Skylar's house was immense. It was an old, Victorian era house that had to have been at least three stories high. The front was beautifully landscaped, with white and pink flowers laced around short, bright green bushes that lined the front of the house. There was a garden near the back, surrounded by a black, wrought iron fence and shielded from view by tall creeping vines. Skylar smiled, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I missed home," she said, glancing up at me. I nodded, understanding.
We made our way up the driveway and I noticed the cars. There were a lot of cars. I mean a lot of cars. I did a quick count and tallied up at least ten. There were Fords, Mustangs, Toyotas, a Mercedes, and even a Porsche. They looked kind of familiar....
"Skye, why are all the superstars here?" I asked as we made our way up the pathway to the front door.
"Well," she said, stopping in front of the door. "Um... the guys really like my mom."
"Like her as a mom, or..."
"A little of both," she said shuffling her feet. "Come on, you gotta meet her." She rang the doorbell three times and banged on the door until Ted DiBiase Sr. came to the door. He didn't look much different, except for the fact that his solid black beard was peppered with white now.
"Daddy!" Skye screamed, jumping into his arms. He lifted her up and kissed her forehead, smiling the whole time.
"Oh I missed you Princess," he said, ruffling her hair up. She stepped back and grabbed my hand.
"Daddy, you remember Shawnie, right?"
"How could I forget?" he said, eyeing me. Damn. Looks like I'm in for another Mark/Andy/Bret episode. "Nice to see you again, Shawn."
"You too, Ted," I said, shaking his hand. We went inside and I followed Skylar to the kitchen. There was an abundance of people in there, creating chaos everywhere. Joelle stood in the middle of the disorder, smiling and mixing a pot of what I can only assume is Jambalaya. She didn't look any different than I'd remembered. Her chocolaty skin shone as bright as her sparkling eyes. Her hair was long and soft, bleached brown by the intense Florida sunlight. She looked over at us and a smile spread across her soft features.
"Skylar, sweetie!" she said, putting down her spoon. She made her way over to us and wrapped her arms around her daughter. Seeing them together really brought out the family resemblance. Joelle was just a taller version of her eldest daughters. She let Skye go and turned to me.
"Shawn," she said, hugging me too. I wrapped my arms around her. This was familiar. I remember this from when Sunny and I were having problems back in the day. Joelle was like a sister to me back then, only because she wouldn't fuck me. She was already with Ted.
"It's been so long," she said, stepping away from me. "Damn I've missed you."
"I missed you to Liz," I said, referring to her middle name. Everything was coming back. I was remembering so much...
"Bizzy," I said, turning to Skye. She grinned wildly.
"You remember?" I nodded. "Mom, he hasn't remembered anything in so long and now he remembers!"
"Bizzy?" Hunter asked, coming up next to us. I nodded.
"She was always getting into things when she was younger," I said, nodding towards Skye. "So her parents call her Bizzy."
"Oh," Hunter said. He was staring at Joelle, his trademark smirk making its way onto his face. "So, Joelle," he said, looking her up and down. "How's the marriage going?"
"We still haven't gotten a divorce, Hunter," she said, rolling her eyes. She still hadn't lost her trademark Caribbean accent. "And we won't anytime soon."
"That's okay. Ted doesn't have to know," he said, raising his eyebrows. Skye rolled her eyes.
"This is every time we come home," she said. A sigh escaped her lips. "Let me introduce you to everyone. You know my mom, dad, Teddy Bear, Codes, Sparkles," she said, gesturing to Chris Jericho. "Orton and Edge, Andy and Candice. This is my little brother, Brett," she said, pointing to a kid who couldn't have been older than eighteen. I nodded and waved. He returned the favor. "And this is my baby sister Marley!"
A little girl, no older than ten sat at the breakfast bar, reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickinson. She had curly black hair and beige skin, the lightest of all the females in her family. She glanced up at us and I noticed her glassy hazel eyes, lighter than Skye and Joelle's, but not by much.
