Page 94 of Kylie

“Yay!” they shouted in unison.

“Maddox and Haden, you two get to go see Ms. Bristol.”

Haden clapped, and Maddox stared, a goofy grin forming on his cute little face. The boy did love going to daycare.

Leave it to Travis to solve the problem.

“And Kate?” I asked, figuring he had a plan for her, too.

“She’s gonna stay here with Kylie.”

“I wanna stay here, too,” Avery said, her gaze darting toward the door separating the kitchen from the living room.

“Pop said he’s got some work for you and Kade to do.”

Her eyes widened. “He does?”

“Yep.”

“I wanna do wowk,” Haden said seriously.

I looked down and grinned. This could go on forever if we let it.

“Later,” Travis told him.

“When?”

It was a legitimate question, but Travis handled it well. He walked over and scooped Haden up, tossing him into the air and catching him easily before draping him over his shoulder, making him giggle more. “Let’s go hang with Ms. Bristol.”

“Wooo!” Haden squealed.

Yeah. What he said.

An hour later, I was pulling up to the storage building I’d rented to keep Kylie’s things. I still remember the day I came here to rent it. I’d been conflicted about getting rid of her stuff. Not because I believed she would need them—we’d believed she was dead—but I’d been worried there might’ve been something that held an emotional connection, and we wouldn’t realize it until it was too late. Granted, it had likely been simply grief since, by the time we got around to removing her things from the house, she’d been gone for almost a year.

After parking, I got out and headed for the door. I used the key to unlock the padlock, then removed it. I grabbed the handle on the large bay door and lifted, letting it slide up on the track and out of the way.

“You kept everything.”

It wasn’t a question, but I answered Travis anyway. “I did.”

Neither of us said anything at that point. What was there to say? If we had gotten rid of it, we wouldn’t have it now. And no, I didn’t believe fate played a part in it at all. I’d merely been too grief-stricken to let go of my wife.

“When are the movers comin’?” Travis asked.

“I didn’t call them,” I admitted. “I figured I’d make a few trips, clean it out myself.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

I thought that meant Travis was done, but he surprised me by walking into the space and grabbing a stack of boxes.

“You’re gonna help?”

“Of course I am,” he grunted under the weight of the boxes. “We’ll take what we can now, then swing by Walker Demo and grab one of the trailers.”

That would definitely make it easier.

So that was what we did.