20. Hunter
Hunter
H unter elbowed her sister in the ribs.
“Rude,” she muttered under her breath, but Kiera laughed – it was too small of a room to whisper and not be heard by everyone in the office.
“Wow,” Hunter said while Piper’s eyes went wide. “That’s a lot of money.”
She couldn’t even imagine that much money. She knew she’d never see it in her lifetime, anyway.
“Yeah,” Kiera said. “I told Garrett over the phone this morning and I’m pretty sure he fell out of his chair, or at least that’s what it sounded like. That money is really going to go a long way to improve this place.”
Kiera led them out of the tiny office and continued the tour with renewed enthusiasm, pointing out a staff area that she hoped to remodel with an additional workspace for her new employee and a new communal space for the volunteers.
Then they went into the kitchen, which Kiera wanted to use to expand the after-school snack into a full-blown meal, explaining that there were a lot of kids at the center who didn’t have a guaranteed meal waiting for them at home each night.
Hunter didn’t take her eyes off Kiera the whole time, in awe of how passionate she was about this place and the kids.
“So how are you going to make it all happen?” Piper asked, leaning against a stainless steel prep area in the kitchen. “I mean, do they just hand you a check for $200,000 and tell you to go for it?”
She had a lot of questions about the money and it was making Hunter uneasy. They were the kind of questions Jed would ask if he was cooking up an idea, and even though it made Hunter guilty for thinking it, she couldn’t help feeling a little bit suspicious.
“I’m not really sure, actually,” Kiera said. “Garrett will handle all of that, and it’ll be another month or two before they disperse the money, anyway.”
She didn’t suspect anything, and there was a strong possibility that Hunter was just predisposed to looking for things that weren’t really there when it came to her sister and con opportunities.
Kiera talked about the timeline she imagined - hiring an assistant for Garrett as soon as the grant money came in and then using a portion of it to pay her own salary once she graduated in June.
Then Piper asked, “So the grant foundation doesn’t handle the money themselves, huh? They just let you put it in the bank.”
“Well, yeah,” Kiera said, looking a little confused. “I mean, if we don’t use it in a way that they think is beneficial, then they just wouldn’t renew our grant next year. So it’s in our best interest to be responsible with it.”
This whole thing was giving Hunter a stomach ache. Why did Piper want to know so much about the grant money? Was she actually trying to work something out, or was she just a victim of habit, too, asking the questions that she knew her husband would ask if he were here?
“We should get going,” Hunter said abruptly.
That was probably the best course of action - whether Piper was up to something or not, removing her from the situation would put a stop to it.
“The boys have homework to do and Kiera has a sorority meeting tonight. We should probably get over to Abby’s house so she can get ready. ”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Kiera said, looking a little disappointed. Hunter felt bad – she didn’t mean to cut short Kiera’s celebration. She checked the time and added, “My dad and Nana will probably be back from the bridge game soon. Piper, I’ll give you and the boys a ride home if you want.”
They headed back to the activity room and found Josh and Andrew in the middle of Maggie’s painting lesson. Josh had a big green circle on his paper with no arms or legs, and Andrew’s turtle had a bit more detail but it wasn’t done either.
“My turtle’s just a shell,” Josh whined. “Please, can we stay and finish?”
“Hunter’s right, I really need to get going,” Kiera said apologetically.
“We took the bus here,” Piper said. “We’ll just take the bus home again when they’re done painting. Thanks for the tour, Kiera.”
“It’s no problem,” Kiera answered. “Do you like the center?”
“Yeah, it’s really nice,” Piper said.
Hunter didn’t love the idea of leaving Piper here, but what could she do while the boys painted turtles?
Hunter didn’t have anything but a bad feeling to go on, anyway, and she might be blowing it all out of proportion.
Money was a touchy subject between her and Piper, and maybe it was nothing this time.
Wasn’t it possible that she was looking for problems where there weren’t any simply because she wasn’t used to things going well?
Hunter couldn’t think of an excuse to tear the boys away from their painting, so she gave them each a hug goodbye and said, “I’ll see you at home. I have to go with Kiera to watch Abby.”
“See you later, sis,” Piper said, perfectly casually.
Hunter looked at her, trying to decide if she was being silly or if she should trust her gut. And then she felt Kiera’s hand sliding into hers and Hunter let her guide her back outside.
The fresh air felt good and it cleared her mind a little bit.
Surely, the mention of money had just tripped some false alarm in her head. It was Jed’s fault that Hunter had to think that way, but he’d been out of the picture for a long time.
Kiera squeezed Hunter’s hand as they walked over to her car and asked, “Penny for your thoughts?”
“Sorry,” Hunter said, realizing that she’d been caught up in her own head. She smiled and added, “I was just thinking that you’re a rock star. I’m so happy that you got the grant.”
“Thanks,” Kiera said with a huge grin. They got into her car and she said, “You know, I didn’t get a chance to tell you guys the biggest reason I invited you here. I want to ask your sister if she would be interested in working for Garrett and me.”
