23. Piper
PIPER
Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch
Atticus Thompson: Landscaper needed for bush control. Any takers?
Comments:
Marjorie Brown: @Henrietta Brown is really good at bush control.
Henrietta Brown: I hate you . . .
Jade Clark: I prefer my bushes all natural. I’m no help here!
Kerry Winsor: I LOVE my bush control guy! He trims it down so neatly and in a perfect square!
Jade Clark: I have nothing to add to this. Kerry, never change.
Kerry Winsor: What? We’re all talking about bushes, right?
The coffee shop was busy today. It was tempting to turn around and walk back to my apartment, but I could do this. I knew I could.
Getting in line, I waited for my turn with Theo. When there were other people around, I didn’t get to talk to him too much, but at least I’d be able to see him.
“Hey,” I said when I walked up. “Can I get my usual?”
“Of course you can.”
I got my card out to pay. Since there were people behind me, I moved to the pickup counter like any regular customer would and waited for Kelsey to make my order. I already felt off and was unsure if being here was a good idea.
When she put my drink on the counter, she leaned over. “Watch this.”
“Watch what?”
She pointed to the front counter, and I grabbed my coffee as I followed the invisible line she had drawn. The woman behind me was placing her order, but her eyes kept lingering on the man in front of her.
I didn’t blame her. Theo was eye candy.
“So, what’s a girl got to do to get your number?” She twirled her hair on her finger, her lips upturned.
My grip tightened on my cup.
I didn’t consider myself a jealous person, but I’d never had someone to be jealous of. Watching Theo blink over at her, the silence stretching across the coffee shop made it bubble up.
It didn’t help that she was beautiful. The woman was taller than I was, with long, flowing dark hair and a curvy body.
She also probably had a lot less baggage than I did.
That was the thought that stung.
“I don’t give out my number.” Theo’s words helped slightly. I hoped the woman would get the message and I would be free of this torture.
I wasn’t that lucky.
“Aw, so you play hard to get.” She tucked a strand of hair behind an ear. “I can work with that.”
“You’re very beautiful,” he said, and my eye started twitching, “but—”
“You can just stop there. That’s all I need to hear.”
She was. I knew she was. But he hadn’t even said that to me.
“I still don’t give out my number.”
She leaned forward, and even her boobs were nice, which was simply unfair. She wasn’t just beautiful. She was gorgeous.
“Fine. I don’t need your number. There’re plenty of things we could do then. You free after this place closes?”
His cheeks darkened. And I swear I saw red. My jaw clenched. My eyes narrowed and I was about to explode over a woman hitting on my man.
No one could make him blush but me.
Holding a to-go cup while angry was a mistake. I didn’t realize my fist was tighter than my jaw, and the meager paper cup in my hand couldn’t take the pressure.
It exploded right when she reached out to try to put her hand on his chest.
Time slowed, and hot coffee went all over me again.
“Oh my God,” Kelsey said. “Piper, are you okay? Let me get some napkins.”
The woman looked over, her focus finally broken.
I didn’t want to hate her. Women were allowed to flirt. They were allowed to be confident and go after what they wanted.
Just not with Theo.
The man on my mind appeared by my side, his eyes wide. His hands almost landed on my shoulders, but he stopped himself at the last second.
I wanted him to keep going. I wanted to beg him to touch me and no one else. “Lo—Piper. What happened? Did someone touch you?”
His voice pulled me out of my anger and clarity hit me.
“N-no.” I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
His eyes trailed over me. “You’re not. You just don’t feel it yet.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“I’ll always worry about you,” he said, and it felt like the floor fell out from under me. “We have burn cream in the back. Come on.”
I shouldn’t have taken in Theo’s attention like this, but I soaked it up like a sponge. He was by my side, and that’s what felt right.
My mind fully cleared, and that’s when I realized what I’d done. I crushed a coffee cup out of jealousy over a man who didn’t even date.
What the hell was wrong with me?
“And there it is,” Theo said softly. “Who brushed up against you? Did Kerry sneak in?”
“I—no. No one touched me.”
“It’s just you and me. You don’t have to lie.”
“I’m not. Something else happened.”
I couldn’t meet his gaze. I felt like a complete idiot, and my skin burned too. All I could do was look at the tiles on the floor and hope the ground would swallow me up.
“Piper.” Theo’s voice was soft and I swore I could feel it on my skin. “Look at me.”
“No.”
“Piper. I’m not gonna let this go. Something happened and I need to make sure you’re okay.”
