by K. L. Ramsey
He couldn’t help himself. After about two minutes of them staring each other down, he reached around the counter and snatched up the envelope.
“Hey!”
Piper tried to grab it out of his hands, but he spun around on his stool, holding it just out of her reach.
“Honey, as amusing as this is, I want to get home at some point.” Tag tore open the envelope and handed the letter, from some lawyer’s office, to Piper. He could tell that she thought about throwing it back onto the counter, but something seemed to catch her attention.
“Oh,” she breathed, “Agnes died.” Lorna found her way around the counter to pull Piper into her arms.
“Piper, I’m so sorry.” Lorna kissed Piper’s cheek.
Tag must have looked as confused as he felt, because Piper offered an explanation.
“Agnes Flynn is—well, was—my grandmother. She was my dad’s mother and she lived in New York. We weren’t close. I haven’t seen her since … since that day.” Piper returned her gaze to the letter, reading it aloud for both Lorna and Tag to hear.
Dear Ms Flynn,
We regret to inform you that your grandmother, Agnes Flynn, has passed away. We have enclosed a copy of her last will and testament. We are obligated to do so, since you are her only named heir and last living relation. It is our firm’s hope that you are willing to travel to New York to settle Mrs Flynn’s estate in person, as we have a great deal of information to provide to you.
Please contact our firm at your earliest convenience and we can arrange a travel itinerary that suits your schedule. We await your response.
Cordially,
John Ketchum, Esq.
Piper set the letter back on the counter and looked back and forth between Tag and Lorna. Tag couldn’t help himself; he rounded the counter and pulled her out of Lorna’s arms and into his own.
“I’m sorry, honey.” He kissed her forehead and she melted into his body.
“It’s fine, Tag. Like I said, we weren’t close.”
Tag thought that it was strange that Piper was taking her grandmother’s death so casually. He remembered when Dane passed away; he’d felt like his whole world was going to end. Piper must not have known her grandmother to be so nonchalant about the whole thing.
“Pipe, if you decide to go to New York, I’ll go with you.” Lorna seemed more upset about the letter than Piper did.
“No, really, that’s not necessary. I’m not going. I don’t want anything from my grandmother. My father told me that she had money—heck you could tell that from the building that she lived in. I remember going to meet her when I was just a child. My mother would never come with us, just me and my dad. Agnes wouldn’t even have us up to her apartment. She met us in her lobby, as if we were long lost acquaintances who’d come to visit with her. She would come out of her gilded cage just long enough to pat me on the head and hug my father. She didn’t like my mother. She didn’t like that her son chose a life with me and my mother over her.”
Piper seemed to get angrier with every word and Tag felt angry for her. How could a grandmother reject not only her grandchild but her own child? He knew too well what it felt like to be rejected by a parent.
“It’s okay, honey. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.” Tag ran his hands up and down Piper’s back, feeling her tense up.
“Damn straight. That woman never did me any favors. Do you know what happened the day my parents died? She showed up at the police station because I’d had them call her as my closest living relative. She waltzed into that station, cold and uncaring, barely looking in my direction.” Tag continued to rub Piper’s back, although it didn’t seem to soothe her anger. He hurt for her as she recounted the memories of that day.
“She identified both of their bodies, even though she hadn’t seen my mother in years, and then walked out of my life. I never heard from her again. No Christmas or birthday cards, nothing. It was like I didn’t even exist in her world anymore. She only cared about my father and he was gone, so she left me there, in the middle of a strange city, with people that I didn’t know, to wait for Lorna.” Piper swiped at the tears that ran down her face.
“Damn it, I didn’t want to cry for a woman that means nothing to me.”
Lorna rubbed Piper’s arm. “I don’t think you’re crying for Agnes, Pipe. I think you’re crying for that little girl who just wanted to be comforted by her grandmother. It was her loss and my gain. If Aggie wanted you, I wouldn’t have had the resources to fight her in court. You would have had to move to New York and live with her. I, for one, am happy with the way things worked out.”
Tag pulled Piper and Lorna in for a group hug and kissed Piper’s forehead.
“I’m beyond happy with the way things worked out, honey. If you hadn’t moved back here, I wouldn’t have known you. Then what would I have done with the entire year of my life that I devoted to asking you out?” Both women laughed, and Tag felt relief that he could lighten the situation.
“I’m ready to go home.” Piper pulled away from Tag and started to gather her belongings. She seemed ready to put this day behind her. She finished closing her shop and locked the door behind them.
***
Piper spent the next day trying to put Agnes out of her mind. She cleaned the cabin while Tag ran down to town to check on his store. She noticed that he had not taken any overnight adventure trips, leaving those to Torren and a few other guides that they had hired for the summer. Today he had to go in to get the gear ready for a group of college students who’d booked an overnight with Torren. Really, a bunch of college students and Torren—what could go wrong? She chuckled at her thought.
He’d assured her that he didn’t need to be gone overnight, but she worried that she was keeping him from his job. The last thing she wanted to do was to hurt his business. He had been on a few day trips, always coming back to the cabin late at night, exhausted but not too tired to spend some time with her.
