“Your father has a temper.”
“Uncle Kelly was standing right there, and he didn’t do anything to help matters!”
“Oh, well, Kelly probably didn’t know what was going on. Don’t be upset with your uncle.”
Her jaw locked as she thought of Colin. “None of them treat me with the respect I deserve. This wouldn’t have happened if Uncle Colin didn’t go running his mouth. He’s the biggest hypocrite of them all—acting so self-righteous, as if he never did anything wrong in his life.”
Gran burst out laughing. “My Colin? Oh, please! You can dress a man up in robes, and teach him whatever prayers you like, but it’s all just slapping lipstick on a pig at the end of the day. Colin’s no better than the rest of them, and he should know that.”
“You should have seen Uncle Colin’s face when I told him about me and Rhett. He looked at me like some sort of victim.”
“He’s just protective of you.” She sipped her coffee. “You and Frankie were the first grandbabies. I’ve had enough children to know that they all grow up eventually, but your aunts and uncles are still learning that. They’ll see. Colin’s scared because his Tallulah isn’t far behind you, and soon she’ll be going off to college, falling in love with boys, and making decisions on her own. And he’ll have no choice but to let her go.”
Maybe that was it. She never experienced that overprotective side of her uncle before. The shift from his usual supportive, encouraging position felt like a betrayal.
She thought he was her friend and confidante, someone she could go to with anything. Things were even more frustrating, because at a time like this when she found herself in a family dispute and needing guidance, she would typically go to him, but he was the one who started the drama.
She missed her friends, the ones who seemed to take her side without bias—even if their advice wasn’t always the most experienced or logical. But after high school, everyone scattered in different directions. Some went away to college, others joined the military, and a few, like her, stuck around Jasper Falls to work.
Within a few months, daily calls turned to random texts, until Skylar hardly heard from her old friends at all. She still thought of them and hung out with them occasionally when they were home for summer, but time created space and, the sense that she was now out-of-the-loop, left her feeling disconnected and alone, even when in their presence.
Her family never took a break or spent more than a few days apart, so there was never a sense of disconnect. Until now.
It seemed like the strangest oxymoron that a family as obsessed with each other as hers could somehow make her feel like an outsider. She trusted the elasticity of their connection to eventually snap them back into normal but, currently, she felt stretched thin.
Gran scooted closer and ran a hand over her back. “You know, judgement only bothers us when it’s a judgement we’ve already started to believe ourselves. If you’re sensitive about the age gap, it might not be because of what happened but because of worries you already harbored. Perhaps you should ask yourself, how much does it really matter to you? Don’t worry about what others think. Just try to figure out what you feel in your heart.”
She’d always been aware of Rhett’s seniority, but her concern was less about his age and more about his position as her boss. She knew it was reckless, giving in to her lust and sleeping with him, but their chemistry was too strong to resist and she was weak against the temptation.
There had been a dozen other opportunities to run off with friends and do something stupid with some forgettable guy. She had no regrets that it had been Rhett, and she counted herself lucky that he’d made it so intimate and pleasurable for her after some of the nightmares her friends had shared about their first times.
The dangerous thing about Rhett, the one thing she’d been most cautious of the entire time, was how easily she could fall in love with him. She knew him well enough to understand that such sentiments made him uncomfortable.
She couldn’t deny her feelings, but she could do her best to manage them. But sometimes, when he looked at her, her heart fell into a gallop and her chest filled with a warm, fizzing sensation. Butterflies tickled her stomach, and inexplicable smiles teased her lips.
Only because she’d been so aware of his maturity, had she tried to quell those elated emotions, fearful any giddy display might be seen as a juvenile red flag and scare him away. Then her father showed up and threw a temper tantrum in front of all of Jasper Falls’ high society.