Page 67 of Make Me Whole

“I hold your oath fulfilled. Go. Be at peace.”

I wasn't crazy nor drunk, therefore I knew it was my mind and memories talking. Still, a smile very similar to the Ghost King’s from the movie spread across my lips.

I still loved Marge. I would always love her for the history we had shared, the life we had built, and the human we had created, but it felt good to be free. It felt light and full of hope for the future.

I put my half-drunk beer down on the ground, brought my left hand to my lips, and kissed the golden ring. With lips pressed to the metal, I whispered, “I’ll always love you, Marge. You’ll always be my first and greatest love, but thank you for letting me go. I know you’d like Sky.”

A peace I didn’t expect to feel flooded my heart as I pulled the wedding band from my finger and looked at my bare hand for the first time in two decades. It was weird, but in a good way.

“We’re back,” Sky yelled from the French doors.Perfect timing.

The kids ran outside and toward me like a tornado. I put my ring in the small pocket of my jeans and walked to meet them halfway. As per usual, Ella jumped into my arms as soon as I was within catching distance, while Aiden stretched his little arm as high as it would go to shove a piece of paper in my face.

“I’ve missed you, Unclad,” Ella cooed, kissing my cheek just above my stubble line.

I tightened my arms around her. “I did too, sweetie. You guys were gone too long.”

“That’s because we had to go to two stores to find marshmallows, and then a guy gave me this and I had questions,” Aiden said and shook the piece of paper he was trying to show me. “Can we go, Dad? Pretty please?”

I put Ella back down on the ground and took the paper from Aiden’s hand. It was a flier for a Thanksgiving celebration at the local aquarium.

“What is a fish parade?”

“That was one of my questions,” Aiden replied.

I raised my brows. “And the answer was?”

Ella chuckled, and my son shrugged. “The guy didn’t know. He said they were paying him to hand out fliers and not answer questions, but I don’t think that’s why he didn’t know what the fish parade was.”

“Why do you think he didn’t know what the parade was, then?”

“Because he likes rocks, not fish.”

A little confused, my brows tugged together. "How do you know that?"

He shrugged. "Aunther Sky said so."

My confusion grew. How did Sky know what the guy likes? Who was he? What was he to her?

I wanted to ask my questions hoping that Ella would have some answers, but before I could ask even one, Aiden pressed, “Can we, Dad?”

Confused, I narrowed my brows at him and he shook the paper at me again in reply. Dying to get this subject over with so we could move on to my question, I muttered, “Sure.”

It was a mistake, of course, since in their excitement the kids ran off to the fire pit before I could ask anything. Frustrated, I walked to the kitchen to get the skewers with the rock guy in my head.

Sky was at the island preparing the supplies we’d need when I entered the kitchen. She smiled at me and looked out the window. Whatever she saw—or didn’t—made her smile widen as she took a step closer and gave me a peck on the lips.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered, her lips still touching mine.

Because I’m very dumb, instead of saying the truth—that I had missed her as well even though she was gone for less than one hour—I said, “Who’s rock guy?”

She pulled her head away from me and narrowed her eyes. “Who?”

“The guy who invited you to the aquarium,” I muttered impatiently. “Aiden said you told him that the man didn’t understand fish because he liked rocks. How do you know that? Do you know him?”

Instead of replying, Sky surprised me—in the most annoying way—by laughing. She laughed hard, like a belly laugh on steroids. I, however, saw no reason for amusement, and my expression told her so.

For some reason, she kissed me again.

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