“Intimacy?” Levi scoffed. “You’re delusional. And a jackass.”
“Of all the players whose money she handles, I’m Piper’s favorite,” Dylan said with complete confidence.
“In your dreams.” Shaking his head, Levi tied the laces on his cleats. “Piper gives the same professional attention to all her clients. You’re nothing special.”
Levi’s phone rang. Glancing at the screen, Dylan’s smile widened.
“Let’s ask the lady herself,” he said, answering the call before Levi could stop him. “Beautiful Piper. Who do you love more? Me or Levi?”
“At the moment,” she answered without a second thought. “you’re my number one.”
“Ouch!” Dylan snorted as Levi snatched back his phone. “Somebody’s in the doghouse.”
“Get out,” Levi said, pointing toward the exit.
“Touchy, touchy.” Dylan grabbed his helmet. “Make it quick. Coach wants to start running drills at the top of the hour.”
Alone, Levi lifted the phone to his ear.
“Piper—”
“I heard what Dylan said so I’ll say what I have to say—short and to the point,” Piper said in her best, I’m in charge, voice. “What the hell, Levi. That kiss? What the hell were you thinking?”
Levi’s lips curved into a smile of pure male satisfaction. Since they’d parted the night before, Piper had worked herself into quite a state. Seemed the morning aftereffects of their kiss were even better than he hoped.
“When done right, thinking has little to do with kissing,” Levi told her. He couldn’t quite keep a touch of smug from creeping into his voice. “And the kiss we shared? It was all kinds of right. If you say anything to the contrary, you’re lying—to me and yourself.”
“Did I say anything about the quality?” Piper asked. “I’m not surprised that you have superior lip skills.”
“Thank you,” Levi said without a bit of humility.
“Honestly, I’ve always been slightly curious about how it would feel to kiss you.”
Better and better, Levi thought. He wondered how Piper would handle their first post-encounter conversation. He worried she would use anger and denial as a shield against him. Or worse, she might shut him out while shutting him down.
Levi should have known better. Piper wasn’t one to hide her head in the sand. She didn’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations. Not that he saw anything wrong with what happened last night.
“Curiosity can be a good thing,” Levi said. “Now that we’ve kissed, what’s your verdict?”
“As I said, you’re good. Exceptionally good.”
“Keep going,” he urged.
“I give you high marks in all categories,” Piper told him. “Not too wet, not too dry. Soft, but firm. Superior use of tongue. And I like the fact that you didn’t get handsy. You touched my face, and my neck, but didn’t go for my breasts—a rookie mistake. First kiss, first base only. Smart.”
“You gave what happened a lot of thought.” Levi pumped a fist into the air. “When can we do it again?”
“We can’t,” Piper said, popping his happiness balloon. “One and done. Curiosity satisfied.”
“Don’t be so hasty.” Levi had prepared an argument—a good one. Strong and persuasive. Piper wasn’t interested.
“We’ll chalk the kiss up to a momentary aberration,” she said. “If not forgotten, then archived. Nothing more than a sweet memory.”
Sweet? Levi didn’t like Piper’s description. Hot, yes. Sensuous, definitely. But to call their kiss sweet was like calling the Mona Lisa a nice painting. How could she use such a mild word to describe a masterpiece?
“Piper—” Levi began only to have her cut him off.
“Never again,” Piper told him. “Promise me.”
“I don’t want to,” Levi said, his tone just as firm as hers.
“What you want is all that matters?” she asked.
“You can say no to me. Anytime. I’ll back off. But I don’t think you will,” he told her. “You can end our relationship. Refuse to see me. Stop answering my phone calls. Cut me off, cold turkey. If you have the willpower.”
“Arrogant prick,” Piper muttered.
Levi felt a wave of relief wash through his body. He’d gambled that Piper wouldn’t trash their relationship simply because she was rattled by his kiss and worried about the implications. He’d won. For now. She might change her mind at any moment, her prerogative. His mission was to make certain she had no reason to leave him. Now, or ever.
