12. Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Piper
W hen I get showered and dressed, Billy is standing in the doorway, watching a truck pull up. It looks like he’s been standing there for a while, since his coffee mug is empty in his hand. “Who is that with your brother?” I ask, almost startling him. He does a double-take, like he suddenly forgot that I’m here, and now I’m standing in front of him. The smile is unavoidable. I smile back, waiting for his answer.
“Oh, shoot...yeah, that’s my other brother. That’s Blair. I haven’t seen him for a while, and I was just...distracted.”
The look on his face says that he’s mesmerized by something. He’s looking at me like I’m a unicorn. And suddenly...“Thanks for last night.” He says to me, and he kisses me tenderly on the mouth. It’s not sexual, even though it gives me a delicious shiver. It’s like a warm stamp of approval.
...Just as his brother walks in the door.
He catches the kiss just as Billy is pulling back.
“Well, what have we got here?” Cassidy says, cocky as hell. Billy looks like he wants to punch him.
“Blair, this is Piper. Piper, this is our other brother, Blair.” Cassidy says, tone still cocky, making Billy’s fist ball up.
“Don’t you know how to call first, asshole?” Billy says through gritted teeth. “And what are you doing here, Blair? Last time I saw you, you were giving me the finger.”
Blair is slightly taller than Cassidy, with the same eyes, but he’s chewing a piece of gum like it’s his last meal. “Cassidy here told me that the house went up. I was just curious how it’s going.”
“So, being nosey, hm? Well, ain’t that a shock. Mama and daddy send you over here?”
“Nope.” He answers, popping the ‘p’. He extends his hand to me. “Pleasure.”
“Nice to meet you.” I say.
“No, it ain’t. Trust me.” Billy says. Blair chuckles just as another truck pulls up. I’ll assume this is the Paxton boys. “Jesus Christ.” Billy swears under his breath.
“Take it easy, Billy.” Cassidy says. “Blair here came to help.”
“And I’m the fuckin’ Pope.” Billy mutters snidely, as he walks out the door, towards the Paxton boys. I stand there with Blair and Cassidy, while Billy shakes hands with the boys, and shows them to the pile of building materials.
“So, you want to come and work on the ranch?” I ask Blair, not knowing what else to say.
“If he doesn’t give me too much grief about it, yes. So far, it ain’t looking too good.” He says, and I think he’s now swallowed his gum. I’m a little worried about that.
“How come? I thought you worked at your folks’ factory.” I ask conversationally, not expecting him to answer me as honestly as he does.
“I am. I was. I...um...I got fired.”
My eyes bulge. “You got fired? By your folks?”
Cassidy interjects. “By the COO, actually. He had a falling out with him and he told mama and daddy it was him or Blair here.”
“And your folks chose him?” I ask, in shock, and starting to understand why Billy doesn’t speak highly of his parents.
“Well, you don’t understand.” Cassidy clarifies. “The COO is our uncle. And he’s got a large stake in the company.”
Okay, this family really is a piece of work. “So, your uncle is the COO, and he’s regarded higher than their own son, because he’s invested more in the company?”
Cassidy shrugs. “Business is business, darlin’.”
“And you know that your brother hates you, yet you want to come and work for him?” I ask, wondering why this guy is such a glutton for punishment.
“I was raised around horses, darlin’. Just like all of us. I don’t belong working on no machine, at least not a textile machine, anyway.”
“You actually worked in the factory? Not in the office?”
He nods. “Yeah. What’s wrong with that?”
I don’t know what to say.
“Don’t misunderstand, Piper.” Cassidy says kindly. “The machines that he worked he wasn’t actually moving the textiles, he was calibrating them and working behind the scenes. He’s a smart man, but he’s had enough of the political bullshit that goes on there. Thankfully, I’m not exposed to that, being as I’m in the office all the time.”
“And you think that working with your brother Billy will be better?”
Blair looks off in the distance. “Anything’s better than that bullshit.”
Cassidy and I exchange glances. I decide the lesser of two evils is to change the subject. “That was a thank you kiss, by the way. He had a really bad night and I was there to help, and he just wanted to say thank you. Nothing is going on between us.”
“If you say so.” Cassidy says with a smile. It’s not cocky and it doesn’t make my skin crawl, so I’m taking it as a step in the right direction.
“I am saying so.” I nod, confirming. “Both Billy and I won’t do anything to jeopardize this ranch.”
“Honey, nobody’s judging.” Blair says, using a ‘level-with-me' tone.
“Well, there’s nothing to judge, and I don’t need Billy thinking that I cleared things up with you, either. So, if you don’t mind, we never had this conversation.” I ask politely but directly.
“Yes, ma’am.” Both men say, tipping their hats gallantly, speaking in a respectful tone, not condescending. Billy returns to the door, looking at his brothers impatiently.
