17. Piper
PIPER
Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch
Kerry Winsor: I FIGURED OUT HOW TO MEET PIPER, EVERYONE! See you at The Reserved Bean today!
Comments:
Tammy Jane: This isn’t an airport, Kerry. You don’t have to announce where you’re arriving and departing from!
Kerry Winsor: I said it for all the other people who want to meet her!
Jade Clark: Read that sentence again and tell me if you think you’re doing the right thing.
Kerry Winsor: What?
Kerry Winsor: Oh. Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t. Deleting!
Jade Clark: So you do have sense . . .
I came in at my usual afternoon time, determined to walk into The Reserved Bean with a smile on my face. Theo was behind the counter and Kelsey was working on drinks. It was as if nothing had happened.
I enjoyed that.
Without a shadow of a doubt, I knew Theo wasn’t going to tell a soul about what he knew.
And after being in the middle of Joey’s and Mitch’s arguments for the last few years, I needed this. I didn’t want Kelsey to look at me with pity or constantly ask if I was okay. I wanted things to appear normal.
“Hi,” I said to them both. “Can I get my usual? I have a lot of writing to get done.”
I really did. With the knowledge that I was fine staying in Strawberry Springs, Mitch had reached out the second Joey came home, asking about my manuscript. He said he would be sympathetic if I needed him to be, but I needed to make progress.
“Yep.” Theo’s eyes flicked to me and back down to his tablet. That was it. There was no pity in his gaze. There was no questioning how I was doing today. Nothing had changed.
Good.
After I paid, I went to my table, feeling lighter than I had when I walked in. Theo was the first person to know about my past who didn’t make it a huge deal. Mitch tried to, but I saw the way he looked at me when he thought I didn’t notice.
I gave myself one more moment to smile over at Theo before I tore my eyes away. I did have work to get done, so after a sip of the perfect coffee he had made, I turned my attention to my laptop.
I’d thought that the last few days would have killed any inspiration I had. But talking with Theo made the opposite happen, and words flew out of me faster than they ever had before.
Time shifted into something nebulous as I worked on my manuscript.
When I finally tore my eyes away from the screen, Kelsey was gone for the day and it was just Theo and me. A quick check of the time told me that the shop wasn’t closed yet, and I knew better than to try to talk to him until it was completely shut down.
Still, my coffee was empty and I needed a refill, so I grabbed my cup and headed to the counter.
“Mind if I get more? I can pay again.”
“Customers get free refills of drip coffee on me.” Theo gave me a smile that made my heart skip a beat as he turned to refill the cup. He was so attractive, even more so now.
He knew my past and didn’t change anything. Would he also be patient with me? Did he feel this spark too?
I was tempted to ask, but with Kelsey warning me that he didn’t date, I had a feeling he would say no.
Plus, he’d mentioned my age many times. He’d never once made an untoward move with me, other than to make sure that I was protected when I needed it. I was a romantic, yes, but I was also a realist.
I needed to keep myself in line. It wasn’t like I could touch him anyway.
Theo slid the cup over to me, putting the lid back on. He deviated from his normal by walking around the counter to lean against it. Was it already time for us to catch up? I was about to ask when the door opened, breaking up whatever was about to happen.
A woman I’d not seen before walked in, but when Theo cursed, I had a bad feeling about who she was.
She was older, maybe in her forties, wearing leopard print. A lot of leopard print. And a bright red hat. Just looking at her hurt my eyes.
“Kerry.” Theo’s voice was tight. “You’re here late in the evening.”
“Oh yes, I got tired of trying on new outfits over at Grace’s shop, so I decided a little caffeine would do me well. I have a meeting for the town’s beautification tonight and I need all the energy I can get to convince Henry to let me add geraniums to the flower lineup.”
Theo kept his eyes on the woman in front of him, not me. I knew this was my chance to head back to my table.
Unfortunately, I was too late.
“And who are you?” Kerry turned to me, eyes wide as if I were an interesting story. “I haven’t seen you in town before. Might you be the famous Piper that I’ve been waiting to meet?”
“Oh no,” Theo muttered under his breath.
I racked my brain for any information on Kerry and remembered that she was the town gossip that Theo had blackmailed.
“Yes, I am. Your name’s Kerry, right?”
Her eyes lit up. “So you’ve heard of me.”
“You commented on my Facebook post,” I reminded her. “I think you said something about being excited to meet me.”
“That’s right, you’ve already joined the Facebook group! You’re ahead of the game.”
“I heard the Facebook group was really interesting, so I wanted to make sure I knew all of the gossip.”
“Finally, someone who wants to know all of what’s going on in this town.” She laughed. “Everyone else is so worried about feelings. I mean, who needs those, right?”
