27. Peyton
CHAPTER 27
peyton
“ B aby,” Ford whispered behind me, sounding like he was having trouble breathing. He lifted my ponytail and pressed a kiss to the back of my neck. “You don’t…” He sighed. “Need to do…” Another sigh. “All of this.”
I let out a giggle, snuggling into him. “I need to make sure this potato salad is right.” I dabbed my finger in the bowl and licked. “No. It needs more mustard.”
When I took a step for the fridge, his arms came around my waist and he walked behind me, his nose buried in the same spot where he’d left the kiss. “It’s…it’s fine. Come…” He exhaled and it sounded off. Like he was having trouble talking and breathing. “Come, sit down.” He inhaled and I thought he was struggling to get air. “We’ve got it.”
I turned in his arms and studied him. He seemed happy but distant. A touch dopey. Was he doing drugs again? My gaze went past him to Silas and Holden who were sitting on barstools still in their church clothes, snickering. They’d been snickering since they walked in a half hour ago.
I grabbed the mustard from the fridge with Ford attached to me like a starfish. We walked back to the island.
Holden chuckled. “You okay there, Fo-shiz?”
“Mhmm,” Ford murmured. “Yup.”
Silas shook with silent laughter.
“Okay.” I pointed at Silas and Holden. “You two are making me very uncomfortable.” I slid the potato salad and the mustard across the counter to Silas. “Fix that, please. And you.” I turned in Ford’s arms. He stumbled into me. I steadied him by the shoulders. “You need to sit down.” I guided him around the island and forced him onto the stool next to Silas. I brushed his bangs back so I could get a good look at him. He looked happy but a little flushed. Super relaxed though. “Honey, I don’t think you got enough sleep last night.”
“He looks like he didn’t get any sleep last night,” Holden said under his breath.
I pursed my lips. “Seriously?” I mean, he wasn’t wrong, but still. I walked over to the fridge and grabbed a Dr Pepper, popped the top, and set it in front of my husband. “You need some caffeine.” He nodded, looking at me like a love sick puppy. I glanced at his brothers. “Please make sure he drinks all of that.”
“Yes ma’am.” Holden grinned.
I tried to leave but Ford wouldn’t let go of my waist.
“Let your wife walk away,” Silas said. “C’mon, now. She’s just going outside. You’ll be able to see her through the sliding glass door.”
Ford’s grip tightened. “But you’re wearing a dress and you’re barefoot…in my kitchen. Like some sexed up June Cleaver.”
Holden guffawed and slapped his leg.
I rolled my eyes. “Babe.” I pressed a kiss to Ford’s forehead. “I wear a dress every Sunday because I go to church.” I’d asked him in the middle of the night, between one of the many times we made love, if he’d like to come with me and Cash but he’d kindly turned me down. I tried not to take it personally. He hadn’t graced the doors of that building since Sophie’s funeral. We could work on it. I leaned my mouth next to his ear. “If you’ll let me leave, I’ll promise to keep the dress on until you’re ready to take it off of me.”
His big blue eyes turned down, pleading. “I’m ready to take it off of you right now,” he whispered.
I giggled at that. “Your whole family is here, so I’m going to have to veto that idea.” I booped him on the nose. “For now. Also, I need to leave this kitchen because you are freaking me out.”
“Sorry.” His nose pressed into my cheek. “I just love you so much.”
“I know. I love you too.”
He didn’t look happy about it but his arm finally dropped. I escaped the awkward scene.
Once outside, my sisters-in-law—so weird to think that—and Anna waved for me to join them at the teakwood table.
I held up a finger and walked over to Ashton who was manning the grill.
“Everything okay?” he asked, still in his navy blue slacks and white, button-down shirt. His tie was off though.
“Things are great. I just…” I glanced over my shoulder back inside at Ford who was slumped down like he’d lost all his strength. “I’m kind of worried about Ford. Like…maybe we need to go to Instacare. He’s acting kind of…high.” I gulped, wishing I hadn’t admitted that.
Ashton chuckled and flipped a burger. “He’s fine, Peyt. Just suffering from what we Duprees call the Conjugal Concussion.”
I felt my forehead crunch.
“You know…” He smirked. “Newlywed Neurosis.”
I blinked.
“The Wedded Wobble?” he tried again.
Tally snickered behind me. I turned to find her standing there wearing a smug expression along with Lemon, Christy, and Anna.
