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Chapter 7
Reece
Skylar’s scent of watermelon perfume, liquor, and lime filled my car. The night flashed by outside, but still she hadn’t said a word. I stole a glance at her, noting her set jaw and her mouth tight with frustration.
Skylar's words rattled through the stillness. “Sean bullied you in school?”
“He bullied everyone.”
A memory flashed through my mind.
Books surrounded me on the floor of the school cafeteria. Sean’s laughter rang harsh in my ears, even as he disappeared around the corner with his sycophants. Pain burned in my ribs from his sly punch. A couple of student’s side stepped me before Skylar dropped in front of me.
She picked up my glasses from the floor. “Are you okay? What happened?”
My neck warmed with embarrassment. “Nothing. I slipped. Ketchup on the floor…”
I held out my hand to take my glasses back, but her warm fingers brushed my face as she propped them back in position on my nose. My heart almost stopped beating. Her beautiful face came into sharp focus. She quirked an amused brow. “And I thought the salmonella-burgers were the most dangerous things here.” She smiled and held out a hand to haul me back to my feet. “Be careful, yeah?”
Everyone had stepped over me, but Skylar had stopped to help. Not that she remembered. This moment of compassion had burned into my brain. It had made me fall for her so hard, but I'd never even made it on to her radar.
Skylar cleared her throat. “I’m sorry about Sean.”
“No apology necessary. You’re not responsible for someone else’s behavior.”
It didn’t look like Sean had changed. I’d worked with plenty of abusers. Usually they’d been hurt and they were acting from a wounded place. Still, even if I could find empathy, I wasn’t a robot. Sean Wallace had made my teenage life hell. He’d made those choices. It wasn’t easy to forgive. The truth was that sometimes things weren’t that deep—some people just weren’t that nice or kind.
Skylar’s hands curled into fists on her lap. “I won’t tolerate bullying in the team. I hate it. If I’d have known in school what he was doing…”
Her head dropped and she fiddled with the piercing in her nose. I kept my eyes fixed on the road, giving her space to talk.
“I’m not expecting sympathy. I’ve been an idiot for too long. Deep down, I knew that he was messing around with other girls. Most of the guys on the team are. I just hoped he’d be different.” She turned her face to the passenger window and spoke in a quiet voice. “I don’t know what happened to me. It’s like I got bent out of shape. I used to be so confident, but lately Sean has me questioning everything about myself all the time. Whenever I asked him if he was seeing someone else, he made me feel stupid for even suspecting him. The drinking has got worse. The names he calls me… the way he makes me feel…”
The tremor in her voice made me steal another glance at her. Her profile was proud and sad in the dim light of the car. My heart hammered foolishly. I wrenched myself away from my ridiculous preoccupation with her beautiful face so I wouldn’t crash the car.
“We’ve been together since school. He’s all I’ve known. Sometimes I feel like… like… I’m a spoon… and a spoon isn’t supposed to bend, but over time the metal got weak, and I shouldn’t be a different shape, but I am. I was a dessert spoon and now I’m just a… teaspoon.” The sadness in her voice made my heart contract. “And I’m talking absolute nonsense, ignore me.”
She kept her head turned away. I knew that feeling. I’d bent over backward to accommodate Megan. I’d wanted her support so desperately after Mum’s stroke, but she couldn’t give it.
“No. I get it. Sometimes we bend so much to accommodate another person. It’s not healthy when that happens, but you can find your way back. You can straighten the spoon back to how it’s supposed to be, and you might find you can be an even better spoon that you didn’t even know about, like a… soup spoon.”
She laughed. “You ran with the weird spoon thing.”
Amusement touched the corners of my mouth, but I kept my face level. “I like it. I might use it myself.”
“What about you? Do you have anyone special in your life?” She dropped the question tentatively. I’d never self-disclose that information with a client, but this was a strange gray area. We were colleagues, certainly, but was she a client? The conversations we’d had felt like therapeutic ones. She’d opened up to me about her breakup. Trusted me with confidentiality. This had to be a professional relationship. Anything else would be unethical.
Better to change the subject. I cleared my throat. “How much further to your house?”
She glanced at my hands wrapped around the steering wheel and turned her face away. “Not far. Ten minutes.”
Silence swirled between us and made my pulse pound.
“You should be careful with the girls on the team. Everybody will be falling over themselves vying for your attention if they think you’re single. Probably even if they don’t.”
A wry smile pulled at my lips. “The entire Calverdale United men’s team is in that building. I saw all the muscles in that gym. I’m sure my arrival won’t ruffle too many feathers.”
She shot me a playful glance. “Oh no. Feathers are ruffled, I can assure you.”