“Why?” Piper asked with a sigh. “We’ve been friends for two years. Spent hours together. You’ve had chance after chance to kiss me. Why now?”
Levi understood Piper’s confusion because she was right. Hopefully, his answer would help her to understand.
“Monte Oliver’s accident was a wakeup call.” Rubbing his neck, Levi leaned against the locker as he gathered his thoughts. “What we have here on Earth goes by in a blink, Piper. I realized how much time I’ve wasted. Comfortably coasting along. I’m done. From now on, I refuse to play backup in my own life.”
“You think our friendship has been a waste of time?” The hurt in Piper’s voice was unmistakable. “I’ve treasured every second. I’m sorry you don’t feel the same.”
Like a knife to his heart, Piper’s words cut deep. Levi realized while trying to explain his actions, he’d taken a wrong turn down a dark alley. Quickly, he reversed course and headed toward the light.
“Meeting you at that wedding, agreeing to be your fake boyfriend, was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Wishing he could see what was going on in Piper’s expressive green eyes, Levi cursed the distance between them. “You’ve been my friend. My confidant. Now, I’d like you to be more.”
“More?” Piper asked.
“For too long, I’ve accepted my lot in life.” Levi smiled. “I’m the starting quarterback for the Seattle Knights. Win or lose, whether I succeed or fall flat on my face, no one will ever take that away from me. I can’t go back, Piper.”
“What exactly are you after, Levi?” Piper sighed. “What do you want?”
The answer was simple, yet infinitely complicated.
“I want everything.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
▲ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲
“YOUR MONEY IS earning a nice rate of return. The investments we implemented last year are paying good dividends and according to all indications, the stock market should remain strong for now.”
Piper smiled at her client, making certain to maintain eye contact. People were instinctively nervous about putting the fate of their money in someone else’s hands—as any sane, rational person should be. One of her favorite college professors used to say that if your eyes dart all over the room while you speak, not only will you appear untrustworthy, you probably are.
Instilling confidence in her clients was top of the list in Piper’s book. She believed in her ability to make magic with numbers, but if she didn’t present a calm, I’m here for you through thick and thin, persona, no one would care if she was the second coming of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein rolled into one.
Once Piper earned her clients’ trust, then she reeled them in and kept them around by showing off her impressive computer-like, numbers forward brain.
The woman who sat across from Piper’s desk needed a little more handholding than some. In her late thirties and recently divorced, Irene Trident had a lot on her plate. She made good money, but, as with most things, good was a relative concept.
If Irene only had herself to think about, her financial worries would be slim to none. But with two soon-to-be teenage daughters to think about—girls who she wanted to give the world—she spent a lot of time on crunching numbers and balancing budgets. And worrying. Lots and lots of worrying.
“What if I don’t have the money to put my girls through college?” Irene nervously tore her third tissue to shreds, the pieces li
ttering the floor like falling snow. “My ex-husband has remarried, and his wife is pregnant. He’s moved on. Fine. His second family has become his priority. Great. But I can barely get him to pay child support. How can I force him to put money aside for Jane and Alice’s education? I can’t. The responsibility is mine.”
Piper checked the figures on her laptop. Her heart went out to Irene. When she was growing up, her parents struggled to make ends meet. Her grandmother hadn’t approved of the marriage and cut her mother off without a dime. Her father was a dreamer, not a wage earner.
They might have been happy, but her mother was raised a pampered rich girl and soon regretted the youthful rebellion that made her marry a handsome but penniless nobody.
Divorce and marriage to a second husband that Piper’s grandmother handpicked made Dara Engels a wealthy woman once more. But, as many had discovered, money did not equal happiness.
Piper’s mother was a bitter, resentful, controlling woman. The only pleasure she seemed to derive was an ongoing attempt to turn her only daughter into a carbon copy of herself. She would never succeed—never—but the war waged on.
