Where Forever Lies (7 page)

Kyleigh bit on her lower lip,
and the pause was all Paige needed to get her answer. “Kyleigh,”
she said, her voice lower now, soothing. “I’m just glad
that you’re finally done with him. I wish you had told me,
though.”

A tear rolled down Kyleigh’s
cheek, “I know; I’m sorry. It’s just... I was
embarrassed that I let him get away with it, you know?”

Paige touched her arm. “Kyleigh,
you don’t ever have to be embarrassed around me. I’ll
never judge you or make fun of you. You should know that by now.”

Kyleigh gave her a quick glance,
“I know. I know you’re not like that.”

“When do you plan on
telling him?” Paige asked, wondering how he’d take the
news.

Kyleigh pursed her lips together
as she thought about it, “Probably tonight. Why wait?”

♥♥♥

After Kyleigh dropped her off to
get her rental car, she ran her few errands and then headed to her
mom’s to pick up Kyra. On the drive there, she thought about
what Kyleigh had told her. She knew it was the best decision, for her
to end it with Brad, but she also couldn’t help but worry about
how he’d take the news. He was evidently abusive and a lot of
times those types of guys were also possessive. She blew out an
exasperated breath, causing a loose curl to fall across her eye. She
tucked it behind her ear and drove, doing her best to only
concentrate on the winding roads.

Her mom lived in the suburbs of
Sweet Haven, a thirty minute drive from her apartment in the downtown
area. It was always a beautiful drive, full of fields and woods and
farms, but she loved the city life. She enjoyed being around people
and having plenty of things to do. She wouldn’t know what to do
with herself if she ever had to live in the country. It didn’t
seem like there was much going on. All she saw were big fields of
nothing. But driving out here gave her time to let her mind drift and
enjoy the peacefulness that comes with the country life, which was
the only positive thing she got from being away from the city.

As she drove, she glanced at the
horseshoe necklace that was having a temporary home in her rental car
and thought about her new life as a single mom. She had been doing
some soul searching lately and figured
it was time to embrace being a single mom. There was nothing she
could do about it, she couldn’t bring Randy back, but she would
do her damnedest to make sure Kyra was not missing love, support or
anything else she needed to grow up to be a healthy little girl. She
knew she could do it. A strong determination finally settled in her,
instead of the scared feeling that had been hovering over her since
his death. It would be hard and overwhelming at times, but she had no
choice. She had her mom for support if she ever needed anything and
her friends were always there for her.

Paige
pulled into her mom’s driveway and got out, making her way up
the brick sidewalk and into the small ranch house. She heard Kyra and
her mom in the living room, laughing as they watched cartoons. Paige
stepped into the living room and couldn’t help but feel her
mood lighten at the sight of her daughter laughing.

“Lookie
who’s here,” Susan said in a light hearted tone.

Kyra’s
eyes lit up when she looked up and saw her mom. She jumped up and ran
up to her, throwing herself onto Paige.

“Awe,
I take it you missed me?” Paige said, lifting her up into her
arms and pulling her into a bear hug. She closed her eyes as the
smell of apple shampoo drifted through her nose and then heard Kyra
giggle.

“You
tickling my neck mommy,” Kyra exclaimed.

“Are
you ready?” Paige asked, as she felt Kyra play with a strand of
her curls.

“Yah,”
Kyra mumbled in her ear.

“Did
you get your rental car straightened out?” Susan asked, as she
stumbled to get up off the floor.

“Yeah,
finally; I think I was on the phone all morning with them. I’ll
have to start looking for a car soon, though.” Paige said, as
she tugged Kyra’s hand out of her hair.

“Well
good. How are you feeling? Are you sore?”

“I’m
definitely sore and I’m glad I have today off. Hopefully I’ll
be feeling better by tomorrow, because there’s no way I could
help lift adults right now,” Paige said, as she rubbed her
aching neck. She hoped she wouldn’t have any issues later on
from this wreck, and figured she might regret not getting checked
out, but at the time, that was the last place she had wanted to go.

