Chapter 16 – piper
sixteen
piper
Both of my employees are here this morning, so I’m going to do the big author reveal, and I’m pretty sure I’m one quick hyperventilating session away from throwing up. I asked them to come in ten minutes early for a quick meeting, so the time has come.
It’s not that I don’t trust them. I know they’ll respect my secret and be kind about it. But will they feel betrayed, like Dorian did?
“You’re starting to freak me out, boss,” Ravi says, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
They’re seated side by side on my yellow sofa in my office, and I’m perched on the edge of my desk, holding a Clancy Calloway novel.
“Did your dad give you bad news?” Nat asks. “You have to close the store?”
“What? No, definitely not. Actually, it was excellent news. His projections are better than mine were. If we keep up the events and generate more customers, we can adjust our hours to close earlier each night and still put the shop in the black this year.”
Nat claps. “That’s amazing.”
“Yes. But that has nothing…well, I guess it’s sort of linked. So, actually, since the store has been suffering a bit, I’ve been supplementing some of its needs with the income I get from my second job.”
They explode at the same time. Ravi asks, “How do you have time for that?” as Natalie says, “What job?”
I slowly hold up the book.
Ravi squints. “You are…dealing in used books?”
“It’s not that.” Natalie squints. “But I don’t get it.”
“I have a secret pen name. I chose this one, hoping it would sound like it could be a man or a woman.”
The room goes deathly silent.
Natalie is the first to compose herself. “You’re telling us you’re Clancy Calloway?”
“Yeah.” I cringe. “But it’s super secret. I want the store and my books to be separate, so I’ve never told anyone outside my family. And Elena. And now Dorian. And you two. Plus an Uber driver.”
Ravi stands, taking the book from my hands. “Piper, this is amazing.”
“You aren’t mad?”
“No, I’m jealous. I want to write books.”
I look at him sharply. “Since when?”
“Since always.” His cheeks darken with a blush.
Natalie rises, too, looking hurt. “Why haven’t you been coming to the classes?”
He shrugs.
But my heart goes out to him. The first step in achieving a dream is admitting you have one. “Then I’ll put you on the clock. Tuesday nights, nine to ten.”
He smiles, shaking his head. “This is really cool. Are you going to do a big reveal now?”
I feel the blood want to leave my face. “No. That is…I’m not planning to tell the world yet. I need time to decide how I want to handle this. But I’m not going to keep it a secret from the people in my life anymore.”
“Can we put one of our local author signs on your books?” Nat asks.
There’s no harm in that. “Sure,” I say.
Ravi offers me a fist bump. “Thanks for trusting us with this.”
Natalie hugs me. “Honestly, amazing.”
Their support strengthens me just as I knew it would.
Maybe I’m not ready for some huge public announcement, but that’s the beauty of having a pen name.
If I choose to remain anonymous forever, that’s my prerogative.
Dorian and I can take this one day at a time.
“Can you open, Ravi? I need to speak to Nat.”
“Sure thing.” He gives us a salute and closes the door on the way out.
Natalie perches on the arm of the sofa. “What’s up?”
“I want to offer you more responsibility.”
Her blonde eyebrows shoot up.
“Well, hold on.” I lift a hand. “Let me rephrase. I want to give you a raise and make your job title official for all the event promo and marketing you already do. That’s the reality of the situation.”
She stares, and I swear her eyes are misting. “Are you serious?”
“Of course. You deserve this. You’re part of the reason the store is succeeding, and you should be compensated for your work. I’m just sorry it didn’t occur to me before now.”
She waves a hand. “We were passing around ideas.”
“You’ve done a lot. I really appreciate you.”
“Okay.” She hugs me, but when she pulls back, there’s a furrow in her brow. “Will the raise negate the increase in income for the store, though?”
“No. That’s how great you’ve been. I wondered the same thing, but my dad assured me it wouldn’t.”
She does a happy dance. “I’m so happy for our little shop!”
Pride glows inside me at her use of our. Sharing this slice of heaven hasn’t lessened my happiness. It’s only made it grow.
We head out to help Ravi open the store for the day, and I can’t help the lightness in my step.
Just having all the key people I care about aware of everything in my life has released some of the tension in my mind.
There’s no longer a steel door over one huge topic I feel like I shouldn’t discuss. They know everything.
And it feels great.
Dorian is sitting on the stool at the checkout desk, his laptop open to the book he’s been working on for the last few weeks. Something unlocked in his brain, and an idea for the final book in his Vanishing series came to him, so he’s been working furiously to get his first draft out.
I’m reading the book one chapter at a time, and it’s just as good in rough format as I expected. I mean, there are a billion typos, but his editor will fix those.
“How about Thai food tonight?” he asks, not taking his eyes off the screen.
“Elena is joining us, and Harper’s too picky for Thai.”
