Chapter Nine
Emmett held his breath as he squeezed the piping bag, letting a ribbon of white icing trace the line of the gingerbread house roof.
‘You finally got that thing to stand up on its own,’ Piper said as she bounced past where he was sitting at the dining table and into the kitchen, wearing a white shirt and denim shorts that made him struggle to concentrate on the next line of icing.
He let out a chuckle at the wonder in her voice.
Things had been painfully comfortable between them since their conversation about Heath almost a week ago.
Painful for Emmett, in the way he thought about holding her to him whenever she was around but never acted on it.
Comfortable because she looked happier than he’d seen her since she’d arrived.
He smiled at the memory of spotting Piper and Maddie laughing in the back of the Kombi, music blaring and Uno cards flying when he’d driven past them in the hospital car park after his shift had finally ended.
She’d told him later about the phone call with Heath and while Emmett was still pissed at her ex for the situation he’d landed Piper in, he could definitely understand how he’d gotten there.
Emmett had seen more than his own fair share of death and wandered down the path of what if.
‘This one is up and staying up. I’ve had enough gingerbread to last me five years.’
‘That’s specific.’ She spun around the kitchen, humming a tune he didn’t recognise but which sounded a lot like a Christmas carol.
He much preferred it over the sad, grungy shit she’d listened to when she’d first moved in.
The melody rose and fell in her throat. Emmett closed his eyes against the beautiful sound.
Shit, he was in trouble. She’s Carter’s sister.
You grew up with her. She just got out of a long-term relationship. So many reasons not to go there.
‘Coffee?’
His head jerked up at her question. ‘How can you be drinking coffee? It’s four in the afternoon.’
‘You don’t have choir practice tonight on top of an early morning. Plus, I got covered in vomit from a single mum with a debilitating migraine while Greta got to cuddle her six-month-old baby.’
‘Was that Reggie?’
Piper raised a brow at him as she poured milk into her mug. ‘How did you guess that?’
‘Small town. She’s been getting those migraines for a while now and with three kids to manage on her own, she’s not able to rest properly, so they escalate until she literally can’t go on and is forced to ask for help.’
‘Why doesn’t she ask for help before it gets that bad? There’s plenty of people around who’d look after the children for her.’
‘Pride. She didn’t even tell anyone that West had taken off until she went into labour with Noah and was so busy sorting out someone to care for the twins that she birthed in the back of the ambulance with no pain relief.’
‘Wow, tough woman.’ Piper tapped a teaspoon on the lip of her mug after stirring its contents. She put her mug on the tabletop before placing her hand on his shoulder to hold her balance while she settled on the chair next to him.
It was the briefest of touches, one that, before their hug, he wouldn’t have thought twice about, but damn if his skin didn’t seem to sizzle. Emmett cleared his throat and focused on piping the final line along the roof edge.
‘Want to help me decorate?’ he asked, eyeing the bags of Smarties he’d bought for the roof, the strips of liquorice to make windows and the sprinkles to go wherever there was room. Simple yet hopefully effective and colourful.
‘I don’t know … having outside help has got to be considered cheating.’
‘I really wish you’d stop accusing me of that.’ He playfully narrowed his eyes at her, making her laugh. That really was the best sound. ‘It could be a joint entry.’
‘Uh-uh. I’m not making you sing half the choir songs, am I? You’re doing this on your own.’ She sipped on her coffee, a cute yet smug look on her face.
Emmett picked up a handful of Smarties and started dropping them along the lines of white icing. Piper frowned.
‘What?’ he asked, wearily.
‘You know you could put the colours in some kind of pattern. You might get points for that.’
Emmett rolled his eyes but didn’t make any changes to his haphazard selection as he continued to line the roof. ‘I thought getting outside help was cheating?’
‘Just a suggestion. I thought you wanted to win?’
‘When did I say anything about winning?’
Piper scoffed. ‘Please. You and Carter always had to win when we were kids. Nothing else mattered to you two other than who could run the fastest or the furthest, shoot the most hoops, kick the most conversions, score the most tries. Didn’t you keep score in a notebook, so you knew which one of you was up?
Pretty sure you had Carter in everything but the footy kicks.
It’s not changed for him, and I struggle to think it’s changed for you. ’
‘It has,’ he said, grabbing another handful of Smarties with slower movements.
‘Don’t get me wrong, I’d still prefer to be up the winning end than the other, but when you spend months caring for the one you love most on the planet, only to watch them slip away, it makes you appreciate what truly matters. ’
Silence stretched between them as he continued to place the chocolates on the roof. Hopefully they wouldn’t weigh it down too much. He couldn’t take another redo.
‘Remember those Anzac biscuits your mum used to make?’ Piper said as he added the last Smartie.
‘They were so crunchy on the outside and blissfully soft in the middle. The best type. And every batch she made was perfect. She would give them to me for the picnics I used to host in the paddock between our houses for my dolls when you and Carter wouldn’t let me play in the fort you made.
She’d always stay for at least one cup of tea. ’
Emmett swallowed hard. ‘I didn’t know that. I remember the biscuits—they were my favourite—but I didn’t know she had tea parties with you in the paddock.’
‘They were my favourite too.’
He wanted to hug her. Should he? Was this one of those moments Stef would recommend wrapping Piper up in a hug as the best way to comfort her? He really wanted to hug her.