“Maybe this is a bad time, Billy.” Cassidy offers.
“It is. What do you want, Cassidy.” He says as more of a statement, and I’m catching on that he’s not stupid. He knows that this isn’t the social call that his brothers first told him it was.
“I’d like to work for you.” Blair blurts. “Mama and daddy fired me from the plant, and I don’t want to talk about it, I just want the hell away from there in short order.”
Billy swallows, nostrils flared. “Start by leading the Paxton kids in building me a stable. Like the one Uncle Hawk had.”
Blair nods once. “Got it.”
Cassidy stands there, arms crossed over his chest, frowning, impressed.
Billy lifts a finger. “One word out of you and you’re going to have my foot up your ass.”
Cassidy smiles. “I’ll see you later.” He winks at me, and I catch the glare out of him at his brother, for giving me the look.
He turns to me and softens. “Sorry about that.”
I grin warmly. “So, you’ve got yourself another ranch hand, hm?”
“Looks like.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
He smiles and chuckles. “I could not think of a better way to get revenge on my brother than by having him on my payroll, darlin’.”
“Now, you be nice.” I warn, good-naturedly.
Surprising me, he rests his hands on my waist, looking at me in a way that makes my heart pound. “I’m only nice to those that are nice to me, darlin’.” He grins warmly, and it’s contagious. “Now, you go on and have yourself a good day.”
“You, too.”
He takes the hint and kisses me softly again. His lips are so warm and soft, I’m instantly wet. I’ve kissed a man before, but it never felt like that. It’s like warm molten lava is passing through my veins. I want more. I want to stand here all day and kiss him. But it’s neither appropriate nor the time to do that, with a house full of workers outside, and me due to go to school and to work. He kisses me once again and draws in a deep breath, looking like he’s stopping himself from doing more, just like I am. “You better go.” He says, rubbing my waist, making me so damp it tingles.
“I am. I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah. I’ll see you.”
I can feel him watching me walk to my car, as he makes his way to the side of the house. My car chugs away but the engine finally turns, and I drive to my other job. Books are packed in my backpack in the passenger seat, since I’ve got a late class after work. With just two weeks left of school, I can’t wait for the final days to come. Exams begin next week, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage, since I was living in my car, but now, now that I have a proper home to lay my head at, I’ll be just fine. As I pull up to the office, I see that my boss’s daughter, Tina, is there.
“Hi, Hank.” I say by way of greeting, as I walk in the door.
He sighs. “Hi, Piper.” Tina is standing next to him, looking over his shoulder.
“Hi, Tina.” I say, but her eyes don’t leave the laptop as she returns the sentiment. I’ve always had a bit of a bad vibe from her. Why she doesn’t like me, I don’t know, but whenever she’s in the office, Hank seems to be stressed. I’m not even sure what her function is, but when she’s around, Hank’s blood pressure must go through the roof. His face is always flushed, and today’s Tina encounter is no exception.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
Tina lifts her head, lifts her laptop, and walks out the door to the bullpen. It’s only a small accounting firm, with just me and another employee. Hank has been running it for fifteen years on his own. When I joined him about a year ago, Tina had just come on board, and Raine had already been here for a while. Raine is very quiet and keeps to herself. She only speaks to me sometimes, when it’s too hot or too cold, and she wants to know if I want the air conditioning up or down. Otherwise, she works in her small office, while I stay in the bullpen, answering the phone and doing my work on the desktop computer there.
Hank rises and closes the door, and then takes his seat, at the same time, gesturing for me to sit at the guest chair in front of his desk. And then he just comes out with it, nearly making me vomit. “We’re going to have to let you go, Piper. I’m sorry.”
He hands me an envelope with a check in it. “That’s two weeks’ pay in lieu of notice, plus your accumulated vacation time.”
I stare at the envelope, in total shock. “Can I ask why?”
He purses his lips. “It’s just an internal decision, Piper.”
Internal, my ass. This is Tina’s doing. “Did I do something wrong?”
He shakes his head no. “It’s nothing personal, Piper.”
Bullshit. “Really. No notice, nothing? And it’s nothing personal?”
All I get is a shrug. “Good luck, Piper.” He says, like I stabbed him in the back a hundred times and only now he has proof. His tone is cold, as if we didn’t have several months working together, bonding together even.
The muscles in my jaw are working. I can feel the bile creep up my throat, and the tears prick the backs of my eyes, but I refuse to let him see me cry. After I swallow down my emotion, I try for a level tone. “Good luck to you, too, Hank.”
