaze through the window. “Wait, lemme try to guess.”

I can tell Matt is staring at me, but I don’t look back at him yet. “Is it the cute little blonde there? The one with the pink dinosaur jacket?”

He clears his throat. “Yeah. She wouldn’t take it off when we got here.”

“Stubborn. Got it.” I turn my head, shooting him a cautious smile. “She’s adorable.”

He nods then turns, his gaze fixing on his daughter. A sadness sweeps over his features. “Looks like her mother.”

Oh, man.“I tell you what, how about I’ll text you whatever questions I think of?”

He nods again, but it’s almost like he’s lost in his own head, trapped somewhere in the past. The strain on his face is evident. I want to reach out to him, but… I don’t know him. And I don’t want to overstep.

As I leave the wellness center, I feel like I did the right thing. But what have I gotten myself into?

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