Need.
God, I liked it when he used that word.
I dragged my gaze up to his.
“Thank you,” he said. “Now what happened?”
“It was an accident.”
“No good sentence starts with that.”
“I crushed the coffee cup in my hand.”
His brow rose. “You did that?”
“Yes. I did, and now my skin burns.” I let out a long sigh. “I should go home and change.”
I could also hide from the world while I was at it.
Theo held up the cream. “I can help. It won’t take the pain from the burn away, but it’ll help.”
“Do you speak from experience?”
“I was serious when I said I dropped coffee on myself. I’ve also done it with boiling water.”
I glanced down at my hand. It barely registered, but the skin was turning red already. “Thank you.”
“Do you want to do this or do you want me to?”
The idea of Theo helping me with that sent a shiver down my spine. I’d been mending my own wounds for far too long. I’d done it even before I had an aversion to touch.
This time I wanted something different.
“Will you do it?”
He blinked, obviously not expecting me to take him up on doing it for me. “Are you sure?”
I nodded and held out my hand. We both knew this was a big moment. He would be touching me, not the other way around.
When he got close, my body tensed in anticipation of what was coming.
Theo paused, looking at me with a silent question.
“I’ll be okay,” I said slowly. “I still want you to do it.”
When he took another moment, I wondered if he would stop, or say no because he thought it was too much for me. I’d experienced that a lot with Joey, and it kept me far too comfortable. I didn’t want the same for Theo.
“Let me test the waters first.”
I could only nod and wait for him to move forward.
It was scary letting him touch me this time, but I wanted it. I wanted it badly.
The pads of his fingers lightly grazed my skin. My breath hitched, but I didn’t pull away. I knew he was watching me, looking for any signs of discomfort. I couldn’t hide that I was nervous. But when was I not?
“Should I keep going?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m okay.”
“All right.” He added the burn cream to his hand before he moved back to me. I barely felt the burn since I was engrossed in this newness of having him so close to me, but it roared back to life the second he was treating it.
I was no stranger to pain, so I barely flinched, but I knew I would regret it tomorrow.
Even though this was so new, I liked Theo’s touch, and my mind went back to the woman who had hit on him.
Shame colored my cheeks. I didn’t like anger or jealousy, and yet I’d let one of them get the best of me.
“She was flirting with you.” I said it softly. “That’s why I crushed the cup.”
Theo’s fingers stilled. “I was telling her no.”
“I know. I still didn’t like it. She’s probably capable of doing way more with you than I’ll ever be.” The words came out bitter. “And I hate that.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said in a low tone. “I’m only like this with you.”
My breath caught in my throat and our eyes met. We were so close and I could see flecks of gold in his brown eyes.
“R-really?” I asked.
He slowly nodded. “Even when I know I shouldn’t.”
My head cocked to the side. “Why shouldn’t you?”
“Do you want a PowerPoint or a list?”
“A list will do.”
He huffed out a laugh. “You could just agree with me.”
“That’ll never happen. Sorry.”
“Fine.” He went back to the cream as he spoke. “I’m too old for you. I have a bad past. Things around me could collapse at any time.”
The feel of him was distracting, but I focused on what he was saying. He needed to know what I was thinking.
“We’re in similar parts of our lives,” I managed to say. “I know your past, and things around me could fall apart too.”
“Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Make me want to continue this anyway.”
I straightened. My heart was pounding. I wanted to ask—no, beg—for him to do whatever he wanted to. I wanted whatever he would give me.
But could I give it?
I considered the skin of his neck, which was right in front of me. What would it be like to press my face into it? To completely give in and let him touch me however he wanted?
My body tightened, and I wasn’t sure if it was from fear.
“I need to get back to the front.”
I slowly nodded. He was pushing away, more than likely out of fear. Normally, I would respect it and give him his space.
This time, I didn’t want to. I wanted to push and see where we ended up.
Whether it ended it heartbreak or something more, I had to determine if I was ready for it.
Theo took me up front, where Kelsey had another coffee ready.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Oh, I’m fine. Theo patched me up.”
Kelsey nodded and then looked over at Theo, who was already helping another customer. “Might wanna lock him down.”
My cheeks went red as I remembered what he’d just told me. “Think he’d go for it?”
“With you? Yes.”
“I wanna try, but . . . The touching thing is difficult to get around.”
“Something tells me Theo has plenty of patience.” She winked and slid me the new cup of coffee. I gave him one last glance before I went to my table.