Chapter 5 Piper #2
“So.” He clears his throat—classic Caleb when he wants to change the topic of conversation. “I thought it would be good to set down a few ground rules.”
“Ground rules?” I laugh. “Relax. I’m not planning on burning down your house. Not on purpose, anyway.”
“Yeah, I know that,” he says, no hint of a smile in his eye. “But while you and Sonny are staying here, I think it’s important to establish a few…boundaries.”
“I’m not planning on jumping into bed with you. I promise.”
Still no laughter? I narrow my eyes and wait a beat more for a delayed response.
Nothing. Just a stoic blink no different to the ones that came before it.
He’s harder. More guarded than before.
He opened up quickly the first time. We both did. And now he’s putting way too much distance between us.
Like we’re no more than strangers at Bean There…
“I have a babysitter, but I’m thinking it would be better if we could both be on childcare while the other is at work.
I should be able to change around my scheduled four days so it coincides with your working pattern.
It’s the least Ryan can do,” he mutters, “for signing me up to—” Another throat clearing. “Never mind.”
Of course. It was Caleb’s boss who proposed that Sonny and I stay here a while.
“Sounds good.”
“I suspect there will be some overlap,” Caleb continues. “So that’s when Grace can step in and babysit.”
“Great.”
“I’ll do the cooking, unless I’m on a one-to-eleven PM shift, in which case you’ll have to be head chef.”
“Noted.”
“Send me a list of what groceries you and Sonny need.” He catches my eye for this next part. “I take it you’re still lactose intolerant?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to bleach the toilet on the off chance I drink the wrong milk.” I chuckle, anxiously waiting for his reaction as I realize what the fuck has just come out of my mouth.
Dairy now apparently affects both ends.
Caleb breaks eye contact and leaves me to pick up my dignity from the floor.
God, it’s just like before. I had no control over my mouth then, same as now. His presence is to blame. Self-control disappears as soon as I’m alone in his company.
Moving swiftly on…
“Um. Hey. Don’t worry about the groceries. I’ll sort them out. You kindly invited Sonny and me into your home. The least I can do is—”
“Your house burned down, Hart.”
Thanks for the painful reminder.
“Everything is taken care of,” he insists.
I exhale an inward sigh of relief—it’s not like I have money flying out of my ears to provide groceries for a nuclear…family.
That’s essentially what we are. But what’s going on here is very unconventional. Not to mention that our children have two different sets of parents…or that’s what Caleb believes, at least.
“Soy milk, unsweetened?” he clarifies, composing a list on his phone.
“Yes. Thanks.”
I’m sweet enough as it is…
Too bad Caleb no longer gets a taste.
Ellie hops outside wearing a pink floral T-shirt, and a smile on her face that lights up the day more than the sun. “Can I have coffee, Dad?”
“It’s for adults only, I’m afraid, sweetheart.” His soft voice and the term of endearment at the end is no good for my ovaries. Dad of the year goes to Caleb Rourke—that’s for sure.
But does it?
He left for six months when he had a child back in Long Island.
I should really ask him about that the next time we’re alone, now that I’m over the initial shock waves from yesterday when he told me Ellie’s age.
“Piper?” she addresses me with a sweet smile. “May I braid your hair?”
“I’m sure Piper would love that some other time,” Caleb cuts in.
“Actually,” I counter, returning Ellie’s smile—a replica of her dad’s. “I would love for you to braid my hair. Right now.”
Caleb’s smile fades. He probably thinks this is my way of getting under his skin, revenge for what he did nine years ago. But having a girl to hang out with is fun.
I’m used to Sonny zooming around the house like a madman twenty-four seven playing airplanes. I love that kid to bits, but sometimes I’m not in the mood for a race. Being a single mom can be draining at times.
Sometimes all you wanna do is sit back and get your hair played with.
“Be gentle,” Caleb cautions, standing up to fetch more coffee. “I’m sure Piper doesn’t want her hair follicles ripped out. She’s not a Barbie.”
“No,” Ellie chuckles, weaving strands of my hair through her fingertips. “She’s a real-life Barbie.”
Jesus. Why did Caleb have to go and raise the most perfect girl?
My eyelids droop, sleep closing in as Ellie glides her fingers softly through my hair. I slept so little last night that not even coffee can save me.
And damn, does Caleb make it strong. He uses the same blend he used to. Spicy caramel-vanilla.
