by K. A. Linde
“About what?”
“Going over some paperwork,” he said with a shrug. “He wanted a second opinion on the legal documents. It’s a smart idea to keep everything up to date.”
“That makes sense. I didn’t see you at the Wright party last night.”
He shot me a pointed look. “I don’t go to many Wright events.”
“Did you…hear what happened?”
Chase sighed. “If you’re asking me if I know that Jordan and Annie got engaged, then yes.”
I held my hands up with a sly smile on my face. “I was just curious. I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news.”
“It’s fine. Annie and I are friends. She called to let me know. I’m happy for her.”
“Well, good,” I said.
He hadn’t exactly sounded enthused. But I hardly blamed him. Chase wasn’t a bad guy. Not like his evil sister, Ashleigh. He’d just missed his opportunity with Annie. Someone else would come and steal his heart.
“Thanks for helping out my dad.”
“Anytime.” He patted my shoulder. “See you around, Piper.”
I found my dad’s office and knocked twice on the door. “Hey, just saw Chase.”
His head popped up. “Yeah? He’s a nice guy.”
“He is.”
“You could do well with a guy like that,” he said with a teasing smile. “Mira, a lawyer, too.”
I rolled my eyes. “You overheard that Bradley and I broke up?”
“Just looking out for you.”
“Ay Dios mio!”
He chuckled at my disinterest. “You’re coming to church tomorrow morning, right? Abuelita Nina misses you. You’re going to break her poor heart.”
I huffed out a breath. I adored my abuelita. She was in her eighties with more life than most people half her age. But church and I didn’t always get along, and it was her favorite place outside of the kitchen, where she admitted to worshipping Jesus with her cooking.
“I don’t know, Papa.”
“Don’t Papa me,” he said, pointing a pen at me. “Make your grandmother happy. Pray that we have many more years with her, but you need to spend the time with her now.”
“Fine,” I told him, feeling much younger than my twenty-nine years as he admonished me.
This was the best and worst part about working with my father. I loved him dearly, but the guilt trips sometimes put me over the edge.
I waved him off and returned to my own work. I had too much to do, and now, I had to attend church tomorrow instead of coming here like the workaholic I was.
7
Hollin
“Look at you,” Nora said when she entered the living room of our childhood home. “You almost look like an adult.”
“Almost?”
“You’d be a full adult in a tie,” she teased.
I ruffled her blonde bob, and she hopped away from me in her unbelievably high heels.
“Hey!”
“I put on a whole suit, and you’re upset over a tie?”
“Just saying,” she said with a grin. “Tell him, August.”
August, dressed in a black suit with a tie that complemented Nora’s teal dress, held his hands up. “Keep me out of this. I just do what she says.”
“See, he’s the smart one,” Nora said.
“Luckily, I’m not tied down to someone who requires a tie.”
It was a rare enough occasion for me to even be wearing a suit. A tie was next level. I’d do it for important nights, but I preferred to wear jeans and T-shirts. I liked cowboy boots and hats and belt buckles. It was Julian who had gone with me to get a few suits that were up to the Wright standards. I represented the winery now after all.
“You look nice,” my dad, Gregg, said as he ambled into the living room. He still wasn’t very fast on his feet and stepped into the room, clutching a cane.
Bad knees ran in our family, but my dad’s had started to fall apart at a young age. He was well past due for total knee replacements. He hated asking for help or admitting he was in pain. Instead, he suffered through most of it with a smile.
“Thanks, Dad,” I said. “You ready to go to church?”
“Waiting on one more,” he said, his smile widening.
“One more?”
At that moment, the doorbell rang, and a second later, the door banged inward. In walked my brother, Campbell.
“What the hell?”
Nora’s face lit up. “Campbell!”
She threw herself into his arms, and he laughed, wrapping her in a hug.
“Hey, y’all.”
“What are you doing here?” We fist-bumped and then hugged.
