Page 45 of All Along The Watchtower

“When do you have to go, honey?” Mimi asked.

“Day after tomorrow.”

Mom frowned. “I’m gonna be up at Nag’s Head for a meeting. Delilah also has a meeting with a distributor up there.”

Mimi waved that off. “I can reschedule.”

“I can do it.” Bree wasn’t looking at us when she said it, just continued to eat her chili, and if Peyton hadn’t been staring at her in hope, I might’ve thought I’d imagined the offer.

My daughter immediately turned pleading eyes in my direction, hands folded in supplication. “Can I? Please?”

Oh damn, I was gonna have to work on developing some kind of immunity to this look, or we were gonna end up with a dog sooner rather than later. Was this how she’d convinced my former best friend to come to dinner?

I looked at Bree. “Are you sure?” We definitely weren’t at a place where I felt like I could ask her for much of anything. Certainly not to keep my kid.

One shoulder jerked in an easy shrug. “Sure. She can stay with me, and I’ll handle pick up and drop off. It won’t interfere with my schedule at the Brewhouse. I did my homework in a booth up there growing up. She can, too.”

“Well, if you’re sure, we’d really appreciate it.”

“I’m sure.”

Peyton did a fist pump. “Yes! Did you ask your pop about those photo albums?”

Bree’s flinch was almost imperceptible. “I did. Have the whole pile of them at home.”

“Sweet! Please tell me you have lots of embarrassing photos of my…” Peyton hesitated. “Of Ford.”

So far, Peyton had been very careful not to call me anything in particular. I couldn’t blame her for not being ready to call me Dad. Still, I felt a vague pang of disappointment.

Bree caught my eye, and I saw the flash of empathy before she smirked. “Oh, his middle school years are going to give you fodder to tease him for years to come.”

Taking the olive branch, I adopted a mock stern expression. “That’s a dangerous game you’re starting, Cartwright. I was there for all ofyourembarrassing moments, too.”

She sipped her tea, totally stone faced, but I didn’t miss the sparkle in her gray eyes. “Some of us were smart and ruthless enough to destroy the evidence.”

“I distinctly remember a certain someone wearing their hair in tiny butterfly clips all through seventh grade.” I couldn’t help needling her.

“At least I never tried frosted tips.” Bree’s mouth curved into a wicked smile.

“That was a dare from Sawyer!”

“And you kept them for three months.”

“They grew on me.”

“Like a fungus.” She turned to Peyton. “Your father thought he was going to be the next Justin Timberlake.”

“I had moves.”

“You had something. Pretty sure it was a medical condition.”

Mom snorted into her chili.

“Don’t encourage her,” I protested. “She pushed me into the pool at my own thirteenth birthday party.”

“Because you put a snake in my beach bag!”

“It was rubber!”

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