Page 17 of All Along The Watchtower

“Okay. I need to get back to her.”

“Bree?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s her name?”

A pause stretched through the line, heavy with meaning I couldn’t decode. “Peyton. Peyton Walsh.”

“Peyton.” The name felt strange on my tongue, foreign yet somehow precious. A daughter. My daughter. The words echoed in my head like a bell tolling, each repetition making it more real.

Jesus Christ. Everything I thought I knew about my life had just been blown sideways. Thirteen years of memories suddenly had a shadow version playing alongside them. All the moments I’d missed, all the firsts I hadn’t known existed.

“Thank you.” The words felt entirely inadequate for what she was doing, for being the one to reach out when I knew exactly how much it must have cost her.

Another long pause filled the line, crackling with unspoken history. “Just hurry, okay?”

“As fast as I can.” I was already reaching for my keys, my body thrumming with urgency even as my mind struggled to process this seismic shift in my world.

CHAPTER 9

BREE

I stood in my office doorway, watching Peyton nurse her Coke. The set of her shoulders reminded me so much of Ford it made my chest ache. But there wasn’t time to unpack that particular emotional landmine. This whole situation had mefeelingmore than I usually allowed myself to feel in a month. My capacity for continuing to function through all of it was rapidly running out. So I did the only thing I could. I shut it all down and shoved it deep into a mental closet to pull out when things didn’t feel so much like a crisis.

“I spoke with your dad.” Not a sentence I’d ever thought I’d be uttering. “He’s working on getting home as soon as he can. Thankfully, he’s just up in Virginia for a training instead of shipped off to who knows where.” It seemed prudent not to mention he’d been stationed in Japan the past few years.

Peyton seemed relieved by that news.

“You’re going to stay with me until he gets back. Is that okay?” I wasn’t sure what the hell I’d do with her if it wasn’t, but a kid in her circumstances had few enough choices. I knew how important it was for her to feel like she had some control.

“That’d be okay.”

“All right. I’ve got to square a few more things away here, then we’ll go.”

No way was I keeping the kid at the Brewhouse tonight. We needed to be out of the public eye. I’d be lucky if Mama Flo and Mimi didn’t show up on my doorstep later, as it was.

Whipping out my phone, I texted Monty.

Bree:

I need you to come in and cover for me tonight.

Monty:

Ooo, did we find some sexy young thing to break your dry spell with? :eyebrow waggle GIF:

Bree:

Not even a little bit.

Monty:

:pouty face GIF: Hope springs eternal.

Bree:

It’s an emergency. I’ll explain later. Just please get here as soon as you can.

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