Campbell was easily the luckiest bastard in the world. The minute he’d graduated high school, he’d ditched Lubbock like a bad breakup and gone straight to LA with nothing but a few hundred bucks and his guitar. Five years later, he’d was part of one of the biggest bands in the world. They’d been this huge for three years, and it was unbelievable. Cosmere was his baby. He wrote all the lyrics, was the lead singer, and played guitar. As far as I knew, he was currently on a world tour for their latest album.
“I did two shows at Red Rocks in Denver and had two whole days off before I needed to be in Salt Lake City. So, I took a jet home,” Campbell said.
“Casual,” Nora said, but she was smiling like a kid in a candy store.
We hadn’t seen Campbell since January, when he kicked off the tour in Lubbock, of all places. He’d barely even checked in. And while it had only been a few short months, we’d gotten used to having him around again. It was one thing when he was in LA and Lubbock was the last place in the world he wanted to be. It was another to finally have him back and for him to leave again. That felt much worse.
“He called me when he got on the plane,” our dad said.
“It’s the best,” Nora said.
“A hundred percent,” I agreed. “Are you going to church with us?”
“Don’t I look like I am?” he asked with a smirk. The shithead was in ripped black jeans, a ripped black T-shirt, and a leather jacket. He looked like he was going to step his Converse-clad feet onstage.
“No,” Dad said. “But it’s okay. We’re just glad you’re going.”
“Glad to be here. And I have a surprise.” He reached into the small duffel he was carrying and withdrew a handful of lanyards. He passed them to me.
“Backstage passes?”
“Yeah. For the Dallas show. It’s this weekend after we play Salt Lake City. I asked for a box for my friends and family, and they gave me one. So, you’ll be in the Owner’s Club. The tickets are on my phone. I’ll send them over. You can all come backstage, too, but the view is better from the box. Plus, free food and booze.”
Nora’s eyes were wide. She snatched a backstage pass from my hand. “Are you serious?”
“Of course. They give me whatever I want. So, if y’all want to come to another show, let me know. I can make it happen. I thought Dallas would be easiest.”
I stared down at the pass. It had Campbell’s face featured prominently on the front. A picture that I recognized as Jennifer’s work. “This is great, man.”
“You’ll invite everyone for me?”
“Of course. I’ll send a group text and see who is free on such short notice.”
“Oh, right.” Campbell ran his hand back through his artfully messy hair. “I forgot about that part. This was when they gave me the tickets.”
“It’s perfect,” Dad said. “It’s very generous.”
Campbell smiled warily at our dad. He’d always gotten along better with Mom before she’d died in a hit and run his senior year of high school. Mom and Dad had been fighting, like normal, and she’d stormed out of the house. We’d never seen her again. Campbell’s relationship with our dad had been strained since then and half the reason he’d left for LA. They were only now getting back on track.
“It was nothing,” Campbell said.
“Let’s get to church,” I said, getting bet
ween them before it got awkward.
We piled into my truck, and I drove us the few short miles to the church my dad had been going to on and off for years. He’d stopped for a while when they were shitty to my aunt Lori for marrying her girlfriend, Vail. With a change in pastor, the place had become more accepting. It had lost some of the older parts of the congregation, but Lori and Vail had returned. I still found it amazing that they’d wanted to come back after all that. But it was enough of a change that they felt welcome again and let old wounds heal.
I parked in the back of the lot next to Lori’s bright orange classic Volkswagen Beetle that Vail had helped her refurbish. Vail was smoking a cigarette, leaning back against the hood. She had full sleeves down both arms with short, cropped hair and a nose ring. She was one of the coolest people I’d ever met. I was lucky to have her as an aunt.
“I thought you were quitting,” I admonished as I dropped out of the truck.
Vail winked at me. “I’m always quitting.”
“I told her to stop it, or she couldn’t come home with me,” Lori said. She crossed her arms and shook her head at her wife.
