Page 44 of Snowed in with the Single Dad

“I’m always down for that.”

“I’ll let you know when the girls are asleep and you can sneak over. It’ll be just like high school.”

“We never did that in high school.”

“No, but I dreamed we did.”

I playfully pushed his shoulder, but I was secretly a bit flattered.

“I’ll see you tonight, then,” I said, my heart racing in my chest.

“See you tonight,” he said as he leaned over and gently kissed my cheek.

I walked inside, unable to think about anything but the kisses Owen and I had shared earlier that day. I wanted more, and I was thrilled at the prospect of that finally coming true.

16

OWEN

Like most things in life, my plans for a night with Skye did not pan out the way I hoped they would. The girls took longer than expected to get to bed. They needed every bedtime story read to them, which I was happy to do, but it meant it was quite late before they were actually asleep.

Just when I was about to text Skye to come over, Laila came stumbling into my room to tell me that she needed to throw up. Of course, I wasn’t going to pawn her off on Beth for something like that, so I sent Skye an apologetic message, explaining everything. After, I got Laila cleaned up and tucked into my bed with me.

Several sleepless hours passed before Skye responded. I couldn’t believe she was still awake at such an hour, and I wanted to peek over to see if her bedroom light was on, but I didn’t want to risk waking Laila.

“No worries, another time,” she said with a small, yellow smiley face.

“What are you doing up so late?”

“Well…it’s a long story.”

“I’ve got time.”

“You know how my family is a little bit…competitive?”

“Of course.”

“We were playing a game. Things got a little heated. There was a rematch, and then a championship game, which I won by the way.”

“Sounds like a fun night.”

“It was definitely more fun than yours was…I’m sorry you have a sick kiddo.”

“She seems fine now. I think all the junk food over the last few days finally got to her.”

“That’s never a good feeling.”

“Good night, Skye. See you tomorrow?”

“Good night.”

I looked at her final message over and over. I shouldn’t have been thinking so hard about what it meant that she hadn’t answered my question, but I really did feel like I was fifteen again when I talked to her. I got nervous and a bit sweaty, and though I tried to play it off with cheesy lines and jokes, I was worried that she could see right through me.

Sure, I was a lot more confident and self-assured than I was as a teenager, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have any insecurities, especially when talking to the person I had been in love with my entire life.

The next fewdays passed without anything interesting happening, which also meant I spent very little time with Skye. She always made everything more exciting. Just being in her presence was exhilarating.

Laila and Cora had had enough skiing for this trip, and they were tired of playing in the snow all the time, so I had to figure out more things to keep them occupied. Of course, there were the countless gifts they had received for Christmas, but apparently those were old news.

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