Just like the aftershave he wears. That hasn’t changed either…
He tells me he’s never seen a black bear.
Of course he hasn’t. He’s a New Yorker. So, on our second date, I take him out into the forest.
The coffee notes linger on my tongue as we walk side-by-side.
Silence.
We walk under a canopy of green, pine trees shooting up into the sky all around.
I gawp at him as we maneuver through the forest.
Calm. Unbothered.
With a jawline that could do more damage than a butcher knife.
Jesus Christ. Surely there has to be a catch.
He can’t really be this perfect.
Can he?
His onyx-brown eyes reflect the sunlight as he turns to me to answer a question.
“You get used to it. Sometimes there’s only so much you can do.”
“Does it ever bother you at night, when you remember those you were unable to save?”
He goes quiet and I realize I’ve struck a chord.
“Yes,” he answers a beat later. “Which is why you have to try and forget. The cases harden you eventually, and you learn to separate emotion from job.”
“Why did you wanna do it in the first place?”
Another beat of silence.
Two.
Caleb finally shrugs. “I just wanted to.”
We barely know one another—he doesn’t have to answer my question if he doesn’t want to.
I step over a root and look again in his direction. Since when do men this hot and jacked want to spend time with me? There has to be a caveat.
But maybe I just grew up always thinking the worst…
Because of my father.
I should probably tell him about that soon, when Caleb asks again about family.
But this is short-term. Just a vacation for him…and a little bit of excitement for me.
Maybe he could offer me some wisdom. If he has any of that. I dunno why a man with brain cells would choose to spend so much time with me. My whole life revolves around making coffee.
“Careful!” he says, voice increasing a notch as he catches me from tripping over the root I didn’t even see. “You almost face-planted.”
A warm hand slides around my lower back, keeping me balanced and upright.
One steady hand…
That’s all it takes for a virgin like me to be sold.
I lose, not just my footing, but my breath as he guides me away from the root. His cologne intoxicates. And so do his eyes.
The look in them deepens and becomes something else.
Inching in, I sense what’s about to come.
He pins me flush against the nearest tree and dives straight in for a kiss that could knock out an untouched girl like me.
“All done!” exclaims Ellie, securing the hair tie.
“A French braid.” I smile at myself in the handheld mirror she holds up. “I love it!”
A woman grabs my attention in the reflection.
I whip around to see her in reality, stalking closer to the house with the most perfect posture I’ve ever seen, and puckered lips. She is the real-life Barbie. Not me.
“Gracey!” Ellie takes off after her.
Ouch. I bet she doesn’t joke about the state of the toilet bowl after mistakenly consuming lactose.
I bet she’s not even lactose intolerant.
I try my best to not look like a jealous freak as Ellie and Gracey meet in an explosion of happiness. This must be the babysitter Caleb was referring to.
I’d babysit too if the father was a hot firefighting god.
Grace’s supermodel hair blows perfectly in the breeze as she catwalks over to the porch wearing a cinched white top and skinny jeans. The skinniest you can get.
Which I don’t blame her for. She has the figure. The face. The height and the ass. I’d dig in for a slice myself if I spun the other way.
“This is Gracey!” Ellie says. “She has nice hair too. And see—” She turns to Grace. “The way I braided Piper’s hair? Under and over, just like you taught me!”
“You’re improving!” Grace says. “I want you as my own personal hair stylist one day. I’m sure Piper does too.” She winks in my direction, introducing herself properly as Ellie runs back inside. “Fruit?” She slides the platter my way, the one she’s been balancing in her hand.
It looks like art.
“I’m good for now, but maybe later,” I say.
She smiles. “We haven’t met. Not properly. I get my coffee from Bean There sometimes. I recognize your face.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, failing to recount a time I served a literal Victoria’s Secret Angel. “We serve a lot of customers.”
“And rightly so. It’s good coffee. I also don’t normally look like…this. But you know how it is.” Another wink. “New hotties in town are hard to come by. Give it a few months and he’ll be off the market.”
I grit out a smile as she sashays indoors.
The worst part of me wishes that pert little nose was fake…
But I don’t think it is. I think she’s just that hot.
I tidy up the coffee pots as an excuse to be in the kitchen.
“Piper,” Caleb says. “This is Grace. She’s my next-door neighbor and babysitter.”
Next-door neighbor.
