“Not really. I mean…I admit it’s also that I’d feel better knowing someone was there with her, at least sometimes.”
“And this is okay with her? Him being in her space?”
Livy finished the last bite of pizza, and nodded. “She said to ask him. I have the feeling she thinks he’s cute.”
Kit grinned. “We’re playing with fire, then.”
“Not necessarily. They could just be friends. Anyway, they’re adults. It’s their deal.”
“Write your number.” Kit flipped over a business card and slid it across to her. “I’ll let you know what he says.”
Cooking at home for two women, one of whom was depressed and needed cheering up with good food—well, it wasn’t Grady’s dream job, but by now he had to admit in defeat that it was better than what he was currently doing. Sure, he told Kit, he’d be happy to go check it out.
Kit texted Livy to tell her they’d come over after the garage closed. Kit had given Grady a ride to work, so they drove back to the island first, where Grady picked up a sample of his cooking for this Skye woman to taste.
“I’ll take you there, show you where it is,” Kit said.
“I can probably find it myself. Town’s not that big.”
“Still, I’ll come say hi.” Kit sounded too casual, flicking his truck keys between his fingers.
Ah, right, because Livy was the woman whose hand Kit had been kissing the other day. Grady smirked and let him come along.
They parked the truck at the corner of Livy and Skye’s dead-end street, and walked up toward the address she’d given.
It was a light blue single-story house at the top of the cul-de-sac, with a sagging wire fence around a garden of robust-looking bushes. The forest loomed behind it, and Grady’s thoughts flew to his mystery woman again. But only for a melancholy few seconds, because then Livy came out and strode down the front path.
“Hey, Grady.” She beamed. “Thanks for coming.”
“No problem.” He held up the paper bag. “I brought scones.”
“Ooh, that sounds perfect. Wait—no fruit in them?”
He shook his head, puzzled. “They’re cheddar.”
“Good. Skye’s got a weird aversion to fruit lately. I don’t know.” She glanced back at the house, then lowered her voice as she faced the two men again. “She also doesn’t talk a lot these days. So if she’s quiet, it’s not that she doesn’t like you. But she’ll listen, and might interact, and… anyway, you can come in and see if this is something you want to do.”
Grady’s feet grew cold at those warnings. He was a cook, not a mental health specialist. But he could make excuses and get out of it later if he wanted. For now he’d at least go through with the introductions. “Sure, let’s go say hi,” he said.
Livy smiled in gratitude and led them up the path. Grady exchanged a guarded, uncertain glance with Kit.
They stepped into the house, which smelled faintly of coffee and perfume, and followed Livy into the kitchen.
“Hey, Skye,” she said. “This is Grady.”
Grady’s curious glance around the kitchen stopped dead as his gaze landed on the young woman sitting at the table, her dark hair in a bun with bits coming loose, her haunted eyes drinking him in.
Her.
He pulled in a rapid breath through his nose, and felt his eyes widen, then mastered his reaction so it didn’t show beyond that, even as his heart began hammering like a piston.
He’d considered this younger sister might be his mystery woman, but he hadn’t realistically dared hope it. Now here she was, and he was being offered the chance to spend a few hours a day with her and get paid for it—okay, he still needed a lot of explanation about that forest kiss, but at the moment, he only thought ecstatically to the Powers That Be, Oh thank you thank you thank you.
He gave Skye his best effort at a friendly smile. “How’s it going?” He tilted the open paper bag toward her. “Cheddar mini-scone?”
Skye looked gravely at the bag, nodded, and took one of the scones.
“They’re good,” Kit remarked. “I ate six for breakfast.”
“Six?” Livy laughed.
“They’re small.”
Skye began nibbling the scone. Her gaze kept returning to Grady, and he found it hard to tear his away from her too. As Livy talked to him about the stove, the pantry, and the sorts of things they usually ate, he did his best to pay attention, nodding and studying utensils, feeling like a dork.
“I don’t know, if you want to give it a try for a day or two…” Livy concluded after a few minutes.
Grady nodded. “That’d be great.” He glanced at Kit, who lounged against the door frame. “Better than getting motor oil in my hair, that’s for sure.”
Kit smirked.
Skye still watched Grady, not smiling or speaking. But she had eaten the whole mini-scone, at least.
Grady agreed to start tomorrow morning, ten o’clock.
They walked back out to the front yard, and this time Skye got up and wandered along with them.
“Oh, man.” Kit squinted across the fence. “Duncan’s old Caddy. I haven’t seen that running in, what, ten years?” He veered across the garden to get a closer look at the hunk of automotive junk in the neighboring driveway.
“No one has.” Livy followed him. “It’s been sitting there forever. Look, it’s got vines growing through it.”
The two of them walked to the fence, talking cars, but Grady stopped paying attention. He looked down at Skye, who hovered in silence at his elbow.
“Good to see you again,” he said quietly.
“Good to see you,” she murmured back.
“What happened in the woods? What was that? Why’d you kiss me, then why’d you run off? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
She hugged herself and looked at her shoes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“No—I don’t—look, it’s okay, I liked it. Don’t be sorry. But what was it? And why’d you say ‘Help me’? Help you with what?”
She cast a miserable look over the roof, toward the forest.
“With…feeling like this?” he guessed, softening his voice. “They said you were feeling down lately. Is that what you meant?”
She looked at the ground again, and shrugged one shoulder.
He shot a glance at Kit and Livy to make sure they were still chatting. “Then I hope it did help,” he said.
She didn’t answer or look at him, so he added, “Is it actually okay with you, my taking this job?”
She met his eyes again, and nodded.
“You sure? You want me here?”
“Want you,” she whispered.
The way she said it, gazing at him, choosing those words to echo— an erotic thrill shivered through him. Which was all messed up in light of, well, everything. His body couldn’t forget how that kiss had felt.
“Then I’ll come by tomorrow,” he said. “We can get acquainted. Maybe I’ll even figure out how to help you.” He smiled, as if this was a perfectly normal conversation.
She only looked unhappy again, and glanced away.
“Ready, man?” Kit walked back over with Livy.
Grady nodded. “See you tomorrow, then,” he said to both women, but his gaze lingered three times as long on Skye.