Chapter 24
twenty-four
. . .
beau
Shit. Shit. Shit. This is exactly why I wanted Pierce to tell his sister what was going on sooner than later. Should she have been listening at the door? Probably not. I don’t blame her, though.
My feet pound after her. I need to explain. Mostly how it wasn’t my idea to keep it a secret. How in the hell is she so fast? I guess fury adds to the adrenaline, and I can’t even blame her.
When I finally catch up to her, she’s getting into a golf cart with Peter. His eyes narrow on me before he takes off. Unease courses through me. If she’s running to the sibling she likes about as much as Pierce, then I’ve really fucked up.
Honestly, I can’t blame anyone but myself. Going to Pierce to begin with was a bad decision. But I knew the repercussions for Piper would be bad if I didn’t set up some safety nets for her.
Parker glances at me, his face filled with confusion.
I know he wants to ask me what happened, but I’m too busy digging in my pockets searching for my keys.
I know for a fact I shoved them in there when I got here for precisely this reason.
If Piper wanted to make a quick escape when her family gets to be too much.
I never thought she’d be running from me.
I take a step to go around the house, but a hand lands on my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks.
“I may not know my sister as well as you do, but even I know if you go over there right now…she’ll rip you to shreds.”
“As she should.” I whirl on him. “None of this would be a problem if you had given her the chance to prove her methods in the presentation. But no, the almighty Pierce would rather stick his head in the sand instead of building this business to what it could be.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” He argues with his arms crossed over his chest.
The audacity of this guy. I will never understand why he’s so different from the rest of his siblings, even Peter isn’t as much of an ass.
Before I have a chance to say anything else, someone shoves me. Pierce has the good sense to catch me before I hit the ground. When I turn around Peter is glaring at me. I didn’t even hear the golf cart return.
“What the fuck did you do to my sister?”
This isn’t behavior I’d expect from him. He’s never really paid us much attention. I mean, I know he cares. They are siblings. But I didn’t think it was enough to get a rise out of him.
When I don’t answer, he takes a step toward me fist raised. At this point, I would take the ass kicking. I deserve it. I lied to my best-friend, the one person I love more than life itself. I also crossed a line.
Pierce jumps between us. “He’s not the only one she’s pissed at. Calm the fuck down.” The last words are almost a hiss. No doubt trying to keep their parents from coming to investigate.
“What the hell did the two of you do?” Peter’s eyes bounce between us. “I’m not surprised she’s mad at you.” He points at his brother. “But, you.” Pointing at me. “Never make her mad. In all the years we’ve known you, I’ve never seen the two of you, fight.”
“We’ve never had a reason to…until now.” I study the ground in front of me, refusing to make eye contact with Peter. Even if Pierce tries to take some of the heat for this, I’m also to blame.
Pierce gives his brother the information but leaves out the part where if I didn’t pull her in, he was going to fire her. Of course, he can’t make himself look horrible. Even though he does that on a daily basis with zero help.
“Y’all are really something.” Peter shakes his head. “You shouldn’t have gone behind her back, Beau. You are the one person Piper trusts in the world. Do you have any idea how this will make her feel?”
“Considering she ran away from me…yeah, I have an idea. Which is why I need to go talk to her.” Standing here cementing the fact I fucked up isn’t going to make anything better.
“Absolutely not.” Peter crosses his arms over his chest. “You need to give her space. When she’s ready to talk to you she’ll let you know.”
How in the hell is he going to dictate when I can talk to my best friend? It’s not like they are even close. She argues with him almost as much as she does Pierce.
“That’s not acceptable.” I take a step forward. I don’t know why. He’s not easy to intimidate, but I’m also not going to throw a swing. I wish I could, though. It would feel really freaking good.
“Too bad, Beau.” Peter closes the distance between us. “She’s hurt because of you and this dumbass.” He points toward his brother. “Piper will be fine. I’m bringing her breakfast in the morning.”
“Do you even know what she likes?”
“Of course, I do. She’s, my sister.” Peter turns toward his big brother.
“And you are going to let her take off however long she wants. I imagine she wants to talk to you even less than she does Beau. I really thought you learned your lesson after all the bullshit with Paula. But you really can’t help being an ass. Can you?”
Pierce’s mouth drops open. His brother has never talked to him like this. He usually does whatever he’s told and tries to impress Pierce. I guess those days are over.
He doesn’t give either of us a chance to respond and marches back to the house.
I’ve seen Peter pissed, but it’s usually because we’ve done something to make Pierce mad.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen him upset on Piper’s behalf.
He’s not wrong, though. Piper will talk to us when she feels like it’s right.
No matter how much it kills me inside to know I can’t do anything to ease the pain.
Especially since I’m one of the people who caused it.
There’s no point in me being here. “I’m gonna go.”
Pierce levels me with a stare. “As long as you’re going straight home.”