“I’m more of a bystander. I do care about people’s feelings.”
She sighed. “Well, I suppose you couldn’t be perfect, but I can work with this. You’re gorgeous, by the way. Where did you get that top?”
I looked down. I was in one of my tighter fitting T-shirts with tiny flowers printed on it. On bad days, I would go for something long sleeved to protect my skin from being touched. But this was one of the days where I felt like I could do something a little braver.
I had a lot of items in my closet that I never wore because I was afraid of people touching me if I showed any skin. It was time to change that.
“I think this is from some online retailer. That’s where I get most of my clothes.”
“It’s so cute. And what kind of material is it?”
That was a question that I could answer easily, but the words never made it out of my mouth because Kerry was reaching over to me. My entire body tensed, but before I completely froze up, I knew I had to move.
I was stuck between letting Kerry touch me and Theo, who was standing behind me.
And I chose Theo.
Jolting back, my shoulder hit his, and he reacted immediately. In seconds, I had the space that I needed, and his eyes went wide as if he knew what that meant to me.
But Kerry was still staring at me expectantly. Her arm was still outstretched and her expression was slowly morphing into curiosity.
“You know, I have a new syrup for you to try. It’s peppermint, but it’s a different brand.” Theo’s voice broke her concentration.
“You better have the old one still. I like that one far more than anything new.”
“This one’s higher quality. It’s French, I think. You might like it.”
Kerry’s eyes went wide and she followed Theo over to the counter. They talked about coffee for a good minute, but her gaze cut to me a few times, and I knew she hadn’t forgotten about me. Still, I ran to my table, hoping she wouldn’t bother me anymore.
The second I sat, though, I was distracted.
Kerry and Theo kept talking up at the front, and their voices lowered. I had an inkling that they were talking about me, but whatever it was, Kerry walked out the front door without another word to me. I was grateful for it.
Theo didn’t even look at me until she was gone for a full minute.
“Motherfucker. Every time that woman comes in, she causes chaos. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Theo only raised one eyebrow. “Then did you not notice you ran into me?” He was right.
I had brushed up against him, and instead of being worried about that, I was more worried about Kerry.
Sure, she was obviously the bigger threat based on how Theo had reacted, but I still should have had some sort of fearful response to touching him.
But I didn’t. And this was the first time that this had ever happened.
Was it a fluke? Had I just gotten lucky? Did the distraction work?
Either way, it was something to celebrate. This was something to investigate. I had gone years without any sort of breakthrough on my fear of touch. Had that finally changed now that I’d started medication?
“I . . . did. But I’m really okay. It was an accident.”
Theo only stared at me. I knew what he was thinking. Us brushing hands not so long ago was also a reaction, but this was very different.
“I told you I trusted you.”
“You should trust me less.”
“Don’t tell me what I should do,” I said sharply. “I get to decide that, remember?”
His eyes went wide immediately. “Shit, you’re right. I’m sorry. You handled that well.”
I let out a breath. “It was either you or Kerry. Trust me, you were the better choice.”
“That’s a low bar, but I’ll take the compliment.”
“Now, don’t we have other things to talk about? Like the fact that I finally met the infamous Kerry?”
His shoulders sank. “It’s never a good time to meet her, but that was even worse. I had to bring up the incident just to get her to let it go.”
“I was wondering what you were doing. How red was her face?”
“Basically maroon.” He rubbed his neck. “Kind of like mine was.”
“Why is she so interested in gossip anyway?” I shook my head. “Surely she has other things to do.”
“That you’d be wrong about,” Theo said. “She’s always been this way. No one is able to stop her.”
I frowned. “So if the dildo threat doesn’t work, how do we play this?”
His eyes bulged. “I’m sorry, did you just call what I did a dildo threat?”
“That’s what it was.”
“There’s no other word you could’ve used?”
“Dildo isn’t a bad word.”
“It’s not exactly . . . proper.”
“I don’t use proper language with friends. Sorry, but dildo talk is on the table.”
Theo was now the one with red cheeks. “Uh, that’s . . . You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
I laughed. “It’s cute when you’re embarrassed.”
“Thanks.” He muttered it as he rubbed his face.
“I wouldn’t talk about dildos without consent, but you’re the one who brought that up.”
“I regret it. And to answer your actual question, I don’t know. It’s not like we can steer the narrative.”
“We definitely could.”
“You have to be really good with words.”
I hummed. “It’s almost like you need a writer. Which I happen to be. I do a lot of steering of narratives. Sit down with me. I bet we can figure it out.”
“And no more dildo talk?”
“We still talk dildo threats around here.”
“Jesus, Piper.” He shook his head, but he was smiling.
I took that as a win.