“Too bad for Harley,” Jasper said as he walked away.
Harley was still stuck on Piper killing her mother. “You told your mom about us?”
She set the chicken bone on her plate and licked her fingers, her gorgeous green eyes narrowing again. “What do you think?”
That I love watching you lick your fingers. “I wish I could say I thought you told her, but I don’t. So why are you going to kill your mother?”
She chomped on another wing, then pushed the plate toward him. “Want one?”
“What I want is a straight answer.” He couldn’t hide his amusement at her eye roll that followed his comment. “Pipe, you know everyone who was watching the game saw us on the kiss cam, and maybe we weren’t kissing, but if your mom is telling people we’re going out, then the whole town probably knows. You’re going to have to pull up your sexy-as-sin big-girl thong and deal with it.”
“Let’s leave my thong out of this.” She finished the wing and sucked her fingers clean again. “Stop looking at me like that.”
Was it crazy that he loved the fact that she didn’t eat daintily? “Get used to it. It’s only going to get worse if you keep sucking on your fingers.”
Her cheeks pinked up, and he knew she was thinking about what she’d done to him last night, just as he was.
She picked up another wing and said, “At least you’re not embarrassed by the way I eat. Do you want one?”
“Nothing you do embarrasses me.” He leaned in, putting a hand on her back, and said, “I don’t want a wing, but I’d love a kiss.”
She glanced around them and said, “I have sauce all over my lips.”
“Nice try.” He pressed his lips to her cheek. “There. Now everyone knows you’re mine. Look at that. You didn’t shrivel up and die.”
“Whatever.” She set the chicken bone down and picked up another, biting into it without meeting his eyes.
He reminded himself that coming to the pub to see him in the middle of the day when she was working in the next town over was a big step for her. Knowing that patience was a virtue when it came to Piper and their relationship, he eased up on her and said, “How’s work today? You said the guys were giving you shit. Want me to shut them down?”
She gave him a deadpan look.
He laughed. “Sorry. It was a gut reaction. I don’t like the idea of anyone giving my girl shit.”
“Your girl? You’re really doing this, aren’t you?”
“Hell yes, we are.”
Her lips twitched again in a poor attempt to look serious. “Your girl can handle herself.” She took another bite and said, “But thank you for wanting to . . . you know . . . be like that. And work is great. Thanks for asking.”
He’d take that baby step, and any others she was willing to make. “Tell me about the project you’re working on.”
“I don’t want to bore you.”
“It’s part of your life, Pipe. I want to know about it.”
She seemed to consider that for a minute while she finished eating. Then she wiped her hands on a napkin and said, “I’ve wanted to get my hands on Windsor Hall for a long time, and I’m excited about the work we’re doing there. The owner has had it rezoned as commercial property. The location is perfect, right off the main drag, by the park. Thankfully he’s not tearing out everything. He wants to keep all of the original woodwork, which is gorgeous. We’re touching up the intricate ceiling medallions, replacing missing balusters to match the original existing ones, taking out plaster walls, that sort of thing. You’ve seen the carriage house from the outside. It’s even more magnificent inside. We’re renovating that next.”
Her passion for her work showed in the uplifting cadence of her voice and the brightness of her eyes as she described the property in more detail, telling him about ornate chandeliers, high ceilings, and stone fireplaces. “The space could be used for almost anything. I can imagine an event company hosting weddings and other fancy events, or a café on the ground floor, with offices or retail shops upstairs, a vet’s office, or a community center. That would be cool. I can’t wait to see who buys it. I hope they don’t tear out the original woodwork.”
“How about another Dutch’s Pub, with a bigger restaurant?” he asked.
“I didn’t know you were interested in expanding.” Her eyes turned sharp, all business. “Are you getting tired of the same-old day-to-day routine?”
“I’m definitely not tiring of my routine, but I am an investor and always keep my eyes open. I was just thinking aloud. I’m not sure another bar or a big restaurant is the way to go.”