I can’t believe he’s trying to tell me what to do. He must have forgotten I’m not one of his siblings. But…I can’t argue with his order. If I go over there right now, I have zero doubts she’ll rip me a new one.
I know he won’t go there either because it’ll be ten times worse than whatever I get.
My hands go up in the air in surrender. “I promise I won’t stop at Piper’s. Can you tell everyone I had to leave?”
It doesn’t mean I won’t be working on a plan to smooth things over.
Maybe she’ll be more forgiving after I tell her what Pierce was going to do.
Doubt it, though. She’ll see it as a betrayal either way.
She got hit with two less than great pieces of information tonight.
She’s not going to take any of this lightly.
“Sure.” He nods before turning toward the house and follows his younger brother.
I don’t bother waving as I turn toward the side of the house to get to my car. Tonight, did not go the way I intended, but at least now she knows about everything. Not in the way I had planned, but it’s all out in the open…mostly.
Instead of going directly to the main road that leads to the winery, I make the loop. I know I said I wouldn’t go to Piper’s house, but technically I’m not. Driving by is completely different. I only want to make sure she’s okay.
The kitchen light casts a yellow glow in her window. It’s the only light on in the house from what I can tell. She didn’t even get a chance to eat before she left, and I hope she has some food in her freezer. I’d run to town and get her something, but I know it wouldn’t help matters.
Leave it to me to completely fuck this up. In over a decade I’ve never been dishonest with her…until now. I only hope I didn’t screw up so badly I put an end to us before we’ve had a chance to begin.
Knowing she’s safe and sound, I pull away from her house and head toward mine. I could go to Out of the Ashes and drown my sorrows for the evening, but I don’t deserve the comfort. Not when I’ve managed to rattle Piper so much in the space of one evening.
The drive home feels like a lost memory. It’s like I was at Piper’s house then all of a sudden, I was home. I’ve made the drive so many times it’s second nature. This is the first time I’ve ever felt shame and dejection.
My house is pitch black when I unlock the door. I lock it behind me and head straight to my room. The only thing for me to do is figure out how to make things right.
My phone pings with a text message and I pull it out of my pocket hoping like hell it’s Piper. Maybe she’s reaching out for my side of the story.
It’s not her, though. I flop onto the bed and kick off my shoes.
Parker
How could you not tell her Pierce knew?
This is not the conversation I feel like having right now, but I guess I need to. It’s too long to text so I press his picture and hit call.
“Do you really think it’s a good idea to call me right now after everything that went down with my sister?” Well, that’s a fun way to answer the phone.
“Hold the judgement. You aren’t exactly on her favorite people list either. You didn’t tell her about your dad’s announcement.”
“That’s something she’ll get over, though.” He pauses, and I can picture him shaking his head. “You, on the other hand, lied to her.”
“Who told you about it?” In the end it doesn’t really matter, but if he’s going to call and bitch me out, he needs to know the full story.”
“Pierce. After I asked him where you and Piper were.”
“I’m guessing he didn’t tell you the part where he threatened to fire Piper?”
He’s silent for a long moment and I think he’s hung up, but finally he has the outburst I was waiting for. “He did what? He doesn’t have the authority to do that. Dad was pretty clear about all of us being a part of the business. Even Paula should she decide to come back.”
Parker doesn’t interrupt about how this whole thing started after those social stories, and how I needed to keep her from doing them or he’d fire her. It’s actually wild when I repeat it. Who the hell does that to a sibling?
“The only way I could prevent that from happening is to tell him we were still going to do it. And he said she couldn’t know that he was in on it.”
“That’s actually fucked up. I would say I can’t believe he’d do that, but I can. He’s a hard-headed person. I just didn’t think he was that stubborn.”
“Yeah, he is. He should have just approved her ideas, or at least some of them. It seems like business has been booming since Piper started posting on socials. But I don’t even care about Pierce’s part in all this. I need to figure out how I’m going to fix things with your sister.”
“Please fix it. I don’t know that I can handle Piper in a bad mood.”
“Have any ideas?” Hopefully he has something because I don’t know what to do. In over ten years we’ve never really fought.
“Sorry, man. I’ve got nothing. You are probably the only person who knows her inside and out. She’s never really let her full-self shine with the rest of us. Though, that’s probably our fault for always picking on her.”
“Probably.” I sigh in defeat. It took longer than one night for her to find out I was keeping a secret.
I need to take more than one night to make things better.
Making her mad takes a while, but getting back in her good graces takes even longer.
She still doesn’t talk to some people in high school over petty things.
“I’ll let you know if I think of anything.”
“Thanks. Talk to you later.” I press the end button and toss my phone on the bed.
I really and truly fucked up with her this time. Tonight, I’ll stew in my disappointment. Tomorrow, though, it’s time to figure out how I’m going to get my girl back. Even if it’s not in a romantic way, I need my best friend.