“We’ve already been introduced,” Grace says, turning back to Caleb to flash him a smile. “I brought over a fruit platter for you and Ellie. And Piper, feel free to help yourself.” Grace pauses as Sonny walks into the room. “And who might this cool dude be?”
“Sonny,” answers my kid before Caleb can get a word in edgeways.
“Actually,” Caleb says. “I was hoping you’d be able to babysit the two of them when my shifts cross over with Piper’s.”
“Sure thing,” Grace chirps without a moment’s hesitation. She slides a piece of perfect blonde hair behind her ear and stalls, throwing her head back toward me. “You two are—?”
“Her house burned down yesterday,” Caleb says. “She and Sonny will be staying with me for the time being.”
“O-M-G! That was you! I heard about the fire. Saw the smoke with my own eyes. It looked horrible. Oh, you poor thing.”
I shake off the sympathy—a woman who sets fire to her own house should not be called a “poor thing.”
“Thanks.” I give her a quick, bracing smile and take Sonny under my wing to guide the pair of us away so Caleb and Grace can talk about…whatever Caleb and Grace talk about.
Jealousy stings my chest in ways it shouldn’t. Caleb is well in his right to get to know other women, as a single man with no loyalties.
But he was with me first…
At least that’s what I thought until he dropped the bomb that he already had a child when he came into town all those years ago.
“I like it here,” Sonny says, clutching the toy plane in his hand. “How long can we stay?”
“Not long, kiddo.” I scrunch his hair. “This is only temporary. We’ll have something more permanent figured out soon.”
I lose my train of thought as I hear Grace flirtatiously laughing in the next room.
After hearing Caleb bid her goodbye, I crawl back out into the kitchen and munch on a watermelon slice—as sweet as the woman who cut it.
Tension filters back into the room.
“Ellie,” Caleb says. “Go and keep Sonny occupied for a moment, why don’t you?”
Ellie takes off into the next room, and Caleb shuts the door behind her.
“Are you together?” I ask.
“No.” Caleb wipes a hand around the back of his neck. “Nothing like that.” He steps closer and meets my eyes, like there’s something in them that’s worth seeing.
That firm hand around my waist, steadying me…
The gold flecks in his eyes, reflecting the afternoon sun…
“Look. I’m sorry for not telling you about Ellie before, when I was here.”
“Thanks for your apology.”
Caleb flexes his jaw. Shadows circle around him as the morning sun lifts higher into the air, no longer burning through the windows brightly like it was before.
The black tee and dark hair combo makes him look like a dark archangel—a force not to be reckoned with, but a force you still wanna take a chance on, just because you know how good it tastes to go there.
We have so much to catch up on, and Caleb’s eyes are wide with the same thought as we stare into each other’s soul, waiting for the other to first make a move.
I can’t. Not after he made me look like a fool. He broke my heart and his disappearance forced me to pick up the pieces afterward. Some fragments are still missing, and always will be. Only he can restore them.
So, why doesn’t he? With the kids occupied in the next room talking about planes and Barbie, we could steal a kiss in the kitchen and surrender to the sexual tension before it ruins us in other ways.
And then there’s a knock on the door.
Hope disappears faster than my house did from the fire.
Caleb walks past me, smelling of pheromones and nostalgic cologne, and opens up the door.
“Is Ms. Hart staying here?”
I whip around and lock eyes with a scary, suited man waiting out on the porch. He looks too well-dressed to be a local around here. A city guy. I have a knack for spotting them out of the crowd—either broken or walking around with excessive pride.
The cold way he looks at me suggests he’s coming from an insurance firm.
Caleb widens the door—an indication for me to come on over. I give the man a half-welcoming smile and try not to look too confused.
“Ms. Hart,” he begins. “Allow me to introduce myself.”
If there even is a person behind those eyes.
“My name is James Taylor, owner of an insurance assessment company called JT Insurance Claims. I received a case earlier this morning from one of our clients about a faulty stove that set fire to your house.”
I nod robotically in response.
“As a loss assessor, I will be carrying out an investigation on your house. A report request has also been sent to the fire house yesterday, so we can gather more information.” James extends his gaze to Caleb. “Please allow Ms. Hart and I a moment alone to talk.”
“Certainly,” Caleb says, taking off. He pats me on the back—a small gesture that gets every bone in my body quaking. “Looks like you could be in luck.”
Sure.
If luck is the stove company pressing charges when they find out I set my house on fire for insurance money.
The man in front of me looks like he has a hunger for this kind of thing.
I’m totally screwed.