There wasn’t so much as a crust in the corner of his eye.
Wait a minute.
He’d woken up like that before, not many days before, and had a cheerful breakfast with a mother who was never freaking cheerful in the morning.
God, please don’t let my memories be gone!
“Mom?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“Where’s Skye?”
The wait time between the question and the answer was going to kill him.
“Mom!”
She came around the corner, a power bar in her mouth. “Mwah?”
“Where’s Skye?”
Mom held up a finger and chewed. He was going to kill her. She walked over and sat on the edge of the couch, facing him. Serious talk time. Not good. Not good.
“If you don’t spit it out I’m going to scream.”
Her eyes rolled. “She’s going to be here in about twenty minutes. She told me about the fight you two had last night.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. It’s not like I couldn’t hear you arguing, you know.”
He sat up straight and grabbed her arm.
“Relax. I didn’t listen. I was exhausted and at the back of the house. Besides, if you were arguing, you wouldn’t be, uh, doing, uh, other things.” She beamed, proud of her reasoning.
“Unless we then made up.”
Mom frowned. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That you’re having trouble with her family accepting you, of course. Although Lucas and Jonathan seemed to be all right about you two kissing at Daddy’s viewing.” She put her hand against his cheek. “I’m so sorry, honey. She said you two are going to talk to the rest of her family, today, huh?”
“Yeah.” He had no idea what Skye was up to.
“And you’ve agreed to live by what they decide?”
“I have?”
“She said you have. Uh oh. She thinks you’ve agreed. Maybe that fight isn’t over after all.”
“No. I mean yeah, but, I’m not completely awake yet, you know?”
“Jamie, honey. She says that if her family can’t accept you, that you’ll be coming back without her. I’m so sorry.”
The torment he’d been feeling the night before came back full force.
Where I go, you can’t follow.
Oh, it was going to be a long day with all the bawling he had planned. He’d better steal a box of tissue from storage. And maybe a towel.
“I’m fixing enough food for a couple of days, just in case they make you sleep in a barn and won’t feed you.” Mom gave him a hug and headed back to the kitchen.
“A barn?” If they were going off to spend her last days together, where had his mom gotten the impression there would be a barn?
“Yeah, weren’t there barns at that ranch?”
Lanny’s! Hell. If he only had two days left with Skye, at the most, that’s the last place he wanted to go, where they’d be separated and he’d be put to work. His back had just barely recovered.
“Oh, and I forgot to tell you.” Mom came back with a warped pop-tart held with a dirty oven mitt. Yum. “She said you should wear the white clothes they gave you.”
***
Skye wished Lori could come along for the ride, just so Jamison would have to keep his foul mood to himself. If he got too upset, he wouldn’t be able to drive, and there was no way she could. She may not have the adrenaline running through her body to make it shake, but her own mind was in the middle of a freak storm and she could barely walk a straight line, let alone drive in one.
For a farewell treat, though, she should let the sheriff pull her over once more.
That morning, for the second time, she’d said her farewells to the others. She didn’t tell them all where she was going, but Lucas and Jonathan knew. The rest understood only that she wasn’t coming back.
“Where are your bags, honey?” Lori peaked in the back of the car as her son was lifting a large blue cooler into the trunk.
“We live pretty simply. I have clothes at the other place too.”
“Oh. Okay. You drive carefully, Jamison.” His mom kissed him on the cheek and gave him a big squeeze. “You’ve promised to come back, either way. Don’t make me come after you. And call me if you need me,” she whispered into his ear.
As they were pulling away, Skye was kind of glad it was almost over; soon she wouldn’t be wishing for sensations or worrying about the consequences of getting them. She’d never be a Gabriella. It was only phantom emotion currently breaking her non-existent heart.
“Okay. Let’s have it.” Jamison barely glanced her direction before