more time? I honestly craved it. But I knew he had to be in San Diego on time.
“I want you to have this,” he said as he slipped something over my head. “My mother didn’t have a lot of jewelry, but we all got something when she died. It’s just a red tiger’s-eye stone. But I want you to keep it.”
Our eyes met, and my heart skittered as I realized he was giving me something that had belonged to his mother, who had died years ago.
Something precious to him.
I rarely cried, but tears sprang to my eyes, and a droplet escaped to roll down my cheek. I clutched the small stone that was hanging around my neck by a delicate chain. “I’ve never had a piece of jewelry,” I said, my heart in my throat.
“It looks good on you,” he said with a wink.
I threw myself into his arms and plastered my body against his. Every tumultuous emotion I was experiencing was very close to the surface.
I didn’t want him to go.
I wanted to keep our bodies close, and keep exploring the intense emotions that Aiden always brought out in me.
And I wanted to keep feeling as cherished and as safe as I had for most of the summer.
But I finally let go because I knew I had to. “Go,” I insisted, even as my heart screamed for him to stay. “Thank you for the gift. I’ll keep it safe.”
He kissed me one more time, and then pressed a kiss to my forehead. “See ya soon, sweetheart.”
“Be careful,” I called as he turned and started to make his way to his truck.
“Always,” he bellowed back. “I have a lot to come home to.”
I swiped the tears that started to fall harder as I watched his retreating figure disappear.
Home. He’ll be back home soon. Eight weeks isn’t all that long, right?
I collapsed on the bench, my legs shaky, and I realized that I had a death grip on the stone Aiden had given me.
He’d left something important to him behind with me. It was enough to keep me believing he’d come back.
I tucked the small red tiger’s-eye inside my T-shirt and then stood back up. I needed to get home, or I’d catch hell from my mother.
I’d never told her about my relationship with Aiden, because I knew she wouldn’t approve. She’d never liked any of the Sinclair family, even though Jade had been my best friend for years.
Funny how my mother’s opinion didn’t matter all that much to me anymore.
I knew Aiden.
Our souls were connected. I could feel it.
I loved him.
And that was all that mattered.
I started jogging toward my house, wearing a silly grin on my face because I could feel the stone he’d given me against my skin as I made my way back home.
CHAPTER 1
SKYE
The present . . .
My heart sank as I realized there was only one seat available at the dinner table.
That’s what I get for running late. Shit! Shit! Shit!
Every chair was taken except the one next to him.
Aiden Sinclair.
The man I’d been trying to avoid ever since I’d come back to Citrus Beach, California, permanently with my daughter, Maya.
He was the thorn in my side.
He was the only part of moving home, after almost a decade away, that I hated.
He was dangerous.
And I never let myself forget that for even a moment.
I sighed in resignation as I looked around the enormous table—like I was suddenly going to see another vacant place.
Not going to happen. My timing and my luck had never been all that good, so why should that change now?
“Come sit next to Aiden, Skye,” my best friend, Jade Sinclair, requested from her spot next to her billionaire fiancé, Eli Stone.
Jade and Eli were the reason I was here. The only reason. We were two weeks away from their wedding ceremony, and this was an impromptu get-together for everyone involved in planning the festivities or included in the wedding party. Eli’s home in Citrus Beach had been the logical place to meet up, since his house was bigger than Jade’s.
Honestly, almost everyone here had the last name of Sinclair except for Jade’s fiancé; Eli’s mother; Jade’s twin sister, Brooke, since she was wedded to Liam Sullivan now; and . . . me.
I was still Skye Weston, even though I’d been married and divorced. I’d changed my name back to my maiden name soon after my ex-husband had been put in prison for life.
I looked around the table again, amazed that one family