Page 117 of Worth the Risk

Kason joins us. “Hello, Kylie.”

“Hi, Kason. How are you?”

“Couldn’t be better,” he says with a wink at Sierra.

She giggles.

We spend the next two hours together before I head home. I mean to Leo’s, of course.

* * *

My phone ringing wakes me up, and I grab it from the side table. Mom. If she is calling this late, something bad has happened. “Mom, is everything okay?”

And just like I thought, it’s bad.

ChapterThirty-Six

Leo

In the early morning hours, I wake up to my bed moving or someone moving in it. A slender arm wraps around my middle and a head rests on my chest. There is also wetness there. I recognize her scent. It’s Kylie. There have been so many nights I have lied in this bed, wanting her here with me but not knowing if she wanted that too.

I hear a sniffling and recall the wetness.

Is she crying?

“Kylie, what’s wrong? Is Riley okay?”

After I start to get up, she says, “Riley is fine.”

“Then what’s happened?”

For some reason, my question makes her cry more.

Holding her against me, I scoot up the bed and lean my back on the headboard. As she clings to me for dear life, I hold her while she cries it out.

Eventually, her sobs subside, and she says, “I need to go home, Leo.”

Hoping she was willing to stay longer, I’m disappointed because I wanted more time with Riley and her. I’ve not felt this alive since that summer five years ago.

“What do you mean you have to go home? I thought we were going to talk about this.”

She sighs heavily. “My mom called. Manda’s in the hospital. She had a stroke.” Giving Kylie comfort, I hold her closer to me. I understand why she would need to leave.

She’s close with Manda. This has got to be hurting her deeply.

“I thought she didn’t seem well when we talked today on FaceTime. When I asked her about it, she said she was tired, so I let it go. Why didn’t I ask more questions or call Mom and tell her?” She starts crying again.

I kiss her forehead. She shouldn’t be feeling guilty. Manda wouldn’t want that.

“You shouldn’t blame yourself. If she told you she was fine, then that’s what she wanted you to believe. She wouldn’t want you to worry. You have said it yourself… she says what she means, and she means what she says.”

She sniffles. I’m not sure what else to say, so I simply hold her and hope it’s the comfort she needs. Sometimes there doesn’t need to be words.

* * *

Later that day, we pull into the driveway of Kylie’s house. It was a quiet drive here. I laid in bed all morning, holding her, neither of us sleeping. When the sun rose, she left to go back to Riley. She had packed everything up by the time Riley woke up.

I decided to come back as well. I wasn’t about to let my girls go through this alone.

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