Series: Paige Michaels
Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Suddenly, Kiki didn’t feel comfortable in this house. She wanted to go back to her apartment. She jogged up the stairs, grabbed Spike, and headed for her car with nothing else. She had enough things left in her apartment to get by, plus she couldn’t even concentrate on what she might pack.
She drove carefully, keeping to the speed limit, glancing at Spike in the passenger seat every few minutes with a furrowed brow. “Traitor,” she grumbled.
As soon as she was back inside her own home, she set Spike on the counter. He seemed calmer now that they’d arrived. Maybe he was relieved to be back home?
There wasn’t much in her fridge because she hadn’t been here to eat for over a week. The last time she’d come by, she’d tossed everything in the trash and taken it out.
There were still several frozen dinners though, and she snagged a mac and cheese and popped it in the microwave. While she waited for it to heat, she wandered around her small apartment just like she’d done at Daddy’s house.
She felt unsettled. Nervous. She kept rubbing her arms. Her apartment was too quiet too. Anywhere she went would feel too quiet and lonely. She’d grown so attached to her Daddy that she was already addicted to having him take care of her.
She fought back tears as she forced herself to eat some of the mac and cheese. She couldn’t even taste it, and she didn’t bother to sit at the table. She simply stood at the counter and ate next to Spike.
“Where did Daddy go, Spike?”
He at least looked chagrinned now. He knew. He wasn’t talking, but he knew where Daddy had gone. Or why. Sure, maybe he was in Chicago, but that didn’t tell her why.
After dropping the half-eaten dinner in the trash, she headed for her bedroom. Normally she took a shower in the evening. No. Her new normal was different. Normally Daddy gave her a bath. But he wasn’t here, and she didn’t feel like taking care of herself.
Kiki stripped out of her work clothes, rummaged through her drawers, found her favorite snuggly footed pajamas, and zipped herself into them. She hadn’t taken them to Daddy’s house because she never would have worn them there. Daddy always chose a thin nightgown for her. It was for the best because she got too hot snuggled up against him in the night.
Tonight, she would be alone though. And she was having a pity party. Whether it was warranted or not didn’t matter. She was having it anyway. She climbed into bed with Spike and snuggled under the covers.
Tears fell. She couldn’t stop them. She was being silly. Obviously she barely knew Terry. She didn’t even understand his job. He’d never said anything other than the fact that he was an accountant, blowing it off as if it weren’t interesting.
Exhausted, she finally fell asleep.
Chapter Nineteen
Loud pounding yanked Kiki out of sleep. Disoriented and confused, she sat up and looked around. She was in her bedroom in her apartment. It took her a moment to remember why, and then she flinched when she heard a knock at the door and realized that had been what woke her up in the first place.
Kiki threw the covers back and slid out of bed, hurrying toward the front door with only a glance down at her attire. It wasn’t until she rose onto her tiptoes to look through the peephole that she finally took a breath. Wyatt? What was he doing here?
Lark was with him too. Was he here to lecture her about speeding? Or maybe he’d changed his mind and decided to give her a ticket after all.
She shook those thoughts from her head. Of course not. He wouldn’t do either of those things. She obviously wasn’t fully awake. Her brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders yet.
She flinched when he knocked again. Oh, shoot. She finally unlocked the door and pulled it open.
Wyatt’s brows were deeply furrowed, and he let out an audible sigh of relief while Lark ducked under his arm and stepped in front of him.
It was Lark who spoke first. “Are you okay?”
Kiki frowned. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Lark drew in a slow breath and glanced at her Daddy. “See? Told you.” When she looked back at Kiki, she said, “Can we come in?”
Kiki backed up to let her friends in. Until she’d met Terry, she’d never let anyone into her apartment. Now two more people were going to see her place. Except for the fact that she’d moved most of her clothes to Daddy’s house, the apartment mostly still looked the same.
“Oh, wow,” Lark whispered as she came all the way inside. “The twinkly lights are so pretty.”
Kiki hadn’t even thought about the lights. She’d turned them on when she’d gotten home last night and left them. Like she always did. Usually they made her feel happy. Last night they hadn’t.