9. Vincent
9
VINCENT
I ’d woken up early craving fresh-squeezed orange juice and a croissant for some inexplicable reason.
Okay, it was in no way inexplicable.
I tried to put any thoughts of Piper out of my head as I rushed through my morning workout in my home gym, but by the time I finished, the thoughts were a drumbeat I couldn’t ignore.
She’d been perfect last night. And I felt like I needed another hit of that perfection.
I checked the time and saw that the Broad Street Farmers’ Market was due to open in thirty minutes. I needed to haul my ass across town.
I wasn’t a farmers’ market kind of guy normally—I had a chef who saw to my grocery shopping and meal prep—but once I arrived at the market, I discovered I’d been missing out on one of the simple joys of life. The stalls were overflowing with farm-fresh vegetables, bags of coffee beans, fancy juices, and goat milk soaps. Suddenly, I needed to buy carrots with the greens still attached and brussels sprouts on the stalk.
What the hell was happening to me?
I blamed my evolution on Piper.
She was an enigma I didn’t think I’d ever be able to figure out. Every time she opened her mouth, she was just as likely to annoy the hell out of me as to charm me, yet by the end of the previous night, I’d had to fight with myself to keep from pulling her into my arms and kissing her until she was breathless. The way she looked up at me outside her apartment with those big brown eyes sure felt like an invitation—right up until her roommate texted and she backed away. But today was a new day, and there was no telling what might happen.
I sipped a perfect cup of coffee and strolled through the market trying to memorize the fresh scents all around me. I was always on the lookout for new fragrance combinations, so it was highly likely my little errand run could influence Summit’s direction. I paused in a booth full of fresh produce. We’d never tried a cucumber-based fragrance, but maybe it was about time? And could I credit Piper with introducing me to the idea, since she was the reason why I was here in the first place?
I looked around at the other shoppers and smiled automatically when I saw a familiar blonde mop on the other side of an artisanal bread stall.
I started to head her way but paused when I saw that she was talking to a guy in black-rimmed glasses and a beanie. It was pushing seventy degrees, so the hat was clearly a hipster affectation.
Which I hated.
Was Piper into him? I studied them to try to read what was going on between them. The guy was clearly trying to make something happen because he kept moving closer to Piper as he spoke. There was a familiarity between them, but Piper didn’t look happy to be talking to him.
Which made me happy.
She couldn’t frown any harder at him, but the guy didn’t seem to be taking the hint. I considered interrupting, but there was a chance I was misreading the interaction. Maybe Piper was playing hard to get? The guy would probably be considered decent looking, if you liked that sort of stylized, overly self-aware look. I glanced down at what I’d thrown on. Did my black joggers and t-shirt make me look like I didn’t care?
It should, because I didn’t.
I refocused on Piper and the hipster. Yeah, she definitely wasn’t enjoying the interaction. So why wasn’t she using the firepower I knew she had?
I frowned. There was something off between them, and I was through standing on the sidelines and letting it happen. I trusted my instincts that Piper needed backup as I marched over and slid my arm around her shoulder. She tensed, glanced up at my face, then sank against me with relief, curling her arm around my waist in turn.
“Babe, you disappeared on me,” I complained, smiling at her and then shifting my focus to the guy. “I was starting to get worried.”
“Yeah, I was catching up with, uh, my friend.”
I could tell by the way she said the word “friend” that he was anything but.
“Hey,” I said, gesturing with my coffee cup in lieu of reaching out for a handshake. “I’m Vincent Forde.”
He stood a little straighter. Perhaps he recognized my name? “Hey, I’m Matthew Burns.” He shifted his attention back to Piper. “You didn’t mention you were dating someone.”
“You didn’t ask,” she said in a strained voice. “You were too busy telling me about your job, remember? I was waiting for you to take a breath.”
She said it with a smile, but the barbs were there. Attagirl.
