Chapter Three
“Y eah, I kind of lost my muse after my husband passed away from cancer four years ago.”
“Oh, wow. I’m so sorry,” Stef said as the others echoed. “How old was he, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Twenty-four,” she automatically replied, and because there were usually a few more questions, she got into the habit of getting the information out first. “We both were, and when he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, a mass in his liver and in his lungs, we upped our wedding day, and traveled until he was too sick. By the time our first anniversary rolled around, he’d been dead three months.”
“I’m so sorry, hon,” Stef said, patting her hand.
This was the part she hated, but it got a little easier over time. Her stomach and chest hurt, but they didn’t ache so badly anymore that she could barely breathe.
“You’re a good woman to stand by him,” Mel said, while Abby wiped a tear from her face and nodded.
“I loved him. There was no way I’d leave,” she said, remembering Zane’s expression when she’d told him that after he’d tried to be stoic and break it off with her.
“He was a lucky man, unlike my brother,” Rylee said, anger sparkling in her eyes.
Piper narrowed her gaze. “What do you mean?”
And which brother? Gabe or Ty? Or perhaps a different one, she wanted to ask but didn’t.
“When Ty was in his hospital bed, busted up and on the verge of being booted out of the Navy, his fiancée finally showed up, but not to comfort him. No, she stopped by to give him back his ring. Can you believe that?”
“What?” Piper blinked and worked to catch her breath that had suddenly gone shallow. The woman left him at the lowest point in his life? Poor Ty. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she blinked them away. He wouldn’t want pity. “Why would she do that?”
It just didn’t compute.
“Because she’s a bitch,” Mel answered before Rylee could.
Stef nodded. “Absolutely.”
“For sure,” Christa stated.
Abby frowned. “With a capital B.”
“Yeah, she’s a big bitch,” Rylee grumbled. “Ty said at least it’d happened before he was tied to her.”
Piper agreed, but she knew there was still pain behind his words.
“For sure,” Christa repeated.
“What can we do to help him feel better?” Stef asked the question that had rolled through Piper’s head, but she’d refused to voice lest they’d jump back to suggesting she was the answer.
“What about rescue work?” Abby asked. “The shelter is always looking for volunteers. Or maybe the sanctuary could use a hand.”
Brandi and her husband, Kade, owned the shelter. Piper helped out there several days a week. She especially loved the cats, and if she’d had her own place, she would’ve adopted a few by now.
As for the sanctuary, she hadn’t volunteered there yet but was looking forward to it in the future.
“The shelter is gearing up for another adoption event for Valentine’s Day,” Mel said.
Rylee’s face brightened. “I bet Ty would like to help. I’ll have Lyndsey suggest it. He’s not going to turn her down.”
“Not unless he’s stupid.” Mel grinned. “And we just established he’s smart.”
“Then it’s settled.” Rylee sat up straight. “We’ll get him to volunteer and maybe working with the animals that are thrown into a new chapter in their lives will help him to cope, too.”
Piper blew out a breath and smiled, happy they’d tabled the notion that she was Ty’s answer to happiness.
The guy needed to make peace with himself and his situation before he could truly open up to a relationship.
Piper knew this because she was just like him, floundering in a new town, with a new job, trying to find her footing. She had to face a few realities before even thinking about letting a man into her life.
Not that she was interested in starting a relationship with anyone, not even her sexy neighbor that her fingers itched to capture on canvas. No. She had her own self-reflection to do, and she knew it was going to cause her to open up and feel things she’d buried for years.
But she was finally ready.
She was also ready for more donuts.
Piper reached for another and caught Rylee grinning at her. “Sharing coffee in the morning is nice. Thanks for inviting me. And I know my building is a little further away, but I hope you’ll let me host a week of coffee mornings once the gallery is renovated.”
“Yeah, that’d be great.”
“Absolutely.”
“Of course.”
The women’s responses overlapped.
“And the walk will help us burn calories, which means we can eat more donuts,” Abby pointed out before she popped the last of a glazed morsel into her mouth.
“I like the way you think, Abs.” Stef grinned. “So, what exactly are you having Brandi do to your building, Piper?”
Happy to answer, she went on to explain her vision for the long-abandoned building, with its old architecture, high ceilings and large loft space that hadn’t been touched in decades. Until now. Brandi was not only a friend, but she was also an accredited interior designer, and Piper was ecstatic over the final design.
“You’re renovating it from four businesses into one?” Christa asked, settling back in her seat.
Piper nodded. “Yes. The gallery, office, and storage will be on the first floor, and the second will be sectioned off into two large spaces. One will be my apartment, and the other a large studio where I can paint.”
She’d saved and scraped up for years to own her own gallery and studio. It was surreal that her dream was in the making. She smiled. Well, in the renovating.
“Will you just be selling your work?” Abby asked.
Piper shook her head. “No, I’d like to highlight the local talent around here too. So, if you or anyone you know happens to have any pieces of artwork they created and want to sell, we should talk.”
“Wow, that’s great,” Mel said. “I just might take you up on that.”
Christa nodded. “Thank you. I’m actually working on something now.”