“Because it’s not a good investment?”
“That depends on a lot of factors, but that’s not why. I want to have a family someday, and a new bar or restaurant would really eat up my time. I’m finally to the point with this one where I can work when I want to. It’s been nice taking nights off to be with you and the girls.”
“The girls go back to Delaney Friday,” she reminded him. “Will you go back to working nights?”
“Not if I can help it.” He held her gaze and said, “I have this great new girlfriend, and I don’t want to cut into any of our time together.”
“As much as I like hearing that, don’t change your life for me, Harley.” This time she didn’t try to hide her smile. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not the easiest chick on the planet.” She pushed from her stool and said, “I have to go wash my hands.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her closer. “You’re not a difficult person, Pipe, and whoever made you feel that way deserves to be pummeled for it. Just because you don’t wear your emotions on your sleeve doesn’t make you any less attractive to me. I like who you are and how you handle yourself.”
She nodded and said, “That might change, but thank you.”
He watched her disappear through the ladies’ room door, hurting for her. It had to be awful for her, thinking nobody could love her forever for who she was. He wondered how many asshole men it took to make such a big lie stick like glue.
When she came out of the bathroom, she pulled her wallet from her back pocket and placed money on the bar.
“My treat,” Harley said, pushing the money back toward her.
She didn’t take it. “You don’t need to do that. I earn a fine living.”
“I know you do, but this is what boyfriends do for their significant others.” He pushed the money into the front pocket of her jeans and said, “Just go with it.”
“Fine,” she said. “Thank you.” She grabbed her keys from the bar and said, “I also wanted to say thank you for taking me to the game the other night. What happened after was pretty incredible, too. But the date was the best one I’ve ever been on.”
Her confession felt much bigger than a baby step. He had the urge to do a fist pump, but he knew he had to be careful not to scare her away, so he went with, “I look forward to many more incredible dates.”
She nodded, wordlessly taking a step away, some kind of internal battle simmering in her eyes. She looked down at her keys, then glanced sheepishly at him. In the next second that sheepish look turned confident, and she said, “Seeing you in the middle of the day was almost as good as the wings.”
She turned to leave, but not before he saw the cheeky look he adored.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“CAN I LICK the spoon?” Sophie asked, looking up at Piper as she mixed a bowl of cookie dough.
It was Wednesday evening, and Piper was dubbing it the Night Everything Was Forgotten. When the girls were getting ready for bed, Sophie had remembered that she needed cookies for one of her classes and Jolie had remembered that she needed papers signed for an upcoming field trip.
Jolie dropped a handful of papers in the trash and said, “You only get the spoon if I get to lick the bowl.”
“Deal,” Sophie said.
“No deal. There’s more dough left in the bowl than on the spoon. You two need to share,” Harley said from his perch on the couch, whe
re he was elevating his ankle. “I used to pull that on my younger brother all the time, Jo.”
“Fine,” Jolie said, sifting through more papers from her backpack.
Harley had made dinner for the girls while Piper was working on the bathroom, and he’d finally gotten a chance to elevate his foot when the cookie adventure had come about. Luckily, Piper had already put up a vapor barrier and the cement backer board around the newly installed pipes for the shower. She’d just finished taping and mortaring the seams when the girls had run in asking for help. The timing was perfect for her to take a break so Harley could stay off his feet. Not that Piper knew the first thing about baking. The last time she’d baked anything was when she was probably around Sophie’s age. All she’d had to do since then was ask Willow if she felt like baking, and a little while later she had sugary treats to eat. But how hard could it be to make a box of cookies?
“I found the permission slip.” Jolie brought it to Harley.
As Harley and Jolie texted Delaney to make sure the trip to the aquarium wasn’t a problem, Piper sprayed the cookie sheet.
“How do we know when the dough is ready?” Sophie asked.
Piper scanned the back of the cookie mix package. “Who knows. Good ol’ Betty Crocker didn’t include a picture.”
“Once you get all the lumps out, it’s ready,” Harley called out to them.
