Page 5 of Finding You

“Okay, sweetpea, I have to go, but I’m going to see you soon.”

“But…”

“I have to get on the plane,” Kylen told his daughter.

Her small sigh made him smile. “But…are you flying today?”

He wasn’t flying today. It felt almost like some sort of cosmic punishment. It was supposed to be his first weekend back on the job, but here he was, giving up his shifts because the universe was not on his side. His shift had been cut short by a phone call from the ER saying his gran had been brought in. It had been a whirlwind of calls and messages trying to figure out what the fuck was going on, and ultimately, Kylen had been forced to abandon his post because, once again, no one in his family was willing to help him out.

Kylen had been a commercial pilot for ten years, but the last two, he’d been working less and less because life was currently kicking him in the ass.

He was one of three siblings in a huge family, all of whom refused to do their part in taking care of his aging grandmother. And two years ago, he’d gotten a call because his gran had been found in a golf pro shop demanding to buy a container of potato salad. And when they’d gotten her to understand they didn’t sell potato salad there, she’d picked out a polo shirt and tried to pay with her laundry card.

Kylen had been home that day, so he’d driven down to get her, and it was in the moment where she didn’t recognize him right away that he’d known. Something was wrong. The Big Bad Thing that happened to people in his family at her age had struck.

Several doctor’s appointments, scans, and tests later, and it was confirmed. Alzheimer’s. His parents were in Seattle for a few months, and it was no surprise at all when they both refused to cut their trip short to take care of her. He told them he was considering a memory care facility, something that the doctors suggested, but his mom and sister both acted like he was condemning her to the Cuckoo’s Nest hospital with Nurse Ratchet at her side.

His mom insisted Kylen buy a bigger place instead and hire a round-the-clock in-home nurse to take care of her. It was a lovely thought, but his gran was living off her social security payments, and Kylen made decent money, but not private live-in nurse kind of money.

He made ends meet, but he was also a single dad. His salary once upon a time would have left him sitting pretty, but the economy was in the fucking toilet, and raising a kid was getting more and more expensive. Last month, the tax assessment raised his mortgage payments by almost a hundred bucks, and his last trip to the supermarket, he felt like offering them a fucking limb along with the three-fifty he’d forked out for two weeks.

It was only going to get worse the older Flora got. For now, she was five and ate like a bird. But puberty and growth spurts were on the horizon. She’d already outgrown her last set of shoes, and her pants were riding high up on her ankles.

Now, with having to take off more and more work because his gran was spiraling, he was starting to panic. He couldn’t afford to lose his job, but he couldn’t afford to do what his mom insisted, and the guilt was eating at him. The last time he’d spoken to his mother, she’d made sure to imply what a disappointment he was—amongst other things.

His stomach twisted with sadness and fatigue. He was in a tunnel right now, and there was no light ahead. “Can you put Mommy on the phone, sweetpea?”

“Fine. Bye. Love you,” she said, her tone sharp before silence fell.

For a moment, he thought Flora had hung up, but a second later, Daniela’s laughing voice came through the speaker. “Why is she mad now?”

“She always takes it personally when I’m not flying the plane.” Kylen leaned back in his seat and glanced around at the other passengers waiting to board. It was always weird not being part of the crew.

“Did you hear from Gran’s team?” Dani’s voice was kinder than anyone else’s had been that day. The ER nurse assigned to his grandmother had been short and snappy with him when she explained her condition—a broken hip and a possible concussion—and she was entirely dismissive of how worried Kylen had been because people his grandmother’s age died from falls like that.

And when he’d gotten a hold of his gran’s home-health nurse, the woman had been so defensive he couldn’t get a word in. All he really knew was that she’d fallen and busted her hip, she had a concussion, and she’d been on the floor for at least twenty minutes before the nurse had shown up—which, by his calculations, meant she was late.

He’d deal with that later. Once he dealt with coming home and making sure his gran survived the surgery.

“No new updates,” he told her. “But thanks for being there.”

Dani had no obligations toward him. Not really. She’d been his failed bisexual experiment. He was drunk and horny, she was there and willing. The sex had been fine, but he felt pretty confident the next morning any attraction he had to women was aesthetic only.

It was supposed to be a one and done.

She’d even taken Plan B, but the universe had decided for them that they were meant to be in each other’s lives forever. Dani mostly worked overseas at her London office, and after a long, difficult few weeks, Kylen asked her to keep the baby. He wanted a family, even one that wasn’t entirely traditional. Their agreement was that Dani would be involved as much as she wanted, and Kylen would be the primary parent.

She agreed, and now he was.

Full-time.

All on his own.

He had no regrets, but it was lonely. And it was exhausting. And life would be a little easier if everything else wasn’t falling apart. The only thing that helped was that Dani loved Flora, and somehow, she’d become one of the most important people in Kylen’s life.

“Babes?”

He blinked back to the present. “Sorry. I…I think I’m in a funk.”

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