Chapter 26 Piper
PIPER
A knock on my door woke me up from my nap.
Scratch that. A banging on my door woke me up from my nap.
I’d just gotten Gavin off to school and I went back to bed to prepare for my evening shift at work.
Luckily, my babysitter was no longer sick, so I could rely on her to get Gavin from the daycare at the hospital and tuck him in before I got home.
But the banging didn’t let up and the faint smell of coffee was beginning to trickle underneath my nose.
Coffee?
Was the pot on?
Groaning, I rolled out of bed. I smoothed my hand through my hair and tried to get my bearings as best as I could.
I’d spent most of the night tossing and turning.
Bathing in my anger at Rock’s silence and stumbling along in my worried state.
I shuffled down the stairs as the banging grew louder. More desperate.
Then, I heard his voice.
“Piper, your car’s in the driveway. I know you’re home.”
Some fucking balls he had showing up at my house.
My hand settled onto the doorknob and I ripped it open.
Suddenly, I was wide awake. I took stock of the man in front of me, holding two massive cups of coffee in his hands.
The scent was strong and the steam was hot, and my mouth began to salivate for it.
My eyes raked up and down his body, silently checking him for injuries or bruises or stitches.
Anything to explain his utter radio silence and absence from a dinner he planned.
“Can I come in?” Rock asked.
“You’re thirteen hours late,” I said flatly.
“That’s why I came over to talk.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t tell Gavin you were coming for dinner.”
“Let me in, Piper.”
“I’m not sure I’m going to just yet,” I said.
I reached out for the coffee in his left hand and held onto it tightly.
If I was really going to have to endure some pathetic conversation with this man, the least I could do was flood my system with enough caffeine to keep me alert through it.
My body ached with exhaustion and I felt my eyes swelling.
My entire body wanted to give out right there in my damn foyer.
I leaned against the doorway and sighed, bringing the wonderful brown liquid to my lips.
I took a long sip, tossing aside the painful burning from its searing heat in order to get it in my stomach quicker.
I closed my eyes, partially hoping that if I opened them, Rock would disappear.
But he wasn’t gone when I opened them back up.
“We need to talk,” he said.
I shook my head and pushed off the doorway, walking down the hallway to my living room.
He followed suit, shutting the door behind him and looming over me.
I didn’t have the patience for this anymore.
I had a shift to get to at one o’clock and I had no idea how I was going to get through it without falling asleep on the damn nurse’s desk.
“What?” I asked as I flopped down into a chair.
I didn’t want there to be a chance that Rock could sit next to me. He sat down on the couch, and placed his coffee on my end table.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what? There’s a long list of those items.”
“I know you’re upset.”
“You don’t know the half of why I’m upset,” I said.
“I told you, I have to make sure things are safe with the club before I get more involved with you and Gavin.”
“No, you told me you were coming over for dinner, so I prepared myself to order pizza for a small army. But something in my gut told me to hold off on telling Gavin and spoiling the surprise, so I did. And I’m glad I did.
Because being a disappointment to me is nothing compared to being a disappointment to him. ”
“Look, a lot’s going on with the club right now, and I’m trying to make it all right.”
“Then I’m not sure what the hell you’re doing here if it isn’t safe,” I said. “Doesn’t that mean you’re only putting us in more imaginary danger?”
“You know better than anyone these threats aren’t imaginary.”
“Then why the fuck did you ignore my phone call?” I asked.
I stared hard at his face as I took another sip of my coffee.
“That’s what your angry at?” Rock asked.
“I’m angry at a lot, so we’ll start with the top and work our way down,” I said.
“I ignored your call because I was on a mission, Piper. I didn’t know if I was being tracked, and you know how I am with technology. I get paranoid when I’m on a mission with shit like that. But I ignored your call so you could see I was fine without me actually answering the phone.”
