Page 23 of Peach

Her chest tightened as she thought about the baby inside her. Would she rather have a boy or a girl? She wasn't sure. Either would be fine, she guessed. A girl would allow her to correct things her parents had done wrong. No matter if it was a boy or a girl, she needed to be a better person than what she'd been raised with.

“We should probably get going,” Peach said. “I know those kids have school tomorrow.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Lila said.

Emma twirled. “I love school.”

"It's too slow. I get finished so fast, and everyone elsetakes an hour. I'm so bored," Lila said as she and her sister ran upstairs.

Wild looked at Ava and frowned. “We really need to address that this year. It’s getting bad.”

Haisley had no clue how they would address it. She had so much to learn about being a parent. This was going to be hard. No doubt, she'd been leaning on the idea that Ellen would be there to help her. Now, she would have to rely on Peach and his friends.

The drive to Peach's place wasn't long, only a few blocks away, and then worry really hit. She'd moved across the country to a strange city with few trees and people she didn't know, and now she was reliant on a stranger. What if this had all been a big mistake? There was no way she could get back to Georgia.

Heat filled her, and her stomach ached. How would she survive this? Surely, she would regret moving here with Peach.

Chapter 17

Sunday night went well,and on Monday, Peach left for work, hoping Haisley would adjust to living in California. It hadn't surprised him that she'd been asleep when he left. He left a note telling her he would be back around four and hoped that she had a good day.

It was odd going back to work after time off. Nothing really happened, but going back to doing heavy workouts after not doing any in Georgia wore him out. After lunch, he stretched out on the floor and closed his eyes.

“Hey, you taking a nap?” Harry asked.

“Not now, I guess,” Peach said.

"Hey," Jax called out as he entered the room. "Fifteen minutes, and we're in a conference. Room eight."

Peach stood, groaning as he got up. Tonight, he needed to get some deep sleep. Stress was eating at him. He still needed to contact someone about his parents. Maybe he could talk to someone before he left for the day.

The meeting was another reminder that he needed to warn Haisley about some of the things his job required. They weren't leaving now, just being warned about a placeheating up overseas. There were multiple areas they watched, but this one was new and looked like it could explode at any moment.

“Hey.” Harry came up beside him as they walked over to their offices. “Everything okay?”

"Stress. I don't know what my dad was thinking when he flew off to Colombia with my mom in tow. There was a missing woman, and someone ended up taking a photo of her in Colombia. The mother of that woman was a neighbor to my parents. Then my mom and dad took off to Colombia to do who knows what. I can't believe they didn't contact me or anything. I'm angry, and then, with everything else, it's been a week, and I don't know what to do next. Plus, I have all the shit to go through and figure out their accounts."

“Dang, that’s a lot. How about we work on the Colombia thing when we get back to the office?”

“What Colombia thing?” Jax asked as he came up beside them.

Harry told Jax the information, and he immediately called someone. Jax helping was a small relief. Maybe someone would look into it. He hated that his parents had done something so boneheaded as head to Colombia to rescue a woman, but his dad was someone who leaped before he looked.

Growing up, it had been exciting, but it also had gotten them in trouble a few times. His dad had almost fallen off cliffs, almost been attacked by a mountain lion, and almost ended up on the wrong end of a gun being held by pissed-off mountain men. There had been so many close calls Peach couldn't count them. He loved his parents, but his father had pushed to the extremes.

Maybe the extremes had led Peach to be a SEAL, but being a SEAL taught him responsibility. There was aproper way to go into a situation and do things, and his father didn’t follow any rules, and he certainly didn’t use wisdom when he jumped into things.

They'd set up around a table, all of them on their computers, as they searched for information about what had happened to his parents. There were few reports and no photos. Now Peach was even more concerned about what had happened.

Jax received a phone call, and he left the room. Peach wondered if he should follow, but Jax hadn’t waved him over. There was almost an overwhelming number of things he had to do. He’d thought he could go to Georgia and take care of everything quickly, but the things he’d found at his parents’ place had expanded his to do list, making it seem almost impossible to conquer.

“How is Haisley doing?” Wild asked.

Peach shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. I feel like I bit off more than I can chew.”

“Hey, you’ll get it together,” Wild said.

“Peach,” Harry called out.

---