CHAPTER 4
Skylar
“It was no bother.”
A shiver raced down my spine as I placed a freshly laundered towel on the rack for Luna.
How could the sound of a voice be so ridiculously sexy?
Every single time I thought about the deep vibrato my body quivered. It had been happening all day, distracting me from the menial but necessary tasks I needed to perform such as cleaning, unpacking, and mothering.
I may not have been able to see what Hank looked like, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t left an impression on me. He had. His voice and presence had imprinted on my psyche, on my being. I didn’t have to know what he looked like to be attracted to the man. Pheromones apparently did not need any visual stimulation.
It didn’t help that I wasn’t the only Thompson female who he’d left an impression on. Luna had not stopped talking about the blurry mammoth-sized stranger since we got home. She’d asked more questions about Mr. Hank than I could count.
“Does Mr. Hank like macaroni and cheese?”
It was Luna’s favorite.
“What is Mr. Hank’s favorite color?”
Luna’s favorite color was sparkle pink. When she asked if I thought that might be Mr. Hanks, I didn’t have the heart to tell her no. Although, I did not think Mr. Hank’s favorite color was sparkle pink.
“Is Mr. Hank afraid of the dark?”
Luna could not sleep without a night light. But thinking of Mr. Hank in the dark sent my mind down an R-rated rabbit hole about things Mr. Hank might do in the dark.
“What time is Mr. Hank’s bedtime?”
I didn’t have a clue…but I sure wouldn’t mind tucking him in.
As the day had worn on my mind began making inappropriate detours whenever Luna asked an innocent question.
Trying to refocus my mind, I left the bathroom where Luna was finishing up her much-needed bath and went to her room. I picked up her discarded clothes off her floor. My hand reached in the pocket, something I’d been trained to do after I accidentally washed my iPod that Luna had put in her pocket unbeknownst to me. When I felt something crinkle I pulled it out expecting to find leaves, or maybe a piece of paper. But instead, I found money. Cold hard cash.
I went to my purse and checked my wallet. I knew that all I had was the $32 that had been in my purse before discovering my bank accounts were drained. It was all still there.
“Lu Lu!” I called out as I walked into the bathroom where she sat in waist-high sudsy water with shampoo-filled hair. “Where did you get this money?”
“Mr. Hank gave it to me.”
My stomach dropped and fear gripped me. “What? Why?”
“I told you, I was a Girl Scout.”
“I thought that was a game. That you were playing Girl Scout.”
She didn’t have any cookies to sell. All we had was half a box of Goldfish crackers until I went to the grocery store tomorrow.
“I was helping, Momma.” She couldn’t look prouder of her achievement and I knew that I was going to have to be the bad guy and tell her that we had to take the money back. “I saw you crying when you went to the bank.”
I’d thought she hadn’t noticed my tears but I should have known better. When Luna was two, my pediatrician had given me two books, Raising a Gifted Child and A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children. Her preschool teacher had recommended that she be tested to skip kindergarten and go directly into first grade. She was bright and didn’t miss anything.
Guilt overwhelmed me that I hadn’t protected her from witnessing my meltdown. The waterworks had only started because I’d stubbed my toe on the curb, but then they’d continued when I saw my balance. I had managed to turn the switch off by the time I got back in the car, but apparently that was too late.
“Where did you find cookies to sell?” I wondered out loud.
“I didn’t sell cookies. I sold my box of treasures.”
As if my heart wasn’t already broken, knowing that Luna had taken her “treasure chest” filled with broken pencils, rubber bands, and whatever else she’d collected when we cleaned the couch cushions to sell was heart-shattering.
It was a game that I’d started to make cleaning more fun. I’d told her we were searching for buried treasure as we’d stick our fingers in the crevices of furniture since one of her favorite cartoons was Jake and the Never Land Pirates. She’d taken it one step further and collected the items in her very own treasure chest which was a shoebox she’d found in my closet.
“Lu Lu, sweetie, I appreciate that you tried to help me, but you can’t sell those things. We need to go get them back.” I picked up the plastic cup on the side of the tub and dipped it in the water. Like a well-choreographed dance, Luna tilted her head back and I poured the water over her head, rinsing out any lingering shampoo and conditioner.
“Why, Momma?”
“Because, sweetie, those things are your treasures.”
She lifted her tiny hands and placed them on my cheeks and pulled my face close to her. Her sweet breath fanned on my cheeks as she spoke, “It’s okay Momma. I want to help you.”
Her sincerity and selflessness overwhelmed me.
Tears threatened to pool in my eyes but I pasted a smile on my face as I sniffed back the impending emotion hoping that my emotional switch would go ahead and flip to off. “Thank you, pumpkin. But I’m okay. I promise. Now let’s get you dressed.”
I checked my watch and saw although it felt like one a.m. it was only seven-thirty.
After Luna dried off and put on her favorite Dora the Explorer pajamas, I ran a brush through her hair and slid on my flip-flops.
“Where are you going, Momma?” she asked.
“We’re going to go return the money to Mr. Hank.”
Her eyes lit up at the thought of seeing her new friend, but then her nose scrunched up. “In my jamas? Why?”
“We need to get your treasures back.”
“But why Momma?”
When I was pregnant with Luna I made a promise to myself that I would never say, “Because I said so.” That had been my parents’ default answer. They never gave me or my little sister any reason for anything they did.
Nothing was ever up for discussion in our home. Ashley and I never got a vote or were even allowed to voice our opinions. That was my father’s method of parenting and my mother went along with it. She never questioned what he said, and we were not allowed to either.
And as a drill sergeant, my father had no problem handing out orders. He liked things to be run a certain way in our home and my mother was a faithful second in command. She made sure his rules were followed out even when he wasn’t around to enforce them.
I was tempted to go back on my promise now. I didn’t know how to tell her that all of her treasures were junk and he must have only bought them because he’d felt sorry for her.
It was then that I remembered what she looked like when she’d shown up at his door. She’d been wearing her play clothes and had dirt on her face from the fort she’d made in the sunroom. And I didn’t even want to think about what I looked like. At least now I was showered and in clean clothes. And I had on my glasses, which meant that I’d actually be able to see the man that I’d been fantasizing about all day.