EXCERPT – Bye Bye Skyler (AMP)
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Skyler has the dubious honor of being my only fully heterosexual main hero to date. I like him anyway.
BLURB:
Ann has safely put Skyler and her juvenile feelings for him behind her. She’d been mad about him in high school but they’d never been more than friends. Then he left early graduation and never looked back.
Eleven years later, Skyler shows up and proves that she’s never gotten out of her system, no matter how much she’s tried. He’s only in town for a short time, but he makes it plain that he’d like to see her during that time.
Can Ann take advantage of the opportunity and experience what she missed in high school without losing her heart to a man who has no intention of sticking around?
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©2010 Jet Mykles, all rights reserved
Subtly, she drifted farther from him, losing his hand. “But since…?” Gram had been sure to fill her in about his travels of the past few years. He’d been around the world, drinking in every experience he could, while he could.
Although he itched for her touch, he played the good boy and shoved his hands into his jeans’ pockets. “Yeah, I know. Europe was great. Australia was mind bending. I’ve been all across the States and back and down into Mexico. I loved it all. At the time.” He gave the fatalistic shrug that had become so familiar lately. “It all ends up being the same underneath, just a different location.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
Another shrug. “Pretty much everywhere is just plain old home to someone.”
“Interesting observation.” Her voice was soft, her eyes on the ground the walked. “Do you think you’d ever move back here?”
“Nah.” Gut reaction. “It’s not for me. Nice to visit, but I’d go crazy if I stayed here.”
To that she had no reaction and he chose to let the matter rest.
A trickle of water was all that dampened the creek bed that bisected the path. One wide arm of an oak tree spread low along the side of the path, convenient for sitting. Beyond was darkness, a haven of trees that had been his retreat during his younger days. A haven where he could be alone or where he could take a girlfriend. He stopped at the threshold. The two of them had been here before. Here he’d made his fatal mistake.
A hand gently patted the back of his shoulder and looked down into her beautiful, sympathetic eyes. “I’m so sorry about your knee. You must have been devastated.”
He blinked, so very far away from thinking about his short-lived career. “Thanks. I was. But life goes on.”
“You’re okay now?”
“As much as anyone can be, I guess. A little limp sometimes.” He shrugged.
“So.” She settled against the branch, gazing up at the leafy canopy, not remembering or, it seemed, uncaring of their location. Her hands linked loosely before her. “What do you do these days besides travel the world?”
He braced beside her on the branch, watching the water. “A lot of nothing, actually. Thanks to Gramps, I was smart enough to invest then get out before everything crashed. So I’m okay for at least a few years while I decide.”
“Decide…?”
He grinned at her. “What I want to be when I grow up.”
She laughed and the warmth of the sound, the warmth of the woman, snapped his control. She was here and the moment felt right. He could no longer stand not to touch her. He leaned in to close the distance between their lips, giving her ample time to pull away.
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