She wiped a tear from her cheek and that’s when she saw him again. Not her dad, but Soldier Dude, aka her very own stalker. Standing across the street, he wore the same army duds as before. He looked as if he’d just walked out of one of those Gulf War movies her mom loved. Only instead of shooting at things or being blown up, he stood frozen in one spot, and stared right at Kylie with sad, yet very scary eyes.
She’d noticed him stalking her a few weeks ago. He’d never spoken to her and she hadn’t spoken to him. But the day she pointed him out to her mom, and Mom hadn’t seen him . . . well, that’s when Kylie’s world slid off its axis. Her mom thought she was making it up to get attention, or worse. With the worse being that Kylie was losing her grip on reality. Sure, the night terrors that had tormented her when she was a kid had returned, worse than ever. Her mom said the shrink could help her work through them but how could she do that when Kylie didn’t even remember them? She only knew they were bad. Bad enough to have her wake up screaming.
Kylie wanted to scream now. Wanted to scream for her dad to turn around and look—to prove that she hadn’t lost her mind. At the very least, maybe if her dad actually saw her stalker, her parents would let her off from seeing the shrink. It wasn’t fair.
But life wasn’t fair, as her mom had reminded her more than once.
Nevertheless, when Kylie looked back, he was gone. Not Soldier Dude, but her dad. She turned toward the driveway and saw him shoving his suitcase in the backseat of his red convertible Mustang. Mom had never liked that car, but dad loved it.
Kylie ran to the car. “I’ll make Grandma talk to Mom. She’ll fix . . .” No sooner had the words escaped Kylie’s lips than she remembered the other major sucky event she’d had plopped into her life.
She couldn’t run to Grandma to fix her problems anymore. Because Grandma was dead. Gone. The vision of Nana lying cold in the casket filled Kylie’s head and another lump crawled up her throat.
Her dad’s expression morphed into parental concern, the same look that had landed Kylie at the shrink’s office three weeks ago.
“I’m fine. I just forgot.” Because remembering hurt too much. She felt a lone tear roll down her cheek.
Dad moved in and hugged her. The embrace lasted even longer than his usual hugs, but it ended too soon. How could she let him go? How could he leave her?
His arm dropped from around her and he physically set her back. “I’m just a phone call away, Pumpkin.”
Swiping at her tears, hating her watery weakness, she watched her dad’s red convertible get smaller 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 pulled his usual disappearing act.
Nope. He was still there, staring, stalking. Scaring the bejebbies 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 chill tiptoeing down Kylie’s spine, the same kind of chill Kylie had gotten at Nana’s funeral.
What the hell 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’ll live,” Kylie answered. More than she could say about Grandma. Right then, Kylie had a vision of the bright blue eye shadow 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 grilling Dad’s shorts to remember?”
Her mom ignored the grilled-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 emotionally, but physically didn’t blink. “Aren’t they always?”
Okay, so she lied. Normally 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.