Chapter 35 - Piper
THIRTY-FIVE
PIPER
I was on a roll. I’d gotten so much done, and it wasn’t even noon yet.
The final page of the Heart’s Cove Elementary enrollment forms only needed a few pieces of information, and then I’d be able to check that task off the list too.
I filled them out in a few short minutes, then tidied up the paperwork and set it aside.
Then I pulled the letter of resignation I’d printed off at David’s shop, gave it another read-through, and signed it.
My chest felt tight, but I ignored it and stood up.
The kitchen sink needed scrubbing, and there was no time like the present.
As long as I kept moving, the tsunami of emotions wouldn’t sweep me away. I opened the cabinet under the sink, and an image of Rhett popped into my mind. Him, crouching under the sink, telling me we’d won a lemon. I’d been dreaming of a perfect home, and he’d been thinking about profit.
I should have known from the start that he was all wrong for me.
It was good that we’d broken things off. I leaned against the edge of the sink, breathless, and realized I’d scrubbed it so hard there were scratches in the stainless steel. I stared at them blankly, only startled out of my stupor when the doorbell rang.
Tossing my rough sponge aside, I washed my hands and grabbed a dish towel on my way out of the kitchen. “Coming!” I called out as the doorbell rang again. I tossed the dish towel on the stair banister and opened the door.
My stomach splattered onto my feet. “Rhett.”
His hair was in disarray, like he’d been pulling at it all morning. His jacket was unzipped, the pocket of his pants was inside out, and he held a cat carrier in his left hand. “I’m sorry,” he blurted, eyes wild. “I love you. Don’t leave.”
I blinked—and for the second time in two days, the world tilted, and I clung to my front door handle to keep myself steady. “What?”
“I’m sorry, Piper. About Saturday—about everything. I should have been there for you, and instead I blamed you for things that weren’t your fault. I don’t want you to leave town. And I don’t want you to leave this house. You and the boys—you should stay. I want you to stay. Please.”
My heart fluttered like a trapped bird. All the emotions I’d been trying to avoid reared up with a vengeance. My breath caught. “And—”
“And I love you.” He exhaled. “I know I’m not supposed to say that so soon. I know I don’t deserve you. You could find someone better tomorrow, and you probably should. But I love you, and the thought of living here after you’ve gone makes me want to claw my own eyes out.”
I took two steps backward, scrabbled at the end of the staircase banister, and sat down heavily on the second step.
Nothing made sense. My carefully organized view of the world—of Rhett—came crashing down.
I looked at the carrier dangling from his fingers.
“Why did you bring your cat to tell me that?”
“He puked. Ignore him,” Rhett added when the cat began to yowl. “Can I come in?”
“I guess so,” I replied. My mind wasn’t working properly. I couldn’t make sense of what was going on.
Rhett exhaled, stepped inside, and closed the door. He gulped and set the cat carrier down. Two green eyes stared at me from behind the metal grate. It was easier to look at the cat than it was to look at Rhett, but I forced myself to lift my gaze to meet his.
“Don’t leave,” he rasped.
“How did you…?”
“I ran into Dave,” he said, and when I straightened and frowned, he added, “He thought I already knew.”
All day yesterday and today, I’d focused on what I needed to do to get my life in order.
There were a million tasks that had to be accomplished in order to get me out of this town and into a better life.
I’d completed a tiny fraction of them, but every bit of my consciousness had been focused on action.
As long as I was taking action, I was holding on to my power.
Rhett had burst through the door and stopped me in my tracks. I reeled, one hand clinging to a wooden spindle, one clutching the stair tread next to my hip.
Now he crouched in front of me, his eyes dark and beguiling. I tried to resist—I really did. I was so sick of making the same mistakes over and over again.
“Piper,” he whispered, “I know I made you feel like you were alone. I wish I could go back in time and knock some sense into myself.”
“You told me you wanted to kick me out of my home just two weeks after telling me I could stay here,” I whispered. “I thought I was safe here. With you.”
Pain streaked across his expression, and he dropped his head. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“Why? What freaked you out so much? You know I don’t have feelings for my ex-husband. What do you expect me to do? Cut him out of my kids’ lives?”
He shook his head. “No. I was wrong, Piper.”
My throat was so tight I couldn’t respond.
His words sank in, and I realized they were words I’d never heard from my ex-husband.
Every fight was a bitter chess match, where I had to watch everything I said in the hopes that my own words wouldn’t be turned back on me.
Inevitably, with Jacob, I felt like my feelings were unreasonable, and whatever had happened had been my fault.
But Rhett hadn’t come here to berate me. He hadn’t found a gotcha moment in our history together and exploited it to get the upper hand. He’d just—apologized and said he was wrong.
Still crouching in front of me, his hair a mess, his clothes all crooked, Rhett took a deep breath and said, “All my life, when I let people in, they hurt me.” He held up his hand.
“I’m not saying this as an excuse. I just want you to understand.
I pretend to be this great guy around town and I do all these good deeds, but really it’s just a shield.
If everyone thinks I’m a nice guy, they won’t see that I’m selfish and mean and bitter.