"Hi," I said, smiling down at her. She gave me a quick smile back, looked at Skye, shook her head, and turned back to her book.
"I've missed you so much little Mars," Skye said, wrapping her arms around her younger sister. Marley looked up from her book and Skylar tightened her vice grip on her.
"Go away. Now," she said, her eyes narrowing at her older sister. Skylar didn't let up. She kissed her forehead and ruffled her hair, sending the curls everywhere. Marley glared at her. "Why couldn't you get a hotel room?"
"Oh Mars," Skye said, smiling warmly at her. She turned back to me. "She thinks she hates me," she said, laughing as if it were the silliest thing she'd ever heard. I looked over at Marley and saw the trademark evil glare in her eye. Yeah, she takes after Andy.
"Come on," she said, grabbing my arm. "I wanna show you my room." She grabbed Marley again, this time telling her to stay out of her room ("And I mean it. Stay out of there!")before dragging me upstairs.
Why Skylar chose to stay in the attic was beyond me, until I saw what she'd done with it. The walls had been painted a light pink, except for one wall which was solid brick. It wasn't decorated in any particular theme, but there was a lot of French themed stuff in the room. Her furniture was mostly light wood antique, and there was a lot of rustic metal accents. But the thing that really got my attention were the bookshelves. There was one wall, completely empty aside from the large bay window. On either side of it were floor to ceiling bookshelves, both filled to capacity. The books were used, too, not just put there for decoration. I ran my hand along the spines and felt the weathering of years of use. There were also little trinket boxes full of jewelry, sunglasses, ribbons, everything, along with picture frames and Mardi Gras masks. But there were so many books.
"Um, honey?"
"Yeah?" she said, looking around for something.
"Have you read all of these?"
"Well, most of them. I'm still working on reading them all, but I keep getting more books and getting side tracked and MAX!" she yelled. "MAXXIE! Where are you hon?"
A little husky puppy clawed his way from under a pile of clothes and hobbled its way over to us. Skye picked him up and tossed him in the air, catching him and hugged him close to her.
"Hi sweetie!" she said, cuddling the little puppy. "I missed you! Shawnie, this is Max, my little baby."
The dog looked up at me and barked, its tongue hanging out of its mouth. I reached forward cautiously, huskies had been known to be overprotective and independent, but he licked my hand and allowed me to pet him.
While Skye played with her puppy, I scanned her bookshelves and noticed some of the titles. She had a number of Jane Austen novels, classics such as Treasure Island, The Oddesy, East of Eden, Moby-Dick, The Hound of the Baskerville, a crap ton of Stephen King, the Twilight books everyone is so crazy about, and a lot of books I'd never heard of such as Speak and 13 Reasons Why.
"So that's how you knew Marley was in here?"
"What do you mean?" she asked, looking up from Max's exposed tummy.
"She was reading one of your books."
"Oh, yeah," she said, standing and bouncing over to me. "She always takes my books. Back when I was into witchcraft and all that stuff she'd read those too."
"How long ago was that?"
"Eh, about three years," she said, shrugging her shoulders.
"So, Mars was seven?"
"Yep."
"And she understood what she was reading."
"Yep," Skye said, nodding furiously. "She's an evil kid Shawn. Maybe eviler than... Andy."
"No," I said, mock shock in my voice.
"Yeah!" she said, her eyes widening. "And you know Andy is right up there with that damn gnome!"
"I know sweetie," I said throwing an arm around her. "I know."
xxxxxxx
I was sitting on a bar stool in the living room, messing around on Skylar's computer. Skye was sitting on the couch watching Anderson Cooper. I told her I didn't know she was a democrat and she told me she wasn't.
"I'm not a part of a political party. I'm not a big politics person. I just like looking at Anderson Cooper."
Figures. I'd also had a talk with Ted earlier that day. He took me into him and Joelle's room, sat me down and had a little heart to heart.
