His arm dropped from around her and he physical y set her back. "I'm just a phone cal away, Pumpkin."
Swiping at her tears, hating her watery weakness, she watched her dad's red convertible get smal er as it buzzed down the street. Wanting to be alone in her room, she started to run inside. Then she remembered and looked back across the street to see if Soldier Dude had pul ed his usual disappearing act.
Nope. He was stil there, staring, stalking. Scaring the bejeebies out of her and making her angry at the same time. He was the reason she had to see a shrink.
Then Mrs. Baker, her elderly neighbor, toddled out to get her mail. She smiled at Kylie but not once did the old librarian glance at Soldier Dude taking up residence on her front lawn, even when he stood less than two feet from her.
Weird.
So weird it sent an unnatural chil tiptoeing down Kylie's spine, the same kind of chil Kylie had gotten at Nana's funeral. What the hel was going on?
Chapter Two
An hour later, Kylie walked down the stairs with her backpack and purse over her shoulder.
Her mom met her in the entryway. "Are you okay?"
How could I be okay? "I'l live," Kylie answered. More than she could say about Grandma. Right then, Kylie had a vision of the bright purple lipstick the funeral home had put on her grandmother. Why didn't you take that off of me? Kylie could almost hear Nana asking. Weirded out by the thought, Kylie looked back at her mother.
Her mom stared at Kylie's backpack and her worry wrinkle appeared between her eyes. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"You said I could spend the night with Sara. Or were you too busy gril ing Dad's shorts to remember?"
Her mom ignored the gril ed-shorts comment. "What are you two going to do tonight?"
"Mark Jameson is having an end-of-school party." Not that Kylie felt like celebrating the event. Thanks to Trey dumping her and her parents divorcing, Kylie's whole summer was headed for the toilet. And the way things were going, someone was going to walk by and flush it.
"Are his parents going to be there?" Mom raised one dark eyebrow.
Kylie flinched emotional y, but physical y didn't blink. "Aren't they always?"
Okay, so she lied. Normal y she didn't go to Mark Jameson's parties for that very reason, but blast it, look where being good had gotten her. She deserved to have some fun, didn't she?
Besides, hadn't her mom lied when her dad asked about his underwear?
"What if you have another dream?" Her mom touched Kylie's arm.
A quick touch. That's al Kylie ever got from her mom these days. No long hugs like her dad gave. No mother/daughter trips. Just aloofness and quick touches. Even when Nana, her mom's mom, died, Kylie's mom hadn't hugged her and Kylie had real y needed a hug then. But it had been her dad who'd pul ed her into his arms and let her smear mascara on his suit coat. And now Dad and al his suit coats were gone. Drawing in a gulp of oxygen, Kylie clutched her purse. "I warned Sara I might wake up screaming bloody murder. She said she'd stake me in the heart with a wooden cross and make me go back to bed."
"Maybe you should hide the stakes before you go to sleep." Her mother attempted to smile.
"I wil ." For one brief second, Kylie worried about leaving her mom alone on the day her dad had left. But who was she kidding? Her mom would be fine. Nothing ever bothered the Ice Queen.
Before walking out, Kylie peered out the window to make sure she wouldn't be assaulted by a guy wearing army duds. Deeming the yard to be free of stalkers, Kylie ran out the door, hoping that tonight's party would help her forget just how badly her life sucked.
* * *
"Here. You don't have to drink it, just hold it." Sara Jetton pushed a beer into Kylie's hands and ran off. Sharing elbow room with at least thirty kids, al packed into Mark Jameson's living room and talking at once, Kylie clutched the ice-cold bottle. Glancing around at the crowd, she recognized most of them from school. The doorbel rang again. Obviously, this was the place to be tonight. And according to every other kid at her high school, it was. Jameson, a senior whose parents never seemed to care what he did, held some of the wildest parties in town.
Ten minutes later, Sara stil MIA, the party shifted into ful swing. Too bad Kylie didn't feel like swinging along with them. She frowned at the bottle in her hand.
Someone bumped into her shoulder, causing the beer to splash on her chest and run down in the V of her white blouse. "Crap."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," the responsible bumper said.
Kylie looked up into John's soft brown eyes and tried to smile. Hey, being nice to a cute guy, who'd been asking about her at school made trying to smile easy. But the fact that John had been friends with Trey kept the thril down to a minimum.
"It's okay," she said.
"I'l get you another." As if nervous, he shot off.
"It's real y okay," Kylie cal ed after him, but between the music and the hum of voices, he didn't hear her. The doorbel rang again. A few kids shifted around and gave Kylie a view of the door. More specifical y, the shift gave her a view of Trey walking inside. Beside him-or she should say plastered against him-sashayed his new slutty girlfriend.
"Great." She swung around, wishing she could teleport herself to Tahiti, or back home would be even better-especial y if her dad would be there.
Through a back window, she spotted Sara on the patio and Kylie darted outside to join her.
Sara looked up. She must have read the panic on Kylie's face, because she came running over to her. "What happened?"
"Trey and his screw toy are here."
Sara frowned. "So, you look hot. Go flirt with some guys and make him sorry."
Kylie rol ed her eyes. "I don't want to stay here and watch Trey and what's her name making out."
"Were they already making out?" Sara asked.
"Not yet, but get one beer in Trey and al he'l think about is getting into a girl's panties. I know because I used to be the girl in the panties."
"Chil ." Sara pointed back at the table. "Gary brought margaritas. Have one and you'l feel fine."
Kylie bit her lip to keep from screaming that she wouldn't feel fine. Her life had toilet-bound stamped al over it.
"Hey." Sara nudged her. "We both know al you'd have to do to get Trey back is to grab him and take him upstairs. He's stil crazy about you. He found me before I left school today and asked about you."