” He swallowed thickly, his eyes sliding away.
“You saw through me right away, Piper. It scared the shit out of me. I thought you’d expose me for a fraud. I thought you’d…” He shook his head.
“You thought I’d hurt you,” I finished quietly.
Rhett blew out a breath and met my gaze.
“I think I was bracing myself for it. So when I saw your ex, and you denied that we were seeing each other even though I know we weren’t official, and your kids were there, and you were caught off guard—I just felt like the walls were caving in on me.
Like you were just the same as my ex, who used to take pleasure in making me feel like I would never be good enough for her. ”
I huffed. “Funny, because I felt exactly the same way. I thought you were just like my ex, who used every advantage he had to control my life.”
Rhett’s expression turned tortured, his voice vehement. “I’ll never do that, Piper.”
The past couple of days had jaded me beyond belief.
I reached over and touched a hand to Rhett’s cheek, stroking softly.
I wished I believed him the way he believed himself right now.
I sighed, fingers running over his rough stubble.
“You can’t help yourself, Rhett. I’ll never have your money or your status. You’ll always have the advantage.”
He’d started shaking his head halfway through my words, and it only became more vehement until he said, “You’re wrong, Piper. I already called my lawyer.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The house.” He waved a hand at the walls around us. “It’s yours. He’s drawing up the paperwork now.”
I reared back. “What?”
“You made this into a home. It’s yours. It always has been, since the moment you walked through the door.”
My breath came faster, and now it was my turn to shake my head. “No.”
“What do you mean, no? I don’t want it, Piper. And I don’t want anyone but you to have it, either.”
“So I’ll buy you out,” I said, emphatic.
Letting him give me a whole house—or even half of one—was just another thing that reminded me that he had power, resources, and control.
My lungs hurt with every breath. “You can’t just give it to me.
We’ll get it valued, and I’ll buy you out. It’ll all be fair and aboveboard.”
Rhett stared at me for a beat. His breath gusted out, and he dipped his chin. “Fine. If that’s what you need.”
I exhaled, equally relieved and disappointed.
Why was I disappointed? I didn’t want him to give me the house.
I just wanted to feel safe—and I wanted to feel like we were equals.
But I’d just refused a gigantic leg up in life—something that would have actually given me security and the ability to feel settled.
No, not just feel settled. Actually be settled.
I didn’t know what to do or how to feel.
Frowning as Rhett pulled his phone out of his back pocket, I tried to peek at his screen. “Emailing your lawyer?” I asked.
“Work,” he responded.
Pain was like an elastic band snapping against my heart. Here I thought we were having a big, momentous, heartfelt conversation, but some mundane work email was more important?
“I’m amending your Christmas bonus,” he continued, clicking his phone screen off and sliding the device back into his pocket.
“My what?”
“I promised you a bonus if we got the lodge over the line before New Year’s.”
This conversation was moving way too fast for my struggling brain. “Okay. Thanks?”
His smile was warm, and now it was his turn to reach out and cup my jaw. “I figured you deserve something about the value of half a house, plus the tax you’ll owe on the win and on your salary, plus a little extra because I’m in love with you.”
My breath whistled out of me. “Oh,” I whispered.
“Stay,” he demanded softly.
I blinked, and tears raced down my cheeks. “Okay,” I agreed.
His smile was blazing and bright, and it made the shell around my heart crack into a thousand pieces. My hands moved over his shoulders and around the nape of his neck, and it only took the slightest pressure to get him to lean in and kiss me.
The moment Rhett’s lips touched mine, my entire body relaxed.
I melted against him, and he wrapped his arms around my back and pulled me closer.
I lost my balance, and the two of us tumbled to the floor.
Rhett landed sprawled across the front door, his head nudging the cat carrier.
I landed on top of Rhett. Pushing myself up on my hands, I looked down at his dark eyes, his strong jaw, his messy hair.
“Rhett?”
His fingers dove under my shirt to stroke the skin above the waistband of my pants. “Mm?”
“I love you, too.”
A heavy exhale slipped through his lips, and then he smiled a soft, relieved smile. Then he pulled me down and kissed me thoroughly—until we were interrupted by a grumpy meow.
I glanced up at the cat carrier next to Rhett’s head. “Let him out,” I said.
“He’ll scratch the shit out of everything,” Rhett grumped, tilting his head to frown at the carrier.
“Let him out, Rhett,” I replied, laughing, and reached over his head to unhook the latch and let the orange cat out. It took a few seconds for the cat to come out, and he gave us the dirtiest of looks, but he eventually began exploring.
Rhett watched him for a second, then turned back to kiss me once more. Against my lips, he mumbled, “You’ve got three seconds to get up and drag me somewhere softer, otherwise we’re doing this right here, Darling.”
I laughed as he kissed me, squirming in his grasp. “Not by the front door!”
“Three—”
“Rhett!”
“Two—”
I slipped and landed on top of him with a low oof, and Rhett spun us around so I was under him, my back against the hard, freshly polished floorboards.
His smile was wicked. “One.”
We never made it anywhere softer. Well—not that time. The day was long, and we had a lot of making up to do.