“Hey babe, I think we should go take a look at the artisanal soaps and massage oils I just passed,” I said. I squeezed Piper closer and gave Matthew a devilish look. “Big plans for this afternoon, if you know what I mean.”
Piper giggled, and Matthew shifted uncomfortably.
“Of course, I don’t want to keep you two,” he said sheepishly. “Piper, I’ll catch you later. It was good to see you. It’s been too long.”
He glanced at me before he walked away, a deferential bro-code moment to signify that he knew he’d overstepped with Piper. I didn’t nod back at him, so he knew I was not okay with his familiarity with her.
Once he was out of earshot, she heaved a sigh.
“Oh my god, thank you! You totally rescued me.”
“From?” I asked.
I noticed she didn’t move away from me. It strangely felt natural to have her pressed up against me.
Piper waved her hand at his retreating form. “Long story. He’s a pain in my ass, that’s all.”
I finally moved away from her so I could look directly at her. “Do I need to track him down and give him a talking to?”
Piper laughed at me. “Okay, tough guy. Take it down a notch.”
“I’m serious, if he makes you uncomfortable, I can step in.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m fine, he’s just a pushy ex.”
Immediately, I wanted to know how serious they had been, why it ended, and when—but did I have the right to ask?
Screw it. If she didn’t want to tell me, she was more than capable of letting me know.
“What’s the story with him?”
Her mouth tugged down. “It’s a little embarrassing. I, uh…I made assumptions about our relationship. I thought we were something real, but it was all in my head. He didn’t feel the same way about me, and it took me way too long to figure that out. Now I don’t trust myself, you know? Like, how could I be so wrong about the whole thing? I was really falling for him, and all the while, he didn’t care about me at all.”
I suddenly hated the hipster even more. How could anyone not understand how special Piper was?
She stared at the ground as we made our way through the stalls, and I had to hold back from pulling her close to me again.
“His loss.”
She looked up at me with grateful eyes. “Thanks. It’s weird, though. For months after it ended, I didn’t hear from him at all, but lately he keeps texting me. Of course I’ve been ignoring them, but then he showed up here…” she shrugged. “It just feels off. Like he’s stalking me.”
“Well, if that’s the case, I’ll definitely step in. I want you to feel safe.”
Piper squinted up at me. “Speaking of stalking…what are you doing here?”
I laughed. Yeah, she’d caught me. “I guess it does look bad, huh? The truth is, you made the whole ‘fresh breakfast’ thing sound so good I couldn’t help myself. And you were right.” I held up my coffee cup. “This is my warm-up, and now I need to find those croissants.”
The sadness in her face disappeared to be replaced by a gorgeous smile. I loved that I was the reason for the shift.
“Now you’re talking!” Piper said excitedly. “This way.”
I followed behind her as she navigated through the increasingly crowded market. I stopped when a familiar sight came into view.
“Piper,” I called. “Come here.”
She joined me in front of the flower stall, which was packed with buckets of flowers in every color. She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent. “Amazing!”
“Agreed.” I decided to quiz her. “Can you tell which scent is the strongest?”
“Um…”
She closed her eyes again, and I took advantage of the moment to drink her in. Her white tank top was clingy in all the right ways, and her jean shorts were short enough to show off toned thighs that made my mind wander down paths I usually forced myself to avoid.
But not this time.
I let my thoughts run free, savoring every detail of her. The way her hair cascaded over her shoulders, the faint rise and fall of her chest, even the tiny scar on her knee. Every inch of her drew me in like gravity.
“I’m picking up this beautiful, clean scent. Fresh and green. But I think the roses are the strongest aroma.” Piper pointed at the display of pink, red, and peach roses.
“I agree. What else?”
She laughed. “Is this a test? Should I have studied up on my flowers?”
“I can teach you everything you need to know, don’t you worry,” I said. “My mom’s a world-class gardener, and my dad ran Summit for decades before retiring—I’ve learned from the very best.”