"Now, from what I hear you've changed a lot since back in the day," he started.
"Yes sir," I said, trying my best to be respectful. Ted and I hadn't been on the best of terms back then. I had a thing for Joelle (I wanted to fuck her) and they, of course, were married. He didn't take too well to that.
"So, no more drugs?"
"None whatsoever."
"And you've gotten your head on straight? Because you know, Skylar is my little angel. I love Marley and Andy just as much, but Skylar is my baby girl. We have to look after her."
"I completely understand," I said, laughing to myself. Marley is ten, but Skylar's the baby. "Ted, I know I was out of control back then, and completely out of line. But I've changed now. I found God, I'm living straight, and I love Skylar more than anything in the world, other than my kids. I would never do anything to compromise my relationship with her or you."
"I believe you Shawn," he said. I think he saw the shock on my face because he let out his trademark laugh. "I know you haven't had the best luck with the rest of her family."
Damn right. Luckily Andy had stayed at a hotel with Candice. She hadn't come out to her family yet.
"Well Shawn," he said standing. "It seems that you and Skylar really do love each other."
I stood. "We do Ted. So much."
"I haven't seen my little girl that happy in years. It's refreshing." Really? Skylar is happy ninety-nine percent of the time. "And with that, I give you my blessing."
"Thanks Ted," I said, smiling up at him. We shook hands again and I'd gone downstairs to find Hunter and Skye, who forced me to go to the beach.
"Oh Anderson," Skye said from the couch. "Your eyes are so blue." She took another bite of ice cream and sighed.
"Why do you like my sister?" a small voice whispered from below me.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she's a moron, first of all," Marley said, her brown curls flailing as she climbed into the stool next to me. "And she's... well no. She's just a moron."
"She not a moron," I said, smiling. "She's just, optimistic."
"An optimistic idiot. What are you doing?" she asked, peering over my shoulder.
"Trying to find a birthday present for you sister."
"Ah," she said. "Tiffany and Co. Very expensive. You really do love her?" I nodded.
"More than anything," I said, scrolling through the pages.
"Well, just so you know," Marley said, pointing her finger at a necklace. It was a simple silver anchor charm on a matching chain. "She'll love that."
I looked at Marley with some disdain. I hadn't believe Skylar when she told me Marley was, as she put it, the spawn of Lucifer himself, but over the course of the day, that became more and more apparent. Not only did she go out of her way to yell at Skye every chance she got, but she also tormented Hunter and Chris.
Chris had been napping after driving here from Tampa, and he was napping well. He was so deep in his sleep that the music Orton and Edge were blasting downstairs didn't even wake him. Marley crept in, scissors in tow, an proceeded to chop off a good portion of his hair, but only in the back where he was sure not to notice. Well, at least until he was a good fifty miles away.
Hunter would be sitting there, calmly reading the newspaper. He'd set it down and Marley would be right there, staring at him. He'd tell her to go away, and she would, for about twenty seconds. She came back when he started choking and gagging.
"So, I'm guessing he's allergic to Canadians," she said, taking the brown stained blonde clumps out of his coffee. She mused to herself, rubbing her chin like a true villainess, and then walked back upstairs to her laboratory (bedroom) to quote "do more research".
I chuckled to myself as I recalled the day's events. Skye's family was defiantly out of the ordinary, but they were all so loving. Even Marley had shown her soft side when she, Ted, Brett, and Skye sat down with their parents to watch Girlfriends (the guys swore that they were forced). They called Andy on the phone and put her on speaker so the whole family could talk. They cared about each other. Like a family ought to. Like Rebecca and I never did.
I looked back at the Tiffany and Co. website, staring at the section to the left of the jewelry. My mind reeled at weather this was the right decision, if it was too soon, or if she'd even want it. Then I followed her advice. "Do what you want and worry about the consequences when you're old." That's exactly what I was going to do.