Page 61 of Dancing in the Rain

Her little mouth tightened and her chin quivered and then she nodded. “Thank you.”

—

Peyton paid the taxi driver and climbed out of the car with her purse and the briefcase that held her laptop. The light above the front door was on, illuminating the veranda. She recognized Drew’s car parked in front.

The door was unlocked and she frowned at that, but maybe it was different for a man than for three women. She walked in and saw Drew on the couch in the living room watching the television. He stood at seeing her. “Hi.”

There was something about him being in their home, waiting for her, greeting her, that affected her. He filled the space with his usual energy and bold presence.

“Hi.” She dropped her purse and briefcase onto the table.

“Long day?”

“Yeah.” She crossed to an armchair and sank into it, toeing off her shoes. “Long and weird.”

“You look so different.” His gaze wandered over her and she looked down at the blue pencil skirt and matching jacket she wore. “All professional.”

“Iama professional,” she murmured.

He smiled. “Things go okay at work?”

“Yeah. I was the Energizer Bunny of reputation management today.” She grimaced. “Amazing how much you can accomplish when you have to. It was just weird, staying at my apartment last night then going straight to the airport from work.” She paused. “How’s Sara?”

His face tightened and he looked down at his big hands clasped in front of him. “She’s okay. It seemed…she was confused a few times today.”

“Oh.” Peyton’s eyes widened then closed. “I’ve been noticing that. They said it’s all the pain medication.”

“Yeah. Uh, Chloe’s probably still awake.” He took a deep breath. “There was a little incident at her school today.”

“Oh, no.” She leaned forward. “What happened?”

“They called me to pick her up because she was in violation of their dress code.”

Peyton’s forehead creased. “Really? What on earth was she wearing?”

“It wasn’t that bad. I went to the school and dealt with it.”

“Is she in trouble?”

“No. But she wants to see you when you get home.”

“Okay.” She stood right away. “Issheokay?”

“Yeah.” He smiled. “She’s good. Amazing. Awesome. We talked about it more over dinner. Then I helped her with her math homework. She showed me a social studies assignment she got an A on. She blew my mind.”

Peyton’s heart warmed. “Yeah. I’ll go talk to her.” She paused. “Are you leaving?”

“We should probably talk more about what happened…after you see Chloe.”

“Okay.” She ran upstairs in her bare feet and poked her head into Chloe’s room. “Hey, sweetie. I’m back.”

Chloe was in bed reading. She smiled and set down the book. “Hi.”

Peyton advanced into the room and sat on the side of the bed. “Drew tells me there was some kind of dress code situation at school today.”

“Yeah.” Chloe’s face scrunched up.

“What happened?”

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