Piper’s mouth twisted up in an adorable grin. “You know what? I think that’s really amazing. You look like this big tough guy, yet you know all about flowers. I like the contradiction.”
“It’s good to keep people guessing,” I replied. “Now let’s talk roses.” I pulled a pink one from the bucket. “Tell me what this scent makes you think of.”
Piper held my gaze as she walked closer and touched her nose to the bloom. “Honestly? It’s beautiful, but roses always remind me of…”
“Grandmothers,” we said in unison.
She giggled. “So we agree! Honestly, I love the flower and the scent, but as a perfume? No thank you.”
Rose scent would always hold a special place in my heart since it was Nana Dee’s go-to fragrance, but Piper was right; it skewed older. It was the reason Summit only had one top note rose fragrance— Nostalgia —and why we rarely even included the scent in our primary ingredient line.
“If you had to choose one flower from all of these as your favorite scent, which would it be?” I asked, genuinely interested. The types of scents people gravitated toward revealed a great deal about them.
Piper strolled deeper into the stall and surveyed her options from the explosion of color.
“Gardenias smell amazing,” she pointed to the white flowers. “And lily of the valley are so sweet and delicate. They remind me of a fairy flower.” Piper stopped in front of a bucket packed with purple flowers. “But for me, it’ll always be lilacs. I just love the fragrance.”
I joined her and leaned down to inhale the sweetness.
“Excellent choice,” I said. “They’re sturdy early bloomers that last a long time when cut. Every different flower has a special meaning. The Victorians believed lilacs were the symbol of the first stirrings of love.”
“Oh really? First love, huh. That’s, uh…interesting,” Piper stuttered as she looked up at me.
Somehow, we were alone in the booth, surrounded by walls of blooms. The moment felt cinematic, like it wouldn’t be out of character for me to sweep her into my arms, bend her backward, and kiss her. And the way she was looking up at me felt strangely like the last time we were toe to toe, frozen in a moment and desperate to see what would happen next.
Wondering if one of us would be brave enough to do the thing we both wanted.
But what if I was misreading the situation? We had too much on the line right now to potentially throw everything away for a romance that could quickly go off the rails.
“So how about those croissants?” I finally asked, breaking the spell.
“Yes, croissants!” Piper sounded relieved. “This way.”
She expertly threaded through the crowd, and I followed behind her. I wasn’t shocked at how many heads she turned as she made her way to the bakery stand.
Piper was stunning, even bare-faced and in couch clothes.
“Okay,” she said with a flourish as she stopped in front of a booth. “Croissants of every flavor. Don’t even think of buying just one because you’ll regret it the moment you eat the last bite.”
“I’m not a big sweets guy, but the Nutella version looks dangerous.”
“It is. You can just do a few dozen extra pushups and sit-ups as penance,” she poked me in the stomach.
“Oof,” I pretend-flinched. “It had better be worth it.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “Please. I bet you’re at the gym every single day. A couple of croissants won’t make a difference to your mountain of muscle.”
I bit back a grin at her backhanded compliment. “What about you? How do you, uh, stay in shape?”
I realized too late that I couldn’t come right out and ask how she maintained her absolute smoke-show of a body.
“Number one? I don’t stress out about what I eat. I enjoy good food and worry about the consequences later.” She paused as she considered her croissant options before her. “And I do yoga. We can’t forget about that, since you and your father will be joining me.”
“Don’t remind me,” I frowned. “I’m sort of dreading it.”
“You mean you don’t want to be more flexible?” Piper tilted her head. “You like being all…” she balled her hands into fists and raised her shoulders up to her ears.
I laughed. “That’s how you see me?”
She giggled. “A little, yeah. It’s not like I blame you; you’ve got a lot on your plate. That’s why yoga will be good for you. Get that mind and body balance thing going. And if you keep at it, maybe someday you’ll be able to do the splits, like me.”
She turned back to make her selection while I did everything in my power to keep from imagining my fake girlfriend sliding into the splits right on top of me.