“I even brought lunch.”
Peyton looked up from her computer the next day, sitting on the couch in the living room with her feet in thick pink socks on the table. “Hi. And yay. I’m starving.” She swung her feet to the floor and set her laptop aside. “What’d you bring?”
He held up a bag. “Your favorite spinach salad from Greens.”
“Why do I smell fries?” She sniffed.
“Because I got a club sandwich and fries.”
She bounced over to him and plucked the bag out of his hand. “You’re going to share the fries, right?”
“Do I have a choice?”
She laughed. “Nope.”
She led him to the kitchen and they sat at the counter on stools and ate. And he totally let her steal his fries.
“What are you working on?” he asked her.
“A search engine optimization makeover for a client. And research for another client—they’re a food service company and they want to expand into Europe, but their competitors over there are putting a lot of commentary about them online that’s not flattering.”
“Huh.”
“We’ll fix it,” she said confidently. She took another fry. “Have you talked to your family any more about Chloe?”
Drew blinked, his sandwich halfway to his mouth. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “I called my mom and dad when I got the results of the paternity test.”
“How did they react to that?”
“They were shocked, of course. It wasn’t exactly something I was proud to tell them. But we’ve talked and emailed a bunch of times since then. Now they can’t wait to meet her.”
“Really?”
“They’re talking about coming here for American Thanksgiving.”
She grinned. “That’s so weird.”
“What is?”
“How you called it American Thanksgiving. It’s just Thanksgiving.”
He smiled back at her. “Nope. It’s American Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving is in October.” His smile faded. “It was actually the day Sara went into hospice.”
“Oh. Were you celebrating that day?”
“Nah. It’s just me, and it’s not a holiday here. Anyway, they may fly down to meet her.” He paused. “That would be okay, right?”
“Of course.” She forked up some spinach and chewed, her forehead creased. “Maybe we should prepare her for that.”
“Yeah. I can talk to her about it.”
“What’s your family like?”
“They’re great.” He looked down at his food. “All four of us kids played hockey, so my parents were pretty busy.”
“Whoa. No kidding.”
“Even my sister Shawna played.”