“You okay?” Robin looked at me with an anxious look.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Sorry, that t-shirt reminded me of my time in Palm Bonita.”

“Oh.” She looked down at the graphic of a lone palm tree and the caption ‘No man is alone in Palm Bonita.’ “Did you get this while you were there?”

“Yeah. A friend gave it to me.” I turned around. “I’ll be back. I just need to go to the bathroom.” I hurried to the bathroom and closed the door and poured some water on my flushed face. “Stupid idiot.” I muttered to myself as I pissed. “Why don’t you just tell her that she’s wearing the t-shirt your ex-girlfriend gave you? The same t-shirt that she used to wear after you fucked her senseless?”

“You okay, Noah?” Robin knocked on the bathroom door, and I froze. How loud had I been?

“Yeah, coming.” I washed my hands and walked out of the bathroom and looked at Robin’s worried face. “What’s wrong?”

“You seem like you got upset.” She looked up at me with a concerned face. “I guess you have bad memories about your time in Palm Bonita, huh?”

“I guess,” I mumbled, wanting to change the subject but not knowing how.

“What was it like?” She walked back to the bed with me and we sat down. “I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but I’d love to know more about it.”

“It was a small town.” I sighed and leaned back on the bed. “It was full of criminals. A lot of bad people.”

“Wow, how bad were they?”

“Pretty bad.” I shrugged. “Murderers, thieves, tax evaders. Anyone who wanted to get away from mainstream society and didn’t want to be found moved to Palm Bonita.”

“Eww, that sounds horrible. No wonder you have bad memories of the place. Were there any good people?”

“There was one.” I started and my eyes lit up at the memory of Skylar. “Out of everyone that I met, there was one person who was an angel with a heart of gold.”

“A girl?” Robin’s tone was light, but her eyes looked at me with deep interest.

“Yeah. She was my little princess.” I stared at Robin and sighed. “She was a beautiful light in that town of darkness.”

“I didn’t realize that you had someone special there.”

“Sorry,” I shook my head. “I didn’t mean to or want to talk about this. It’s not something I like to dwell upon.”

“Do you miss her?” Robin’s tone sounded jealous, and I felt worry fill me.

“Let’s not talk about it.” I grabbed her hands. “Let’s just think about us.” I pulled her against my chest and stroked her head, but all I could think was, ‘What if I am successful in bringing Skylar to Los Angeles? What am I going to tell Robin?’

Chapter 11

“What’s your favorite flavor ice cream?” Skylar grinned at me as she licked her ice cream cone eagerly. “I think mine is chocolate, but I love strawberry cheesecake and mint choc chip as well. Oh, and vanilla.” She giggled. “I guess I love a lot of them.”

“I think mine would have to be rum raisin.” I smiled at the joy in her eyes, and felt a surge of happiness inside. It was a rare occasion to see her so happy.

“What’s rum raisin?”

“It’s not a popular flavor.” I laughed. “And it’s not one you should eat.”

“Why not?” She frowned. “I want to try it.”

“It’s high in alcohol.”

“I like alcohol.” She licked her lips and I shook my head at her, trying to hide the sorrow in my gaze.

“Alcohol is bad.” I grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s go bowling.”

“I’ve never been bowling before.” She paused to bite off a big chuck of her wafer cone. “Is it hard?”

“You’ve never been bowling before?” I forgot to hide my surprise and I saw her react to my statement. She looked a little bit sad and worried and I wanted to slap myself for making her feel bad. “No worries, it’s not hard and I can teach you.”

“You should be a teacher.” She smiled at me, happy again.

“I don’t think I would be a good teacher. You’re the only one I like teaching.”

“That’s because I’m your favorite.” She nodded happily. “And you’re mine.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“You’re my most favorite person ever.” Skylar’s eyes were wide open as she stared at me with her innocent beautiful face. “I never want you to leave.”

“I never want to leave, either.” I bit my lip and looked away, not knowing how to tell her that one day I was going to have to leave.

“Promise you will never leave me.” Her eyes were earnest as she spoke the words so simply.

“I don’t know if I can promise that.” I paused and looked down at her. “You know I love you very much, but I don’t know that I can promise that I’ll never leave.”

“If you leave, you have to take me with you.” She gulped and started breathing fast. “You have to.” Tears starting building up in her eyes and they quickly became moist. “You can’t leave me here.”

