Page 63 of Psycho

I snorted and rubbed my hands over my belly. “Regretting your upgrade to Auntie status already?”

“Not at all.” She snapped, grabbing the sonogram photos my doctor printed out specially for her during my appointment earlier. “It just seems unfathomable.”

“What about you guys?” I asked, broaching into uncharted waters between us. “Have you and Dane made any plans for kids?”

We had never talked about their plans, which I kind of thought was weird, but her choice to stay silent on it felt like enough of an answer.

She sighed and laid her head back against the seat. “Dane can’t have kids.” I turned in my seat and looked at her as she stared unseeingly out the windshield. “Something happened when he was a kid, I guess. And part of me is okay with that path for our relationship. A huge part of me is at peace with it, without feeling like it’s wrong or broken in a way.”

“But—” I whispered, knowing where she was going with it.

“But there’s this small, little, tiny voice in my head that wonders sometimes what it would be like to be a mom.” She turned her head to look at me as her eyes dropped to my belly. “I’m not jealous or sad about your pregnancy, but sometimes I just wonder ifI’dbe a good mom or not.”

“I think you’d be a wonderful mom.” I replied honestly, and she smiled.

“I think I was meant to be Dane’s wife instead, because to be honest, I don’t think I want to be a mom.” She smiled and rolled her eyes, “I just need to find a way to get that little voice to understand that.”

“There’s a lot of self-awareness in knowing that it isn’t something you want and being okay with that. I also think it’s human nature and simple biology to wonder what it would be like to procreate and create life.”

“I think raising you ruined the idea of parenthood for me.” She laughed, and I rolled my eyes at her statement. I wasn’t offended because I remembered all the pressure our parents put on Peyton to be perfect and set a good example for me.

“I wasn’t that bad.” She nodded in agreement at my deadpan expression.

“No, you weren’t. At least not when we were kids.” P sat up in her seat turning the car on, “Your teenage years, on the other hand,” She widened her eyes dramatically, “Were enough to scare me celibate.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” I droned on.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m fucking ecstatic to be the best aunt out there. I even turned one of the empty guest rooms into a baby room so I can keep this little one overnight occasionally when you and Maddox need a break.” My heart swelled at the devotion and support she’d shown me every step of the way since telling her my news. “Oh, and Mrs. Straight said she’ll put her retirement into hiatus to come spoil a new baby in the family. I think she just misses Dane’s surly attitude and needs a fix.”

I tipped my head back and laughed, remembering the way Peyton described the relationship between Dane and his older housekeeper before she went on a trip to England a few years ago. That trip was the reason that Peyton met Dane and when Mrs. Straight found out how the two of them got on, she announced her immediate retirement, choosing to stay in the UK with her family instead of returning to Hartington to endure more of Dane’s crabby nature.

“Oh, I’d love to see how she handles that man in person one day. I’m all for a visit.”

She pulled out of the parking lot of the shopping center and turned us back towards the other side of the city as I restedmy head back on the seat. I was exhausted, and I could feel my ankles swelling from being on my feet all day.

Maybe Maddox was right to keep me locked up all the time in comfy clothes and warm blankets while we lounged and enjoyed the down time before we had a newborn to care for. I could almost feel the softness of the new fleece lined leggings I planned to change into when I got home.

I started to tell P not to stick around once we arrived—I was desperate to relax and open that envelope with Maddox to find out the sex of our baby—when a violent, explosive sound shattered my thoughts, throwing my body violently against the seat.

Peyton’s screams were the only thing I could hear over the terrible noises surrounding us as her car careened onto its side and then onto the roof. Glass, metal shards, and debris rained down on us as we came to a forceful stop.

“Liv!” Peyton’s screams echoed through my foggy brain as her hand grabbed my arm, where it hung limply next to my head. “Olivia!”

I tried to move my arm to see her, but it felt like it was dead, hanging there, no longer attached to my body as vertigo set in from being upside down.

Slowly, things started orienting themselves in my brain as it finally stopped rolling around in my head and Peyton’s voice cleared up in my ears so I could finally understand her.

“Run!” She screamed.

“What?”

“Run! Now!” She reached for my seatbelt and clicked the release, causing me to slide down the seat onto the roof in a heap, but she kept shoving at me. “Olivia, they’re coming! Run!”

“What are you—” I asked, looking over at her where she lay pinned in her seat with the car crushed in around her. “Oh my god, P.” I clawed at the roof of the car trying to get my body tocooperate with me but still my one arm wouldn’t work as I tried to get her. “Peyton!”

“They’re coming!”

Suddenly, Dane’s dominant voice echoed through the car’s speakers. “Peyton! What happened?”

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