Page 144 of Kylie

When Travis and Gage had first brought my things from the storage unit Gage had kept them in, I went through several boxes to find clothes that would work for me. I sent several boxes of old things off to Goodwill, knowing full well someone else would get more use out of them than I would. However, there had been quite a few boxes of other things I set aside to get to later.

Yep. There they were, a stack of cardboard boxes with my name scribbled across the side in Gage’s blocky handwriting.

Finally finding what I was looking for, I shifted a few things around so I could have a path out of the garage. Then I carried one box at a time outside, into the cool breezy morning. Once I had a few to sort through, I grabbed another stray chair, brought it out, and went to work.

The morning flew by, as did the afternoon, after a quick break for lunch. As I did most days, I spent the majority of my time outside. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was now comfortable being indoors all the time, but I found the panic wasn’t quite what it had been. I did, however, enjoy sitting on the front porch with a cup of coffee and Gage’s iPad or my phone. Especially when I was waiting for the school bus to drop off the kids.

And like clockwork, there it was, the big yellow monstrosity cutting a path through the large oak trees that ran down the sides of the street.

I remained seated, watching as the bus came to a screeching halt, the little Stop sign flipped out. I couldn’t see the doors because they were on the other side, but I did see the kids moving down the aisle. Once outside, they waited patiently at the curb until the bus driver signaled them to walk. And then they were off; Kate, Kade, and Avery bolted in my direction, huge grins on their faces.

They raced up the steps, backpacks being tossed aside as they came straight for me, talking over one another to tell me what had happened that day.

I’d come to cherish this moment. While we were still working through some issues, for these few minutes, Kade wasn’t upset with me for leaving, and Avery wasn’t worried I would get in my car and drive away at any moment, and Kate was thrilled simply to tell me what her best friend said or did rather than eye me as though I might turn into smoke and float away.

It was part of the normal I had been telling Dr. Briggs about. Not everything was the way it had been, but these moments almost made up for it.

“How about a snack?” I asked when there was a lull in Avery’s story of why she no longer wanted to wear her hair in a ponytail. Evidently, one of the boys in her class was tugging on it. I didn’t bother telling her he probably liked her. At five, she wouldn’t understand.

One at a time, they grabbed their backpacks and filed into the house. I followed behind them, smiling. It felt normal in a way that normal hadn’t felt in a really long time.

Travis

“I’m gonna head out for a bit,” I told Gage as I paused in the doorway of his office.

He looked up, his gaze raking over me. “Where’re you goin’?”

“I’m meetin’ with Kieran.”

Gage’s eyebrows lifted as he leaned back in his chair. “You think that’s a good idea?”

I propped my shoulder against the door jamb. “I think it’s inevitable and he’s fuckin’ lucky I’ve waited this long. Otherwise, I would be on my way to kill the bastard, and you would be runnin’ this place solo.”

Leaning forward, Gage rested his forearms on his desk. “Don’t hurt him, Travis.”

“No promises.”

“Let him tell you his side of the story.”

“I’ll think about it.” I stood tall. “I’ll text you when I’m done. I might just head home after.”

“You should. We’re havin’ pizza for dinner, so place the order if you get home before I do.”

I nodded and tapped the jamb. “Love you.” With that, I turned and started walking.

“Love you, too,” he called after me. “Don’t kill him, Travis!”

“We’ll see,” I muttered as I headed down the hallway and out into the open atrium of the hotel.

My Escalade was waiting at the front when I walked outside. I gave a nod to the parking attendant before I climbed in.

The drive into the town proper didn’t take long. Rather than deal with the late afternoon diners, I had asked Kieran to meet me at Walker Park instead of the diner or the bakery. I didn’t intend for this conversation to take long, but I felt it was necessary to confront my cousin about what he had done. He deserved my wrath for having kept something as crucially important as the fact that my wife wasn’t dead, like we all thought. Hell, he deserved a beat-down, but I was going to do my best not to do bodily harm.

Rather than hunt for a parking spot on Main Street, I pulled into the lot of my cousin Rex’s B&B. There was usually an extra spot there that we could snag when we needed it. Today there were several, so I parked in the one closest to the street and got out.

A rush of deja vu hit me, making me pause as the memory overwhelmed me.

“I’ve put my deputies on alert,” Sheriff Endsley said. “Unfortunately, we don’t know what she’s drivin’, but we’re keepin’ an eye out for out-of-state plates and rentals. We’ll run a cursory check if we come across somethin’.”