Seventeen
Leo
He tapped the table impatiently, eyeing the entrance of the restaurant for a half hour. He hadn’t looked away once. His heart hadn’t slowed down either, and he was tired of Shane wandering around him, dropping lines like, “she’s coming,” and, “stop being nervous.”
It had been exactly six weeks since she’d left him. He thought seeing her briefly might stave away the hunger, but instead it was having an opposite reaction.
He wasn’t sure he’d be able to watch her leave again.
Christ. He hadn’t even seen her, and he was thinking along these lines.
Never had he felt so ravaged internally than being apart from Skye and Hunter. Never had he felt so lost, like a man on a mission to find a purpose that still, after all this time, felt meaningless.
Leo—if he was being totally honest with himself—felt like a ticking time bomb. One of these days he was going to blow, and he did not know how vast the damage was going to be. What he did know was that he was taking the bullshit every fucking day, be it from his father, from being apart from Skye, from the aching loneliness he felt in a world filled with empty people that he had to play a part to. He felt like a fucking character in a play.Smile. Behave. Be a fucking gentleman.
To top it off, he did things.
Things he didn’t want to fucking do.
Things he—oh, fuck—things he no longer feared to do.
Where was that little boy that used to vomit in the toilet after seeing such vileness? Had Leo finally shed him for good? It terrified him, this slow building transformation. But that terror was still mild becauseeverythinghe felt lately had lost its intensity.
As he sat there, out of place, his face void of all emotion, he did not try to smile, did not try to appear put together. For that brief moment, he let the emptiness show, and for that brief moment, an extraordinary weight lifted from his shoulders at how fucking freeing it felt. He caught the eye of a patron in the table over. An old lady that smiled at him for a moment, as though she recognized him, the Prince of Brown Bay. That smile soon vanished as her expression dropped, as though she was looking into the face of a fucking demon.
She looked away, her hands shaky as she took a small bite of her food.
Then, just like that, Leo let out a calming breath and schooled his expression, returning to his gentleman facade.
He kept dismissing the pretty waitress who kept buzzing around him like a fly. He avoided the eye of countless women dressed to the nines because this establishment was the fancy sort. The Warlords wouldn’t welcome him into any of their businesses, but Hunter had promised he’d have Skye go to him.
And now he waited.
It was afternoon, the sky was cloudy, the streets spattering with icy rain. His table was pressed against the entrance window, so he watched every car that passed, anticipating her arrival.
A familiar dually appeared, and he sat up straighter, recognizing Hunter’s truck. It parked across the street from the restaurant. Behind them roared a few motorcycles, and two bikers pulled up, one parking behind the truck, the other in front. The door to the truck opened and her small body climbed out. She was shouting at the biker in front of the truck. Leo narrowed his eyes, wondering if she was angry—
But then the biker pulled his helmet off and laughed, and then she was stomping to him and smacking his arm, pointing a finger jovially at him. Hunter didn’t leave the truck, remaining out of sight as they had agreed. Two of the bikers walked Skye across the street. Leo’s eyes zoned in on her, at the giant smile on her face, and it all—oh, god, all of his emotions came bursting forth, like a fucking bubble popped within him.
“Beautiful,” Leo murmured ardently, feeling his eyes glisten. He quickly sniffed back his emotion, sitting up straight. Nerves clashed inside him. He felt like he hadn’t seen her in years, and he needed to calm the hell down before she saw him like this. What the fuck was wrong with him? He was being such a pussy.
She noticed him before entering. Her eyes lit up and she waved at him through the glass. He smiled back, awkwardly nodding at her once as she walked through the entrance doors and hurried to him.
Skye looked like an alpaca in her giant grey winter jacket. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun, face natural and spotless. Her blue eyes met his, and Leo felt such a hunger for her as she rushed to him. He stood up, catching her as she lunged into his arms, hugging him. He buried his face into her hair, closing his eyes briefly.
She smelled like sunshine.
Like pure joy.
Like Skye.
He felt like a junkie taking a hit as he inhaled her scent, and hugged her tightly, ignoring the heavy attention they were getting.
They looked out of place, didn’t they? He was in a pristine suit, not a hair out of place, and she looked nothing like the vain bitches he was surrounded by—
He didn’t care about them.
“I missed you,” she said, kissing him on the neck before pulling away to look up at him. Her fingers brushed over his face, and his body shuddered from the contact, savouring the brief touch like it was a fucking drug.