“Really?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah,” Kiera said, starting the car. “You do so much for your family and you have no time for yourself. If Piper had a better job and a place for the boys to go after school, you could start thinking about your own life again. Maybe even go back to nursing school.”
Hunter laughed. She’d just been wondering whether her sister was salivating over Kiera’s grant money like a cartoon wolf with dollar signs in its eyes, and now Kiera wanted her to set aside all her responsibilities and go back to school? Not likely.
“Why’s that funny?” Kiera asked. “You don’t think Piper would like working at the teen center?”
“I don’t think you would like Piper working at the teen center,” Hunter said.
She smiled and took Kiera’s hand as they pulled into the street, then said, “I really appreciate you trying to help us, but I’m afraid that there are some things Piper still needs to work through before something like that could work. ”
“Like what?” Kiera asked.
Hunter wondered how much she could tell her.
She’d never connected with anyone the way she did with Kiera, and even though they’d only been together a few short weeks, Hunter already couldn’t imagine life without her.
But could Kiera handle my sister’s husband is a con man who’s currently in jail and I’m afraid she’s still susceptible to being manipulated into his criminal lifestyle ?
She couldn’t ask Kiera to understand it. Hunter wasn’t even sure she understood it, and she’d been trying to wrap her head around Jed’s hold on Piper since they were teenagers.
But Kiera was talking about hiring Piper, putting her own neck on the line and potentially opening up the teen center to a serious threat if Hunter’s fears were true.
How long would it be before Piper lost the willpower to stay away from Jed, especially with a huge chunk of money like that dangling in front of her?
Hunter knew she’d have to tell Kiera the truth at last. She didn’t want to do it in the car, though. This was a conversation to have face-to-face, so for now, she just said, “Piper’s got some interpersonal issues.”
It was true, if thinking about how everyone she met could potentially benefit her was an interpersonal problem.
“The teen center could help her with that,” Kiera said. “She’s a little older than the typical age we serve, but we offer classes on life and vocational skills for our high school kids. I bet Garrett would be willing to work with her to smooth out any rough edges.”
Hunter nearly snorted. She loved her sister, but this went far beyond rough edges.
She turned in her seat to look at Kiera.
The afternoon sun felt warm as it filtered through the windshield and it illuminated Kiera’s skin, making her glow.
Hunter reached out and tucked a long tendril of dark hair behind Kiera’s ear, settling her red cap down on her head.
Then she said with a sigh, “You’re too perfect. ”
How could she find anyone this wonderful? And how could she possibly keep her, once Kiera knew about all of the skeletons in Hunter’s family closet?
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Kiera said. “I just want things to be better for you and your family.”
“Me too,” Hunter said.
They drove in silence for a while, Hunter soaking up every detail about Kiera that she could and hoping that the car ride would never end.
She had no idea if what she was about to tell Kiera would be a dealbreaker, the end of them.
She’d never told a soul about Jason Dawes, or any of the dozens of cons that Jed and Piper pulled over the years.
Her heart was pounding by the time Kiera pulled into Abby’s long driveway.
“Looks like no one’s home,” Kiera said as she parked near the door.
She turned off the engine and reached across the center console to take Hunter’s hands in hers.
The sun continued to bathe her in an almost angelic glow as she said, “Hunter, I get the feeling that people don’t praise you very often, and I know you spend a lot of time putting everyone else’s needs before your own.
So I’m going to say something now that I want you to listen to carefully. ”
“Okay,” Hunter said, wary.
“You’re not your sister’s keeper,” Kiera said. “You are smart and skilled and compassionate, and you deserve a life of your own – not just one where you’re constantly bailing Piper out. I know family means a lot to you and it’s one of the things I love about you-”
She paused as she realized what she’d said, color coming to her cheeks. She was so perfect, and Hunter felt guilt rising hot in the back of her throat for letting Kiera go this long thinking that her family was normal, or safe.
Kiera smiled, regained her composure and continued. “You are not an island. You can’t do everything on your own and I want to help you. The best way I know how is by giving Piper a job to help her stand on her own two feet a little more.”
Hunter looked into Kiera’s big chestnut eyes and never felt more conflict in her heart. No one had ever done anything so nice for her before, and Hunter couldn’t let Kiera do it.
She looked beyond the windshield at the large house and the expansive wooded grounds of Abby’s property closing it in on three sides.
The past few months had been like a fantasy, or a fairy tale, and if Hunter was right about Piper’s motivations then the big bad wolf would be coming out of those woods to swallow her up at any moment.
“We need to talk,” Hunter said. She knew Kiera only had a short while before she needed to go back to campus for her sorority meeting and there was no way of knowing when Abby and Sean would return, but it couldn’t wait another second. “Can we go inside?”
“Of course,” Kiera said, leaning across the center console to kiss her.
Poor girl, Hunter thought. She has no idea what’s coming.