Free Where Forever Lies by Tara Neideffer Page B

relieved he couldn’t
read her thoughts.
    “Hi.
How about you give me five?”
    Kyra
giggled as she slapped her hand against his and Paige felt her heart
twist at seeing her daughter interacting with a guy. Not just a guy.
A father figure. Would she ever have the opportunity to have a man
like that in her life? One who wanted to protect her and love her as
if she were his own? The thought stuck in Paige’s mind like
glue.
    After
giving Kyra another high five on top of the first, he pulled away and
looked down at Paige with concerned eyes. “Are you okay? You
look a little upset about something? I didn’t do anything
wrong, did I?”
    Paige
wiped the thoughts out of her mind and smiled up at him. “Oh,
no, no,” she said, trying to sound at ease about what she was
really thinking. You
just did everything right is
what she wanted to blurt out. “I’m fine. I’ve just
had a busy day that’s all.” She looked at his phone and
said, “So, you have my number. Just call when you want to do
something.”
    Tyler
nodded. “You bet I will,” and flashed a smile full of
certainty as he turned towards his truck, giving Kyra a wave before
he left.
    She
watched him walk away, blew out a long breath, and then looked in her
rear view mirror, sighing with relief when there was no red mark on
her face. As she pulled out of the parking lot and headed home, she
rolled the windows down to let the fresh air in, hoping that it would
sweep away her thoughts. In the back, Kyra squealed as the wind hit
her face, making her red curls blow everywhere. Paige laughed and
turned the music up. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw Kyra
dancing happily in her seat. She didn’t think her day could get
any better.
    As they
pulled into the parking space to their apartment, the sun had just
started to set behind the red brick building, leaving behind a mix of
muted blue and pink hues. Paige put the car in park and jumped when
she heard a loud banging on her driver’s side window. Her first
thought was wishing that people would stop doing that but then she
clasped her hand to her mouth, as she saw who was staring back at
her.
    “No,
Kyleigh!” she whispered through the window. She quickly opened
the door and stared at Kyleigh, who stood before her with a busted
lip and a bruised cheek, an embarrassed yet defiant look on her face.
Paige immediately pulled her into a hug, and as Kyleigh started
crying, Paige couldn’t help but cry as well. She’d had a
bad feeling when Kyleigh told her about her plans to leave Brad, but
deep down she was hoping she was wrong. At least now she could get
away from him for good and, hopefully, move on with her life.
    Kyleigh
pulled away from Paige, “Well, I left that bastard. For good,
this time.” She ran her hand to straighten up her hair and gave
Paige an unsure smile through a steady stream of tears.
    Paige
couldn’t help but smile back. “Come inside and we can
talk.” Paige grabbed a sleepy Kyra from the back and they
headed inside.
    After
putting Kyra to bed, Paige made her way to the living room to talk to
Kyleigh, two glasses of wine nestled in her hands. It was heading on
nine o’clock now and they both had to be at work at six in the
morning, but this was important. This was something that needed to be
dealt with, needed to be worked through, and needed to be talked
about. Kyleigh had already said she’d stay the night with her,
just to avoid Brad trying to stop by her place tonight.
    “Kyleigh,
do you think you’ll have any more problems from him?”
Paige asked, taking a sip of wine of her wine. She scrunched her nose
up as the twang of the wine hit her. It was bitter, just like she
liked it. She wasn’t normally a drinker, but tonight she needed
a glass or two of wine to ease her nerves. There had just been so
much stuff to deal with lately that she felt she was being
suffocated.
    “I
don’t think so. I think he just needed to leave his last mark
before I left. You know, this is his