Chapter 8
The problem with installing a lock for a woman you wanted in your house was that the symbolism lacked subtlety.
I stood in the cottage doorway Friday morning holding a new deadbolt while Piper photographed the empty wall where her desk would eventually go.
She lowered the camera.
“Is that for me or are you planning to imprison someone?”
“For you.”
“Romantic.”
“It’s a lock.”
“Exactly. You understand me.”
I looked at the deadbolt in my hand.
Unfortunately, I did.
The cottage was almost finished.
Drywall closed. Paint touched up. Replacement vinyl plank down where the water had ruined the old flooring. Trim reinstalled except for one section beside the kitchenette that I was refusing to accept because the corner joint was half a degree off and therefore offensive.
The room smelled like paint, clean lumber, and the faint chemical trace of remediation equipment that had finally been removed.
Piper stood in the middle of it wearing cutoffs, a black tank top, and the camera strap she seemed to consider an anatomical feature.
Her hair was piled on top of her head.
A pencil was shoved through the knot.
My pencil.
I knew because I had sharpened it that morning.
“You stole that.”
She touched the pencil.
“This?”
“Yes.”
“I found it.”
“On my workbench.”
“Which makes it found.”
“That’s theft with a location.”
She smiled and lifted the camera.
I looked away before she could take the picture.
The shutter clicked anyway.
“Delete it.”
“No.”
“What are you photographing?”
“The repair process.”
“Why?”
“Because Tide & Timber does boat repair, which means detail images of competent hands fixing things are useful brand material.”
“This isn’t a boat.”
“The customer will never know.”
“That feels dishonest.”
“The customer will know you understand tools. I am comfortable with that level of deception.”
I took the screwdriver from my back pocket.
Piper’s gaze dropped to my hands.
That should not have been satisfying.
It was.
The previous afternoon, Rafe had returned from school pickup six minutes earlier than necessary and spent dinner behaving almost normally.
Almost.
I had known him since we were twelve.
He had the face of a man who had recently learned an important secret about the universe and was trying not to explain it in front of children.
Piper had been worse.
She barely looked at him.
Which meant she looked at him constantly when she thought nobody was watching.
I knew what had happened without knowing details.
I did not want details.
My brain had produced several anyway.
Jealousy remained inefficient.
Unfortunately, it had also become familiar.
I fitted the deadbolt into the prepared opening.
Piper moved closer.
Click.
“Do you have to photograph every screw?”
“Some women like flowers.”
“I don’t understand how that’s an answer.”
“It isn’t.”
I tightened the mounting screws.
She crouched beside me for a lower angle.
Her knee brushed mine.
I nearly stripped a screw head.
Unacceptable.
I stopped and looked at her.
“What?”
“You’re too close.”
Piper glanced around the cottage.
“There are approximately four hundred square feet available to you.”
“You’re in the four I need.”
She smiled.
“That sounded almost dirty.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Disappointing.”
I turned back to the lock.
Click.
Her knee touched mine again.
I set the screwdriver down.
Piper laughed.
“You did that deliberately.”
“What?”
“That.”
She widened her eyes with insulting innocence.
I stood.
So did she.
The cottage suddenly felt smaller than four hundred square feet.
“You had sex with Rafe.”
Her eyebrows rose.
Direct, apparently, did not always mean elegant.
“I see we’re beginning Friday professionally.”
“I didn’t ask for details.”
“You didn’t actually ask anything.”
I folded my arms.
Piper watched me.
“Yes,” she said.
Heat moved through me.
Not anger.
That would have been easier.
“Okay.”
“Are you?”
I considered it.
“No.”
She nodded.
“Okay.”
“I don’t want you to apologize.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Good.”
“I also wasn’t going to pretend you aren’t allowed to feel weird about it.”
I looked toward the new window trim.
Level.
Square.
Predictable.
I hated it for being emotionally uninvolved.
Piper stepped closer.
“How weird?”
“Some.”
“Useful unit.”
“I don’t have a percentage.”
“Now I know you’re upset.”
That almost made me smile.
I resisted.
“It wasn’t about you doing something wrong.”
“I know.”
“It was about him having something I wanted.”
Piper went quiet.
I forced myself not to rearrange the sentence into something safer.
She leaned one hip against the wall.
“And what do you want?”
That question again.
She was becoming unreasonable about requiring answers.
I picked up the deadbolt packaging, folded it flat, and put it in the trash bag.
Piper waited.
“I want you.”
Her expression did not change much.
Her breathing did.
That was worse.
“I want you in this house,” I continued. “The main house.”
Her eyes sharpened.
“I also want this cottage finished enough that you can leave the main house whenever you decide you need privacy.”
Piper stared at me.