“I’d love to see it sometime,” she said, and the woman responded with a smiling nod.
“What about you, Stef?” Abby asked. “You’re an incredible artist too.”
Mel stood with her empty cup in hand. “Yes. Stef’s designed some killer tattoos for my shop, and they’re some of the most popular with walk-ins,” she stated, refilling her cup.
“And she’s designed a lot of great business logos too,” Abby informed, pointing to the girls in the room. “All of ours, actually, plus the bakery.”
A blush rose up into the brunette’s face. “Thanks, guys. And yeah, I enjoy designing tattoos, invitations, business cards, logos, and just about anything. Do you have one, Piper?”
“Actually, I don’t,” she said, having drawn a blank as to what to call her gallery. Until she nailed that, the logo had to wait. “I’d love to hire you because I definitely need help in that area.”
Stef grinned. “I’d be happy to work with you on it. I know I have some free time in the afternoon the day after tomorrow.”
“Perfect,” Piper said, and after they settled on a time, she circled back around to Abby’s unanswered question to Stef. “So, do you have any artwork you’d want to sell through the gallery?”
The woman wiped her fingers on a napkin before scratching her temple. “I’ve dabbled with a few prints. I like the ink medium the most.”
Seriously?
Piper smiled. “I think ink prints will be the perfect accent to go with the building’s architecture. I’d love to see them as well. And none of you need to drop everything to work on your pieces. It’ll be a eight to ten weeks before the gallery is finished,” Piper informed.
Mostly due to zoning. Brandi had explained to her that they couldn’t take the walls down and start renovating until the county approved the blueprints and issued the permits.
“Perfecr. It’ll give everyone time to get some pieces done, right?” Abby asked and the women nodded.
Piper turned to Rylee and Abby. “What about you two? Do you dabble?”
“Me?” The blonde snorted. “No.”
“That’s not true. You create masterpieces with your sheers,” Mel exclaimed, pointing to her head. “I’m living proof.”
The redhead did sport a cute pixie cut that was perfect for her bone structure.
“It’s amazing,” Piper said, making a mental note to book a hair appointment with her soon.
“Thanks, but that’s where my creativity lies.”
Piper nodded then turned to Rylee. “What about you?”
“It’s not really in the Bryson DNA,” she said with a shrug. “Except for Ty. He used to sketch when he was a kid. Always airplanes, and extremely detailed. Actually, they were very good.”
Piper’s stomach tightened. How was he coping? Airplanes had been his life from an early age. This is a huge change for him.
“He’s also a great photographer,” Rylee said. “Bugger makes it look so easy, but we could both stand here and take a photo of the same thing, and his would be amazing, but mine would be boring, dark, or blurred. It’s unreal and a bit frustrating.”
“I know what you mean,” Abby said. “Most of the pictures I take of Mindy have her wee little head cut off.”
Mindy was the woman’s cute little toddler. In fact, Mel and Piper were the only ones in the room without children. Her stomach clenched. She would’ve had several by now if Zane had lived.
After reaching for her coffee, she took a big gulp. That was in the past. It couldn’t be changed. She needed to think about the here and now, and right now, she was taking steps to build a new life in Texas.
“Hey, Ty, can you come here a minute?” Rylee said into her phone.
Piper did her best to ignore the jump in her pulse and congratulated herself on taking a much smaller sip of her coffee. But she couldn’t stop her gaze from straying to the doorway while waiting for her neighbor to pop into the breakroom.
Darn it.
She didn’t want her pulse to race. It complicated things.
“Yeah, sis, what’s up?” he asked, stepping into the room, and Piper’s pulse promptly jumped again.
“Did you bring any of your photos with you?” Rylee asked.
Ty’s gaze narrowed. “What photos? The ones on my phone?”
“No.” Rylee chuckled. “The landscapes and stuff you take with your Nikon.”
His head lifted and brows furrowed. “I think I have a few files on my laptop and a couple of backup sticks. Why?”
“You should show them to Piper. She’s going to showcase local talent when her gallery is open, and I told her about your photography.”
“I’d like to see them,” she said.
“But why?” His frown deepened.
She raised her brow at his unexpected response. “Because your sister says you’re good.”
“He is,” Rylee insisted.
He chuckled. “And you’re biased. It’s just a hobby. Nothing professional, and far from perfect.”
“It doesn’t need to be perfect to be good,” she said. “In fact, I’m not looking for perfection. I’m looking for feeling, emotion, heart. You don’t have to be a professional to capture that.”
“Well, I still think you’d have to be good to do that, which I’m not,” he insisted. “But if you’d like to see them for yourself, it’ll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. We just caught a case. I’m heading to Houston with RJ and Dean within the hour.”
“Okay, no problem,” she said, a little surprised that he’d agreed to show her at all.
His reluctance was telling, she just wasn’t sure what it said.
“You should exchange numbers so you can text her when you get back,” Rylee said.
It took all she had not to shake her head at the request, mostly because it had come from Rylee and not Ty himself. She didn’t want him to feel like she was being forced on him, even though it did make sense for him to have a way to contact her if she wasn’t home when he returned tomorrow.