Tally put her hands on her hips, her long hair hanging over her shoulder. “He just means that after a long, long wait, you and Ford finally made love and Ford’s stuck in a love coma because of it.” She smiled. “You know, kind of like a sugar coma but ten times better.”
“Oh. So he’s not about to have a heart attack? We don’t need to get him checked for a stroke?”
“Nah.” Anna’s nose twitched as she tried not to laugh. “I talked to him twenty minutes ago and he seemed fit as a fiddle.”
“Whew.” I exhaled in relief. I took a step back toward the sliding glass door.
But Christy looped her arm through mine. “Come. Sit.”
“But I have to finish?—”
They were all shaking their heads like I’d been naughty.
Lemon smiled. “Once a week, we get to rest while the guys make us food. Enjoy it.”
“Okay,” I squeaked. I didn’t know anything about resting while a man cooked for me. “Are we in a Hallmark movie? Some real live men actually cook while their wife relaxes?”
“Yes.” Anna beamed. “You’ve married into the right family, girl. You’re about to see how a real man behaves. It’s the same routine every Sunday. Blue takes playground duty.” She waved at him, making sure the littles didn’t fall off the monkey bars and get concussed. “And the uncles make the food.” She gestured for me to have a seat.
So I did.
Lemon shoved a veggie tray toward me and I swiped a carrot through the bowl of ranch in the middle.
“Where are Jenny and Bo?” I asked.
“They’ll be here,” Christy said. “They’re checking cows.”
“Tell us about Hawaii,” Tally said. “I’ve never been.”
“Yet,” Ashton called from the grill. “You’ve never been yet, babe. But I will take you there. Sometime.”
“No.” She smiled. “I’ll take you there.”
He chuckled. “Guess you’ll have to if we don’t get a movie deal.” Tally’s memoir was still on the New York Times Bestseller list.
“We’ll get one,” she said confidently, but one of her eyebrows quirked with worry. As quickly as the concern came, it disappeared. She turned to me. “What was your favorite thing you did while you were there?”
“Snorkeling,” I said. “Without a doubt.”
“Oh, I want to try that. Tell me all about it.”
I did, which set a whole conversation in motion about everyone’s favorite vacations. While Christy regaled us with her and Holden’s trip to the Grand Caymans and a place called Bioluminescence Bay, I watched Cash. He was out on the playground, catching Ashton and Tally’s daughter Jane as she came down the slide.
“Bacon-wrapped asparagus is ready,” Ash said as he set a platter on the table. “Only sneak a couple though. If Jenny finds out you ate before the prayer…” He brought a finger across his throat.
I popped one in my mouth, moaned, and continued watching my boy. What was he going to think when he found out that Ford was his daddy, and his best friends were actually his cousins? What would he think of me ? Specifically, what would he think about the fact that I’d gotten pregnant by a man I wasn’t married to? What would everyone in Seddledowne think when they found out I’d hid Cash’s real identity? What would the whole world think? Would it be on the news? I mean, how did you explain something like this?
“He’s such a good kid,” Tally said, and I realized she’d been watching me watch my son with her little girl.
“Thank you. I think so.”
“He really is.” Ashton was still standing next to me. “How wild is it to think that you and Ford were together once, and of all the millions of sperm that could’ve fertilized your egg, it happened to be the one that would create Cash?”
I blinked up at him, my mouth hanging open.
“Sorry.” Tally giggled. “We’ve been having ‘discussions’ with the kids about how babies are?—”
Someone gasped behind us.
Lemon’s eyes bulged, and I turned in my seat to find Jenny standing on the edge of the deck, clearly having heard everything . Bo was barely coming around the corner of the house, carrying a tray of deviled eggs. He’d missed all of it.
“Excuse me, what?” Jenny choked. Her eyes locked on me and I could see the wheels spinning. “Cash is Ford’s child?”
Ashton groaned. “Sorry,” he whispered. “Mom,” he said in a warning tone as he walked over to her. “Mom, let’s go talk about this inside.”
He put his arm around her shoulder but she knocked it off and strode halfway across the deck before stopping. “Are you telling me that Cash is my grandson and I never knew about it?”
“Granny,” Anna said. “Calm down.”
“Jenny,” Lemon said at the same time. “Let her explain.”
“Jen, sweetie. Take a deep breath,” Bo said calmly but his jaw was clenched like he wasn’t happy at all.