“Just
make sure to keep taking some ibuprofen, honey. I hate that you’re
in pain.” Susan came up beside her and patted her shoulder,
making Paige smile. Her mother was just as much of a worrier as she
was. She’d always known she’d inherited it from her
mother. When her dad was alive, he was always the laid back one in
the family, taking things as they came. Paige had always envied him
for that trait, and wished she had received it, but it was something
that she couldn’t dwell on.

“I
know, Mom. I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

She gave
her mom one last wave as they headed down the sidewalk and to her
car. Kyra kept trying to take off running ahead but Paige held
tightly onto her hand.

As she
opened the door and lifted Kyra into her car seat, Paige’s hand
brushed against a leafy vine that had caught on Kyra’s leg. As
she stood there staring at it, her heart became heavy with anxiety as
memories of the dream and the funeral came rushing back into her
mind. Why did she have to keep reliving these memories? Why couldn’t
it all just go away and never come back? She felt that she couldn’t
escape her grief, it just kept showing up to taunt her and remind her
of the past. Remind her how her life would never be the same. She
choked back the tears that never seemed far away, not wanting to have
a breakdown in front of Kyra.

“Did
you have fun at mamaw’s today, honey?” she asked, as she
slowly pulled the vine off her leg and dropped it to the ground.

“Yes,”
Kyra said, as she tugged at the strap on her car seat, staring at her
mom with wide, wondering eyes.

After Kyra
was buckled in, Paige walked around to her door, her breath hitching
with emotion that she was tired of shedding. She opened the door, got
behind the wheel, and took a few deep breaths as she put the key into
the ignition with shaky hands. By the time she was ready to leave,
she looked up in her rearview mirror to find Kyra had already drifted
off to sleep in her car seat, her red curly hair hung over her eyes
as her head rested to one side. Paige smiled, and finally let the
tears escape, knowing that one day the pain in her heart would also
be sitting in her daughter’s.

She pulled
out of her mom’s driveway and turned the music up, hoping to
find some uplifting music to fill in the hollowness in her heart. As
she looked in her rearview mirror, tears fell freely down her cheeks
as she saw the leafy vine blowing away with the wind.

Paige squinted against the sun
as she turned into Donnelly Park. It was a little ways from her
apartment in the city, but it wasn’t far from her mom’s
house and she thought they both needed some fresh air and sunshine.

The sun was out and there was a
soft breeze, making it a perfect day to take Kyra to the park. She
pulled into the parking spot and noticed how busy the park looked.
Many kids were on the playground and some guys were playing
basketball on the far court. She opened Kyra’s door and her
sleepy eyes instantly brightened when she saw where she was. Paige
unstrapped her car seat and once Kyra stepped out onto the blacktop,
she took off racing straight for the swings as if she had never seen
anything more fascinating. Paige had to jog to keep up with her and
it briefly crossed her mind that it was way too hot to be running.
Kyra leaped on the swing and insisted her mother push her very high.
Paige pushed Kyra what she thought was high enough, but Kyra kept
yelling “higher, Mommy, higher.”

“All right, honey, but I
think that’s high enough. You swing for a while and I’ll
sit over there and watch you,” she told her daughter as Kyra
swung back and forth giggling the whole time. Paige laid a blanket
out on the ground and watched Kyra go from the swing to the jungle
gym, and decided to take a chance and indulge in some rare quiet
time, relaxing in the warm sun.

♥♥♥

Tyler and Brandon were playing
the basketball game ‘horse’ when he noticed the car
pulling into the parking lot. He didn’t think anything of it,
until he saw a young girl get out of the car with her daughter. The
mother, he assumed, looked a little younger than he was and he
thought she was pretty with her long wavy brown hair. He liked the
way she carried herself and thought she was probably the type of girl
who knew what she wanted out of life. The little girl was the cutest
thing he had seen, with red curls bouncing above her shoulders as she
ran. He watched them as they walked to the playground and saw the
woman jogging to keep up with her excited daughter. He began to
wonder what it would be like to have a little girl, someone he could
refer to as ‘daddy’s little girl.’ He had wanted to
have a girl and a boy, but after having his son and realizing the
marriage was not working out, they ended up getting a divorce.

