Page 39 of After All

“She’stextingme about your pain pills,” Kyle said, typing something into his phone. “I’ve got real stuff to worry about.”

“I can’t control her and who she texts.”

“But if you were home with her right now, letting her take care of you, she wouldn’t be texting me.” He set his phone back down and focused on the TV.

“Peyton’s not really the staying-home type,” Scott said.

“Maybe she just doesn’t have anything to stay homefor,” Kyle said, eyes still on the TV.

Which was good, because then he couldn’t see Scott’s reaction to that.Maybe she just doesn’t have anything to stay home for. Bingo. With her family life, no doubt she’d been coming up with ways and reasons to be out of the house from a very young age. Maybe it was a habit to not be home.

“I want her to be happy,” he said.

Kyle glanced over. “I know, man.”

“So maybe I need to do things her way.”

Kyle cocked a brow. “Convenient that her way involves a lot of naked time.”

Yeah, well, perks. “I just realized thatno onedoes things with Peyton’s happiness in mind. Everyone has another priority.”

“Hope’s there for her,” Kyle said. “And Heather and Tess and Lucy and Brooke.”

Scott nodded to all of that. “But Peyton isn’t their main priority. They all have their lives, work, other relationships. When they’re with her, she has a good time, of course. They all do. But she’s the one making the good time happen. Has anyone ever just showed up at her house with a pizza? Or called up and said, ‘I want to take you out for a drink because you’re always there for me’? Or planned a surprise party for her?”

The realizations were coming to him as he talked. And the answer to all of that was no. He knew that Peyton would show up on a friend’s doorstep with a bottle of tequila if the friend had had a crappy week at work. He knew she’d show up with ice cream if the friend had been dumped. She’d get people together at the river to celebrate someone’s birthday. She was always the first on the dance floor or up on the stage for karaoke at the Come Again. Peyton made the good times happen. People went along with it all, of course. They all loved being around her. But no one ever made a point of making a good time happen for her.

“Peyton is always the one planning things, calling people up, getting people together. She’s the party girl, right? So everyone expects her to initiate things. But wouldn’t it be nice for someone to show that they wanted to be with her enough to make the plans?”

“So Peyton isyourmain priority?” Kyle asked.

“Yep.” She was. From here on out. He was done resisting her and the urges to be with her all the time and to show her just exactly how much he wanted her.

“And that means you should sleep with her?”

“It means that I fully intend to show her that she is very wanted. I want her to be happy.”

Kyle chuckled. “Yep, very convenient that she’s happiest naked with you.”

Scott just grinned. Peyton Wells was going to be in his bed that night, and he couldn’t wait to tell her that he was lifting the pajamas-on-at-all-times rule.

* * *

It suckedthat Heather was still in Baltimore. Peyton would prefer tequila right now.

Instead, she was stuck with sugar, flour, and eggs.

She sighed. Yeah, tequila would be better. She should not do this. This was ridiculous.

Still, she had the definite urge to bake something.

She’d already tossed the meatloaf she’d put together for dinner after finding out Scott was going to Kyle’s. She’d rushed into the kitchen to get rid of the evidence that she’d planned to cook for him. Thankfully she hadn’t put it in the oven yet or he would have smelled it.

But now she was contemplating making him cookies. With frosting Band-Aids and crutches and pill bottles filled with little red hots for the pills in them.

Baking was what she did when she didn’t know what else to do. She wasn’t so great at words or other displays of concern or affection. She didn’t say things like “I’m so happy you’re okay” or “I’m glad you were born” or “I wish there was something I could do” to people, so instead, she baked.

It was silly. She knew that. But making cookies and cakes and cupcakes and pies and bread made her feel good. There was something therapeutic about creating something that was, literally, sweet and colorful, and knowing that it would make someone smile no matter what they were going through. And fortunately, because everyone loved carbs, she didn’t have to feel self-conscious about it. People were too caught up inoh this is so cute!andoh my God this is so good!to think too much about the person behind it.

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