31. Vincent
31
VINCENT
“ I don’t know why he suggested a hotel restaurant for lunch,” I said to Piper as we strolled into the Mandarin Oriental. “Something’s up.”
“Like what?” she asked as she tripped along beside me, holding my hand tightly. “Wanting to try something different is bad?”
I frowned at her. “Not at all, it just isn’t the sort of thing he’d normally do. He has his favorite spots around the city, and he sticks to them. This is unusual.”
I felt uneasy as I tried to guess what his reason might be. Did my father want a neutral space for delivering his latest bombshell? He’d been more grounded than usual since the bike messenger accident, both physically and emotionally, but I still didn’t trust that his adrenaline junkie days were over.
We threaded through the crowds of tourists and travelers in the lobby to the elevators, where we mercifully managed to catch one with just the two of us. I pulled Piper into my arms once the doors closed.
“Did I mention that you look beautiful?”
Her pretty mouth twisted as she looked up at me. “Hmm, not sure. Maybe you should say it again?”
“Well, first there’s that dress,” I began. “I thought my favorite from your latest shopping haul was the flowery one, but this one is really working for me.” I slid my fingertip in behind the silk draped across her breasts.
“Mmm,” she sighed as I brushed against the lace of her bra, then dipped below it. “Don’t do that. I can’t hang out with your father while I’m horny.”
I laughed and pulled my hand away. “You’re right. Down, boy.”
I smoothed my hand across the front of my bulging pants.
The elevator chimed, and I was thankful when we walked out into a deserted anteroom. By the time a hostess came out, we were both presentable again.
She led us to where my dad was already seated at a marquee table for four overlooking Central Park. He was in a blazer, dressier than normal for a casual lunch.
“There they are,” he beamed. “What a beautiful couple!”
He pulled me into a back slapping hug, then gave Piper an equally long one, like he hadn’t seen either of us in months even though we’d met for yoga the week before.
“Sit, sit,” he said, pulling out a chair for Piper next to him. “Vincent, you sit there.”
He pointed to the chair across from Piper. Why was he arranging a seating chart for a simple lunch?
I sat down, eyeing him. He seemed jittery. Yeah, something was definitely going on. My heart sank as I braced myself for what I was now certain was about to come.
He’d met someone.
“What’s happening?” I asked him. “Who’s joining us?”
He gave me an impish smile. “Who said someone’s coming?”
The waitress arrived to take our drink orders, which shifted his attention away from the question. But I knew I was right, and I felt preemptively angry that he was rushing into romance yet again.
“Tell us what you’ve been up to,” Piper said. “I feel like you pack a million adventures into every single day.”
He chuckled. “I’ve been getting into birding of all things. It’s fascinating! Did you know that Manhattan has a vibrant and active birding community? We meet right in Central Park.” He pointed out the window to the park thirty floors below us.
“And what does that involve?” I asked, not hiding the skepticism in my voice. “Are you climbing trees? Piloting bird-watching helicopters?”
“Would you stop?” he chastised me gently. “You’ll be happy to hear I’m keeping my feet on the ground and only my eyes on the skies. I bought phenomenal binoculars. And I downloaded a bird song app so I can identify them by sound alone. I’m getting quite good at it.”
“What a wonderful hobby,” Piper beamed at him. “Maybe I’ll come sometime?”
He placed his hand on top of hers and gave it a squeeze. “I’d love that.”
I smiled despite the knot of tension in my stomach. My dad made no secret of how much he adored Piper, and it always made me happy to see how she lit up at having a father figure who enjoyed her company.
“What have you been up to, my dear?” he asked her. “How’s business?”
Her smile went wider at the mention of Strapped.
“It’s overwhelming in the best possible way! Mercedes has been a godsend. We definitely needed the funding from her, but what’s invaluable is her industry insight. Even though footwear is a different animal, there are a ton of parallels in terms of supply chain and establishing retail relationships. And we’re already launching our bag division! Darcy crunched the numbers and saw that the price of leather was at an all-time low, so we made the leap.” She paused for dramatic effect. “I don’t think Macy’s would’ve given us a second thought if it wasn’t for Mercedes’s introduction to the head buyer.”
“You’re going to be in Macy’s ?” he gasped. “Piper, congrats!”
I puffed up with pride at her accomplishments. “Hey, don’t give Mercedes all the credit. You’re the one who came up with the flagship bag designs. Three of them, Dad, and they’re all home runs.”
She shrugged modestly. “No, it’s a team effort.”
“And what about you, Vincent?” Richard asked. “Give me the inside scoop on all of your launches.”
He said it jokingly because two fragrance launches within a few weeks of each other was unheard of.
“Well, you should know that they both set new records,” I replied. “ Evermore is not only our top-selling fragrance, it beat the launch numbers for every new fragrance in the past five years. I guess Amanda really was right about there being no such thing as bad press.”