“Keep loving Jane and Alice,” Piper said, patting Irene’s hand. “Steer them in the right direction but support their choices. I’ll take care of your investments. In a few years, when they’re ready for college, you’ll be able to send them off without any worries.”
“I feel better since I hired you.” Irene sighed. “But now and then, late at night, the doubts start to creep in.”
Piper knew where sleep was concerned, an overactive mind was a person’s worst enemy. Last night, thinking about Levi—the kiss—was a perfect example.
“Believe me, I’ve been there,” Piper assured her. “As I said when you first hired me, the world can be a volatile place. Natural disasters, pandemics, even, I hate to admit, human error. There’s no way to calculate for the unexpected.”
“You could lie and say nothing will go wrong.” Irene smiled for the first time since entering Piper’s office. “And I wouldn’t believe you for a second. Thank you for your honesty. For your hard work. And most of all?”
“Yes?” Piper asked.
“Thank you for being a friend.”
An hour later as she worked alone at her desk, Piper still basked in the warm glow of Irene’s words. Client and friend. The concept wasn’t something she’d learned—her teachers and the men she’d worked for after college passionately believed in drawing a line between themselves and the people they represented. They weren’t wrong.
However, when Piper opened her own business, she learned early on that to do a good job, she had to care about her clients on more than a professional level. She listened to their stories. Their hopes, their dreams. Their problems. Their heartaches. Piper laughed with them. And, yes, on more than a few occasions, she cried. Tears of sorrow and joy.
Piper knew her methods were unconventional—for her, putting her heart and soul into her job was the only way she could operate. She would have been successful without the personal touch she gave to each client. But she wouldn’t have been as happy. She wouldn’t wake each morning eager to get to the office.
After growing up in a volatile environment where she never knew from one moment to the next if her mother would be a raging ball of fire or a withdrawn block of ice, Piper spent the first eighteen years of her life holding her breath.
Out in the world, on her own, she found a brand of inner tranquility she hadn’t believed possible. Though she still dealt with the family drama—her mother, her brothers—she’d discovered that in life, everyone needed to find their unique brand of happiness.
Rubbing her eyes, Piper leaned back in her chair, sighed, and smiled. She had her job. She had her friends. And, though he seemed determined to rattle her peace of mind, she had Levi.
Slowly, Piper traced a finger over her lower lip. She’d kissed her share of men. Some turned out to be toads, others landed firmly in the rat category. She’d met nice men and boring men. Some were memorable while most she forgot without a second thought.
From the beginning, Levi had been different. He wasn’t the kind of person you easily dismissed.
From the first, Levi made her laugh—a bonus she hadn’t expected when they made their mutually beneficial pact to be each other’s fake dates. There was an ease between them from the beginning that Piper couldn’t remember feeling with any other man. Perhaps the reason was the lack of expectations. They weren’t looking for anything romantic.
No sex, no worries. And though Piper enjoyed a healthy romp in the bedroom as much as the next person, in two years of hugs and handholding and cuddling on her sofa, she and Levi never crossed the line between friends and lovers. They’d never come close. Until now.
“How long have you wanted more?” Piper wondered aloud. “When did you first want to kiss me?”
Piper scrubbed a hand over her face. Damn, Levi. She didn’t want things between them to change—for so many reasons. If they started to date for real, would the shift in the relationship signal the beginning? Or the beginning of the end?
“Piper?”
Looking up, Piper found a beautiful blonde smiling at her from the door of her office.
“Claire,” Piper said with a warm, welcoming smile. “What a wonderful surprise.
Rising, Piper crossed the room and pulled the other woman into a hug. Claire Thornton. Dressed in an elegant mint-colored sheath and a leather jacket in a slightly darker shade of green, she looked the part of a successful businesswoman. But, like most people, she was so much more.
