But yeah, a clean house would be bonus points in his favor, sure.If the mystery woman said no, maybe he could at least convince her to come over for dinner.Spend time with her.Maybe something would…develop on her end.
But it wouldn’t if she was too worried about what might crawl out of his couch.
And having sheets that he honestly couldn’t remember the last time he changed weren’t exactly conducive to romantic interludes, either.
Five
Peyton
While the week was busy and that helped Peyton pass the time during the days, at night he gave up trying to sleep and usually spent it stretched out dozing on Badger’s couch.
For starters, if he was going to be awake he might as well be there to watch over Dewi.
And secondly…
Well, Lucille had not only done an amazing job, he was loathe to risk messing anything up.He’d given her an extra hundred because she’d gone above and beyond.
And because she’d kindly offered to clean…the other house.For free, when they were ready to.
The house next door to Badger’s.
The one he and Trent grew up in—where Dewi was supposed to have grown up.
A house neither he nor Trent could stand to walk into now.A house he hadn’t let Dewi be taken back into since the night they scooped her up and rushed her to the hospital when they realized she was the sole survivor of the attack.Badger had everything from her nursery moved next door to his spare bedroom, where she’d lived ever since coming home from the hospital.
He knew Badger and Beck made sure there were no water leaks, did basic maintenance, kept the pipes from freezing, and made sure the AC and heat kept mold out of the place, those kinds of tasks.But neither he nor Trent had the heart to clean it out beyond what they’d all done in the immediate aftermath.
The…blood.And…everything from the living room.Removing everything that had been drenched in blood and gore.
Cleaning out their fridge.
Even his dad’s stuff still sat in his home office, barely touched other than the files Badger had retrieved for them.Their mom’s sewing room with a half-finished dress for Dewi that she’d already long outgrown still under the sewing machine’s foot, the seam partially sewn.
One day, I need to nut up and clean it out.
But today was not that day.
Tomorrow didn’t look so hot, either.
Beck looked marginally better Friday morning when he walked into Badger’s kitchen.“Did you sleep at all this week?”Peyton asked.
He slowly nodded.“Finally.Thanks.I didn’t realize how bad off I was.”
Peyton squeezed his shoulder.“Next time, don’t let it get so bad.Talk to one of us, please?”
Beck nodded and poured himself a mug of coffee.
Badger also emerged but Dewi was apparently still asleep.He looked Peyton up and down and then made a shooing motion with his hand.“Go getcher work done.Meet me back here, four sharp.Dressedsharp.”
Beck turned, scowling.“Huh?What’d I miss?”
Badger smiled.“Our boy here might have hisself a mate come later tonight.”
“Andsomeonewon’t tell me who she is,” Peyton grumbled back.
Finally, Beck could laugh about something.“Jeez, Badger.That’s just plain mean.”
“Oh,that’snot mean,” Badger said.“I could easily—”