Sophie giggled. “Thanks, Uncle Harley.”
“I think it’s ready,” Piper said, peering into the bowl.
They scooped spoonfuls of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet, and as Piper put it in the oven, the girls snagged the bowl. Piper tossed the box in the trash and noticed a flyer for a seventh-grade father-daughter dance on top of the pile of papers Jolie had discarded. She wondered if Jolie had mentioned the dance to her mother, or if she just let things like that go like they didn’t matter. Piper knew how much they mattered. She’d been proud to show off the father she idolized at her own father-daughter dance when she was around Jolie’s age. Much to her sisters’ disappointment, she hadn’t worn a dress, but she’d still gone, and she would have been sad if she’d had to miss it.
Piper grabbed Jiggs’s leash. “Harley, while the girls are scarfing down the rest of the cookie dough, why don’t you and I take Jiggs out?”
A rakish grin spread across his face, and he reached for the crutches. “Absolutely. We’ll be right back.”
As they made their way down to the water with Jiggs, Piper asked herself if she was butting in where she didn’t belong. For all she knew, Jolie could have already talked to Harley about the dance.
“I thought I’d have to wait another half hour to be alone with you,” Harley said as Jiggs sniffed around the grass.
He put his crutches in one hand and swept an arm around Piper, pulling her into a mind-numbing kiss. When he deepened the kiss, she pressed her hands to his chest, pushing away with the need to get the dance off her chest.
“Hold those kisses. I need to talk to you about Jolie. Did you know there’s a seventh-grade father-daughter dance coming up?”
“No. Should I?” he asked.
“Yes, I think. Or maybe not. Jolie threw a flyer for the dance in the trash tonight. Maybe Delaney knows about it, but what if she doesn’t? Since Jolie didn’t mention the dance to us, I wondered if that might be something else that’s weighing on her.”
He looked up at the house with a serious expression. “You think so?”
“Maybe? I know they don’t see their father, but this kind of thing has to affect the girls. Don’t you think?”
Harley’s jaw clenched. “Yes, definitely. Every time I think about the girls having issues because of their dickhead father, I want to tear him apart.”
“Luckily, they have Uncle Harley to show them how a man should treat little girls.” She touched his hand and said, “Big girls, too. Maybe you should text Delaney and ask her about it?” She walked with Jiggs down to the water’s edge. “For all we know, she and Jolie have already dealt with this kind of thing.”
“I can do one better than that. I’ll ask Jolie to be my date for the dance. I may not be her father, but I’m her uncle, and I’ll proudly take her. When is it?”
She returned to his side and said, “It’s a month away, so your ankle should be fine by then.”
He put his arm around her, tugging her against him, and said, “You don’t mind giving me up for an evening, do you?”
“I think I can handle it.” He was so open and loving, she wondered how he’d stayed single for so long. Most women loved guys like that. Although she’d never been one of them, Harley made her think about wanting to be, and that desire to change made her a little anxious.
“I doubt those dances go on too late.” He held her tighter and said, “I’ll make it up to you afterward.”
He lowered his lips to hers, kissing her anxiety away.
“Hey!”
Piper jumped at the sound of Jolie’s angry voice, but Harley kept his arm firmly around her. Jolie stood on the deck with her hand on her hip and a scowl on her face. Sophie stood beside her, happily bouncing on her toes.
Jolie crossed her arms, her hip jutting out in pure preteen angsty fashion. “Why did you lie to us?”
“We didn’t lie,” Harley said.
“We’re not . . .” Piper stopped herself from the knee-jerk reaction of saying they weren’t boyfriend/girlfriend, when in fact that was exactly what they were. “This is new,” she explained, hating that they’d done anything to upset Jolie when she was already dealing with so much.
Jolie huffed out a breath. “Uh-huh. How new?”
“Since the nachos?” Sophie asked. “I knew that would work, Uncle Harley!”
