Chapter 16 #2
I glance at her sleeve, and sure enough, a tiny gray head is peeking out of it.
“Can I have him?” I ask, grinning.
“Sure.” Piper looks at me like I’ve lost the plot, and given how I reacted last time she held Toulouse out to me, I get it.
Still, she reaches into her sleeve, gently scoops him out, and places the warm, squirming ball of fur into my hands.
I stroke his fuzzy head and coo, “Mason’s right. You’re cute as fuck. Just don’t show me your tail, okay?” Toulouse squeaks like he’s offended and immediately tries to scurry up my shoulder. “Nope,” I tell him. “We’re not quite there in this relationship, buddy.”
Instead, I open the cuff of my hoodie sleeve and let him crawl into the tunnel of fabric. He settles somewhere near my elbow, warm, twitchy, and weirdly comforting.
We wander down the garden path, the tall grass brushing our legs, the sun warm on our shoulders, and for a while it’s quiet, comfortable even.
Then Piper, totally unfiltered like always, asks, “So, what was that drama with Greer? And him taking your virginity in the gondola? Because, honestly, if he forced himself on you, I’m gonna—”
“No!” I interrupt quickly, heart kicking up. “No, he didn’t. It was more like I forced him.”
She stops in her tracks. “Have you seen Finn Greer? Tall as fuck and freaking built. And you…” she gestures to me, “… don’t even reach his nipples. I don’t think you could’ve forced him to do anything.”
I shrug. “I still did.”
Piper stares at me, processing that, then falls into step again. “And now you’re feeling bad for it?”
“Well,” I chew the inside of my cheek. “He said it was a mistake right after.”
“Fuck.” Piper’s voice softens. “That must’ve hurt. Dane said you’ve had a crush on Greer for a long time.”
Thanks, brother.
“Yeah. I did.”
Still do.
“Don’t tell Dane, but I thought what he did was pretty romantic.”
I snort. “You think losing your V-card in a gondola before a race is romantic?”
She scrunches up her nose. “No, but showing up to apologize, knowing that he will get his ass kicked for it? He said he loves you, Alaina.”
“First of all, I’m mad at him for airing my business to everybody like that.
And I don’t think it was real,” I murmur.
“I think he just said it to take responsibility. He feels guilty. That’s what he does.
He ruined his friendship with Dane because of guilt.
He said he loved me because of guilt. He made it worse because that’s what guilt does to him. ”
What I did to him.
Piper sighs. “Okay, so what are we going to do with that?”
“I don’t know, nothing probably. It’s already fucked enough.”
“What does Luc say to that? Since he’s your boyfriend now. Or, you know, one of them.”
I smile a little. “He is my only boyfriend. And he’s surprisingly okay with it.”
Piper rolls her eyes. “I mean, of course he is. If he wants to have Mason and you, how could he not be okay with you maybe wanting someone else? Would be pretty hypocritical of him.”
“True,” I say, biting my lip. Should I be worried about that? “But it’s never going to happen, anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m over all this bullshit.” Piper eyes me, but I just add, “And Finn’s going to realize it’s not what he wants. He didn’t have time to think, he was just reacting. Out of guilt. Like I said.”
Piper hums. “Okay, but if we forget all of that, right? The races. The media. The guilt. Just your feelings. In a perfect world, who would you be with?”
“In a perfect world?” I echo, glancing around the garden, at the lavender stretching into the distance, bees floating lazily, sunshine dripping golden down stone walls. I turn back to her, whispering, “In a perfect world, Finn didn’t hurt me, and I could have all three of them.”
She stops again. “All three, as in Delacroix, Payne, and Greer?”
I nod, my heart thudding. “Yeah.”
Fuck, first time I’ve admitted that out loud.
There’s a beat of silence, but then Piper crosses her arms. “Does Luc know you’re into his boyfriend too?”
Oh, he so knows.
“Maybe, he suspects it.”
“Okay,” she says, tipping her head. “Then maybe that’s something to work on first, because the way Mason just looked at you this morning? That’s the easiest problem to solve.”
I snort. “I’ll remind you how easy emotional problems are to solve next time you and Dane get into it.”
“You so will.” She laughs, and we keep walking farther down the garden path, where we spot Jim and élise sitting together on a stone bench, talking and laughing.
Piper leans close and whispers as we turn to walk back toward the house, “Love is in the air.”
I grin. “Pretty sure it’s just the French countryside. Lavender. Sunshine. Vibes.”
She snorts. “Sure.”
We turn the corner and reach the front of the house again, and Piper asks, “So, when are we leaving anyway?”
“I don’t know. Tomorrow morning around nine, I guess.”
“Okay. I’m going to drive with you. I think Otis and Luc are too?”
“Yep. I don’t know if Mason’s going with his dad or with us, but we have room.”
I stop dead in my tracks because Finn is sitting on the step of the Crews’ bus, where it’s parked in the driveway.
In his lap is a bouquet of wildflowers, messy, beautiful, and impossible to ignore. My entire body freezes, my breath stalls in my throat, and I think someone flipped gravity off.
I’m floating, weightless, panicked.
“You gonna talk to him?” Piper halts beside me, her gaze flicking from him to me.
“I guess so.”
“I’m gonna wait inside. Yell if you need me.”
“Sure,” I whisper, eyes locked on the boy—no, the man—on the step who looks like he’s been through the wringer.
As we approach, Finn stands up quickly, tugging his red hoodie down. There’s a dented, half-rusty car pulled up awkwardly on the side of the road.
Is that how he got here?
“Greer,” Piper greets, cool but not unkind.
“Hey, Piper.”
“Don’t do anything dumb.” She squints. “I’ve got just as hard a punch as Dane.”
Finn nods. “Noted.”