Married to ex-Knights’ running back Logan Price, Claire was a wife and mother. A socially conscious citizen. And, as always, someone who smelled amazing. Like a meadow of wildflowers—a scent she’d developed herself and marketed with her usual flair and expertise.
Claire’s company focused on organic, healthy products to make a person feel better, inside and out. She’d started small. Now, her business was a thriving, international enterprise.
As with so many of her friends, Piper met Claire through Riley Preston. Another Seattle Knights connection.
“I hope I’m not disturbing you,” Claire said as Piper led her to the sofa. She took a seat. “I knocked, but you didn’t answer.”
Piper pushed the intercom button on her desk and asked her assistant to bring in a pot of tea and some cookies.
“My mind was a million miles away,” Piper said as she joined Claire on the sofa.
“A million miles? Or were your thoughts a lot closer?” Claire asked with a knowing smile. “Are you worried about Levi?”
“Why would I worry?” Piper asked with an airy wave of her hand. “Levi is a big boy. He can take care of himself and—”
“And?” Claire asked.
“Of course, I’m worried.” Absently, Piper tapped the toe of one yellow pump against the coffee table’s leg. “I know the Knights’ defensive players won’t be out for blood. They’re on Levi’s side. But…”
“Go on,” Claire urged. “Say to me what you can’t say to Levi.”
“After ten years as a backup, does he still have what it takes to start an NFL game?” Piper’s words came in a rush. Almost immediately, she regretted every word. “I’m a bad friend. Right?”
“Just the opposite,” Claire assured her. “You don’t want Levi to get hurt. Understandable. Even worse, there’s nothing you can do. What happens on the field is out of your control.”
“I’ve checked out videos of Levi when he was in college. Don’t tell him,” Piper said with a self-deprecating laugh. “He thinks I’d rather pluck every hair from my head, one by one, rather than voluntarily watch football.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” Claire said, chuckling. “I was never a huge fan before I met Logan. You start to see the game through different eyes when someone you care about is a player.”
Piper nodded, gathering her thoughts as her assistant set a silver tray o
n the table. She handed Claire a cup and took a sip of tea.
“Levi was good,” Piper said. “Great, I suppose, though I can’t call myself a fair judge. He’s kept himself fit. However, back then he was twenty-two. He hadn’t been relegated to the sidelines for close to a decade.”
“In shape is different than in game shape.” Claire took a nibbling bite of a butter cookie. “When I met Logan, he was through with football. My job was to help him make a comeback.”
“And you succeeded,” Piper said. “Logan helped the Knights win their first Super Bowl.”
“We had our fairytale ending.” A thoughtful glint entered Claire’s blue eyes. “Funny. You’d think after everything we went through, after Logan’s comeback we could have relaxed, settled in, and enjoyed our lives.”
“You have a happy marriage.” Piper paused. “Don’t you?”
“Very happy,” Claire assured her with a smile. “However, we fell in love while fighting toward a common goal. Us against the world. When the dust settled, we’d won the battle. Then came the hard part.”
“What could be harder than what you and Logan went through?” Piper asked.
“Day to day living,” Claire explained. “We met under extraordinary circumstances. After we reached our goals, we had to decide if what we had was real, or merely a by-product of what we’d been through. Luckily, after taking our time, we discovered our love was real.”
Piper sniffled, blinking back a tear. She was a sucker for a happy ending. However, she couldn’t figure out what Claire and Logan’s story had to do with her situation.
“Levi and I are friends,’ Piper said. She didn’t feel last night’s kiss changed the basic facts. “We’ve lived ordinary, day to day lives together for two years.”
“Which means you already know that your relationship is on steady ground.” Claire placed her hand on Piper’s and squeezed. “Win or lose—and I believe he’ll win—Levi’s life is about to get crazy. The good news is, he has you. His friend. His port in a storm, so to speak. Unless…”
“Yes?” Piper asked.
The Backup Plan: A Friends to Lovers Sports Romance (One Pass Away: A New Season Book 2) Page 8