Page 11 of Love Set Me Free

After eating, Paisley insisted on cleaning up while Kydrick relaxed, but she should have known better. Kydrick was not raised to sit back and watch a woman take such good care of him and not lift a finger to help. That was how he felt while he was locked down. He saw Paisley bending over backward for him while the most he could do was spend his commissary money that she and her family gave him to outsource gifts on holidays. He wrote her letters and talked to her on the phone, but that was the absolute most he could do while he was away.

Things would be very different now. His main goal was to get his life in order and work on letting go of all the pent up anger simmering just beneath the surface for him. His immediate second goal was to make Paisley happy.

For him, things felt complicated given their past. He had been so hurt when Janelle left him for someone else. And not just someone else, but someone she went on to marry. That was supposed to be them with the nice house and two children,and there wasn’t anything he could do about it in his situation. Frustration was an everyday feeling for him, but Paisley… she made it better—easier.Somewhere along the line, his mind shifted from anger and pain toward Janelle to unyielding love for Paisley. He wasn’t sure yet if it was romantic love or not, but he knew there was nobody on this Earth left he loved more than her.

The thought of exploring those feelings scared him, though. It felt wrong to look at her that way because of Janelle. No matter how wrong she did him, neither he nor Paisley were the kind of people to get caught up in a situation like that. He felt like he had to play catch up, so though he wanted to make Paisley happy, he wasn’t sure he could in that way. Not right now, at least. As a man, he felt the immediate urge to get on his feet and provide for himself before he could think about dating. He also felt like Paisley needed to spend some time living her life outside of him.

While all that was true, his probing about her having a man earlier sent a painful shot straight through his heart. Now that he was on the outside, he wasn’t sure how he would deal with her dating another man.

“I think that’s it,” Paisley said, looking around the kitchen to make sure they’d put everything away and washed the few dishes they used.

Her eyes finally landed on him, causing warmth to spread through his body. He hadn’t felt warmth in a very long time, and it made him feel good. If he wasn’t careful, he’d get addicted to the feeling.

“What do you want to do now?”

There was no question what he wanted to do.

“Honestly? I really just want to chill. Watch some movies, sleep, eat some more leftovers, and repeat.”

Paisley beamed, causing Kydrick’s heart to stutter. He didn’t know what he said to make her smile at him like that, but he felt a tug to say it repeatedly just to stay in that moment.

“That sounds perfect. The day is yours. Whatever you want to do is fine with me. Do you think you’ll be up for family dinner tomorrow though? You know my mom is making a big fuss about it.”

It was Kydrick’s turn to smile. He felt himself warming back up to that facial expression. There hadn’t been much to smile about for a very long time, but just a couple of hours in Paisley’s presence changed that. Today, he felt grateful, and smiling felt more natural to him than it had for years, but underneath that, he still felt anger. Anger at so many things. Everything he missed, the false accusations, the justice system… He wondered if that would ever go away or if he would be stuck wearing that emotion like a dishonorable badge for the rest of his life.

His smiled faded pretty quickly, though. He had envisioned reuniting with his people so many times, but the pain of not having his parents there, nobody of his own blood, cut him deeply. Losing his father while locked up almost took him out. He crashed out bad and had to spend some time in solitary. Living life as a free man had the potential to cause another crash out because it reopened wounds he had only been able to partially heal while on the inside.

Tackling his first family get together without his parents wouldn’t be easy, but he had prepared himself for this. He couldn’t distance himself from the only people on the planet that he had left. If anyone understood how precious time was, it was him, so he found himself nodding at Paisley and thanking God that he had a full day to get his mind right.

“Yeah, that’s cool.”

As if she could feel every one of his emotions, she took a couple of steps to cover the space between them and placed her small hands into his large ones.

“Come on. Let’s get comfy on the couch.”

Just like that, his smile returned. They walked into the living room. While Kydrick sat on the large sectional, she gathered her favorite blankets and tossed them over him before sitting beside him with the remote.

“What do you want to watch?”

“Shit, I don’t even know. Put me on to a new show. I know you and Nelle used to be delirious over your little shows. What you been watching lately?”

The mention of Janelle caused Paisley to tense. He hadn’t meant for her name to come out so casually. He didn’t even like speaking about her, but his brain automatically correlated the free world with Janelle and Paisley. They were who he spent all his time with before. He knew it would take some rewiring to get out of that mindset. He just hoped Paisley would be patient with him.

The moment passed, and Paisley offered him a small smile before saying, “I think you’ll loveBridgerton.”

Kydrick, not knowing what that was, shrugged and got comfortable, leaning back and watching as she turned on the TV and navigated to Netflix. Once the show started, he pulled her into him, yearning for the warmth she brought to his cold exterior, and she melted right into him.

That was exactly how they stayed for the rest of the day.

Kydrick woke with a start, looking around and wondering what pulled him from such a deep sleep. When he finally remembered where he was, he relaxed, realizing he was safe. To fall into such a deep sleep in prison always left him unsettled when he woke up. He always felt the need to stay alert and sleep as lightly as possible, but his body couldn’t help the natural reaction to feeling safe, secure, and comfortable for the first time in twelve years, and he has slept like a rock without even meaning to.

He and Paisley binge watched all of season one ofBridgertonand half of season two. When they first started it, he wasn’t sure he would like it, but how wrong he was. He ate that shit up and couldn’t wait to watch more with Paisley. Hopefully, they would later that night.

Today, they planned to set some things in motion for him. Apparently, his lawyer, who also happened to be Paisley’s boss, wanted to meet with him. After that, he wanted to go shopping with the bit of leftover commissary money he had. He needed to get a phone, a bank account, his license… the errands of the day seemed endless but necessary. After that, they would go to Paisley’s folks’ house.

Nerves piled up in his stomach as he thought about everything that needed to be done, but when he glanced down at his chest, he calmed. Paisley’s big ol’ head and mass of hair seemed to take up his entire torso. She snuggled up to him and seemed to be sleeping peacefully, but judging by the light coming in through the blinds, he could tell it was well into the morning, and they needed to get going.

It hadn’t even been their intention to fall asleep on the couch, but they had, and he wasn’t even mad at it. Although he had learned to appreciate being in solitude, he couldn’t deny that having Paisley laid up on him felt good.

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