18. Hunter
Hunter
I t was a crisp afternoon in early November when Hunter finally got to see Andrew play in a football game.
The season was more than halfway over before her schedules – at the nursing home and at Abby’s house, as well as Piper’s café schedule – had aligned to let her go with the rest of the family to the stadium.
Abby was at her weekly bridge game, though, so Kiera was able to tag along as well.
The Grimm Falls Middle School Panthers played at the high school stadium, an open bowl with bleachers on two sides.
Today they were playing the Westbrook Wildcats and Hunter, Kiera, Piper and Josh sat in the bleachers, cheering Andrew on.
Piper had bundled Josh up in quite a few layers before they left the house, although he was probably the warmest of the four of them considering the amount of jumping and cheering he did throughout the game.
Hunter kept her arm wrapped around Kiera and protected her from the cold wind as much as she could, although it did nothing to address the problem of the chilly metal bleachers they sat on.
They all stood to shout encouragement whenever Andrew had possession of the ball, and it wasn’t long before Josh got tired of hanging out with a bunch of adults.
There were kids at the bottom of the bleachers, hanging out near the edge of the field.
“Mom, can I go down to the field with the other kids?” he asked.
Hunter reached over and pulled off his hat, ruffling his hair and asking, “What, are you too good to hang out with your family?”
Josh giggled and Hunter replaced the cap.
“Go play,” Piper said. “Just stay where I can see you.”
Josh made his way through the bleachers, disrupting a long row of other adults on his way to the aisle.
Hunter, Kiera and Piper watched as he was easily absorbed into the group of other kids, and then after a while, Kiera said, “I’m going to find the bathroom.
Anyone want a hotdog or a drink on my way back? ”
Neither of them did, so Kiera stood up and Hunter watched her weave her way a bit more gracefully down the row of bleachers. Then she sighed and said to Piper, “Isn’t she incredible?”
“Are you so into her that a bathroom break makes you swoon?” Piper teased.
“No,” Hunter said, and after a moment’s thought, she added, “I am falling for her, though.”
That was putting it lightly. In fact, Hunter had already fallen and was more than halfway toward loving Kiera by now. There was just one thing that was gnawing at her, and she saw the opportunity now to wipe the fear away.
Hunter couldn’t throw the suspicion that Piper wasn’t always where she said she would be lately, and she had a bad feeling about it.
It had been more than six months since she promised not to see Jed in prison.
Was six months long enough to forget the reason why, to erase Jason Dawes from her memory and start thinking that Jed wasn’t such a bad guy after all?
Because Hunter hadn’t forgotten, and she was worried that her sister had started visiting him in prison again. Piper was working an awful lot of extra shifts lately, and dropping the boys off at Abby’s house often.
And it was probably just paranoia heaped on top of paranoia, but Hunter didn’t like the way Piper looked at Abby’s things when she came to the house to drop off the boys – like she was shopping.
She hated the way that Jed had corrupted her sister, and even more, Hunter hated the fact that she even had suspicions about her own sister.
But if she was going to really let herself fall in love with Kiera, then Hunter had to know without a shadow of doubt that her sister had nothing up her sleeve with regards to Kiera’s family.
“Are you really?” Piper asked. She looked surprised, but Hunter couldn’t quite tell in what way.
“Yeah,” Hunter said. “She’s the most fascinating, compassionate, intelligent, beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
“That’s a lot of adjectives,” Piper said, raising her eyebrows.
“They’re all true.”
Piper smiled and patted Hunter’s knee, then said, “Well, that’s great news. I was beginning to wonder if you were planning on becoming a spinster. So, does she reciprocate?”
“I hope so,” Hunter said with a laugh.
“I’m happy for you,” Piper said, and then their conversation was interrupted as the Panthers turned over the ball and the bleachers erupted into cheers.
Once things settled down again, Hunter went on. “It’s not entirely complication-free. There are our schedules, for one thing, and the fact that her mother is my employer.”
“True,” Piper said. “But love conquers all. You’ll figure out those minor details.”
“Yeah,” Hunter said without much conviction. She glanced in the direction of the restrooms and concession stands but didn’t see Kiera. Then she asked the question that she really needed an answer to. "You're not doing anything at Abby's house, are you, Pipes?”
"Doing anything?"
"You know what I mean," Hunter said, lowering her voice so their conversation wouldn’t be heard over the cheering from the other people sitting around them. “ Jed things.”
Piper looked at her, hurt in her eyes.
“How could you ask me that?” she said. “Of course I’m not doing anything at Abby’s house. What would I be doing?”
“I don’t know,” Hunter said, backing off. She felt guilty for accusing Piper, and she couldn’t bring herself to voice her specific concerns. So instead, she settled on asking, “Are you doing any kind of scams? On anyone?”
“No,” Piper said, looking angry now. “Hunter, where is this coming from?”
“I don’t know,” Hunter said, exasperated. “I just had a bad feeling. The bills got paid and Josh got his football equipment-”
“You know what that feeling is?” Piper asked, interrupting her.
“Happiness. We’re doing well, and it’s in large part thanks to you.
You’re busting your butt to work two jobs and you’re barely sleeping.
I can see how you’d confuse happiness with a sense of foreboding given our history, but trust me.
Things are good right now. Just look at the kids. ”
Piper gestured to the field, where Andrew was crouched and waiting for the next play to begin. Josh was standing at the edge of the field with the other kids his age, watching his big brother in utter awe.
Kiera was making her way slowly back up the bleacher aisle and Hunter finally conceded to Piper. She said, “You’re right. We’re doing good.”
“Yes, we are,” Piper said, taking Hunter’s hand and squeezing it.
“I’m going to go buy Josh a hotdog,” Hunter said, standing up. She inched her way along the row and met Kiera in the aisle, taking her hand and kissing it. “Come with me to the concession stands?”
“I thought you said you didn’t want anything,” Kiera said with a frown. “I could have gotten it for you.”
“I don’t,” Hunter said. “It’s for Josh. Plus I thought we could walk around the stadium a bit, get the blood flowing again.”
“Those bleachers are like ice, aren’t they?” Kiera asked, laughing. “My ass is frozen.”
“I could warm that up for you,” Hunter said, shooting her a playful grin.