16. Piper
Piper
Freshly showered and sitting in my towel like a girl who has zero intention of actually drying herself, I take my phone out and hit call on my sister’s name. My hair is dripping water everywhere, and I’m probably soaking the edge of the bed.
Pick up, pick up, pick up.
She’d better answer because I need someone to tell me that what I’m doing, despite being so far from okay and messy as hell, is somehow acceptable.
“Pip, you haven’t frozen to death up there, have you?”
“Still kicking. Miss me yet?”
“Oh yeah, desperately.” Vi’s laughter crackles through the phone. “I’m only enjoying unlimited hot water, full control of the TV, and an empty house while you’re living your best Hallmark life up at the farm.”
“God, it really is disgustingly perfect up here. You’d hate it.”
There’s a pause, and I can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “I resent that. I can do festive. Where do you think my tree came from?”
“Christian’s annual delivery service?”
“Wrong Crawford. Unfortunately, Travis dropped it off, and by dropped off, I mean he nearly put a hole in my wall. And before you start defending him, save it. That ship has sailed and is decomposing at the bottom of the ocean with Rose’s giant-ass blue diamond.”
Of course, Travis couldn’t just deliver a tree like a normal fucking person.
Violet has never liked Travis, something she made clear from day one.
She always said he had the kind of energy that made her teeth itch, like he was constantly trying to figure out the best way to cut me down and make me smaller, chipping away at my confidence one backhanded comment at a time. And she wasn’t wrong.
But then, I always knew he was an ass. A selfish, manipulative, gaslighting piece of crap, and yet, like an idiot, I just let it slide every single time. Maybe because deep down, I never really cared enough about him to fight back.
He was emotionally abusive, and yet it was me who spent our entire relationship fantasizing about another man’s hands, another man’s voice, and another man’s everything, which probably makes me the bigger piece of shit in this story.
At least Travis never pretended to be anything but exactly what he was, but me?
I was the liar. I was the girl pretending not to feel the earth shift whenever his dad entered a room.
“You’ll be happy to know you won’t have to see Travis again.”
“What happened? Did he get eaten by a bear? Wait, no, bears have standards. Did he fall out of a tree? Get dragged away to the North Pole? No, scratch that. There’s no fucking way he’d survive somewhere so magical and happy and not turn it into a shithole.
Did he get swallowed by his own ego? Or did his dad finally put him up for adoption because he’s such a colossal letdown of a human being? ”
“Are you done?”
“I think so… for now, but give me five minutes, and I’ll come up with more. What’s up with him though? What happened?”
“I ended things.”
“Praise baby Jesus and all the slutty angels!” Violet screeches so loud that I have to yank the phone away from my ear.
“Yeah… you might want to hold off on the celebration. ”
“Please don’t tell me you’re growing his demon spawn. I refuse to be Aunt Vi to anything that slithered out of that dickwad’s DNA.”
“Fuck no!”
“So if it’s not pregnancy, what is it?”
I lower my voice, whispering into the phone. “I kissed Christian.”
“I’m sorry, you wanna run that by me again? Because it sounded like you just said you made out with your boyfriend’s dad, which is—Jesus, I don’t even know what to say.”
“Ex-boyfriend,” I correct, feeling the need to hammer that point home. “And for the record, I wanted Christian before I even met Travis. So I don’t feel bad about it. Not even a little.”
“You shouldn’t, but the guy’s old enough to be your father.”
“Good thing Daddy is exactly my type.”
We both crack up, but the laughter dies down too quickly, replaced by the kind of silence that tells me Violet’s thinking way too hard about this. I hear the shift in her tone when she speaks again, her voice more serious now.
“Do you realize how twisted this could get? Like, I get it—Christian’s hot. The Crawfords are basically carved out of stone, but he is and always will be Travis’s dad first.”
“Doesn’t feel twisted when he touches me, and Travis can eat shit at this point.”
“Just be careful, Pip. Small towns have the biggest mouths, and the last thing I want is for this whole mess to blow up in your face. Travis and Christian could kiss and make up and leave you standing on the sidelines looking like the villain here.”
“Travis would probably try that, but not Christian. He isn’t like that.”
