Page 135 of Under Her Skin
“What?” she asks with afrown.
“Some red wine!” I smile and her frowndeepens.
“Well, I can getyousome.” She gets up and starts to walkaway.
“You won’t be joining me?” I ask in surprise because Peyton is a lover of thegrape.
She turns back and has a little grin on her face. “I didn’t want to tell you our news and ruin your tragicmoment.”
I jump up and grab her by her narrow shoulders that I have to tiptoe to reach. “Tell me whatnews?”
“Kip and I are expectingagain!”
“You little, no good,” I say then hug her. “You two must’ve been trying, yousneak!”
“It seems that magic night when you and Blake were over here and Pax was with the in-laws worked for me and Kip. I’m under a month pregnant, but we found a test that told us wewere.”
I jump up and down and we hug and I pull her back to sit on the bed. “No wine then,” I say. “I could never drink without you. Congratulations!” I pick up a spoonful of ice cream and hand it to her then take mine and fill it then we click them together like a couple ofglasses.
Her smile spreads clear across her face and she says, “Thanks. We’re super happy aboutit.”
“Do you want a girl this time?”Iask.
“You know we just want a healthy baby. Whatever we get, we’ll be good with.” Her genuine smile tells me that she’s telling thetruth.
“That’s good. I wish you all the best,Peyt.”
“So, please continue with your story about going to see your homeless dad. And just know I think you’re crazy for going to see him all alone.” She sits back and we resume our positions, leaning our shoulders against the others and munching out on the icecream.
The bedroom door opens and Kip peeks in. “I heard the screaming. Did she tell you our goodnews?”
“She did,” I say. “Congrats, Daddy!” I jump off the bed and hughim.
He hugs me back. “We’re prettyhappy.”
“As you should be,” I say and pat him on the back then go back to sit withPeyton.
Peyton looks at Kip. “Where’s PaxxiePoo?”
“Napping,” he says then turns toleave.
Peyton looks at me. “Can hestay?”
I nod. “You wanna come talk some sense into me?” I askhim.
He nods and runs back and hops on the bed, stealing Peyton’s spoon and taking a scoop of ice cream. “Fill mein.”
Peyton laughs and says, “Okay, Shelly knows who her father is. He’s a homeless, crazy man who lives under a bridge in her hometown of Round Rock and she went, all by herself to seehim.”
Kip frowns and I hold up my hand to stop him before he tells me how crazy that was. “I know I was dumb for doing that. Believe me I know thatnow.”
“Okay,” he says. “Proceedplease.”
“All righty then,”I say and lean back against a mountain of pillows. “So, I went to see him and he knew who I was. He started out reasonably sane, but when I left he threw a bottle of orange juice I gave him at the truck I was driving and I heard him yelling my mother’s name and a barrage of cusswords.”
They both just sit and shake their heads at me. Then Kip says, “See what happens when you deal with crazypeople?”
“Yeah, I know,” I nod in agreement. “So, anyway, after hanging and talking with Max and Lexi for a few days, they talked me into going to see Blake and apologizing for leaving him like Idid.”
