Page 6 of Love Set Me Free

“Shut up, dummy,” Tiana snapped.

From there, Paisley tuned them out as she often did. Thirty seconds later, while they were still bickering, she hung up on them and put her phone on DND. She should have done it as soon as she woke up that morning, knowing what today brought, but she didn’t want to be cruel to her family. They cared about Kydrick, too, but at this point, they stressed her out too much to care about their feelings.

Her nerves were already bad, and she felt like she might cry at any moment. She only thanked God that the press hadn’t caught wind that he would be released today. They would have been camped out here right along with her, and that would have caused her anxiety to skyrocket.

Turning to toss her phone through the open window of her car, she leaned in and reached for her sunglasses in the holder on the ceiling of the truck. Before she could grab them, a deep voice behind her startled her.

“Paisley Pooh.”

She whirled around. At the same time, tears brimmed her eyes and fell. She only caught a glimpse of Kydrick standing before her before she was in his arms. She wasn’t sure if he had picked her up or if she jumped into his arms. Whatever it was, she was securely held up against his chest as she sobbed.

Twelve years. Twelvelongyears. And it all boiled down to this moment. Paisley held onto him as if her life depended on it. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and he held her up with one arm sitting under her thighs and one around her middle. It occurred to her that they had never hugged like this in the past. It also occurred to her that this was an unusual circumstance. Itwasn’t every day a person was released from prison after being exonerated for a crime they never committed.

Emotions flowed through them. Just as Paisley sniffled and allowed tears to fall, Kydrick did the same. No words were sufficient to describe the feelings passing between them at the moment. Paisley didn’t want to stay there too long though. In fact, she wanted to get Kydrick far away, so reluctantly, she pulled away from him and smiled through her tears.

“Let’s get out of here, yeah?”

Kydrick’s jaw clenched as he nodded, letting her down slowly so she could stand on her feet. With kind eyes peering up at him, she reached for his cheeks and wiped his tears. He allowed her to do so for a couple of seconds before capturing her hand and placing a kiss on her knuckles.

“Let’s go.”

Kydrick grew to be a man of few words. Paisley didn’t blame him, and even now, though he didn’t say much, she understood how he felt and what he needed at that moment. He didn’t have to talk to her. She’d known him too long, and words were their lazy way of communicating. If she paid attention to his facial expression and his body language, she knew all she needed to know. He had always been the same with her… Janelle, too, way back then.

After squeezing his hand one last time, she turned to reach for the car door handle, but Kydrick beat her to it and opened the door for her. Once she was tucked safely inside, she wiped her remaining tears and checked her reflection in the mirror tucked into the sun visor. By the time she finished, Kydrick was in the car with his seat belt on. Paisley grabbed her sunglasses from their compartment and put them on before starting the car and pulling out of her spot.

She glanced over at Kydrick and admired the gray Nike Tech outfit she’d gotten him with the fresh pair of white Air Maxshoes. He looked good despite being fresh out of prison, but the scowl on his face made her think he was anything but happy to finally be free.

“You okay?” she whispered, her voice hoarse from unshed tears.

It took everything in her not to let the fresh ones fall from her eyes. She would save that for when she was alone. It wasn’t that the space between her and Kydrick wasn’t safe to show emotions. The day was abouthim, though, and she wanted to keep her own emotions in check so he could safely feel allhis. For years, she’d coached herself on how to allow Kydrick to do and feel as he pleased on the day of his release.

He pulled his gaze from the window and looked at her profile. His eyes stayed there for several long seconds before he said, “Thank you for coming to get me,” completely ignoring her question.

She squirmed, but her brows pulled together at his words.

“There is literally nothing else I would rather do right now, Kyd. You knew there was nothing that could have kept me from doing this. You know that, right?” Her eyes flickered over to him before she focused back on the road.

“It just seemed like the right thing to say, so I’ll say it again, and I just want you to accept it, aight? Thank you. Not just for today, but for everything. You the only one that did that time with me.” His voice caught, and it took him a few seconds to finish. “Thank you.”

The only thing Paisley could do was nod. If she spoke, she would pour her heart out to Kydrick so he understood why she needed to be by his side through this whole ordeal. She couldn’t do that, though, because though something new had grown between them over the past twelve years, it was like an unspoken rule that they didn’t speak about it. They didn’tnamethe feelings. Paisley feared losing the only friend she had if sheput the words out into the world, so she clamped her mouth shut and let the silence do the talking for her.

After ten minutes of driving in what turned into a very comfortable silence, Paisley broke it.

“What do you want to do first, Kyd? I was thinking we could go to Sazón, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted that to be your first meal. I planned to cook tonight…”

She allowed her words to trail off because she knew she was about to ramble. She’d thought long and hard about what to feed Kydrick after he got out, and she always came back to Sazón. It was their childhood favorite. Kydrick, Janelle, and Paisley used to go there after spending long days at the beach and scrounging up enough money from their parents to buy thefeast a fiestataco pack, which consisted of a variety of twenty tacos. It was their tradition for many years before everything changed, and she thought it might be nice for him to come home to something familiar.

She stopped at a red light and glanced over at Kydrick to see him already looking at her with a toothless grin plastered on his face.

“You cook?”

The question caught Paisley so off guard that she snorted. “Of course, I cook. You know who my mama is. She made sure all her kids knew how to throw down in the kitchen.”

Kydrick nodded slowly. “Yeah, Mama Whitaker always knew her way around the kitchen.” After staying silent for a beat, he said, “Sazón sounds good, Pooh.”

Paisley beamed as she got off the exit to take them to the Mexican restaurant. When they pulled into the parking lot, Kydrick wasted no time getting out of the car before she could even cut it off. His long legs made quick work of rounding the truck, and he opened her door before she could even touch the handle. She wondered when he had become such a gentleman.He had been before, but not to this extent. He was still young and learning back then.

She slowly got out of the truck and watched as Kydrick stretched and breathed in the fresh air deeply. While she looked up at him, she got lost in the mere mass of him. He’d grown from the lanky teen with a few muscles here and there. Now, he was tall and imposing with muscles that couldn’t be missed even through his zip-up hoodie.

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