“Ignoring a phone call doesn’t tell me you’re fine. It doesn’t even tell me you’re alive. Ignoring a phone call simply means someone pressed a damn button, Rock. Anyone could press a fucking button.”
“What would you have had me do then, Piper? Pick up the damn call while in the middle of--”
My eyebrows slowly rose to my hairline.
“By all means, Rock, finish that sentence.”
“I wasn't in a position to take the phone call, and all of your messages were becoming distracting.”
“Sorry that giving a shit about you impedes on your life,” I said flatly.
“Are you really going to turn everything I say into an argument?”
“Are you really going to sit on my fucking couch and act like everything is okay?”
“Everything isn’t okay, Piper! That’s what I came over to tell you!”
“Then you told me. Now you can go.”
“I’m sorry for missing dinner, okay? I know it was my idea, but plans changed.”
“Here’s how I see this,” I said as I leaned forward.
“Plans change all the time. I, as an E.R. trauma doctor, know this. The good thing about the way I lead my life is that I can contact people when plans do change. My babysitter in case it involves my son. My boss if it involves my work schedule. Things like that. When plans change for you, you can’t do that.
You can’t notify people, or contact them, or pick up your phone, or answer a damn text message. ”
I sat back into my chair and took another sip of my coffee, then placed it on the end table.
“Being part of a family unit means connecting. Contact. Communication. You say you want that with Gavin and I, but you can’t have it.
You can contact your club just fine when shit like this goes down, but you can’t do that with us.
You can’t call us and say ‘hey, I can’t make it.
Sorry. Bullshit’s happening.’ That’s not a thing you’re capable of, apparently. ”
“It’s not safe right now, Piper.”
“Fuck your safety. You think as a single mother who has no one that I don’t know how to take care of myself?
That I don’t know how to shoot the fucking gun stowed away in the top of my closet?
That I don’t have a knife stashed in every fucking room I can grab and defend myself with?
You think I have all these heavy lamps and vases in every goddamn room for decoration, Rock! ?”
I stood to my feet, my body shaking with anger.
“Your idea of taking care of your son and the mother of your child is bailing out on a dinner you planned? Ignoring phone calls in some vain attempt to let me know you’re okay?
Popping in and out when it’s convenient for you while your son lays down at night wishing you were here to tell him some sort of insane story about a wooden castle and some happy ending that isn’t going to take place! ?”
I saw him wince at that comment, and I knew my words had slapped him across the face.
“You might think we’re a part-time commitment, but that isn’t the case with me. I’m better than a part-time commitment, and so is that boy,” I said.
“Don’t you dare accuse me of thinking Gavin’s nothing but a part-time son,” Rock said as he stood to his feet. “Don’t you dare think for one second that I’d be anything but a full-time, present provider for him.”
“Then where the fuck were you for the fucking dinner you planned?” I asked.
I stood toe to toe with him, watching as he hovered over me.
I wanted to slap him. To punch him in his nuts and take him to his fucking knees.
I wanted that man out of my house. Out of my town.
Out of my life. I was ready to throw down the gauntlet to prove to him that the lifestyle he led wasn’t conducive to allowing him to be what Gavin needed.
What I needed. What our family would need if he stayed.
“I’m doing this for you, Piper.”
Despite the angry look in his eye and the way his fists clenched at his sides, his tone was ironically calm.
Dark. Humbling, almost. I blinked my eyes at him and took a step back, but his arm reached out for me.
At lightning speed, he wrapped me in his strong embrace and pulled me to him, even though I pressed my hands against his chest. I didn’t want to be any closer to him.
I didn't want to feel any more of his muscles.
Of his energy racing along mine. But the second the palm of my hand felt his racing heartbeat, tears rushed my eyes.
“I thought you were dead,” I said breathlessly.
“I’m sorry, Piper.”
“I just knew you were dead.”
I fisted his shirt as he brought me to his body.
His arm wrapped tightly around my back and his free hand stroked my knotted hair.
Silent tears fell onto his chest as I gripped his shirt so hard I thought it’d come ripping off.