“We’re not babies. We’re old enough to understand that you’re boyfriend and girlfriend,” Jolie said vehemently.
“We don’t think you’re babies,” Harley said, making his way to the deck swiftly on his crutches.
“Jolie, we don’t think you’re too young to understand,” Piper said. “Things between us have changed since we told you we weren’t together.”
Jolie pursed her lips. “What changed?”
Sophie sat down on the deck to play with Jiggs and said, “Nachos. Duh.”
“They were good nachos,” Harley said.
Jolie rolled her eyes.
“The nachos were good, yes, but it was more than that,” Piper said, wondering how to explain to a kid something she didn’t even really understand.
“Like what?” Jolie challenged. “What could have changed in a week?”
“Watch your tone, Jo,” Harley warned.
“Adult relationships are complicated,” Piper added. “Harley and I were just friends, that was true. But feelings can change, and you don’t always see it coming. I’m sorry, Jolie. Our lives are so busy. It wasn’t like we thought to give you guys a relationship-status update. We’re not Facebook.”
Jolie’s tough stance relaxed, and Piper breathed a little easier.
“We’d better get those cookies out of the oven,” Harley said to Piper. Then, to Jolie, he said, “One thing you can count on, kiddo, is that I always try to tell you the truth.”
“If you weren’t a couple, then why did you have her pictures on the fridge?” Jolie asked.
“Because we’ve been close friends for a long time, and I really like Piper,” Harley said as they all went inside. “Even though we were only friends, I hoped one day we’d be more, and seeing her picture with our family made me happy.”
Piper glanced at Harley as she pulled the cookies from the oven, catching him watching her adoringly. She nearly dropped the pan. Between her impromptu trip to the bar yesterday and coming out to the girls tonight, her nerves were fried.
“They look perfect!” Sophie exclaimed.
Jiggs went paws-up on the counter, sniffing the cookies as Piper transferred them to the wax paper. “Jiggsy thinks so. Down, Jiggs.” When Jiggs got down on all fours, Piper said, “You’re an excellent b
aker, Soph.”
Harley pressed a kiss to the top of Sophie’s head and said, “Now that we’re all set for tomorrow, you and Jo run upstairs, brush your teeth, wash your hands and face, and climb into bed. We’ll come up in a sec.”
Sophie dashed upstairs. Jolie wasn’t quite so peppy on her way up.
Harley made his way over to Piper and said, “So the nachos helped, huh?”
“I had no idea what to say, but I didn’t want her to think we had lied to her.”
“What you said was perfect. So . . .” He put his arms around her as she set down the last cookie to cool and said, “Are you on Facebook? Do we need to change your status?”
She pushed playfully from his arms and said, “You know I’m not a social media girl. Get your nosy butt upstairs. Let’s get the girls to bed.”
As she followed him upstairs, he said, “But if you were on social media?”
“Then I’d have been on Tumblr before they banned the good stuff. Don’t you have better things to do than ask me ridiculous questions?”
He looked over his shoulder and said, “As a matter of fact, I do. I have a little girl to ask to a dance. And then there’s a big girl I’d like to kiss beneath the stars again.”
She stepped onto the landing at the top of the stairs and whispered, “Play your cards right and you might even get lucky.”
Fifteen minutes later Harley had a date for the dance, and both he and Jolie had a new light in their eyes because of it. Sophie heard Jolie’s excitement and ran into her room.
“Can you take me to my father-daughter dance when I’m Jolie’s age?” Sophie asked.
“You bet, kiddo.”
Piper hoped she’d be around to see that.
Jolie called Delaney, and Piper could hear her excitement through the phone. Bedtime turned into quite an event, with extra time to write in Jolie’s diary and extra hugs from both girls. It took them half an hour to calm the girls down and say their final good nights.
“They’re lucky to have you,” Piper said on the way downstairs.
“I’m pretty lucky to have them, too. What is that?” He stopped halfway down the steps and waved his crutch in the direction of the kitchen. There were cookie remnants all over the floor.
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