On the Fly Read Online Free PDF Page A

me.
    She was still here, but she wasn’t the
same. Maddie would never be the same again.
    At least now I knew he could never
hurt her again. Even if he someday got out of prison, the courts
wouldn’t allow him to come near her. Now I just had to figure out
how to protect her from everyone and everything else in the
world.
    “ Did you have a good day at
school?” I asked, holding out my hand to her. She didn’t take it,
but she walked along beside me.
    Maddie looked a heck of a lot older
than her eight years—not in her physical appearance, but something
in her eyes. Physically, she had my eyes, green with gold flecks
all around them, but hers looked like those of an old soul. She
talked like one sometimes, too, not like a eight-year-old
child.
    “ It was fine.”
    It was fine was her way of telling me to back off. Her
counselor had suggested it back in Texas—a simple phrase she could
use when she needed space.
    That only made me more curious about
what had happened, if anything, but it would have to wait for
another time for us to talk about it. It might be nothing and she
just didn’t want to talk. Or she might not want to talk in front of
Tuck. She was really protective of him, always trying to make sure
he was sheltered from things he was too young for. Similar to how I
was with her.
    “ Okay,” I said as we got to
my car. “Listen, I have some news. We’re going out for ice cream to
celebrate.”
    “ Yes!” Tuck said as he
practically jumped into his booster seat. There were few things in
life that could excite him more than ice cream. He fastened his
seat belt and picked up a Hot Wheels car off the seat beside him,
immediately making it race along his leg while he made vrrrroom sounds. He could
entertain himself like that for hours.
    I waited for Maddie to get in so I
could close the door and go around to the driver’s seat. She looked
up at me with wary eyes and dropped her voice so Tuck couldn’t
hear. “Can we afford it? We shouldn’t go if we can’t afford
it.”
    God, I hated how she was worried about
things like money. She should be worried about whether she should
wear blue or purple barrettes in her hair with her favorite outfit,
not about how tight my finances were. I dropped down to my knees so
I could look her in the eye. “We can. I’ll explain when we get
there, okay?”
    “ You’re sure?”
    I nodded.
    “ Okay.”
    I gave her a peck on her forehead, and
she got in. She buckled her belt, and I closed the door. By the
time I got around to the driver’s side, a tear had trickled down my
cheek.
    Damn it . I brushed it away with the back of my hand while I got in
and started the car. I checked the rearview mirror. Tuck was still
racing his cars, and Maddie had pulled a book out of her backpack
to read.
    I took a breath and pulled
out into traffic. This was going to get better. Maddie would get better. Otherwise,
why did I bring my kids halfway across the country?
     
     
     
    “We’re going to live there?” Tuck asked. His hazel eyes were as
big as his face as he stared out the window of the ice cream
shop.
    The condo building Jim Sutter had
recommended was right across the street from where I’d brought the
kids. There was a park with a play area within walking distance,
Powell’s Books was only a short drive away, and there was an
after-school program near the condo that I could get the kids into.
I’d already gone by this afternoon before they’d gotten out of
school and signed a lease, putting down a deposit with the money
Mr. Sutter had insisted I take.
    A signing bonus , he’d called it. I’d
said only players get signing bonuses, but he just shook his head
at me.
    “ Not in this
case.”
    I’d never in my life seen so much
money at one time.
    “ We’ll go look at it after
you finish your ice cream,” I said to Tuck.
    His scoop of mint chocolate chip was
dripping out of his cone and spreading all over the table. Nothing
I could throw at the mess would stop it. I’d