Page 5 of Peach

With the toast and eggs done and his sausage cooked, which wasn't making her nauseous for the first time in months, they sat at the table together. Honestly, she felt odd sitting with him. The anger she understood. She'd dealt with so much from the men she'd been with that when a guy didn't get angry, it was weird. This man being able to control his reactions was new to her. He'd gone from red-faced to calm in seconds. It was something she'dnever seen before, and she wondered how long that would last.

She scooped up some eggs and was about to take a bite when she really looked at his plate. “How many eggs is that?”

He glanced at his plate and shrugged as he took a bite. “Four.”

“Oh. That’s a lot.” Heat washed through her. She shouldn’t have said anything. The man could eat as many eggs as he liked. She would have to get up early and walk to the store in the morning.

Robert shrugged. “I eat a lot.”

She finally put the bite of eggs into her mouth and moaned at how good they tasted. Too much time had passed since dinner. A part of her moving in here was so she could eat on a consistent basis. She'd been doing great for a while. Ellen had insisted that she take better care of herself, and it worked until one day a few weeks ago, she'd gone into town a little after eight in the morning and run into the pastor's wife. The woman had thrown a fit, calling her names. Haisley had left the store and gone straight back to Ellen and John's place. She hadn't told either of them what had happened. They couldn't control everyone or everything. She should be happy that they'd given her a place to sleep and provided food for her.

Sadness hit hard, and she set her fork down. She’d almost consumed all the eggs, but she didn’t think she could stomach more.

“Hey, everything okay?”

She nodded, trying not to cry. “Yeah. Just thinking about something that happened. I didn’t tell your mom or John. If I’d mentioned—“ A sob escaped her, and she covered her eyes.

“Hey,” Robert said. Then she heard the scrape of his chair, and she glanced up.

He pulled her up for a hug. Fear shot through her, and she froze. He stilled and leaned back. His eyes were full of questions.

What would he think? A reminder of why she was in this current predicament took that exact moment to land a very precise kick that made her think he was going to be strong. Tears began to gather in her eyes, and she fought to keep them from falling.

“Sorry. I wasn’t trying anything. You just looked so sad.”

She shook her head. “I just…I—“ She turned and fled the kitchen. Getting into what had happened and why she was living at his parents’ house was too much. He wouldn’t understand. Hell, he would probably kick her out if he found out.

Haisley shut the door to the bathroom and leaned against it. Tears streamed down her face as she held onto her belly. She wasn't showing if she wore sweatshirts. Soon, it would be too hot here in Georgia to wear clothes that hid her condition. Then everyone would know.

She should have gotten rid of the baby. But she'd had too many miscarriages in the past to not want one to stick, even if it had happened in such a horrible way.

It sucked that the one time her ex drugged her and passed her around to his friends, she got pregnant. She’d woke up naked the next morning on the edge of the pool at some big house on the north side of town. Her head felt like someone had tried to crack it open. The moment she moved to stand, she knew she'd been used. She never should have trusted Will, not even for a second.

She remembered a few faces from that night. One was the pastor of the Baptist church. Now she was pregnant,had lost her job, and was living in a house she was about to get kicked out of. She had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. All of her friends dropped her when Will spread lies about her. She had become a pariah, and it was about to get worse.

Chapter 3

Peach didn’t knowwhat to do. His mom and dad hadn’t told him about this woman. How could they have moved someone in and not said one thing to him? Maybe Haisley was lying. Had his parents actually asked her to move in?

He needed to get the place ready for sale. If he started going through papers and cleaned out everything important, then he could leave on Sunday morning and be home by Sunday evening and never think of this again.

After cleaning the kitchen, he headed into his parents' bedroom and began going through their things. He’d finished with the dresser, then opened the bottom drawer in the nightstand. It was at that moment he realized he needed to get a trash bag and toss the things he gambled his parents never wanted anyone to see. They weren’t old, or hadn’t been. It would take a long time to get used to the idea they were gone.

He pushed down the grief and kept cleaning. Two hours passed before he took the first break. He walked past his old room and heard snoring. The sound pulled atsomething deep inside, and he pushed it away, heading into the kitchen to grab some food.

Haisley was an inconvenience—a beautiful one, but not something that he had time for. His life was fairly set. Worrying about Haisley didn’t fit his life. As far as he could tell, there was no reason for her to live here. She could leave and find somewhere else to stay.

After grabbing a snack, he went back to his parents’ room, deciding that about half his mother's dresses were good quality and his dad's suits were still in great shape. Of course, none of his dad's suits would fit him. He was too tall and weighed at least forty pounds more.

Peach made a pile of clothes to donate, stacking them on the bed. He moved the nearly full garbage bag from the bathroom into the bedroom right when Haisley walked past.

She stepped into the room, her eyes narrowed, a frown turning down the corners of her mouth. “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning out stuff.”

“You’re throwing out your parents’ stuff!”

Peach drew in a deep breath, trying not to let his anger flow. This woman had been a pain in his ass for long enough. She shouldn’t be here. There was no way his mom or dad would allow this stranger into their house. What had they been thinking?

---