Page 34 of Peach

“All of your friends will be there. I don’t know them.”

“They really are nice. You’ve met Wild, Ava, Mel, Harry, and Rory. That’s a lot.”

She nodded. “I’m just afraid they are going to think I’m dumb, or immature, or something and not like me.”

“They aren’t like that.” He worried about how often she said she was dumb or something similar. She needed something to build herself up. He wasn’t sure what, but from what he’d seen, she was smart, just not experienced. Maybe getting to know his friends would help.

After they finished with dinner, Haisley suggested they go through the last stack of papers and separate them. Then, he would know what he needed to accomplish.

They spent about an hour parsing through the rest of the pages. He had three banks to contact, and two different life insurance companies. He needed to send the death certificate to a few government agencies, and other places. There were four streaming services he needed to cancel, and subscriptions to magazines. It would take some time to get everything in order, and maybe a trip back to Georgia,but with the help of his friends and Haisley, the mountain of paperwork was now something he could conquer.

“Thank you for helping me do that,” Peach said.

“You’re welcome. It’s satisfying to get through information like that.” Haisley tried to stifle a yawn. “Sorry, I’m tired. I think I need to go to bed.”

"Sure. I'll see you in the morning." He had to stop himself from leaning in and giving her a kiss. Before she headed up the stairs, he turned so he didn't watch her walk up. No question, he was feeling some lust toward her. The last thing he needed to do was act on that lust. He could keep himself under control. He just needed to find a new outlet.

For a moment, he thought about going out to a bar and picking someone up, but that held so little appeal that he pushed the thought away and headed into his room to read before bed. Before Haisley, he would have gone out to find someone to hook up with, but now, he didn't want other women. He wondered if something was wrong with him. Maybe he was depressed, and not going out to find someone to have sex with had nothing to do with his desire for Haisley.

Chapter 23

Haisley couldn’t believethey were headed to the beach. There had to have been at least a thousand questions she’d asked Peach. Living in the middle of Georgia and being pregnant meant she didn’t have a bathing suit, but Mel was bringing her one that should fit. Peach said they wouldn’t go in deeper than her ankles because the currents were strong. She wasn’t sure what that meant, but she guessed she would find out.

Her excitement kept her from eating a big breakfast, and she ended up wrapping the egg sandwich in a napkin to eat on the way. Peach loaded up the back of the SUV, and they were on their way.

“What are you most excited about?” Peach asked.

“I don’t know. Will I see a shark?”

“Maybe. It’s not guaranteed. There may be sharks out there, but maybe not. If the waves are high, the sharks will stay out a bit so they don’t get crushed in the surf.”

“How many people are at the beach?”

"Sometimes it's packed. But it's early and not a holidayweekend. Schools aren't out on Monday, so fewer people will be here for a long weekend."

“Does that happen often?” Haisley asked as she looked around, taking in everything. Not much changed, and then she could see blue at the end of the street. “Wait, is that the beach?”

Peach glanced over and shot her a dazzling smile. “Yeah, it’s the beach.”

“That took no time. I could have walked here?”

He shrugged. "There wasn't any traffic this morning, and it would have been a long walk."

She sat forward, her eyes staying on the water even when he turned the car to park. The blue expanse looked like an extension of the sky, as if someone had hung a curtain but left half the material puddled on the ground.

Peach was beside her door, opening it for her. She hadn't even noticed Peach getting out of the car. His hand was out for her to take. When her palm touched his, a zing shot up her arm then went straight down her back to her core. It had to be the excitement of seeing the ocean. The lie slid through her mind like melted butter but dripped away, leaving her with the truth that her attraction to Peach had nothing to do with being excited about the beach. The two types of excitement were separate.

“What do you think?” Peach asked.

“It’s amazing.”

“There you two are,” Mel called out from a bench in the shade.

Haisley took in the crowd, worry spinning up. “Wow, that’s a lot of people.”

“They’re nice though. None of them bite,” Peach said.

Haisley laughed with him. She was making too much out of meeting his friends. So far, everyone she'd met herehad been good to her. These people would be nice. At least, she hoped they would.

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