Page 97 of Kylie

And Kate … well, she was propped up against the house reading on her iPad. Evidently, that was something she loved to do. Or so I’d been told when I asked her if she wanted to go play football with the others.

“I haven’t seen her,” Jessie explained. “But Braydon told me she’s here. I think she’s been helpin’ Brantley and them with a case or askin’ them to take on a case. I’m not sure.”

That got my attention, my gaze swinging her way. “What case?”

“I have no idea, and honestly, I don’t care.”

I wanted to ping my sister with questions, but I refrained. I understood her not wanting to have anything to do with Meredith. She’d left us so long ago, and without warning or reason, we’d had no choice but to put up walls to keep our feelings for her out. And over the years, her absence had become natural. In fact, I rarely thought about her at all.

Or I hadn’t. Not until Martin Calloway had brought her up. Which had me curious whether Meredith’s presence had something to do with him. Travis and Gage told me that Brantley was the one to discover that I was alive, so perhaps my mother’s reappearance had something to do with that. Did she know? Had Martin found her after all?

I could feel my heart rate spiking as real fear coursed through my veins. If Meredith was in Coyote Ridge, there was a good chance Martin would send someone after her. Would he come for me, too? Would he come for my kids? My husbands? Was anyone safe?

“Hey,” Jessie said, touching my arm. “You okay?”

I was shaking, but I managed to nod as I took a deep breath and willed the thoughts away. “Has Dad talked to her?”

Jessie shook her head. “I don’t think he knows.” She looked at me. “I haven’t told him.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “I see no point in her disruptin’ his life after all this time. He’s happy with Melissa.”

Yes, he was. I had only seen him for a few minutes the other night, and exchanged a few text messages once Travis gave me my new phone yesterday. We hadn’t shared enough for me to know what he was up to these days, but he had been very happy with her before I died.

That was weird to think, but it allowed me to cope with the fact that life had resumed for everyone I loved. They had buried me in that cemetery—or thought they did—and worked through their grief and anger so they could move on. I couldn’t blame them because from what Travis and Gage had shown me, what they’d told me, there was no reason to believe otherwise.

And if I could truly accept that, perhaps I could move forward. Unfortunately, convincing myself wasn’t nearly as easy as telling myself those things. It was a process. One that was going to require a few trips to talk to a professional. Lucky for me, we knew one. Dr. Piper Briggs just so happened to be Travis’s cousin. She was also the psychiatrist who had helped Kate after her traumatic experience. And I figured since my daughter had been brave enough to open up to the doctor and get help, so could I.

However, that would have to wait until later. I had promised myself I would make an appointment. Eventually. I’d also promised myself that I wouldn’t procrastinate too long.

I turned my attention back to the football game, grinning when I noticed Avery running with the ball.

“That girl is fast,” Jessie said with a laugh.

That she was.

Chapter Forty

Sunday, October 9, 2022

Kylie

Admittedly, coming back from the dead wasn’t nearly as easy as it sounded.

Granted, it sounded somewhat absurd since I hadn’t actually died. But I was the only one who knew that. Everyone else had gone on about their business, dealing with the loss in their own way. In their eyes, I had been dead, and keeping that in mind helped me to get through the day.

I wasn’t sure whether that thought process was commonplace or not, but here I was.

And by here, I meant sitting outside, surrounded by family, every one of them looking at me as though I was a spectacle in a circus act. Some of them were good at hiding their shock at my appearance, others not so much. I knew what they were feeling because I went through it every time I looked in the mirror. I was skinny. And I didn’t mean that in the Hollywood sense. There was nothing attractive about walking around, nothing but skin and bones. My baggy clothes weren’t a fashion statement; they were evidence of the hell I’d been through.

It wasn’t easy dealing with the lingering stares or the sympathetic whispers, but I was managing. Mostly. I had no choice since it had been that way since I walked into Curtis and Lorrie’s house a couple of hours ago.

Sunday dinner was still a thing and part of me was grateful for that. Routine was good for me. At least it had been for the old me. I was trying to feel my way through this new version of myself.

The one who had been gone for so long.

The one who woke up in a sweat in the middle of the night, expecting to be on the hard wooden floor in a pitch-black room with no air conditioning.