Page 84 of After All

She shook her head, more serious now. “I’m not really sure.”

“How about now?”

And the smile was back. “Yeah, now seems really good.”

She went up on tiptoe, gripping his shirt in her hands while he pulled her forward and bent his head. His hand felt huge on the back of her neck, and he was able to tip her head with his thumb on the edge of her jaw.

She seemed to melt into him, pressing close against his fly, where his cock was, as always, very happy to see—or feel—her again.

She opened her mouth before he even urged her to, her tongue stroking along his lower lip. She kissed him hungrily and Scott absorbed every bit of it. Having her in his arms was one thing; driving her crazy, touching and kissing and talking dirty to her was another. But the best thing of all? When she came into his arms and madehimcrazy.

Finally, she settled back on her heels, running her tongue over her own lip and smiling up at him.

“Good thing you got your test done,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Because that was a take-me-home-right-now kiss.”

Chapter Thirteen

Dottie’s wasbusy two days later as Peyton made her way to the table where Dan was already seated.

“Hey,” she greeted.

Her father gave her a sincere smile. “Hi.”

She took a breath. She was glad she’d decided to meet him for lunch. She was. This would be great.

“Um, so, I can’t stay,” Dan said, as she started to slide into the booth.

Peyton froze halfway across the bench and stared at him. Okay, so it wouldn’t be great. Because it wasn’t going to happen. Then she shook her head and sighed, moving the rest of the way into the booth. “I’m shocked,” she said dryly.

“Your mom needs me to come pick her up.”

Peyton nodded. “It’s been four days.”

“Yeah.”

“Onlyfour days,” she added. Then wondered why she bothered.

“She’s unhappy,” Dan said with a shrug.

“And you’re lonely.”

Dan was the one to sigh this time. “Yeah.”

A prickle of guilt niggled at Peyton’s mind. She could have seen him before this. She could have taken dinner over last night, or the night before. But she’d been spending time with Scott. And she hadn’t really wanted to have lunch with her dad.

“Can we just…talk?” she asked Dan. “Just for a minute?”

She wasn’t sure where that had come from. She and Dan hadn’t sat and talked for a really long time. Or maybe ever. But she’d been doing a lot of talking lately and it wasn’t so bad.

Dan nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

Peyton knew that Dan wouldn’t give her much more than the few minutes, so she leaned her forearms onto the tabletop and jumped right in. “Don’t you think the rehab would be good for her?”

Dan didn’t look surprised by the topic, but he didn’t look thrilled with it either. “I don’t know,” he finally answered. “Seems like it should be.”

---