Chapter 3
Peach didn’t know what to do. His mom and dad hadn’t told him about this woman. How could they have moved someone in and not said one thing to him? Maybe Haisley was lying. Had his parents actually asked her to move in?
He needed to get the place ready for sale. If he started going through papers and cleaned out everything important, then he could leave on Sunday morning and be home by Sunday evening and never think of this again.
After cleaning the kitchen, he headed into his parents' bedroom and began going through their things. He’d finished with the dresser, then opened the bottom drawer in the nightstand. It was at that moment he realized he needed to get a trash bag and toss the things he gambled his parents never wanted anyone to see. They weren’t old, or hadn’t been. It would take a long time to get used to the idea they were gone.
He pushed down the grief and kept cleaning. Two hours passed before he took the first break. He walked past his old room and heard snoring. The sound pulled at something deep inside, and he pushed it away, heading into the kitchen to grab some food.
Haisley was an inconvenience—a beautiful one, but not something that he had time for. His life was fairly set. Worrying about Haisley didn’t fit his life. As far as he could tell, there was no reason for her to live here. She could leave and find somewhere else to stay.
After grabbing a snack, he went back to his parents’ room, deciding that about half his mother's dresses were good quality and his dad's suits were still in great shape. Of course, none of his dad's suits would fit him. He was too tall and weighed at least forty pounds more.
Peach made a pile of clothes to donate, stacking them on the bed. He moved the nearly full garbage bag from the bathroom into the bedroom right when Haisley walked past.
She stepped into the room, her eyes narrowed, a frown turning down the corners of her mouth. “What are you doing?”
“Cleaning out stuff.”
“You’re throwing out your parents’ stuff!”
Peach drew in a deep breath, trying not to let his anger flow. This woman had been a pain in his ass for long enough. She shouldn’t be here. There was no way his mom or dad would allow this stranger into their house. What had they been thinking?
He shoved the drawer closed a little too hard, and a book fell off the dresser. A slip of paper flew out. He bent to pick up the book and the paper. The book was fiction, paperback, and had an apple on the cover. He set it on the dresser, thinking it, too, would probably end up in the trash. The piece of paper was small and looked weird. He turned it over, staring at the image that didn't make sense.
Andy had brought the image from Mel’s ultrasound to the base and showed it around. It looked just like this. He looked at the writing in the corner. The date was about a month ago, and it had the name Beale on it.
What was his mom doing with an ultrasound of a baby from someone named Beale? Of course, his parents had a life outside of what he knew, but why did it include an ultrasound? What was going on? No question, he had to get rid of Haisley, but he needed to understand why his mom had this in a book in her bedroom. That meant she knew the person.
“Give me that,” Haisley said as she reached for the ultrasound picture.
Peach held it over his head on the opposite side of his body. He felt like a child playing keep away. For some reason, this woman brought out emotions that he'd cut off a long time ago. "Hold up. What is this?"
Haisley frowned as she reached for the slip of paper, draping her body over his. “It’s none of your business.”
Anger was evident in her tone. He knew he didn't get women. No question, he didn't pay attention to the women he slept with. During his first year in the Navy, he'd dated someone he thought he would end up married to, but she'd ripped his heart out and stuffed it down his throat. No more. He wouldn't allow himself to get attached, so he stopped trying to understand them. But there was no mistaking the fact that this paper meant something to Haisley. But why did his mom have it?
He met Haisley's gaze and held it. Something clicked inside, and his gaze dipped to her midsection. The sweatshirt kept him from seeing if she was carrying extra weight around her belly. Mel was the only person he knew fairly well who was pregnant. She'd been nice enough to let him feel the baby kick. It had freaked him out but also brought tears to his eyes. He had watched Mel go from tiny to looking like she was hiding a basketball under her shirt. Could this woman be pregnant?
His gaze flew to Haisley’s, and he could see it on her face. For one brief second, he wondered if the baby was his dad's child, but he knew better. His father wouldn't do that to his mom.
“Haisley, why did my mother allow you to move in?”
A gasp escaped her lips, and she took a step back. “W-what do you mean?”