He’s already chosen me once. But I keep that part quiet—Violet doesn’t need to know about Travis’s hands getting rough. She’d go full psycho sister on his ass, and orange isn’t her color.
“Just be careful, that’s all I’m saying. Opinions get formed fast and aren’t changed easily.”
“This is a good town with good people, and if you didn’t think so, you’d have moved away the second you and Dillon broke up. ”
“Yeah, well, I’d already settled here, and it’s not exactly like we have other family. Aside from Aunt Bea, but she’s batshit crazy.”
“Why do you think I moved in with you as soon as I could?”
“Exactly. Rosewood is home for us both now. Don’t screw it up.”
I roll my eyes so hard I almost sprain something. “Yeah, I get it. Bye, Vi.”
I drop my phone onto the bed, cutting off whatever lecture she’s about to launch into. Because right now, the only thing I care about is the man out there.
My mouth waters as garlic and rosemary drift under my door while I get dressed.
I slip into a pair of black high-waisted leggings and an oversized cream top that slides off one shoulder, casual but with just enough effort to make me feel put together, and when I round the corner into the kitchen, I nearly forget how to breathe.
Christian’s at the stove, all broad shoulders and rolling muscles under his fitted black T-shirt as he moves around in a way that shouldn’t be so fucking attractive.
Suddenly, he freezes, like time itself hit a brick wall. “That’s not your usual perfume. It’s not the one you’ve been wearing,” he says, drawing in a deep breath. “This one… I know this scent.”
When he turns, that devastating smile of his makes my pulse stumble over itself.
He leans back against the counter, crossing one ankle over the other, and somehow manages to fill every inch of space in the kitchen.
It’s not just his physical presence, though God knows that’s plenty distracting.
It’s the way he carries himself, like he knows exactly what he does to me and is enjoying every second of my reaction.
“It’s my favorite,” I say softly. “It’s the one I wear at the bar.” The truth is, Travis picked out that other perfume, and wearing it was easier than arguing about it.
Christian moves toward the kitchen table and pulls out my chair.
There’s something about watching this man—this big, capable man who had me crying out in pleasure just hours ago—play gentleman that does things to my insides.
When I settle into the seat, his hands brush my shoulders as he helps push me in.
After setting two plates of food in front of us, he circles the table and drops into the chair across from me.
Suddenly, this all feels real. Like a real date, complete with a home-cooked dinner and lingering looks across the table. It’s intimate in a way that has nothing to do with physical attraction and everything to do with how right this feels.
“This smells incredible.” I take a bite of perfectly roasted potatoes, and… Oh my god… Well, the moan slips out before I can stop it. “Okay, this is ridiculous. Where’d you learn to cook like this?”
“Self-taught, mostly.” He takes a bite of his own, and those dark eyes never leave mine. “Though Savannah’s given me some pointers over the years. But I’ve been handling myself in the kitchen for a long time now.”
“Speaking of Savannah…” I twirl my fork, trying to stay casual despite my heart thrashing against my ribs. “We had a talk today.”
“Yeah?”
“She told me some things about you. Just answers to my questions, really.”
“I’m an open book, Piper. Savannah knows there’s nothing she could tell you that I wouldn’t tell you myself if you asked.”
“She said you wanted to wife me up.” Christian breaks into a laugh, lowering his fork as his head tips back just enough to show off the strong line of his throat.
“Did she now?” He strokes his jaw, the scruff there rasping against his fingers in a way that makes me want to reach out and touch it myself. “Gonna have her ass for that.”
“She was just teasing. She said that when we first met…”
“That I was instantly attracted to you?”
“I wish I’d known. Or maybe I wish I’d had a little longer to figure it out before I met…” I trail off because saying his son’s name right now feels wrong. Like it would poison whatever this is we’re building between us. “I just never thought someone like you would look twice at someone like me.”
“You walked into that bar, and I couldn’t take my eyes off you.
It was like something clicked into place in my head, and I haven’t had a moment’s peace since.
” His gaze darkens, pupils blown wide, blazing with hunger.
“And now you’re sitting in my kitchen, making these little noises over my cooking, when I’ve spent months imagining you making them for very different reasons. ”