He was so attentive and patient with her, she wanted to give something back to him. She just wasn’t sure how to do that. Piper knew that she had fallen for Tag; any woman would. But she fought those feelings with every fiber of her being. She was afraid to fall in love with him, for fear that she would someday lose him. She had weekly appointments with her therapist, which had now turned into more of a gossip session. Jill told her that she felt guilty about charging her for the sessions. Over the years she had been to many doctors. Jill was a new recommendation. She was a town over from Harvest Ridge, which made Piper feel less like a freak. She was also close to Piper’s age, which made her seem easier to talk to.
In just a few short weeks, the two had become friends and Piper found herself spilling all the sexy details about her and Tag. Jill didn’t make her feel like a complete loser for being a virgin until recently. She also didn’t try to pressure Piper into taking the next step. Right now, they were working on getting Piper over her fear of possible loss. Rationally, Piper knew that losing her parents did not mean that she would lose everyone else who meant something to her. Lorna and Sunny had been in her life long enough for her to know that she could become close to someone and they wouldn’t die. Still, the thought of losing Tag kept her awake most nights. Although Tag did help to keep her busy when she couldn’t sleep.
Piper had hired some summertime help for Scrumptious. She usually brought in a few of the local high schoolers, to help with the crowds that couldn’t get enough ice cream on the warmer summer days. Lorna also became her assistant manager, since her hours at the library had been cut back. Piper sometimes wished her aunt would leave her job and help run the shop, but she knew how much Lorna loved the library. So Piper took whatever help Lorna wanted to give.
Lorna had ordered Piper to stay up at the cabin with Tag for the next two days. She’d even winked at her, actually winked, when she gave her orders to take it easy. She wondered if Lorna ever got lonely. Before Tag, Piper had felt very alone. She just hadn’t realized it until she
’d moved in with him. Now she couldn’t imagine not having him around, day in and day out. She loved falling to sleep in his arms every night and waking up to his wet, sloppy kisses.
Tonight, she was going to make him a special dinner, chicken marsala. Her dad had been a great cook and had often taught her a few dishes on the weekends he had off. They would make enough food to feed an army and Lorna would come over. The whole family would sit around the dinner table, laughing and eating. After, they would pile into the family room and play board games. She missed those times. One of her favorite meals that her dad had made was chicken marsala. Once, he’d put red wine vinegar instead of the Marsala wine into the dish. He wasn’t paying attention to his cooking, thinking about an article that he was working on. Everyone had sat around the table, talking about how good everything smelled; that had lasted until the first bite. They’d all run to the garbage can, vying for a turn to spit out the sour-tasting meat. Her father had been so upset with himself but Lorna and her mom couldn’t stop laughing. Her dad had made the meal again the next weekend, as if to prove to everyone, including himself, that he could do it. Chicken marsala quickly became Piper’s favorite. She still smiled every time she pulled out her dad’s old handwritten recipe card and found that he’d scribbled a note to himself about not getting red wine vinegar and marsala wine confused with each other.
She ran into town and picked up all the ingredients to make the meal for Tag. Piper found herself playing peek-a-boo with a toddler who was less than patiently waiting in line. She wanted kids someday, she even talked about it with her therapist. She just needed to find the courage to ask Tag how he felt about kids. Would his rough childhood mean that he didn’t want to be a parent himself?
When she got back to the cabin she checked her phone and saw that Tag sent her a text saying that he would be home by 6pm. That left her just about an hour to make dinner, set a romantic table for two, and slip into something with a little less fabric.
She was pouring the wine and lighting the candles when she heard Tag’s truck pull up. Her stomach did a little flip-flop. Every time he entered the room, she got butterflies. She sat down in her seat and tried to strike a seductive pose. She was still new to the whole seduction game. Tag didn’t seem unhappy about walking into their cabin to find her sitting at the table in her lacy see-through black bra and matching thong. In fact, he dropped his backpack and crossed the room in two long strides.
Piper wasn’t sure what her next move should be; she usually let Tag take the lead. She looked up through her lashes at him, her tongue nervously licking her bottom lip. Tag groaned and lifted her from her perch, helping her feet find the floor. He spun her around, taking in her barely-there outfit.
“What’s all this, honey?” Tag kissed her lips, continuing down her jawline and back up to her mouth.
I wanted to surprise you, is it okay?” Tag acted as if it was impossible to keep his hands off her. They were everywhere—seeking, grabbing, tugging. She felt like her whole body was on fire from just his touch.
“Piper, this is more than okay. You cooked me dinner and you are wearing this? This is way more than just okay.” He looked her body up and down, eyes flaring at her perky nipples rubbing up against the lacy fabric. “I want to lick you from head to toe.”
“But I made dinner; we should eat.”
Tag pulled her into his arms and carried her back to their bedroom. He dropped her onto the bed, then pulled down her barely-there panties.
“How about I have an appetizer first? I need to eat your sweet pussy, then I want to fuck you. We can warm dinner later and eat it in bed, naked.”
Tag bobbed his eyebrows at her as he worked his way from her breasts to her drenched mound. She bucked against his mouth at the first lick, not able to control her need for him. Piper wrapped her legs around Tag’s shoulders, inviting him further in, giving his mouth better access. Writhing and moaning shamelessly against him, she came into his mouth screaming his name, and he didn’t seem to want to stop.