“Everybody stop!” Jenny yelled. “Stop telling me to calm down!”
I turned to motion at Ford to come help, but right when I needed him, he was no longer in the kitchen. Neither were Silas or Holden.
Blue and all the grandkids were watching us from the playground. I didn’t think they could hear what was being said but the level at which it was being said was clearly concerning to them.
“I just found out I have a thirteen-year-old grand-baby I didn’t know about. And he was conceived from that one-night stand, wasn’t he?” She sounded like she was about to cry.
Ashton strode over to the sliding glass door, slipped through, and closed it behind him.
A vein bulged in the center of Jenny’s forehead and she had tears in her eyes. “Tell me I heard that wrong. Tell me that Cash isn’t Ford’s and for some crazy reason, no one told me for thirteen years. Did Ford know?”
“Jenny,” Lemon hissed.
“No!” Jenny snapped. “I want answers.”
“It’s okay,” I said to Lemon, even though I wanted to cower. “No ma’am. Ford didn’t know.”
Her head bobbed angrily, her lips pursing into a tight line. “When did he find out?”
“A couple of days ago.”
“A couple of days ago?” Her voice was rising again. “Did you know Cash was Ford’s when you married Braxton?”
“Yes, ma’am.” My legs were shaking, but I made myself stand and face her. “But I had my reas?—”
“You had your reasons.” She scoffed like it was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. A tear slipped out of her right eye. “You stole years from Ford. Thirteen birthdays. Thirteen Christmases. Thirteen first days of school. And for what? Because a night meant nothing to you? Because you found it easier to marry another man and create a life of complete fiction?” She thrust her finger toward the playground. “That child’s whole life is a lie, and you've robbed my son of every precious moment with him.”
Her words cut. If I hadn’t known she was a good person—if she hadn’t raised my wonderful husband—I would’ve run. Just walked myself right out of there and never spoken to her again. But her eyes told the truth. She was gutted over the time she’d missed with Cash. And if I were honest with myself—if I didn’t let my pride get in the way—she had every right to be.
“I know.” I nodded, my heart aching. I took a tentative step toward her. “But you need to know that Ford has never meant nothing to me. Not a single day. I wanted to have a relationship with him. More than anything. My heart broke when I realized he was an addict.” I took another step. “But the minute I learned I was going to be a mom, I knew I had to protect Cash. He had to be my number one concern.” Another step. “You’d do that for your kids. I know you would.” Another step. “You remember what Ford was like back then.” I was two steps from her. “I was desperate and scared and determined to do right by my boy. What would you have done if you were me? Would you have wanted someone like that to be the father of your baby?” I was right in front of her.
She covered her mouth with her hand and her shoulders spasmed. Then she shook her head.
I reached out and patted her arm. She didn’t swat me away. So I closed the rest of the distance between us and pulled her against me. She was stiff, but she didn’t move an inch, just sobbed as I rubbed her back.
Ford finally threw the sliding glass door open and jogged out, looking frantic. When he saw my arms around his mom, he hurried over and pulled us both into a hug.
“I’m so sorry,” I said to her. “I know I should’ve told you all sooner but I was so scared.”
Bo had one hand on my back and the other on Jenny’s. “You brought Cash around all the time, though.” His voice was gravelly, full of emotion. Bo never got emotional. “So it’s not like we haven’t spent time with him.”
Jenny sniffed and nodded, her breathing already calming. “You did that for us, didn’t you?”
“Yes. And for Cash. I wanted him to know you.”
Jenny wiped a tear from her cheek. “But I owe him thirteen years' worth of Christmas and birthday presents.”
Ford smiled. “No worries, Mom. You have the rest of his life to spoil him rotten.”
“Oh, I will. No doubt about that.” She gave me a pointed look. “And don’t try to stop me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. He’ll be so excited to get gifts that aren’t Disney-themed.”
Everyone laughed.
“Does he know?” Jenny patted Ford on the cheek. She was still heartbroken but there was hope in her eyes. “That Ford’s his dad.”
“Not yet,” Ford said. “We’re going to tell him tonight.”
“Oh, he knows,” Charlie said from somewhere behind Bo.
Bo stepped out of the way so we could see her on the deck steps.
Charlie’s hands were on her hips, and she gave us a disapproving look.
“ Errybody knows now.”
All the Dupree teens were standing behind her, wide-eyed.
All but Cash.