Chapter 23 #2
“Angry,” I clarified. “I was an angry kid.” My throat tightened, but I wanted her to know.
I wanted her to see right through to the real me, so that she could turn her back on me once and for all, like everyone else.
Then I’d get over these ridiculous feelings.
“Home life wasn’t good. My dad knocked us around—me and my mom.
My mom felt weak and scared, and she took it out on me when no one else was there to hear. ”
“I’m so sorry, Rhett,” she said softly.
I shrugged and set my container of food aside, suddenly not hungry anymore.
I’d only spoken about this stuff to one other person.
Sarah had ended up throwing it back in my face.
She’d told me my mom was right about me—that I was worthless and pathetic and stupid. I was ready for Piper to do the same.
“I grew up with a chip on my shoulder and became known for causing a ruckus.”
“How did you go from that to the man you are now?” Piper asked, shuffling backward so she leaned against the wall beside me. “Everyone sings your praises.”
“I’m still the same,” I told her, cutting myself open for her judgment.
I lifted my chin. “I still get mad whenever someone speaks to me in a way I don’t like.
There was this guy in town—he owned a ski shop that did really well, but he was an asshole.
He kept taunting me about my parents, told me that I could pretend to be someone different but he’d never let anyone forget.
One time, he told me that it was a shame my dad hadn’t managed to beat some sense into me. I ruined his life.”
Piper stared at me. “What did you do?”
“Bought up a bunch of real estate near his store, started a bigger shop, and undercut all his prices until he went out of business and left town.”
Her eyes bulged. “No!”
There it was. She could see that I wasn’t a good person, and it was for the best. She knew that I was only pretending to help out around town, but really I was petty, angry, and a fraud. I braced myself for her rejection, her judgment.
No one saw the real me—all the ugly qualities I kept hidden beneath a veneer—and stuck around.
But Piper didn’t turn her back. She didn’t walk away. She shook her head and said, “Sounds like he deserved it. What a jerk!” Her teeth sank into her bottom lip. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
“You’ve been on my bad side since the start, Darling,” I grumbled.
Her laugh was pure magic. She nudged my shoulder with hers, and we ate a few more bites in silence. Finally, Piper spoke again. She glanced over at me, looking almost shy as she admitted, “I might’ve misjudged you, Rhett.”
“You might be the only person who hasn’t.”
She shook her head. “I thought you were a fraud, faking nice with everyone.”
“And now you don’t?” A lot of times it felt like that was what I was doing.
“No,” she said. “I think you’re doing the best you can in a world that taught you that you’re never safe. And the fact that you’re doing it by trying to be a good man is really admirable. It’s more than I can say about myself.”
Jagged rocks lodged themselves in my throat. Swallowing was painful.
“I have a lot of bitterness inside me,” she continued, her voice dropping.
I watched her gulp, her thumb tracing the seam of her pants.
I wanted her to look at me, but she stared at the movement of her fingers over her leg.
“I gave up my career to stay home with my boys, and I wasn’t honest with myself about how much that hurt.
I’m glad I got that time with them, and my boys are my world, but sometimes I wonder if it was too much to sacrifice.
I feel so angry now. Angry at my ex for bullying me into staying home.
Angry at myself for giving in. When we met, I thought you were just like him. ”
“Like your ex-husband?”
She met my gaze, nodding sadly. “I thought you wanted to push me around to get what you wanted. So when I saw everyone treating you like royalty, I thought you were just manipulating them.”
“Isn’t that exactly what I’m doing?” I answered, bitterness bleeding into my voice.
Piper shook her head. “You’re trying to be better than your parents, better than you were before. Over and over again, until that’s what everyone knows about you. Until it becomes the truth. It’s more than I can say about myself.”
“You’re too hard on yourself, Piper.”
She hummed. “Maybe.”
“What happened with your ex? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I don’t mind,” she replied, but she wasn’t looking at me.
Her eyes got a faraway look. “It was the same old story that so many other women have. I felt alone in the marriage, and it eventually became too much to bear. The moment I knew I had to end it was probably a couple of years after when I probably should have called it quits. I’d stayed home with the boys when they were little, then convinced Jacob to pay for a business certificate at the local community college.
