Chapter 22

Peach was excited to spend the evening with Haisley. It was weird that she’d only lived with him for a few days, but he felt like she’d been with him longer, in a good way. They got along well, which surprised him.

Honestly, he’d never really spent much time with women, at least not in a long while. He wasn’t great at picking people to date. Going for flashy women had been his thing. A lot of those women were probably great people, but he’d not given them a chance.

The one time he'd been serious with a woman, it had ended so badly he didn't think he would recover. Now, he was living with Haisley but not dating her.

Would it be wrong to take their relationship to another level? Probably. She needed safety and stability. If something went wrong between them, he couldn’t kick her out. No way would he be able to make her leave if their relationship turned sour.

His mom would come after him, even from the grave, if he didn't treat Haisley with respect. Being friends with her would be good for him. One thing he'd learned was she really was a lot like him but totally different in some ways.

At least she liked to keep the place clean. He had been up in her room once, and it was completely picked up with no dust. They needed to buy her a bed. He wasn’t sure how much space a crib would take up. There was so much to having a baby. At least Andy’s baby would be born before Haisley was due. Having someone as an example would help.

Grilling burgers with Haisley was fun. She came out and brought him a beer then sat out of the way of the smoke and chatted about her day.

“I totally didn’t know which way to go when I left the store and had to go back to retrace my steps. But I did meet Mel. Ava drove me back home, and I arranged a time to get together with Mel next week.”

“That’s great.”

“I like them.”

“Both of them are good people.” Peach flipped the burgers, happy with how they were looking.

“Though I feel really stupid.”

A rush of protectiveness rose up in him. “Wait, why do you feel stupid?”

She shook her head. "They didn't say or do anything. It's just that I don't know much. I never traveled much, and I didn't get anything after high school. Ava got a certificate to do bookkeeping. I didn't really even know what that was. I looked it up after I got home. I thought it sounded like something I could do, but then I saw what it entailed, and I'm not that good at math."

Peach felt better. He knew Ava would never make anyone feel stupid on purpose. He didn't know Mel very well because he hadn't been around her as long, but he trusted her and was glad his impressions of her weren't wrong.

“You aren’t stupid. When I first left home, I didn’t know what I do now.”

“But you weren’t ignorant like me,” Haisley said.

“Really, the only thing I knew about was plants.”

“How did you know plants?”

"We lived next door to a botanical garden, and I used to sneak over the fence. They eventually caught me, and instead of calling the police, they made me work with one of the groundskeepers. It was amazing. I learned about edible plants, what medicines could be made from plants, and what plants caused problems with digestion. It was great."

“Wow, that’s awesome.” Haisley frowned. “I need something other than just existing.”

The burgers were done, and he pulled them off the grill and then cleaned the grates before shutting down the burners. He carried the plate of meat into the house, setting it on the counter. Haisley had come in after him and he met and held her gaze.

“You know, just existing is okay. You don’t have to be someone who tackles everything. You can be a good person who is nice and kind, and you don’t have to stand out in any other way.”

“So just working at the grocery store would be enough? Like you wouldn’t think of me as a failure?”

Peach shook his head as he handed her a bun. Haisley had cut tomato slices, onions, and washed lettuce, so they could really make the burger great.

“No, you wouldn’t be a failure. The only failures in life are the people who try to make other people feel smaller. People who terrorize others or destroy other people, those are the failures. ”

Haisley put together her burger, not saying anything. It looked like she was thinking deeply about his words. At one point, he probably believed that all people had to do something great to be valid, but as he'd grown up and traveled the world, going into hot war zones, he learned that some of the greatest people were normal everyday people. They were the ones who kept life stable for others. The ordinary people who did mostly mundane work held communities together. It was the ones who wanted to stand out who got in trouble.

Haisley put the bun top on her burger, then looked up and met his gaze. "I don't want to be a burden on you."

“You aren’t a burden.”

"I would be once this kid is born unless I get a job and provide some money for rent."

His knee-jerk reaction was to deny her words, but he didn’t want to dismiss her. Peach glanced outside, seeing that the small table and chairs he had out there were in the shade. “How about we sit outside?”

“Sure.”

