Chapter Three
A few days later, Kyla sat in the back of Travis’s car and stared out the window. She couldn’t get it out of her head that she was nothing to everyone. The pain was enough to twist her stomach into a knot, and it made it nearly impossible to take a deep breath.
She turned and looked at Nia. “I’m sorry they dumped me on you. I can always go to a hotel.”
Nia looked surprised, and Travis frowned in his rearview mirror.
Nia reached back for her hand. “I’m so glad you could come to spend the night with us.”
Kyla tried to smile, but her heart and spirit hurt more than any other time in her life. It seemed no one wanted her around—not even Jenna. The pain of abandonment was something she knew firsthand and always feared would happen time and again.
Her mother abandoned her when she was twelve, and she had to go live with an aunt who made it known daily how much she didn’t want her there. She’d never known who her father was and knew she’d never find out because her mother liked to sleep around.
They pulled up in front of the house, and she slipped out of the car.
Travis stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Honey, we do want you here with us.”
She tried to smile and didn’t think she didn’t do a very good job because his frown deepened. “We’ll talk more about this later,” he said.
She nodded but knew she’d do whatever it took to dodge that conversation.
Kyla spent the night playing with Nia’s toys, and she tried to pay attention to what she was saying, but all her thoughts were that she had nothing and no one, and she needed to come to grips and make some decisions.
She needed to leave and make a home for herself, find a good job or maybe two. She had nothing else she wanted to do with her time, so why not use it to make more money? Maybe she could save it to buy a house someday. That was something she’d always dreamed of. She always saw a family in it, but most dreams didn’t come true, at least for her, and she knew that already.
“Are you listening, Kyla?”
She jerked her gaze toward the other woman. “I’m sorry. I was thinking.”
“About what?”
“Making a future for myself.”
Nia’s brows puckered. “What does that mean?”
Kyla shrugged. “It just means I need to make some decisions about my future.”
“Can’t you let Trey help with that?”
“No, he’s busy with his work and Jenna. I’m an adult. I can do it all by myself.”
“But … you’re like me and the rest of the littles. It’s harder for us than regular women.”
Kyla shrugged. “I might be like you, but I’m sure there are others out there like us who have to make their own way.”
“But you don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do. Can we please not talk about this anymore?”
Nia nodded and squeezed her hand. “Do you want to play a game?”
“Yes.” Anything to get her mind off her predicament.
****
Nia waited until Kyla was asleep before going to find her daddy.
The look in Kyla’s eyes scared her, and she felt sad for her. It was like she’d given up somehow, and Nia didn’t know what to do. She did know that if she didn’t help her, they would lose her, and she couldn’t fathom not being able to spend time with her.