Page 285 of Steamy Ever After

“Wrong? I don’t know. Too tough on him? Definitely.”

“Really?”

“Go look in the mirror, Peyton. You’re still you.”

She checked her phone, both to see if it was time for her to pick Jamison up from basketball practice and to see if she’d missed a call or text from Brodie. She hadn’t.

“You want me to go get Jamison or stay here with Finn?”

“I’ll go. Thanks for coming over, Alex.”

“I’m here almost every day, Peyton. What would I do with myself if I wasn’t?”

“Yeah, but you only have a couple of days of amazing sex left before your next dry spell, so I owe you.”

Alex stuck a spoon into a gallon of ice cream. “Whatever. I have junk food. I’m good.”

Peyton had a few minutes to kill before Jamie would be done, so she walked from her house to Moonstone Beach Road and watched the sun on the water. A week ago, she’d met Brodie here and wound up spending the whole day with him. Now, he wasn’t speaking to her, and she wasn’t sure what to do about it.

Part of her could see Alex’s point, that maybe she’d been too hard on him. On the other hand, he’d really overstepped. She was about to jump off the rock and go get Jamison when a familiar orange sports car pulled up.

She turned around and waited for him to get out. When he didn’t, she walked over. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

“Uh, I have to go get Jamison.”

“Please get in.”

“Brodie, did you hear me?”

“I heard you. Please, Peyton.”

Peyton climbed in, and Brodie drove to the school. Jamison was walking out the gym door when they arrived.

“Where’s Finn?” Jamie asked.

“He’s home, honey, with Aunt Alex, who raided the junk-food aisle at Louie’s,” Peyton told him.

“Cool! Am I going to be allowed to have any?”

“If she’ll share.”

Brodie drove to Peyton’s. “Can you tell Alex your mom and I have a quick errand to run?”

Jamison looked at his mom.

“It’s okay, honey. We’ll only be a minute.”

“Okay.”

Brodie put the car in reverse, then drove the block and a half to the beach.

“What’s going on, Brodie?”

He parked the car and turned to face her. “You were right. When I said I was sorry earlier, I only said it because you were mad.”

“And?”

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