“Okay, sure.” He pulled out his phone and walked over. “Here,” he said, handing her his cell already opened to contacts.
Her pulse raced, and her hand threatened to shake but she managed to type in her information and return his phone.
He tapped the screen a few times, and a second later her phone vibrated with a text. She pulled it out and looked at the screen.
I’ve got yours. Now you’ve got mine.
She glanced up at him and he raised a brow behind a pair of glasses with only one lens, and dammit, he looked adorable.
“We good?” he asked.
She forced those silly thoughts aside and nodded. “Yeah. We’re good.”
But she wasn’t okay with the way her heart fluttered at the word “we”. She also wasn’t crazy about the way the women were smiling at her after Ty left the room.
“What?” she finally asked after she’d created a new contact with his number.
Abby grinned. “You’re blushing.”
She set a hand on her cheek. “Seriously? Great. Stupid body.”
“What’s wrong with being attracted to the guy?” Mel asked. “You’re both single.”
“Yeah, but he’s freshly dumped, and I don’t want to be a rebound.” She glanced at Rylee, hoping she didn’t take offense about her brother. “Sorry.”
The woman shook her head. “Don’t be. It’s okay. I get it. But if it helps, Ty has gone out a few times since he moved here.”
“That’s good, right?” Abby asked.
“Yeah.” Mel nodded. “It means he got the angry sex out of the way.”
Abby’s head snapped back. “Angry sex? What’s that?”
“Nothing we need to discuss, especially in context to my brother, thank you very much,” Rylee stated, crumpling her napkin.
Piper never had angry sex before, but guilty sex—well, guilt after sex—now, that was different.
“Have you dated since your husband died?” Abby asked. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want.”
She exhaled. “It’s okay. And yeah, I dated a French guy when I went to Paris two years ago.”
It was a trip she’d always wanted to make with Zane, but he got too sick. He made her promise she would go someday and to forget about being true to him, because she was too young and deserved to live. Of course, she had no intention of keeping that second part, but when she got to Paris it had felt as if fate or Zane hand put her in the path of the Frenchman whose name was Zane. That was just too unbelievable, but when he’d bought her a blue iris, she decided to let go and keep her promise to her dead husband. The iris wasn’t her favorite flower, but blue daisies weren’t exactly available in France. Her husband had given her a blue daisy on their first date, and Piper had carried a bouquet of them at their wedding. She took all this is a sign, and enjoyed the day and night with the man, but after he left her hotel room, she’d cried for hours.
“He spent the night, but it was a mistake,” she said. “The guilt was so crippling. It was definitely a mistake.”
Stef’s hand covered hers. “It had to happen sooner or later, and I’m guessing the guilt would’ve been there no matter who it was or when it happened.”
Piper nodded. “I know, but I still regret it.”
“Has he been the only one?” Christa asked.
She shook her head. “No. A half a year later, I was in NYC with my sister and her friends for her birthday, and because I promised her I’d dance if asked…I had to dance with the handsome, dark-haired, dark-eyed stranger when he asked.”
“What a bummer.” Mel snickered. “Do go on.”
“He didn’t grope and was very gentlemanly,” she said. “And after a while, I relaxed and actually enjoyed myself.” She’d had a really nice time that night. “I agreed to meet him the next day for lunch, and it just evolved into a relaxing relationship.”
Mel leaned forward. “And the sex? Did you cry?”
She sighed. “Yes, but never in front of him, and only the first few times. After that, it got easier, and we had several nice months together.”
Abby frowned. “What happened? Why aren’t you still together? Was he a jerk?”
“No.” Piper shook her head. “I was the jerk. He wanted to come to my place in the Poconos and meet my family.”
Up until then, she’d always traveled into the city to see him.
“You weren’t ready,” Stef said.
Piper nodded. “I wasn’t ready, so I broke it off. That was a year ago.”
“And there’s been no one since?”
“No. I felt it was time to concentrate on me and getting my life on track. Follow my dream to own my own gallery, so I put my focus there and it led me here.”
“Well, I’m glad.” Abby squeezed her hand. “You’re going to love it here.”
Christa nodded. “Yes, it’s a great place to heal.”
“And a great place to find the best coffee.” Rylee winked.
Abby pointed to the empty box on the table. “And the best donuts.”
“And the best friends,” Stef said with a smile.
Piper smiled back. “Then lucky for me, because I could sure use all that.”
“And who knows, maybe one of the handsome cowboys around here will mess with your pulse and persuade you to save a horse,” Mel said with a grin.
She laughed and joined them for a chorus of a popular song with similar wording. Over the past two weeks, she’d met a lot of cowboys and men in town, but only one had managed to affect her pulse, and he didn’t ride a horse.
He flew jets.
The smart move would be to keep her distance. He made her feel things she didn’t want to feel…or things she did want to feel. Either way, he was trouble with a capital T, and she needed to avoid him.
Too bad she was supposed to meet him tomorrow to see his photos. The fact that her heart hiccupped just thinking about it spoke of trouble. But she was worrying over nothing. It wasn’t like Piper made Ty feel things he didn’t want to feel, right?
But if he did, then she was in trouble.