“I can make something,” he offers.
“Just work on your masterpiece. I’ll cook tonight.”
He trains his gaze on me, giving me a lazy smile. I’m caught in his eyes. “You’ve worked all day.”
“So have you.”
“So we’ll cook together.”
“That worked out sooo well last time.”
He laughs. “Fine. You can take care of dinner tonight.”
Maybe we shouldn’t be spending every day together, but we’ve only been dating for a month, and so far we aren’t sick of each other yet. In fact, I’m pretty sure all this time together has only confirmed that we’re pretty much soulmates.
I haven’t told him that, though. I don’t want to freak him out.
The front door opens, and I frame a customer-service grin on my face. “Welcome to Piper’s Books!”
The woman in the doorway looks surprised to find us at the desk. Or maybe she’s just surprised to find Dorian here. But not as surprised as I am to see her.
Hannah Brandt.
“Hey,” I say, standing. “How can I help you?”
She approaches the register, running her manicured nails across the wooden countertop. “Actually, it’s what I can do to help you.”
I wait for her to continue.
“I’ve been feeling guilty ever since I ran into you at the Whiskey Sage.
The writing class you asked about just seemed—it was too much, Piper.
I panicked and lied about being gone. I figured you’d never know.
But even Nashville is too small a town for that.
” Her laugh feels forced. “Anyway, I’ve felt awful ever since, so I wanted to know if I could sign some books.
Maybe do a live of me signing the books and tag the store? It would drive some business here.”
I push aside my earlier frustrations. “That’s really considerate. Thanks, Hannah. I’ll take anything you want to give.”
“I can sign most of your stock, but post about only signing a few to create urgency, then you have a bunch to sell.”
“Sure, that works.”
She looks relieved. “It really was great to see you both at that bar a few weeks ago. You know, we should do a reunion dinner. Get everyone together who’s in the area.”
Dorian nods. “That would be really fun.”
“Are you guys writing at all anymore? I can’t really teach a bunch of randoms, you know, but I’d be willing to offer you both some writing advice. Since we’re friends.”
Dorian cuts me a look. We aren’t at that relationship level where we can read each other’s minds yet, but somehow I just know what he’s thinking, because my brain is screaming the same thing.
Hannah doesn’t deserve to know about our pen names.
Her conceit is evident in the way she carries herself and in her newly acquired romcom fame.
A small part of me wants to put her in her place and inform her that D.M.
James—someone with twice her name recognition and sales—is sitting in front of her right now after recently teaching the course that’s too far below her. But I swallow those words.
“We both dabble,” I say lightly.
“Cool.” There’s a lightness in Hannah’s voice when she glances toward the table bearing brightly colored romcoms. “So, do you have any Sharpies?”
Dorian helped Hannah do a live video in the store, and she signed every book we have in stock.
I helped her tuck bookmarks and character art into most of them, too.
She was more than generous with her time and resources.
Within three hours, we’ve had a steady stream of teens and young adults coming in for her books. Some of them are buying entire stacks.
I think we’re even now.
“You know,” Dorian says, chewing on the cap of his pen. We’re back at the front desk, manning the store and watching for Hannah Brandt fans. “I based Kiley on you.”
I look away from the register so sharply I nearly tweak my neck. “Seriously?”
“I couldn’t have you in real life, so I got to have you fictionally.”
A laugh tears from my throat. “But she’s so…beautiful.”
“Yeah.”
“And funny.”
“Yep.”
My eyebrows rise so high they’re probably getting lost in my hairline. “She’s like every man’s dream woman.”
He nods, and I’ve been with him long enough now to recognize the look in his eyes.
So I take a step forward until I’m resting against his stool, his knees on either side of me. “Man, you were so into me.”
Dorian grins, leaning forward to kiss me. His lips are soft and warm and familiar. His strong hands hold me, which is comforting and exactly where I most like to be. I get lost here just as easily as he does.
I lean back, but he pulls me in again, not letting me get away for long. “Not yet,” he mutters against my lips.
I kiss him again. “Wait.”
Dorian stops, leaning back to look at me.
“I did the same thing to you.”
“Well, judging by the expression on your face, you didn’t paint me in as favorable a light.”
My cringe deepens. “I might have been annoyed by your…uh…meanness. So I made you into my first two villains.”
Dorian’s hands tighten around my waist. He laughs. “Really? What happens to them? Remind me.”
“They…uh…well…one of them has a bit of a gruesome death, and the second one turns out to be insane and also…uh…endures a gruesome death.”
“You and your gruesome deaths,” he murmurs sweetly, nuzzling my neck.
“This is serious, Dorian.”
“I think it’s funny.” He lifts his face to me. “Just make it up to me in the next one.”
My face breaks into a smile. “It’s a deal.”