Pleasing Mindy

Pleasing Mindy - Chapter 1

She'd loved Kyle and he'd loved her, and if he hadn't died, they would be married today. Theirs was a love that would have stood the test of time. They'd been saving up to get married and rent their own apartment when he died suddenly and tragically. It was his love for her, and his protection toward her that had caused his death. So in that regard, his mother was right. Kyle was dead because of her. She so wished that she'd lied about how she'd gotten her bruises when she'd walked into the apartment that day.

"You don't have to know your father, Kyle," Mindy said, passing her hand over her son's mop of curly dark hair and gazing into his gray eyes. He was the image of his father, making it impossible for her to ever forget the wonderful but so few years she'd loved and was loved by his father. "All you need to know is that your daddy knew you. He held you in his arms, he hugged you, he kissed you. He loved you very, very much, and I loved him just as fiercely. Our love for each other made you and your sister."

"How, Mommy?" Britt asked, staring up at Mindy through warm brown eyes. "How did you and my daddy make us?"

"With sex." Kyle glared at her as if daring her to refute him. "That's where babies come from."

"What's sex, Mommy?"

"Something you don't need to worry about just yet," Mindy told her five-year-old daughter. What do you know about sex? was what she wanted to ask her six-year-old son, but she tucked the question away for later when they were alone. "Say 'Happy Birthday' to your daddy," she reiterated, smiling down at her children. And say 'Hi' to your grandfather," she added, glancing at the headstone next to Kyle's.

"Happy Birthday, Daddy. I love you," Brittany said in her sweet angel voice. "I hope you like the flowers we brought." She glanced at her grandfather's grave. "I love you, Grandpa. I hope you like the flowers, too."

Kyle silently stared at the headstones of his father and his grandfather, his lips drawn into a tight line, just like his father's when he was upset, Mindy thought.

"I'm cold, Mommy." Britt pressed her slender body against Mindy's thigh in an effort to stay warm. "Can we go back to the car now?"

"It doesn't matter," Kyle stated in a vehement voice. "The car is just as cold. I hate my life!"

Mindy shuddered as she watched him stomp down the narrow path toward the car that was parked in a clearing a few yards away. He was hotheaded like his father had been, and that one particular trait scared her. She hoped to God that he would grow out of it.

"Wait up, Kyle," Britt called, as she chased after her brother.

Alone for a few moments, Mindy pressed her lips together to stifle the cry that threatened to erupt from her throat. "I miss you," she said, tears blurring her vision as she bent down to rearrange the fresh flowers in the mason jar on Kyle's grave. "I'm sorry. I should have known that you would have gone after him, but I couldn't lie to you. We'd promised never to lie to each other or to our children no matter how much the truth might hurt. I just didn't know that that truth would hurt so much, that it would take you away from us." She blinked as fresh tears pooled in her eyes. "You were my first love, Kyle, and I will always love you." Her heart ached at the thought that she hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye to him. "I'll take good care of our beautiful kids."

She choked on a sob as she recalled the day of Kyle's funeral when she'd stood in this very spot for the first time with a fussy two-month-old Brittany in her arms, and a crying twenty-two-month-old Kyle Jr. hanging onto her legs. "Britt has your smile, you know—the kind that lights up a room like yours used to. She's so sweet, Kyle, like the little angel you used to call her."

She paused, leaned forward and ran a finger along the groove of Kyle's name in the limestone. "I'm worried about our son, though. He's so angry, and I don't know what to do. I wish you were here. I try to make up for it, but I'm not enough. He needs a man in his life, a father figure..."