Chapter 53 #2
I was so damn proud of her, how she made overcoming her trauma look like it was easy when God knew it was anything but.
However, Kylie was the strongest woman I knew.
She made so many things look easy, which was something I’d learned after…
Back when we’d been left to raise five rugrats on our own because the love of our lives had been stolen from us.
Shaking off the thought, I nodded at Kade as he passed with his hand flapping.
“And physically?” Sawyer asked. “She looks good. Healthier, I mean.”
I knew what he meant. “Her doctor’s pleased with her progress.”
“Were you and Gage able to get that other thing taken care of?” Kaleb asked, dividing his attention between the skaters cruising by and me.
The question had me glancing down at my watch. “They should be finishin’ up soon.”
“It’s a good idea,” Sawyer noted. “I mean, you didn’t use that guest room for anything, did you?”
My thoughts were inundated with memories of encounters shared in that guest room. After Kylie… I had moved into that room, unable to go into our bedroom for the longest time. I’d missed her so damn much, and every single thing triggered me at the time.
But she wasn’t dead. My wife was alive and well and home with us.
And that was what had given me the idea to convert that guest room into an office for Kylie.
We never had guests stay over, and if we ever needed an extra place for someone to sleep, there was always the couch, or one of the kids could give up their space for a night or two.
Thanks to this outing, I’d had the perfect opportunity to get a crew over there to move out the furniture and paint the walls.
I had considered picking out the new furniture, but decided that should be left to Kylie.
Gage and I planned to present her with the space, and she could fill it however she wanted.
My gaze shifted when I saw my wife moving toward me. As I watched her, my heart expanded in my chest. Just looking at her filled me with so much emotion; I sometimes wondered how I managed to contain it all.
“Hey,” she greeted as she joined us.
When she moved up next to me, I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her against me. She leaned in just as she used to do, her arm sliding behind my back, her thumb hooking in my belt loop.
“This was a great idea,” Sawyer told Kylie. “Fill the kids with sugar and give them a way to work it off.”
Kylie chuckled. “That was the plan.”
“It won’t be enough to wear them all out, but it’s a good start,” Kaleb added.
“True,” Sawyer agreed.
I listened with one ear as they carried on a conversation, my eyes on the skaters moving around the floor, but my attention was on the woman at my side.
Sometimes, like now, I wondered how the fuck I’d made it through those long, cold months without her.
Yes, I would admit, the pain of her absence had started to lessen, but it had never gone away.
Not completely. Gage and I had forged a new path, one that veered away from the one we’d imagined for ourselves.
The fact that she’d been alive the entire time, held captive by a dead man walking…
I took a deep breath, reining in my temper. I’d done well these past couple of months, refraining from going rogue. It hadn’t been easy, but it was necessary.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t doing my part to take down Martin Calloway once and for all.
The only thing stopping me from calling Max Adorite and filling him in on all the gory details was the fact that we needed to find Kylie’s sister first. No one had even known about Cicily Rose until recently, but ultimately, she was family.
And we did what we needed to do to protect family.
Which meant my hands were tied for now. But Calloway’s ticket was punched.
It was just a matter of time before he realized it.
“You okay?” Kylie asked, her hand settling on my chest.
I looked down, noticing that she was peering up at me, her eyes glittering with what I could only describe as happiness.
“I am,” I assured her as I leaned down to steal a quick kiss. “How about you?”
“Better than I thought I’d be,” she said softly.
I smiled at her. I knew just what she meant.
Gage
By the time we got home from the rink, got the kids fed and cleaned up, I was ready to call it a night. Sometimes I wondered how Curtis and Lorrie managed to keep up with so many rugrats. More so, how they did it and never complained.
Someone really should nominate them for sainthood.
“You want a beer?” I asked Travis as I passed through the living room on the way to the kitchen.
“Yeah. Where’s Kylie?”
“She was sittin’ with Maddox last I saw.”
“When she gets down here…” Travis nudged his chin toward the front of the house.
I knew he was referring to the guest room. Or what had been the guest room.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” I said as I pushed open the door to the kitchen.
I took a few minutes to clean up in there, although there wasn’t really anything to be done.
I emptied the clean dishes out of the dishwasher, tossed the dirty hand towel into the hamper in the laundry room, and replaced it with a clean one.
Then I grabbed two beers, popped the tops, and carried them back into the living room.
“Today was good,” Travis said, accepting the beer.
“Kate definitely enjoyed it.” I smiled as I recalled how she’d told all the kids that her mom was the one who’d planned the day.
She was so proud that her mother was home, and to see her beaming like that when she told her cousins soothed something inside me.
Not only had Travis and I endured the loss when we thought Kylie was dead, but the kids had too.
And Kate especially. As the oldest, she understood things the younger ones didn’t.
No, she didn’t understand everything, but she was smart enough to take her cues from the adults.
And she’d been strong during that time. Stronger than I had been, that was for damn sure.
“What’s on your mind?”
I looked over at Travis. “Just thinkin’ about how blessed we are.”
“Damn straight we are,” Travis said, tipping his beer bottle to his lips. “And I won’t fuckin’ take it for granted ever again.”
No, none of us would.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs, drawing my attention. I watched the doorway, waiting.
Kylie appeared, and just like every time I’d seen her for the past two months, my heart swelled. The feeling was more than an emotional kick. My chest filled with warmth and what I could only describe as hope for the future we’d thought we had lost.
She looked tired, but there was a smile on her face when she noticed us.
God, I loved that smile.
“You wanna sit for a while?” Travis asked.
“I’d love to.”
“You wanna beer?” I offered.
“Nah. I’ll just take a sip of yours.”
When she settled between us, I passed mine over. She took a sip and passed it back before turning so that she could rest her head on my thigh and drape her legs across Travis’s lap.
Instantly, my throat tightened, and I fought the emotion that bubbled down deep. We’d done this so many times before. It was a comforting reminder of the important things in life.
“So, I noticed y’all cleared out the guest room today,” Kylie said casually.
Travis’s head snapped at the same time mine did, our eyes colliding.
“Oh, come on, boys. Y’all really didn’t think I’d notice?”
“Well…” I chuckled.
Travis grinned. “We were hopin’.”
“You’ll have to get up earlier in the mornin’ to get one over on me.”
“Or maybe we’ll just make it so you’ve got to stay in bed longer.” Travis took a pull on his beer. “Got any ideas on how to do that?”
The question was aimed at me, but before I could respond, Kylie raised her hand. “I’ve got several.”
“Yeah?”
She nodded, her head shifting on my thigh.
“Do any of ’em require you to be dressed?”
She flashed a wide grin. “Nope. Not a one.”
God, I loved this woman.