CHAPTER THREE

Present Day

Sky woke up to find herself lying in Boyd's arms. This wasn't, of course, a new experience for her, even if it didn't happen too often. She'd been sleeping with Boyd on and off for sixteen years, which was longer than anyone.

"You have to go anywhere?"he mumbled.

Sky picked up her phone and checked the time. "I've got to be on the road in a couple of hours,"she concluded at last, before selecting one of the phone's photo albums. "Hey, did I show you these last night?"

Boyd propped himself up behind her, looking at the phone over her shoulder. "No."

Sky began flicking through the photos. "That one was taken just last week."

Boyd looked in amazement. "Wow, is that Claire? She's grown so much."

"Well, they do at that age."

"And Kerry and Scotty, they look, well…"

"A bit like us when we first met?"Sky suggested.

"Well…yeah."

"Kerry will be fourteen this year if you really want to feel old."

Boyd let out a deep breath. "You're right, that's really scary." He paused, taking in the photo of Sky and the three children and making the obvious conclusion. "Did Lana take this?"

"Yes,"Sky admitted. "Is that okay?"

"Well, I did quite like Lana, if you remember. I mean, I wasn't mad about her being in love with you but I learned to accept that bit. And I guess you've got more comfortable with it since then."

Sky didn't quite know how to answer that so moved onto safer ground. "She's great with the kids and they really like her."

"Well, that's good. I mean, I want them to be happy. And you, of course."

"I am,"Sky replied, wondering why she didn't sound entirely convincing. She kissed him softly. "We should probably start getting ready if we want to be checking out on time."

Boyd nodded with just a faint trace of disappointment.

They dressed and had breakfast and then it was time for check-out. The two of them went to the reception desk. "My treat?"Boyd asked.

Sky shook her head. "We'll go halves. I'm a modern woman, remember?"

"Very modern,"Boyd agreed. He turned to the female eceptionist. "Can we do that?"

"You're paying by card?"the receptionist asked.

Boyd looked at Sky who nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"All right." The receptionist adjusted the card machine. "So that's half from you?" Boyd dutifully scanned his card and the receptionist checked the machine and adjusted it again before offering it to Sky. "And half from you." Sky scanned her card as well and the receptionist smiled. "We hope you enjoyed your stay."

The pair picked up their bags and headed towards the door. "Did we?"Boyd asked. "Enjoy our stay?"

"Of course!"Sky promised him.

"I'd say we'll have to do it again soon but…"

"I'll call you when I can,"Sky told him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you."

Sky pulled her car into the drive and took a deep breath, trying to push all thoughts of Boyd out of her head like she'd done so many times before. It wasn't a permanent arrangement…even though it had never actually ended. It was just something that happened every now and then.

She got out of the car and headed inside, where Lana was waiting, working at her drawing desk. Her wife gave a smile at the sight of her. "Hey, I missed you!" She gave her a hug and a kiss. "You have a good time?"

"Yeah, yeah, I did." Sky tried not to show too much guilt at how true it was. "Did the kids get off to school okay?"

"Yeah, but Claire needs picking up from kindie in an hour. I can go if…"

"No, no, I'll go,"Sky promised her. "You get on with your creative masterpiece."

Lana smiled. "It's good to have you back."

"Good to be back,"Sky confirmed, trying to mean it. This was her real life and everything else was just fantasy. She had to remember that.