Page 78 of Mistletoe Latte

“…I mean, now it’s running off with boys, but the next thing you know she could be in prison just like your brother.”

He gritted his teeth at the idea that flirting with a boy would lead to a life of crime. Skylar was a good kid, damn it. He’d made sure of it. “That is—”

“Your brother?”

Fuck.

Mrs. Wilkins leaped aside to reveal Skylar standing directly behind her. She clenched her fist and glared not at the one who’d dropped the secret like a bomb, but at her lying uncle. “What’s she on about? Dad’s not in prison. Right? Uncle Nick.”

“He…he’s not in prison. Now.”

“What?” she shrieked, tears springing in an instant. “No. He can’t be.He…he left for a job, for me. He wouldn’t lie to me. You’re lying. You’re all fucking lying.” Skylar jabbed a finger at Mrs. Wilkins, then Rachel, and finally at him.

“Sky—”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” she screamed and turned to flee. Unfortunately, her Italian heartthrob was right behind her. She barreled into him, splashing most of his latte into his face. Skylar didn’t even slow down to see if he was okay but shoved open the door and kept going.

“Skylar, wait!” Nick jogged around the counter after her. “Here.” He tossed a dirty towel at Antonio’s head and ran for the door.

“Nicky.” Rachel stopped him in his tracks. “She’s just throwing a tantrum. She’ll work it out herself.”

Nick shook his head. “You don’t know anything about her, or me. Skylar!” Without a second thought, he barreled into the freezing cold in just his jeans and flannel.

Ah, fuck. The sleeting snow he’d been certain was a lie pelted against his cheeks. Nick hoisted up a hand to keep his eyes from freezing over and shouted, “Skylar!”

There wasn’t a response, but he spotted smaller footprints with hearts cut into the soles leading away. Why did she carve into her shoes? That was a problem for another day. Nick followed the trail, not to another alley or shop, but circling around the cafe and leading to his truck. Skylar didn’t have the keys, so she’d slumped against the door and kept kicking at it.

“Hey. If we can’t get that thing open later, we’re stuck here,” he called to her.

A tear-stained, red-faced Skylar looked at him, then kicked even harder before she turned her back on him. “It’s not true. She’s lying. They’re all lying. He wouldn’t…”

“Sky.” Nick approached cautiously and placed a hand on her back. He expected her to shrug it away, but she turned and threw her arms around him. As she did, her phone nearly beaned him in the nose, and he saw an old article about Pete’s arrest. There was no stuffing this toothpaste back into the tube.

Nick swept her up into a hug and she clung tighter to him, squeezing the air out.

“I. Don’t. Under. Stand,” Skylar hiccup-sobbed against his chest. “All this time he lied to me. He was supposed to move for me. He said it was for me. Every phone call, he’d…he stayed away because I’m awful.”

“That’s not true.”

“He doesn’t love me! No one does!”

Nick’s heart couldn’t take much more breaking today. Just as he had when Skylar was a slip of a kid running into the cafe with a skinned knee, Nick dropped lower to her eye level. “Your father loves you so much.”

“Then why isn’t he here? He’s not in jail anymore. He won’t even come back for me.”

“Pete, your dad, was sick. He suffered and it made him do bad things.”

“Like steal from the payroll?” Skylar snarled.

“Like that. And other things. Even though he’s out of jail, he’s struggling to make ends meet, to…” Nick sighed, unable to hide this any longer. “To stay sober.”

Skylar’s eyes went wide. Drugs for her were orange-flavored aspirin or evil demons lurking in the hands of sketchy men in cities. Nick had done everything to keep it that way, but there was no running from the monster in the closet.

“Why didn’t he tell me?”

There were a dozen good reasons Nick had heard from Pete’s lips over the years, but none of them were the truth. “Because he’s scared. Of you losing respect for him. Of you not loving him.”

Skylar clenched a fist. “I’m so freaking mad at him.”

---