Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20435 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20435 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
I dress her in my t-shirt. It’s tight across her generous tits and barely covers her cute ass. Something about seeing her in my clothes fills me with happiness. She’s always beautiful but now she’s covered in my scent and wrapped in my things.
Before she can take the couch, I pull her onto my bed and tuck her in. Then I curl up next to her and pull her into my arms. This is exactly how every day with her should end, with the two of us cuddled together.
She traces her fingertips along my arm. “You need some tattoos.”
I chuckle because we both know I am not a needle person. But I’ve been there for her every time she’s gotten a tattoo, except for the first one.
Then she asks in such a quiet tone I almost miss the question, “Do you think we made a baby?”
I glance at the ceiling and try not to get too excited about the possibilities. Cash said it could take a while. He said given my medication that we might need to seek medical intervention at some point down the road. “I really hope so.”
“I was just a baby when I got abandoned.”
I go completely still, willing myself not to even breathe. Peyton has never talked about her background. Anytime I’ve tried to bring it up, she’s shut down the conversation quickly.
“The records say I was surrendered to the state under a safe haven law when I was two days old. But surrendered is just a nice word for abandoned. Nobody’s ever wanted me. That’s why I’m so hopeful about this. If I have a baby, I’ll finally have a family. I mean, you shouldn’t have a kid just so you have someone to love you back. That’s probably a bad thing to do. But I think I have a lot of love to give and maybe if I could just share that love with someone, I wouldn’t feel so lonely all the time.”
“You have me,” I promise, my heart aching and raw at her words. I don’t like the idea that she’s always been so lonely. How have I never noticed? Why haven’t I done more for her?
She sighs and goes quiet.
Since she’s opened up to me tonight, I decide to chance it and ask, “What happened after you went into the system?”
“I bounced around from home to home. Most of them were nice. Until I was nine and one of the foster dads was…he was kind of creepy. When he tried to hurt me, I bit him. Hard enough to get him stitches.”
I howl with rage. She was vulnerable and the man entrusted with her care tried to harm her. Even now, I want to find out his name and track him down. I want to make him pay for what he did to my Peyton when she was just a little girl.
She gives me a sad smile. “I was scared and didn’t tell anybody what happened. So, I got labeled as a violent kid and after that, the homes were a lot worse. I spent a lot of time running away from them.”
Is that why she still runs? Is that why she can just pack up her things and Honey and disappear for a few days? I don’t understand this. She’s amazing and beautiful and perfect. How did the families around her never see that?
She continues, “Eventually I ran to Courage County, and everyone here was nice to me. So, I enrolled in the high school classes and then I met you.”
“And life has been a non-stop thrill ride since,” I answer.
She chuckles, the sound soft and sleepy.
I still remember the first time I discovered she was living in a little abandoned camper on the edge of town with no running water and no electricity. We’d just graduated, and she’d been living that way for two years without complaining.
I about lost my shit when I saw the place. Within a day, she was in a furnished apartment. She was eighteen and even though my parents offered to let her move in with us, she liked being on her own. At least, that’s what she insisted to them.
She’s lived in the same tiny apartment since then. Even when I built my own home on the Kringle farm, she refused to move in with me. In some ways, I’ve understood. The apartment is her first real home. But more than ever, I want to find a way to convince her to move here.
We’re quiet for a long moment, neither of us talking. I’m trying to decide if I should put my feelings out here tonight but settle on tomorrow. I’ll go into Asheville with West and Micah and find a big rock first thing. My girl deserves a huge diamond.
Yep, a diamond then I’ll take her out to eat somewhere fancy. All we have in Courage is Ernie’s Diner, so I’ll drive us to Sweetgrass River. They have plenty of restaurants and eateries there. I’ll do this thing right to show her how much I care.