Page 23 of After All

It was nice. Because if you needed to find someone between the hours of six a.m. and six p.m. in this town, the chance was great that they were somewhere within two hundred yards of the gazebo in the center of the square.

And sure enough, Reed Walker was sitting in a booth by the window with two of his friends.

Peyton stomped to the table. “Seriously?” She planted her hands on her hips and gave Reed a glare. “Your kid got agunand you didn’t lock the fucking thing up?”

Reed didn’t glare back. He actually had the good sense to look sorry.

“It was locked up,” he said.

“He’seleven, Reed!” Peyton said. “He got it unlocked, loaded and into the town square!”

“I know.” He nodded. “I know.”

“Scott could havedied!” Peyton exclaimed. “Or Chase could have shot one of the other kids!”

“It was anaccident.” But Reed looked miserable.

Good. “It was apreventableaccident!”

“I know. We’ve had a long talk with him—”

“Youtalkedto him?” Peyton demanded. “That’s it? Youtalked? How about grounding his ass? How about taking thegunaway from him until he’s older and more responsible? How aboutwatching your kid?”

“Hey!”

But it wasn’t Reed who was suddenly in her face. It was Travis Bennett. One of TJ’s brothers.

“Let’s take it down a notch, okay?” he said to Peyton, his voice calm but firm.

She glanced at Reed. “Anybody else gets hurt becauseyoudidn’t take care of your shit, and I’ll kick your ass.” Reed was several years older than her and probably outweighed her by a hundred pounds, but she had a lot of pent-up rage. That was dangerous. He should watch it.

“Peyton,” Travis said. “Let’s go outside.”

“You’re taking me outside?” she asked with a laugh. “For yelling at a guy whose kid almost killed my—Scott.” Dammit. That wasn’t a great slip. In the middle of Dottie’s at one of the busiest times of day? She needed to be careful.

“But Scott’s okay and it was an accident and he feels terrible about it,” Travis said.

“Heshouldfeel terrible about it. Guns aren’t toys!” She glared at Reed. “You’ve been around guns all your life. How can you not be more careful?”

With that, Travis turned her and started nudging her toward the door.

“But he—”

“You know, if you don’t want the whole town to know how you really feel about Scott, you might want tonotgo stomping around and fighting everyone on his behalf,” Travis said by her ear.

She deflated a bit with that. She’d done the same in Baltimore. Seth had made a crack about the tough guys being cops in Baltimore and she’d gotten right up in his face and defended Scott and the important things he did in Sapphire Falls.

Damn.

She let Travis steer her out onto the sidewalk in front of Dottie’s. He let go of her and she turned to face him. She crossed her arms. “I’m right.” She felt the need to point that out.

“You are,” Travis said with a nod. “And Reed knows it. Calling him out in public isn’t going to fix anything though.”

She took a deep breath and blew it out. “Yeah, okay. I just…”

“Couldn’t help it,” Travis supplied.

She nodded.

---