He took out their drinks, him another beer and her tea, and then brought out his food. The weather was perfect, and so was the company. Having Haisley around was like a breath of fresh air. Having someone to talk to and watch TV with was nice. He liked having her in his space.

“You know, with the sale of the land and house, I have a lot of extra money.”

“But that’s your money, not mine.”

“Exactly, and I want to spend it making sure you have a place to live and aren’t put in a bad position.”

She swallowed the bite she’d been chewing on and shook her head. “You need to keep hold of your money. Listen, I’m sure you have plenty of money, but I need to find something that would allow me to pay my way. It’s not that I don’t want your help, but I need to be able to survive on my own.”

Her words were agitating him. Instead of responding immediately, Peach set his burger down and glanced around. It would be easy to dismiss her desire to take care of herself, but he wouldn’t degrade her that way. “I get it. I want to be able to pay my way, so yeah, I understand your desire to take care of stuff on your own. What do you feel like you’re good at?”

She shrugged. “That’s the thing, I don’t know. I feel like I spent the last few years not really knowing what I wanted or what to do. It feels like it has been forever since I finished high school. I mean, I guess it has been a while. I took extra summer classes and got out when I was seventeen. So five years.”

“Five years can seem like a long time.”

"I just don't know what to do, and when I look at what other people do, I realize I don't have the skill to do what they are doing."

Peach didn't think they could solve Haisley's problems right now, so he picked up his burger and started asking questions.

“What did you want to be when you were a little kid?” he asked.

Haisley shrugged. “A cat.”

He had to forcibly stop himself from laughing. Her answer caught him off guard.

“You can laugh. It’s funny. I wanted to grow up and become a cat.”

“It would be a good life.”

“Unless you had an awful owner. Or if you were a stray in a bad area.”

"That's true." Peach chuckled. "You know, people who were cast in the musical Cats probably never thought they would grow up to be cats.

She shook her head. "I need to see that."

“I’ve never watched the entire thing, only bits and pieces of it.”

“I heard it wasn’t good.”

He shook his head. "It was interesting. Some say it's disturbing. I don't know. It was art, and sometimes art is weird."

Haisley laughed. “Ain’t that the truth.”

Peach took a sip of his beer and sat back, studying Haisley. “Are you excited to go to the beach tomorrow?”

“Excited, yes. And nervous.”

“Why are you nervous?”

“All of your friends will be there. I don’t know them.”

“They really are nice. You’ve met Wild, Ava, Mel, Harry, and Rory. That’s a lot.”

She nodded. “I’m just afraid they are going to think I’m dumb, or immature, or something and not like me.”

“They aren’t like that.” He worried about how often she said she was dumb or something similar. She needed something to build herself up. He wasn’t sure what, but from what he’d seen, she was smart, just not experienced. Maybe getting to know his friends would help.

After they finished with dinner, Haisley suggested they go through the last stack of papers and separate them. Then, he would know what he needed to accomplish.

They spent about an hour parsing through the rest of the pages. He had three banks to contact, and two different life insurance companies. He needed to send the death certificate to a few government agencies, and other places. There were four streaming services he needed to cancel, and subscriptions to magazines. It would take some time to get everything in order, and maybe a trip back to Georgia, but with the help of his friends and Haisley, the mountain of paperwork was now something he could conquer.

“Thank you for helping me do that,” Peach said.

“You’re welcome. It’s satisfying to get through information like that.” Haisley tried to stifle a yawn. “Sorry, I’m tired. I think I need to go to bed.”

"Sure. I'll see you in the morning." He had to stop himself from leaning in and giving her a kiss. Before she headed up the stairs, he turned so he didn't watch her walk up. No question, he was feeling some lust toward her. The last thing he needed to do was act on that lust. He could keep himself under control. He just needed to find a new outlet.

For a moment, he thought about going out to a bar and picking someone up, but that held so little appeal that he pushed the thought away and headed into his room to read before bed. Before Haisley, he would have gone out to find someone to hook up with, but now, he didn't want other women. He wondered if something was wrong with him. Maybe he was depressed, and not going out to find someone to have sex with had nothing to do with his desire for Haisley.