Now, he had been single for six
years and had been completely fine with it but he noticed a strange
tug pulling at him lately, almost as if his subconscious was telling
him that there was something missing in his life. He’d been
feeling the loneliness creep up on him in the past several weeks, but
he’d been desperately trying to push it away. He just didn’t
have the time for anyone right now. Also, he didn’t want to
rush into anything and make the same mistake he’d made before,
so he continued to remain gun shy of getting serious.

As he watched the young girl
push her daughter on the swing, he felt a sense of sadness at the
thought of not having a complete family, again. He had enjoyed being
married, that wasn’t the problem that caused them to get
divorced in the end; he realized he just wasn’t with the right
woman. They had been completely wrong for each other and he didn’t
want Brandon to grow up and see his parents argue and fight every
day.

“Hey, Dad, catch!”
He heard Brandon shout at him and turned from his daze just in time
to catch the ball before it blasted him in the face.

“Hey, you had better be
prepared because I’m going to smoke you at this game,” he
told his son, as he reverted his attention to the game by running up
and doing a slam-dunk into the basketball goal.

“Oh, yeah, well, watch
this move.” Brandon took the ball and did a sneaky dribble
between the legs then passed the ball over his back to his dad who,
he realized once he threw the ball to him, was not paying attention.
“Dad, catch the ball!” Brandon shrieked.

“What?” Tyler jumped
sideways trying to snag the ball, but lost it and watched as it flew
past him and towards the bench where the young girl was sitting.

“Shit!” he yelled,
but it was too late to do anything about it now.

♥♥♥

Paige felt the warmth of the sun
relaxing her and closed her eyes for a moment to indulge in feeling
her stress slowly dissipating. It was nice and she let herself go
with it. Her jaw muscle loosened, her eyes relaxed and as all her
tense muscles let go, she realized just how stressed she had actually
been. She was thinking about making this park visit a weekly routine,
just so she could de-stress, when she heard someone behind her yell,
“Watch Out!” Paige turned her head around and BAM a ball
struck her on the side of the head.

“Ouch!” she yelled,
as her hand flew up to her head. Her vision blurred for a moment and
then, as it slowly returned, she noticed a shadow hovering over her.

“Ma’am, are you
okay?” she heard a deep voice in the distance ask.

Paige was rubbing her head and
feeling like a complete idiot when she looked up and noticed a
good-looking guy standing above her.

Great
,
he just had to be
cute,
she thought
.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Uh,
just a little embarrassed,” she remarked. She looked up at him
and felt her cheeks get hot.
So
much for relaxing now,
she
thought as she felt a headache coming on.

“I’m really sorry,
ma’am, my son can get a little carried away playing basketball
and I tried to stop it, but it slipped out of my hands. He likes to
see if he can get some fast passes by me and sometimes his aim is a
little off,” he said, feeling bad for smacking her in the face
with the ball. “I can be a little clumsy sometimes, too. You
look familiar, have I met you before?” Tyler knew he was
rambling, but he couldn’t help it, something was just taking
him over.

The typical come on line
,
Paige thought to herself, and then as she got a good look at him, she
realized that she did recognize him from somewhere, but where? The
word, ma’am, struck a familiar chord with her. “Are you
the guy who rear ended me yesterday?” she questioned, not
really sure because he looked a little different in tennis shoes and
black basketball shorts instead of jeans and cowboy boots.

Tyler felt his day going
downhill fast. First, he hits this woman with his truck, now he hits
her with his basketball. He figured he should just turn around and
walk away before anything else happened to her, but instead, he found
himself saying, “Oh, that was you? Well, this is a little
awkward, isn’t it?” he said, as he scratched his head and
looked around the park, wondering what would be the fastest way to
get out of here before she started yelling at him for totaling her
car.

“Yes, it kind of is,”
Paige agreed, pulling her knees up to her chest and studying his
reaction. She thought he honestly looked like he really felt bad
about it and she wondered if she’d gauged him wrong when she
pinned him as arrogant and being the type who thought he was never
wrong.