Page 23 of All Our Secrets

“You said the baby eats a lot. You need sleep.” Silas followed me.

“I know, but any time you try to tell me what to do, it makes me want to do the opposite.”

“I’m not telling you what to do—”

“Go rest, Peyton.” I deepened my voice for full effect. “You’re naturally bossy, and it annoys me.”

“I am who I am. Theo—”

“Don’t even.” I cut him off, knowing he was about to say Theo would have wanted this. Silas was wrong. He was very different from his best friend. “My husband never pushed me about anything.”

The air grew quiet and heavy as Silas’s dark stare seemed to swallow me and everything else in the room whole.

I averted my gaze. No wonder Silas didn’t do small talk.He overwhelmed.“I’m sorry. You’ve done more than I’ve wanted you to lately, and now I called you here, and I’m tire—”

“Do I look like someone who would do something I didn’t want to do?” He lifted one brow. The scars on his right side barely moved.

Did that side feel as stiff as it looked when he made faces like that? What did it feel like? With how deep and twisted the burns were, was it thick and smooth like worn leather? When his big arms flexed over his even bigger chest, I stopped gawking.

“I’ll help or say what needs to be said, even when it makes you mad. That’s who I am. No one can make me be somewhere I don’t want to be.”

That I believed, but…Wait a minute.My lips parted. What did that mean? He came because I called. Plain and simple. He had barely spoken to me for years, and now he said he wanted to be here. He wanted to protect me and my child. My heart raced, then immediately, my stomach churned, cooling the rushing beats.I’m feeling weird again.Stupid postpartum emotions. Everything inside me was all wonky.

Silas King was so confusing.

“Gosleep,Peyton.”

My spine stiffened at his authoritative tone. Well, that got on my damn nerves. I’d planned on it, but I didn’t want him to think I was obeying his orders. “I’m going to bed but not because you told me so.”

He hummed. “Right.”

“God. Why are you so infuriating?”

“What did I do now?”

“Can you just find the person doing this?” I nagged.

“We might not find anyone.”

I groaned. “Yes, one look at your ugly pickup outside, and they’d know the lumberjack asshole was here. That would send even the bravest souls running in the other direction.”

“Lumberjack?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m tired, and you own a wood shop and have a beard.”

“Right.” That condescending tone again. “One look at me should do the trick.”

The irritation bubbling inside my throat dissipated. I watched him walk to the window and peek out, though it was too dark to see much. His scars made him uncomfortable. I often stared because of that, to make him squirm, but I never thought he might think himself ugly. Something about his response made me believe he might. Which was ludicrous. Silas was many things, but unattractive wasn’t one of them. If anything, those scars enhanced his rugged handsomeness. But I’d swallow my tongue before I’d tell that tohim.If he wanted to believe himself to be a toad, I’d let him.

“You’re right. That attitude of yours should do the trick,” I muttered as I went up the stairs.

Silas King infuriated me, and the sad thing was, I didn’t think he was trying to. It was who he was, like he said. Ugh. What was I thinking? Why had I called him?

Chapter Eleven:

tell her

Silas

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