Page 79 of Peaches & Pistols

Not sure how a resentful little shit grew to be a man with two incredible daughters, the perfect woman, and a huge found family, but I think he’d be proud.

He’d rough me up for giving up on Meredith, but there’s nothing I’m willing to do about that. A mother who gives up on her child doesn’t deserve real estate in my brain.

Things are falling into place beautifully. Life will be perfect once Carter Whitaker is out of the picture—permanently.

27

I’m taking you out tonight. Cecelia’s picking the girls up from school.

Be ready by six,

I love you.

Is swooning supposed to make you lightheaded? Because I’m swaying on my feet.

Greyson was just up here having lunch with me. We had normal conversation, a little make-out session, and then he went back to work.

How in the world did he put out this note without me seeing? After lunch, I went out for groceries. He must’ve slipped upstairs after he saw me leave.

It’s just after two o’clock and I’d typically be getting ready to get the girls from school. But now I have four hours to myself?

I don’t know what to do with myself. I could take a nap. I could watch my shows. I could read, uninterrupted.

Lost in the endless possibilities of four child-free hours, I wander down the hall to Greyson’s—I mean, our—bedroom.

He moved me in the night we told the girls about us. Said he couldn’t sleep alone knowing what’s his was right down the hall.

I melted.

I melt a little bit now at the memory.

Everly doesn’t mind having her own room one bit, though the girls ask to share a bedroom on a daily basis. We’re considering moving them in together and turning the spare room into a playroom.

Distracted, I walk past the bed when something white catches my eye.

I want my woman to feel like a million bucks on our first date. Pamper yourself, honey.

Dumbstruck, note in hand, I turn for the bathroom. I’m not a high-maintenance person, I don’t have anything to pamper myself with.

A laugh escapes me finding luxurious beauty products in a retail box for duct tape from the hardware store. I’m hopelessly gone for this man.

Beside the box rests another note on the most romantic scavenger hunt of my life.

Peaches

I’ll never look at a peach and not think of you. I know how much you love them, and I hope you know how much I love you.

My fingers dance across bubble bath, bath salts, exfoliating scrub, body butter, face and hair masks—all in delicate peach fragrances.

Giddy with delight, I run hot water for the bath. Coarse grains of bath salt melt as cloud-like bubbles form from the bubble bath. The fragrance of sweet peach permeates the steam-filled bathroom, and while it’s my favorite scent and flavor, peaches have become forever tied to my love for Greyson.

As it turns out, I needed all four hours to thoroughly pamper myself. I luxuriated in the bath until the water turned tepid. My hair and skin are impossibly soft and smell incredible.

I don’t have to play a part around Greyson, so I feel no need to cover up with makeup. If I wear any at all, it’s limited to mascara and a smudge of shimmer.

Today, I added the peach lip gloss Greyson snuck into the bottom of the duct tape box. Imagining the taste of him melding with peaches is enough to make me shiver with anticipation.

Greyson will be here any minute and all I have left is to get dressed.