Sometimes Moments (Sometimes Moments, #1)(15)

“I’m—”

Peyton shook her head. “Save it. If you had just come back, I would have forgiven you for breaking my heart. I don’t care if you couldn’t love me back. I just needed your support and for you to acknowledge their deaths. They all came back. The only person who didn’t show was you.” Peyton sniffed and tucked her hair behind her ear.

She had vowed that day never to let him back into her life. The last glint of hope had died with the very last breath her parents had breathed that day all those years ago.

“Get the f*ck out of my pub, Reid.” Jay’s growl had Peyton lifting her eyes to meet his. The vein on his neck protruded as he balled his fist.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” Callum said.

From the corner of her eye, Peyton could see him holding his hands up.

“Well, you chose the wrong town to return to…and the wrong pub. Get your sorry ass up and leave. If I see you ever make Peyton that upset again, I’ll have my fist to your jaw. Got it?” Jay took a step forward.

Peyton shot up from her chair and stepped between them. “Enough, Jay,” Peyton said, but he kept his eyes on Callum.

“You tell Graham that he’s back in town?”

“No,” she replied.

Jay’s eyes met hers. Disbelief took hold of his face. His eyes darkened and his face tensed. “Then you better tell him before he finds out from someone else, Peyton.”

“What are you, Jay, her protector?” Mr Preston asked and placed his hand on his son’s shoulder.

Mr Preston was just like Jay—chocolate eyes and a strong jaw. She imagined he was what Jay would look like once he aged. The way his lips curved tightly indicated that he would calm down his son.

“I’m more than what that little f*cker ever did. I’m her friend. He couldn’t even—”

“Jay, it’s not your place to have a say. This is between Peyton and Callum. For far too long, this town has had an opinion on what happened. We don’t get a say,” Mr Preston said before holding his hand out to Callum. “It’s good to have you home, Callum.”

Callum stepped around Peyton and shook hands with Jay’s father. “Thanks, Mr Preston.”

Jay snorted. “This ain’t your home, Reid. Hasn’t been for a long time.”

Peyton kept quiet, staring among the three of them. No one in the pub spoke. It seemed like they were all holding their breaths.

“He’s a boy from Daylesford. Just like you, Jay. He’s one of us.” Mr Preston’s fingers dug into Jay’s shoulder, but Jay didn’t flinch.

“Then he should have been there when she buried Cindy and Stuart,” Jay growled and shrugged his father’s hand off his shoulder. He took a step and put his face as close to Callum’s as possible—to the point where their foreheads were almost touching. “You hurt her or even make her cry, you answer to me. Don’t think that I’m afraid to hurt a city boy like you. Don’t think for a minute that you’re one of us. You spoilt son of a bitch left behind something special. You weren’t there to see her cry. You weren’t there when she found out they’d died.”

Peyton winced. She had never seen Jay so forceful or terrifying. But she knew that he was protecting her. He had been there when she’d found out that her parents had died. They had been walking down Main Street when Sergeant Downs parked his police car next to them and told her the news. Hit and run. Her parents had died instantly an hour outside of the town’s limits.

“Stop it, Jay,” Peyton said sternly.

His eyes locked on hers and she shook her head at him—a warning to lay it to bed. It was the single worst moment in her life and he was digging it back up for the whole pub to hear. Peyton hadn’t just lost her parents. The town had lost their friends.

Peyton stepped towards her table and collected her work. She was stacking the files when she heard Jay say her name. That’s when she stuck her hand up at him to stop him from saying any more.

“You’ve said enough, Jay. I don’t need your protection or for you to make a statement on my behalf. Leave it. And you, Callum, are leaving with me before Jay does something that I’m going to hate him for.” Peyton reached over and took Callum’s wrist in her hand.

He tensed under her touch, but she ignored him, dragging him away.

As she walked towards the pub doors, she heard Jay say, “Don’t you fall in love with him, Peyton. Don’t you do that to me.”





With a heavy sigh, Peyton placed her work papers on her desk and slipped out of her jacket, resting it on her the chair. She searched through the bundle of papers until she came across the Reynolds’ menu. Smoothing it out, she separated it from the other documents.

“I remember when this place used to be so…”

Callum’s voice stopped, and she turned around to see him looking around the office. It was far different than what he’d known when he was seventeen.

“Alive?” Peyton deadpanned.

She noticed his quick flinch at her words and smiled to herself.

“Not the word I was going for,” Callum said as he walked towards the bookcase.

“Well, things die. The heart of this place died along with my parents.” Her eyes followed his movements as he inspected the wall before facing her.