She smiled up at him and the chance for affection passed.
Instead, he picked up the piping bag and went to squeeze out a line for a window on the side, but nothing came out. Moving it away from the house, he twisted the top, adding more pressure to the icing inside until it shot out, clearing the blockage.
‘Hey!’
His gaze snapped up to the giant splatter of icing across the middle of Piper’s face—both cheeks. Laughter rumbled up from the bottom of his chest and burst from his mouth.
‘I’m glad you find it funny.’
The indignation in her voice only made him laugh harder.
She rose from the chair to swipe a couple of tissues from the box near the microwave, looking as though she was fighting to keep a straight face. She scrubbed at her cheeks at first, smearing the sugary filling more than she was removing it, keeping Emmett laughing.
After a handful of tissues, she’d gotten most of it off. ‘Gone?’ she asked, turning her face left and right.
‘Almost.’ He wiped the moisture from his eyes. ‘There’s some on your nose still.’
‘Where? Here?’ She dabbed at the wrong side. ‘Did I get it?’
‘No.’ He pushed up from the chair. ‘Let me.’
Emmett reached out with his finger to swipe the mixture from her nose but she followed it with her eyes, sending her cross-eyed. She flinched her head back before shaking it, effectively pulling out of his reach.
‘Hold still.’ Before he knew what he was doing, he was cradling either side of her face with his hands, using his thumb to rub the icing off.
Her deep, dark eyes stared up at him, her sweet breath with hints of the coffee she’d just drunk mixed with his.
She was so close. He should let her go. He needed to let her go but her face was so delicate in his hands, her skin so soft.
Her eyelids fluttered a couple of times and his knees became weak.
He swallowed hard as she tilted her chin up, bringing her lips closer to his.
They looked like they’d be soft too. What would they feel like against his?
Would he be able to taste her coffee? If he kissed her, would she kiss him back?
The way her eyes shone as he inched closer made it seem like she would.
Should he ask her first? Damn, she was so beautiful.
Emmett barely registered the flap of the doggy door or the tapping of four feet against the wood floor before a furry body barged between them, forcing him to drop his hold and stumble back a few steps.
He grabbed the chair before he could fall.
Piper braced herself against the wall. Major’s feet scrambled for purchase on the polished tabletop as he snapped at the gingerbread house, sending it and him careening across the wood grain.
They toppled down the other side between the table and the bench in a whirl of sugar and canine.
‘Chocolate!’ Piper yelled. ‘The Smarties.’
Emmett froze. Dogs can’t eat chocolate; it makes them sick.
‘Major!’ Tempted to throw himself across the table too, Emmett raced around the dining set to find the German Shepherd tangled in chairs that had fallen on their side in the chaos.
What was supposed to have been his gingerbread house lay out of reach in a million pieces.
‘Fuck!’
Major thrashed around in his furniture trap before letting out a long whine.
‘Oh, Major!’ Piper crouched by Emmett’s four-legged friend, stroking his fur in a comforting way.
‘Stupid dog,’ Emmett cursed, scooping up handfuls of gingerbread crumbs, broken Smarties and smooshed icing to dump in the sink.
‘Emmett! He didn’t do it on purpose,’ Piper scolded. ‘He’s gotten himself trapped, the poor thing.’
‘Not on purpose? What else would you call barrelling between us at breakneck speed to get to the house? He knows he’s not allowed on the table.
’ Checking he hadn’t missed any pieces of chocolate, Emmett crouched by the dog and pushed his paw gently through the timber rods at the back of the chair before guiding his head out from where it was pinned between the legs of two different chairs.
With a yap, Major pushed to his feet to cover Piper in slobbery licks, his tail wagging like a metronome set on the highest setting.
‘Major!’ Piper’s laugh tinkled as she fell on her bottom, giving the dog more access to show her his affection.
Emmett rolled his eyes as his mood soured further. How pathetic was it to be grumpy at a dog for getting closer to Piper than he could? He wanted to be the one covering her in kisses. Fuck! He wasn’t supposed to be having thoughts like this about his best friend’s sister. What was wrong with him?
‘Major, get down.’
The dog backed off immediately, recognising the bark in Emmett’s tone.
‘Outside.’
Major scurried off with his tail between his legs, pulling the barely held together strings of Emmett’s heart.
‘Why are you being such a grump? He was fine.’ Piper climbed to her feet and crossed her arms across her chest. ‘Are you really that upset about your house?’
‘That was the last kit in the IGA. Now I’m going to have to drive to Truden to see if they’ve got any and I’ve got under an hour to get there.’
‘Emmett,’ she said, more softly. ‘Are we going to talk about what happened before Major came barrelling through us?’
His face heated and he turned for the front door. No , he wanted to scream. He couldn’t cross a line like that. It didn’t matter how much he wanted to, Piper was too vulnerable. She meant too much to him. ‘I got icing off your nose. Not much else to talk about.’
A bewildered look appeared on her face briefly before it flashed to hurt then defiance. ‘No, I guess there’s not.’
He snatched up his keys from the bowl and headed out the door. As he stepped off the porch towards his ute, he noticed Harry in his front yard, push mower at the ready.
‘Trouble in paradise?’ Harry called over the hip-height fence.
Emmett scowled and shook his head as he threw himself into the driver’s seat. Yep, he was a number one bastard.