“Let’s not talk about it now, Skylar.” I pulled her towards me and hugged her hard.

“You can’t leave me, Noah. Please never leave me. Promise me.” She whispered as I held her and I felt my heart freeze over at the sound of her voice pleading with me. I wanted to tell her that I would never leave, but I knew that was one promise I couldn’t make.

“You’re up early.” Lucky walked into the kitchen as I was making coffee. “Early night?”

“Not really.” I smiled at her and turned back to the French press. I groaned as I saw Zane walk into the kitchen behind her. He looked me up and down and frowned at my half naked body. All I was wearing was a pair of boxer briefs and I knew he was not happy to see me that way in his kitchen.

“Morning, Noah. Were you hot last night?” Zane gave me a look and I shook my head.

“No, not really.”

“What did you do last night?” Lucky spoke up, obviously sensing that Zane was going to continue to go on about my appearance passive aggressively.

“Watched a movie.” I grinned, thinking about all the hot sex before and after the movie. “What about you two?”

“Zane and I went down to Santa Monica to an art show, then we had dinner at a new Italian place and talked.”

“Are you okay?” I looked at Zane searching to see if he was still upset.

“I’m surprisingly okay.” He gave me a reassuring nod. “And don’t worry, I’m not mad at you.”

“You’re not?” I looked over at him in surprise and he laughed.

“Shocker, right?” He shrugged. “I understand why you didn’t want to tell me. I don’t hold it against you. I most probably wouldn’t have told you, either.”

“So, we’re still brothers?”

“Try getting away from me.” He walked over to me and gave me a slap on the shoulder. “Now please pass me a cup of coffee.”

“Oh, sorry, I only made enough for two.”

“Right? One for me and one for you. Lucky can’t have caffeine right now.”

“Well, actually the other cup isn’t for you.”

“Huh?” He looked at me in confusion. “You’re going to drink two cups of coffee?”

“No,” I shook my head and bit my lip. “The other cup of coffee is for …”

“Me.” Robin’s voice rang out as she walked into the kitchen looking sexy as hell in just my shirt. “Good morning, everyone.” She smiled and looked at me shyly.

“Morning, gorgeous.” I walked over and gave her a big kiss. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me back, pressing her chest against mine. It was at that point that I realized that she was naked underneath the shirt. I turned around and both Zane and Lucky were staring at me with shocked expressions.

“Hey, so Robin stayed over last night.” I grinned at both of them and watched as Zane looked at Robin’s body appreciatively.

“Hey, can we have a talk, Noah?” Lucky half smiled and half frowned.

“I’m sorry for not asking if I could have a houseguest.” I made a face.

“Don’t be silly.” Lucky shook her head. “This is your home, you can have who you want over.”

“We sure don’t mind.” Zane grinned at me and Lucky hit him in the arm and glared at him. “Don’t be jealous, honey.”

“I’m not jealous, ass.” Lucky blushed, and I felt bad that I may have inadvertently set her green monster off.

“Can we talk after I’ve had a shower, Lucky?” I walked over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Yes.” She smiled at me and shook her head before looking over at Robin. “It’s good to see you, Robin.”

“You too, Lucky.” Robin smiled back at her and walked over to me. “Is that coffee ready? I’m about to fall back asleep.”

“Well, if the coffee doesn’t wake you up. I know something that will.”

“Oh, really?” she purred.

“Really.” I leaned towards her.

“And what would that be?” She leaned towards me and I felt my body heating up.

“Well, it would consist of …”

“Guys, we are still in the kitchen.” Zane cleared his throat and grabbed Lucky’s arm. “Though I think Lucky and I will just go out for breakfast.”

“Oh, sorry. You don’t need to do that.” Robin blushed and shook her head. “Please don’t leave because of me.”

“No worries. It will give Lucky a break from cooking.” Zane rubbed Lucky’s back and she leaned into the crook of his arm. “You guys can come as well, if you want.”

“That sounds great.” Robin responded at the same time that I started shaking my head.

“Well, I guess we can go.” I said reluctantly. I didn’t want to leave the house. I just wanted to go back to bed and ravish Robin some more.

“You don’t want to just keep me in the bedroom, do you, Noah?” Robin raised an eyebrow and Lucky laughed.