I rise and he walks me out the door, meeting Tina’s eyes as he exits the office, like together they’re checking a box, marking the deed done. Tina doesn’t so much as look at me as I walk out the door, and Raine’s office door is closed, which it never is. She’s been primed. “Fuck you all.” I say as I walk out the door, checking the amount that he thinks that I’m worth, as I peek into the envelope. Not enough, evidently, but it looks accurate from my mental calculations. I drive myself to the bank in Dallas, and deposit the check, thinking now I’m that much further away from getting my own place, since I’ve only started with Billy a few days ago, and nobody in their right mind is going to hire me for the spotty hours I worked with Hank. He was very accommodating to say the least.
Class doesn’t start for hours, so I head over to the library, using studying and assignment catch-up as my weapon of distraction. There is no point in getting upset about this now and ruining my mojo for class. I’ve come this far, and I’m not going to give up now. I sit through class, the last one before my final exam, and then I head back to the ranch, giving myself some time to process, now that my responsibilities for the day are essentially over. It’s been hours since I looked at my phone or checked any messages, and when I do, that’s when I start to lose it.
Setting that final thought aside, I park my car, and I see that Billy is still working outside, with what looks like both his brothers. They’re working on the framing for the stable from the look of it. It’s almost up, and Billy has his floodlight on the cab of his truck illuminating the workspace, as it appears some male bonding is going on here. Billy’s got a smile on his face as I walk up to them. “Hey, darlin’. How was your day?”
I lie. “Good. I’m going into exams next week. Can’t wait for it to be over. Looks like you guys worked your tails off here today.”
“We did.” Billy nods, while the boys keep working. He tilts his head. “You look tired.”
“That’s because I am tired.” I admit. Also, I can feel the tears pricking the backs of my eyes, but I mask them with a yawn. “I think I’ll go to bed.”
“Well, sure, darlin’. We won’t be at this much longer. I’ll try not to keep you up.”
I wave. “I’m so tired a bomb could go off and I won’t hear it.”
“Goodnight.” Cassidy and Blair say.
“Goodnight.” I say back, making my way to the house.
But as I walk, I hear the boys muttering something, and then I hear footsteps coming behind me.
As I get inside the house, I can hear Billy walk up to me. “Hey.” He says softly.
“Hey.” I say back, feeling my body tremble with unshed tears.
“You okay?”
I nod, keeping my back turned, so he can’t see my face. I draw in a deep breath and hold it, not trusting myself. My phone beeps, and I know who it is and what it’s about, but I ignore it. It’s the same reason as the ignored email I received earlier. “I’m fine. Long day.” I look at my phone and see that there are several text messages and emails that I’ve ignored, and that I ignore, every year on this day.
“Not buying it.” He says, pulling me to him. I hear the toot of a horn, and I assume that it’s his brothers leaving. “Something’s wrong.”
I look up at him, willing the tears away, like I always do. “Fine. I got fired today.” I close my eyes and avert my gaze, not wishing to see the pitiful expression, the look of remorse. I’d rather see hate than that. All my life, I could never stand anyone giving me those goddamn puppy dog eyes. It seems that it’s all I ever saw from people for a spell.
“Look, I'm sorry that y’all got fired, and I don’t mean to come out sounding like a selfish asshole, but Piper, I wanted to hire you on here full time from the getgo. I was actually going to ask you if you wanted to quit that other job and just come work for me.”
A glimmer of hope rises in me. “Really?” My eyes meet his. There’s no remorse, no pity, just...happiness.
“Absolutely. I mean, look at this place.” He says, gesturing to the old farmhouse, which has always been perfect in my eyes. My phone beeps again. I feel it tug at my heartstrings. I’ve told nobody about my encounter with Hank and Tina today. No. This is all about that other thing that I hate.
“Just...what in hell is going on over there, darlin’?” He asks with a slight chuckle.
That’s when I lose it. It’s the first time in a while that I feel my guard coming down. This is the first time without my folks’ ignorance. The first time not having to feel that certain pain I get every year. And I don’t know how to deal with it yet. It was easy when they were alive to ignore it, but now that they’re gone, everyone I love is trying like hell to not let me forget it. My answer comes out as my voice cracks. “It’s my birthday.”
His eyes widen. “Well, dang, Piper! Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I...I hate my birthday.”
He grabs hold of my shoulders, looking directly into my eyes with such conviction, it nearly undoes me. “Now, look, I don’t know why, and I don’t want to know why, but you deserve to celebrate your birthday, darlin’, just like everyone else. Forget about your job. Fuck him and everyone he loves, man. Move on. You’re going to be way happier here once this ranch gets moving the way I dream it will. I don’t want to see anything other than a smile on that beautiful face of yours, and there’s no excuses.” He kisses me on the mouth. “Happy Birthday, darlin’. Let’s celebrate.”
I never knew it, but, after tonight, my life will never be the same...