He humored me; I could tell he thought it was a waste of time, though. ”
“Did you do it?”
She finally met my gaze, and her eyes were filled with sadness. “I worked so hard,” she said in a low voice. “Did everything at home, then studied through the night.”
Just like she’d done when she came up with the concepts for this place. My chest tightened; no wonder I reminded her of her ex.
Piper shook her head. “I threw myself into my coursework whenever I had a spare minute. And I didn’t have much time, because the boys were really little and Jacob was always at work.
I don’t know how I survived it. Eventually, exam time came around, and Jacob promised to watch the boys so I could study and take the exams. It had always been a dream of mine to start my own design business, and the business certificate was a way to start.
” She paused, and I waited. Finally, she took a deep breath and sighed it out.
“He ended up going away on a last-minute business networking trip the week of my exams. I had to scramble to find childcare, and I wasn’t able to study at all. ”
“Did you pass?”
“Yes,” she said. “And I realized that he would never support me. I would always be the one who would have to sacrifice. I knew I couldn’t live my life that way, and I couldn’t teach my boys that it was okay to treat their future wives that way, either. So I asked for a divorce.”
We’d moved closer to each other, and I didn’t realize until I felt her breath against my throat. Her eyes lifted to meet mine, and I couldn’t resist any longer. Piper wasn’t an existential threat to me. She wouldn’t ruin everything I’d built in town.
She was the only person with whom I could let my guard down. She was the only one who didn’t shy away from the real me. She listened to me without judgment and then gave me the same honesty right back. I’d never felt so close to another person in my life as I did in that moment.
I didn’t want her to leave town once the lodge was open. I didn’t want to run her out of town. All of a sudden, I wondered if I’d be able to live without her at all.
“I’m glad you left him,” I said.
Her smile was tiny and wry. “So am I,” she replied.
My hand cupped her jaw, and I waited a moment to see if she’d pull away. But her eyes remained wide and liquid, and her tongue darted out to sweep across her lips. I exhaled, tightness in my chest easing at the invitation in her gaze.
Kissing Piper set my body on fire. She parted her lips and let me in with a sigh, her hands coming up to rest on my chest. I groaned, deepening the kiss, wondering how I’d lived all these weeks without feeling her mouth move against mine.
Her fingers curled into my shirt as she pulled me closer, that demanding side of her coming to the fore.
When we finally pulled apart, Piper looked as dazed as I felt.
“Oh,” she whispered, still clinging to my shirt.
Unable to resist, I kissed her again, my lips running down to her jaw, her neck, that soft spot of skin just below her ear. I drank in the soft moans she made like they were the only sustenance I needed to live.
Finally, Piper pulled away, shaking her head. “We need to stop. I need to go home. The babysitter…”
It was an excuse, but there was a tremor in her hands, and my own limbs didn’t feel quite as steady as I liked. I nodded. “Yeah. We can, uh, do the bookcases when we have more light. Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” she agreed, climbing to her feet.
I did the same, heart squeezing as she took a step away from me. Her hand was on her forehead, and I heard the breath gust out of her. She was halfway to the foyer when I started thinking I’d made a mistake.
Then Piper whirled, closed the distance between us, and threw her arms around my neck. She kissed me hard and fast, then pulled away again. “Just checking,” she said, smiling shyly.
“Checking what?” My breathing wasn’t quite steady, and my heart raced in its cage.
“That it wasn’t just a fluke the first time.”
My hands skimmed down her sides, and I brushed my lips against hers. “You feel it too?”
“I’m not sure what I’m feeling,” she admitted, meeting my gaze. She looked hesitant and hopeful and so beautiful I couldn’t quite believe it.
“Sleep on it,” I answered softly, hands squeezing her sides.
She nodded. “Yeah. See you tomorrow?”
“Meet me here to work on the bookcases.”
I let her go, heart thumping as she glanced back before walking out the door. Then I slumped against the wall, exhausted and wired and alive.