I trembled against him. Collapsed into him as his arms held me up.
He sat back down onto the couch and drew me into his lap, holding me against his steady body as mine shook uncontrollably.
“I’m right here,” he said as he kissed my head. “I’m okay. I swear it.”
“Why the hell are you here?” I asked breathlessly.
I felt his finger crook underneath my chin and lift my eyes to his.
“Because you’re my family, Piper. And the second I was freed from my duties, the only place I wanted to be was here.”
“We can’t possibly do this. I can’t possibly do this, Rock. I didn’t sleep last night. Not a wink. I have a job to work. A career in the hospital. I have to have the energy to keep Gavin rooted. To run around behind him and--”
His lips crashed to mine, silencing my words.
Fire flashed through my veins and shivers crept up the back of my neck.
Rock held me to him, my body falling limp against his.
My bones ached with exhaustion but my heart sped with a passion and want for him.
He leaned into the back of the couch and took me with him, my body splaying against his.
My knees sank into the couch while his hands grabbed my ass, pulling me as close as he could get me.
Our tongues collided. Stars burst in my darkened vision.
My heart flooded my veins with an adrenaline that rushed back feelings I’d refused to acknowledge for years.
“Rock,” I said breathlessly.
His forehead pressed against mine before he kissed the tip of my nose.
“Yes, Piper?”
“I have to tell you something.”
I fluttered my gaze up to his as his hand came up to touch my cheek.
Dwarf it, really.
“What is it, sweet girl?”
Tears rushed to my eyes at the sound of my nickname. Oh, how I’d missed being his sweet girl.
I needed to muster the strength. I needed to find the courage to tell him.
I needed to tell him I loved him. That I still loved him.
That I’d never stopped loving him. I needed to tell him that the summer we spent together changed my world, and not simply because I got pregnant.
Not simply because I had Gavin. Not simply because having Gavin solidified my destiny into medical school.
I needed to tell him that summer changed my life because he came barreling into it on his beat-up motorcycle and his worn leather jacket.
But before I could say anything, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
“Fucking really?” Rock asked.
I sighed and pressed my forehead against his shoulder.
I knew what was happening even before he took the phone from his pocket.
He held my body to his with his arm while he opened his phone, pressing it to his ear as my eyes closed.
I drew in his scent one last time. Memorized the way his arms felt around me just in case this was the last time he ever came over.
How was I ever going to reconcile that part of Rock’s life?
“What?” Rock asked. “Uh huh. Okay. Yep, I got you. I’ll be there soon. Yeah, I went to see her. Not sure ‘fine’s’ the right word, but we’re getting there. Mhm. I’ll be there soon. I know, fucking hell. I hear you, Brewer.”
“Hello, Brewer,” I said from his shoulder.
Rock pressed a kiss to the side of my head before he snickered.
“Brewer says ‘let Rock go so we can finish this and get our families back’.”
My head whipped up at his comment and my jaw hit the floor.
“What?” I asked.
“I told you, we’re cleaning things up. And once they’re clean, we’ll be okay.”
Okay? Could things really be okay with all of us?
“Is that possible?” I asked.
“When it involves me? Hell yeah, it is,” he said.
I slid from his lap before he stood up, watching him as he walked away.
He finished his conversation with Brewer before he hung up the phone and I leaned my back into the couch.
So, Rock was telling the truth? The club was really trying to clean up their act?
The idea shocked me, and made me wonder if we could really be a family.
A bonafide, trusting, rooted, blessed family.
I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes before I felt Rock’s lips dip to my forehead.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay sweet girl?”
I smiled up at him as my tired eyes fluttered open.
He smoothed my hair back before he pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and covered me with it.
I already felt my body dragging me under to sleep as Rock walked back down the hallway.
I heard my front door open before he left through it, closing it behind him before his motorcycle started up a few minutes later.
Then, the darkness of sleep took me under.