“Tag,” she panted, “I need you in me, now!” She felt Tag laugh against her sensitive folds, the vibrations sending her over the edge again.
Tag pulled her up from the bed and flipped her over. He tugged her to the bottom of the bed, so she was standing in front of him, bent over the end of the footboard. He spread her legs wide, grabbed her hips and slammed his cock into her tight, needy pussy. He leaned over her body, pushing deeper inside of her, eliciting another of her breathy moans.
“Honey, you feel so good. So hot.”
He reached around to the front of her body, and pulled her up to almost stand in front of him. He gently cupped her neck with his hand, tipping it slightly to give his lips better access. He kissed his way down to her shoulder, biting her flesh, leaving his mark. She liked the thought of him marking her, telling the world that she belonged to him. His hands dipped further down her body, finding her nipples, tugging and pulling them so hard that she nearly came again. When he finally dipped his hand down to find her clit, she exploded around him. She could feel his release minutes later, as he spilled himself into her spent body. She collapsed onto the bed and he followed her down, pulling her body into his.
“Now that was a homecoming,” he panted. I think I could get used to coming home and finding you like that every night.
Piper laughed against his chest. “We would never eat dinner. You would waste away in favor of constantly having sex.”
Tag playfully swatted Piper’s ass. “Well, put on my t-shirt and let’s go see what you made me for dinner.”
Piper slipped from the bed. She found Tag’s shirt on the floor and she slipped it on.
“Give me just a minute, and then come in. Maybe put on your boxers.” Piper eyed Tag’s cock, licking her lips like a hungry tigress.
“Honey, you look at me like that again, and you won’t be wearing my shirt for long.” She giggled and squealed when Tag reached for her, trying to pull her back down on the bed.
She stopped in the doorway and turned to face Tag.
“Do you want to have kids?” Piper didn’t miss the way Tag froze, like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Maybe she should have fed him before she dropped that bomb. Oh well, too late to take the words back. She waited him out, knowing that sooner or later he would have to blink.
***
Tag wasn’t sure that he’d heard Piper’s question correctly. It sounded like she was asking him if he wanted to have kids. The answer was complicated. Before he’d met Piper and chased her around for a year, he would have answered that question with a resounding, “Hell no!”. But now, with the woman that he’d wanted for so long standing almost naked in front of him, asking him to have babies with her, his answer was yes. He felt like her question might be a trap. What if she was going to freak out once she knew the truth? Could Piper handle knowing that he wanted everything with her? He had thought about a life with her since the first day he’d asked her out. Would she run away from him after he told her the truth? He couldn’t bear that, but he also wouldn’t lie to her.
“I’ve never found anyone that I wanted to have kids with.” He paused, weighing his words, not missing the disappointment on Piper’s face. “Until now, I couldn’t imagine myself with a family.”
“And now?” Piper looked like she was holding her breath, waiting for his answer. He wanted to cross the room, go to her, touch her. He also knew that she needed her space to process what he was about to tell her.
“Now, since you, I think I do want a family. I’d like to have kids, someday.” She let out her pent-up breath and he felt like he could breathe again too. He didn’t realize he was also holding his breath.
“Do you want kids, Pipe?”
She looked down at her feet and he was afraid to push her for an answer.
“Yeah, I think I do.” Piper smiled, looking up to meet his eyes and, for just a moment, he could have sworn that he saw his entire future looking back at him.
“Good to know
,” she said. Piper spun around and left the bedroom. Tag knew that she had escaped to the kitchen to take a moment to think about what he had said. Truthfully, he needed a minute too. He was hopeful that this was a step in the right direction. He was working to slay her monsters, one at a time. Most days, he wished he were fighting real monsters—that way he could get his hands dirty. A physical fight would be so much easier than fighting off demons that only Piper could see. But he was determined not to give up—she was worth it. Their future was too important not to fight.
Chapter Fourteen
Tag knew that the radio going off in the middle of the night wasn’t a good sign. Torren still had the group of college kids up on Crescent Mountain. He was supposed to have been back earlier that evening but had decided not to chance hiking back down the mountain in case a snowstorm was going to hit. It was safer for their group to stay put and wait out the weather. Usually, these late spring snow squalls moved in and out without much fanfare.
The lack of experience in the group of young college students had made him a little nervous. Torren had convinced him that they had enough gear to hunker down and wait out the weather, but he was still worried.
Tag pulled his arm free from under Piper. Her naked body was snuggled against his side and he regretted having to leave her in their bed. She grumbled something in her sleep and rolled over, giving Tag a view of her glorious ass. He covered her back up, grabbed his radio and headed to the kitchen. Since he was up, he would just make some breakfast and coffee. First, he needed to radio Torren back to find out what was going on. He looked out his back door and found about eight inches of snow on the ground, and it was still falling. Almost white out conditions made him curse out loud.
“Torren, can you hear me?”
His radio crackled in response, but nothing from his brother. He tried three more times before he could hear his brother’s weak voice through the airwaves.