“This. Let me guess, your last name is Beale.”
Her lips thinned, and he wondered if she was going to run away like she had earlier. "Just give it to me."
Peach studied the words and dates in the bottom left corner of the photo. “So you were ten weeks then. That means you’re about fourteen weeks along.”
Her shoulders rounded, and she looked like she was trying to make herself look smaller. He'd done everything wrong. Anger, sadness, and exhaustion had him acting like an ass. Maybe Ava was right. He needed to polish himself a little and quit being so boorish.
“Listen, I’m sorry I’ve been a total dick. I say things I don’t mean. I'm rude and blunt, and maybe I'm just a jerk. I should have talked to my parents more, but I thought I had more time. I'm sure they would have told me about you and their trip if I'd called them more."
Haisley pressed her lips together and then rolled her eyes. "They were sad you hadn't come out to visit."
He nodded. “I know. I haven’t wanted to come back.”
“Why?”
“I love my parents, but I don't agree with a lot of stuff that happens around here. I don't know, maybe with the city coming closer, it'll get better. I just don’t agree with most of the people I went to high school with.”
Haisley huffed and cocked her head to one aside. “ Your parents didn’t agree with a lot of the people around here.”
He shook his head. “I interrupted your breakfast. How about we take a break, and you can get some food?"
She shook her head, and he narrowed his eyes and screwed his lips up to the side. The eye-roll she gave him almost made him laugh.
“Come on. You need food.”
“Are you sure you want to throw all this stuff away? I could go through it?—“
“No!” Peach said, realizing he might have yelled as Haisley’s eyes went wide. “Sorry. There’s just some stuff in there I know they don’t want anyone else seeing.”
Haisley chuckled. “Your parents had an active sex life.”
He gasped. "Oh my God. I don't want to know." He stuck his fingers in his ears and started humming.
Haisley laughed and shook her head. When he took his fingers out of his ears, she spoke.
“I had to get earplugs. Just know they were happy. They loved each other.”
He blew out a breath, not wanting to think about it. But then another thought hit. They would never come home again. “Fuck. I can’t believe they are gone. It sucks.”
“Yeah. It does suck. I know your mom was looking forward to having a baby in the house. She told me she never thought you would settle down.”
The words hurt. But they were true. He didn't plan on settling down. Even though all the guys seemed so happy, it wasn't for him. No one had ever really cared about him. They wanted to sleep with him and thought he was a pretty face, but they didn't care about him.
"She was probably right. I don't want to be tied down. I don't see any reason to be with only one woman for the rest of my life." He didn't mention the pain he'd suffered from the one person he had grown close to. Thank goodness his parents didn't really know about her. His mom would have loved her and then asked him about her. But she was a snake in sheep's clothing, and nothing could ever make him want that again.
“Really? You don’t want to get married?”
He shrugged. “I’ve never met anyone I’ve wanted to live with. I don’t like people in my space, and I certainly don't want someone asking me where I’m going or what I’m doing. I don’t know where I’m headed all the time. I like to drive, and then I figure it out as I go. Having to answer to someone, anyone, would be annoying."
She shrugged. “I didn’t do well picking a guy either.”
“Did he leave you once he found out you were pregnant?”
Her face went blank, and a dark look crossed over her features. He wanted to ask what that was about, but it really wasn't any of his business. She didn’t have to tell him anything. He would leave in a few days and never see her again.
Her being pregnant explained why his mom had brought her into their house. He just didn’t understand why they didn’t tell him they had someone living with them. Then again, he’d not really talked to them that much lately. He couldn’t remember the last time they’d had a good conversation. He’d been out of the country for a few weeks on a mission, and then when he returned, he hadn’t called.
There were times when his parents seemed very distant. They supported his decision to join the military, but his dad thought he would join the Army so he could be stationed close by. The only naval base close by was a submarine base, and he didn’t like the idea of living on a submarine, so he never would have been stationed there. He'd gone into the Navy knowing he wanted to be a SEAL.
Maybe he just didn’t know his parents as well as he thought he did. Something seemed off, though. There was more to this than he knew. He wanted answers, but they seemed out of his reach.