I hated even referring to the publicity that might’ve fueled Evermore ’s rise to the top.
“And what about Perpetual ?” he asked.
I glanced at Piper, and she met my gaze with a smile. “It’s right on the heels of Evermore . An absolute knockout. We had to rush the expansion lines into production because people can’t get enough of it. So we’re good to go with the lotions and oils, and the shower gel and soap will be out next week.”
“I’m not at all surprised,” he replied proudly. “Just goes to show what’s possible when you set your mind to something. Never give up, that’s what I say!”
I studied my father. His tone made it clear that there was a subtext to what he was saying.
“Dad, what’s going on?”
He smiled, then his eyes drifted behind me and went wide. “Oh, there she is!”
I turned, already bracing myself for disappointment over the idea that our time together was about to be ruined by a stranger trying too hard to make me like her. When I saw the woman striding toward us, I froze. It was impossible.
“ Mom ?” I gasped.
Piper’s voice cut through the haze, full of surprise. “That’s your mother?”
My dad leapt out of his chair and jogged over to meet her. They embraced, and when he pulled away, he grasped her arms and said something I couldn’t hear.
I followed behind him as confusion swirled inside of me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as she pulled me into a tight hug.
“Visiting my favorite people,” she laughed.
We hugged for a long time. Her signature lily of the valley scent, a perfume created for her by my father called Beauty , triggered a thousand sense-memories. I hadn’t seen her in person in months. I finally pulled away, ready to introduce Piper, but I didn’t get the chance.
“I’m Kathleen—I’ve heard so much about you,” my mom gushed as they embraced. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you!”
My heart filled to overflowing watching them together. I’d been looking forward to the moment, and seeing it live was even better than I could’ve imagined.
“I’m…I’m in shock,” I admitted as we all sat down. “What exactly is happening here?”
“Family,” my mom replied.
“Yeah, but…” I gestured between my parents.
“I told you, we’ve been talking,” my father began. “And my scare with the bike messenger got me thinking about what really matters in life. I wasn’t sure if your mom would be open to us trying again, but I had to try, so?—”
“He wooed the hell out of me,” she interrupted with a laugh. “I didn’t have much of a choice.”
Piper glanced at me across the table and winked.
“When did you get into town?” I asked.
“Last night,” she blushed as she locked eyes with my dad. “We had a lot to talk about. To make sure that this time was it for both of us.”
“But talking wasn’t all we did!”
Piper threw her head back, laughing hard.
“Dad, come on,” I complained, sounding like I was fifteen again.
“We’re in a great place now,” she continued as she reached across the table to take my dad’s hand. “More settled. We know ourselves. That was part of the problem all those years ago. We weren’t open about what we wanted or what we needed from each other. Now, as old folks, it’s all clear. We were rash back then to end things without putting in the work to try to move forward together.”
“How long are you in town?” Piper asked.
“Long enough to spend a ton of time getting to know you ,” she smiled back.
“It’s looking like we’re going to split our time going forward,” my dad added. “Your mother loves Florida, I love Manhattan, but we love each other more, so we’re going to make it work.”
She leaned closer to me. “That’s what you do when you find the one.”
I glanced at Piper, and she gave me a secret smile. Yeah, I’d definitely found her.
I sat back and glanced around the table at the people gathered there.
Three of the people I loved most in the world.
How was it possible that one man could be so lucky? Unsurprisingly, Piper was charming the hell out of my parents. I could already hear my mom and dad joining forces to convince me I needed to pop the question.
But they were both also well aware that I didn’t bow to pressure, even from them.
“Oh!” my mom exclaimed. “Piper, are you wearing Perpetual today?”
She blushed. “Of course I am.”
My mom reached out to her. “May I? I purposely haven’t smelled it because I wanted to meet the inspiration first.”
Piper held out her wrist, and my mother raised it to her nose, closed her eyes, and inhaled.
“It’s stunning ,” she sighed. She opened her eyes and stared at me. “It’s very clear that this is a fragrance born of love.”
My face went hot at the intensity in my mom’s expression. “You’re right.”
“Hold onto that,” she counseled. “With all your might. You two have something special. Right now, it’s pure bliss and hot sex,” she said with a knowing smile. “But that will change. Life throws curveballs at us. Things get tough, especially when babies come into the picture.”
Piper choked on her drink.
“But real love endures,” my father continued, his eyes soft and trained on my mom. “We haven’t been the best role models in a lot of ways, we recognize that, but our hope is that you can look at our mistakes and avoid making them yourself.”
Cheating on Piper wasn’t even a consideration, so I didn’t have to worry about that part of my father’s legacy. But his willingness to walk away and start over, again and again? I used to worry I’d inherited that part of him, but now that I knew the full story, it was much less of a concern.
And then there was the woman in question.
There was no one in the world like her, and I was ready to prove that fact to her in the biggest way possible.