Page 259 of Steamy Ever After

“I don’t know, honey. Premonition?”

“But it seemed so real. He seemed so real.”

“I don’t know, Peyton. All I know for sure is that he’s dead and you didn’t see him this morning.”

Peyton rolled over and closed her eyes. A few minutes later, Alex got up and left the bedroom. Peyton turned over and looked up at the ceiling. She wasn’t crazy. She knew it was nuts to think she saw Kade, to think he’d talked to her. But it had seemed so real that she couldn’t shake it.

Maybe Alex was right. She and Brodie had hardly slept at all last night. Between the stress of something happening to his mom and him having to leave, and the weirdness of it all, her mind had played tricks on her like it had so many times before.

Peyton could hear Alex on the phone again, but not what she was saying. She reached over and looked at her cell. It was the middle of the afternoon. Had she really slept that long? She sat up, felt dizzy, and grasped the edge of the bed, waiting for the room to stop spinning. She was about to get up when she heard Alex’s footsteps coming down the hallway.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, but I’ll see. Hold on,” she heard her friend say before she came around the corner.

“It’s Brodie,” she mouthed.

She shook her head, eased by her, and went into the bathroom.

“She’s still sleeping. I’ll tell her you called when she wakes up.”

When Peyton came out, she walked in the direction of the kitchen.

“How are you feeling?” her friend asked.

“Fine.”

“You slept a long time.”

“I was tired.”

“Peyton?”

“Don’t say it, Alex. I feel stupid, okay? Really stupid.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“How’s Mrs. Butler?”

“She’s fine. They’re keeping her for a couple of days, but otherwise, they aren’t concerned.”

Peyton wouldn’t say it out loud, one because she knew it sounded like she’d lost her mind, and two, Alex would get angry with her. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that everything her friend said, she already knew. At least most of it. The last thing she remembered Kade saying was, “She’ll be okay, and so will you.” What did he mean when he said she’d be okay too?

“Brodie wants to come by.”

Peyton knew he would, given the way he’d left this morning. “Does he know?”

“No. I told you the only other person who knows is Addy.”

“My parents.”

“They aren’t going to tell Brodie or anyone else, sweetie.”

“Maddox?”

“Give me a break. What did I just say? I said no one else. And jeez, do you really think I’d tell Maddox?”

Peyton shrugged.

“Brodie wants to see you. Unless you tell him, he’s not going to understand.”

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