I rubbed my thumb over the screwdriver handle.
“Both things are true.”
“Gray.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
She set the camera carefully on the new countertop.
Then she walked toward me.
“I have spent most of my adult life around people who said they wanted me close when what they meant was available.”
I stayed still.
She stopped directly in front of me.
“Evan liked me close because I knew the passwords. I knew the client birthdays. I knew what card needed to be backed up and which bride’s mother needed a separate email because she would panic if you copied the bride.”
Her mouth tightened.
“I was useful enough to make leaving me inconvenient.”
I hated a man I had never met.
That was also inefficient.
“I don’t want you in the house because you’re useful.”
Her eyes met mine.
“Why do you?”
“Because when you aren’t there, I look for you.”
The truth came out before I could improve it.
Piper blinked.
I kept going because stopping would have been cowardly.
“Because June asks you camera questions that make no sense and you answer them like they do. Because you make Cole laugh. Because you make Rafe shut up occasionally, which I previously believed was medically impossible.”
Her mouth twitched.
“Because I like hearing you work at the dining table even when your keyboard is too loud.”
“My keyboard is normal.”
“It isn’t.”
“Continue.”
“You’re demanding.”
“You like me.”
“Apparently.”
She smiled.
I hated how much that helped.
I looked past her toward the empty cottage.
“I want this room to be yours because I don’t want staying with us to require giving anything up.”
The smile disappeared.
Good.
This mattered.
“You need a work space. A door. Somewhere the children know they knock before entering. Somewhere Rafe knows he knocks before entering.”
“Rafe knows how to knock.”
“He knows how. Whether he considers it applicable is different.”
“Fair.”
“And if you decide you want to sleep out here, you sleep out here.”
Her gaze searched mine.
“And you won’t interpret that as me leaving?”
There it was.
The failure mode.
The one I had been trying to solve with hinges and locks because hardware was easier than saying things.
I made myself answer the actual question.
“No.”
Piper’s shoulders lowered.
I continued.
“I might not like it.”
“Also fair.”
“But I won’t punish you for needing a room that belongs to you.”
She stared at me for several seconds.
Then she touched my chest.
Not sexual.
Worse.
Her palm rested flat over my shirt.
“You’re very attractive when you stop solving the wrong problem.”
“I was solving a lock.”
“Metaphorically, Bennett.”
“I dislike metaphor.”
“I know.”
Her fingers curled into my shirt.
My pulse changed.
Piper noticed because Piper noticed everything.
Her eyes lowered to my mouth.
“Do you want to know something inconvenient?”
“No.”
“I’m going to tell you.”
“Obviously.”
“I thought about you yesterday.”
Jealousy vanished so quickly it was embarrassing.
“While you were with Rafe?”
Her eyebrows rose.
That had come out faster than intended.
“Before.”
I nodded like that distinction did not matter.
It mattered.
“During too.”
My entire body went still.
Piper smiled.
“That bothers you.”
“Yes.”
“Because you’re jealous?”
“Yes.”
“Because you like it?”
I looked at her.
She already knew.
“Also yes.”
Her fingers tightened in my shirt.
I took one step forward.
She backed into the finished section of wall.
My hand went beside her head automatically.
Piper looked at it.
“You checked for wet paint.”
“Yes.”
“Of course you did.”
I kissed her before she could continue.
Her mouth opened immediately.
No hesitation.
No careful testing.
Piper kissed like she meant to obtain information.
I put my other hand at her waist and pulled her against me.
The sound she made removed several remaining objections to the morning.
Her camera sat six feet away.
The cottage door stood open.
I broke the kiss.
Piper looked offended.
“Door.”
“What about it?”
“It is open.”
She turned her head.
“That does seem relevant.”
I walked over and shut it.
Then I tested the new deadbolt.
Piper started laughing.
I looked at her.
“You installed a lock and immediately used it for sex.”
“We are not having sex.”
“That’s a disappointing attitude.”
“I meant we have not decided that.”
Her smile changed.
I had learned enough to recognize the difference between amusement and desire now.
This was desire.
“Gray.”
“Yes.”
“I want you to touch me.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“Specific.”
“You complained about unclear requirements.”
“True.”
She leaned back against the wall.
“Would you like a scope of work?”
I crossed the space between us.
“No.”
The kiss hit harder this time.
Piper’s hands went under my shirt.
Her palms moved over my stomach, then my back.
I had spent the previous night telling myself that wanting what Rafe had was not the same as wanting Piper.
It was an important distinction.
At the moment, I wanted Piper badly enough to make distinctions difficult.
I lifted her.
She made a startled sound and wrapped her legs around my hips.
“Show-off.”
“Efficient.”
“Your favorite love language.”