Lori was tall and thin. She’d recently dyed her hair dark red and had grown it out past her shoulders. Vail had on jeans that were ripped from working as a mechanic and a collared polo. While Lori had on a blue sundress. They were night and day, total opposites, and it worked so well for them.
“You like the bad girls, Lori Bug,” Vail said. She stamped out her cigarette and kissed her wife. They twined their hands together. “Come on. Let’s go praise the Lord.”
Lori laughed. “Gregg, is Helene coming too?”
Jordan and Julian’s mother, Helene, had moved back to town from Vancouver for cancer treatments. She’d wanted to be closer to her siblings, Gregg and Lori. She’d had a scare last year, and we’d all been worried we’d lose her. Luckily, she was still with us. After her second round of treatments, she’d been better but fragile.
“No,” Dad said. “She wasn’t feeling up to it.”
Lori frowned. “All right. We’ll go see her after.”
A throat cleared behind me, and Lori and Vail glanced at the same time. Smiles burst onto their faces.
“Campbell!” Lori cried, rushing to pull him into a hug. “What are you doing here?”
“Quick trip to see y’all before I head back out. I was in Denver.”
Vail fist-bumped him. “Hey, kid. Nice jacket.”
He laughed. “Hey, Vail.”
“You bring us anything from Denver?” she asked with a wink.
Campbell grinned and opened his mouth to say something that our dad clearly did not want to hear.
He butted in. “Church,” he reminded the lot of us.
“Yes. Let’s head in,” Lori agreed.
Campbell sidled up with Vail and spoke in whispers. Nora and I exchanged a glance. We’d gotten closer over the last year. We could read each other’s moods. And when it came to Campbell, we’d had that intuition a lot longer.
“I’ll watch Dad,” she said, teetering on her heels.
I nodded and watched her pull August forward.
Dad might seem like everything was okay with him and Campbell, but we all knew that it was a volcano waiting to explode. Talking drugs with Vail certainly wasn’t going to help anything. Even if Campbell was the one who had gotten Helene marijuana to help with her cancer treatments. He’d thanked him then. He wouldn’t for this. We all walked on a razor’s edge.
It was quite a conversation to have right before we all strode into church.
We always sat on the far-left side of the nave, and I followed my family over to their seats. The Wrights were already in attendance, splayed out across the front pews. They’d gone from five lonely siblings without parents to five siblings, five significant others, and seven kids with one more on the way. Even Jensen’s oldest, Colton, was in attendance, sulking broodily, the farthest he could get from his dad.
Morgan came over to speak with Nora about her upcoming nuptials. I sat down next to Campbell. He drummed his fingers on the back of the pew in front of us. He was in a constant state of motion. He had always been like that. A fidgety kid who had always gotten in trouble for never being able to sit still. Now, he’d taken that energy and made a career out of it.
I watched the rest of the congregation fill the space. That was when I saw her. I blinked in shock. I didn’t come to church every Sunday, but I came enough with Dad to know most of the people in attendance.
And I’d never seen Piper Medina here.
Before I could think better of it, I was on my feet and striding across the room. I should have thought it through before I blundered in her presence. She was with her family. She probably didn’t want me to bother her. Did I care?
“Hey, Piper,” I said with a smirk, stopping her before she could reach the pews.
She was fucking stunning. It was a statement of fact. Her full, dark hair was loose, down around her shoulders. Her dark eyes were rimmed in kohl, and her lips were painted a soft pink color that made me want to lick it off of her. She wore high-waisted black trousers with a white blouse tucked in, pulled tight across her chest. She’d shucked off a jacket, and she held it in one arm.
But it was the way she froze at the sight of me. Her eyes traveled down my body, as if she were interested in what I looked like under this suit. I wanted that look. I wanted to bottle it up and devour it.
“Hollin,” she finally said in a breathy voice.
And I was done for.
8
Piper
Hollin Abbey was in a…suit.
I’d never seen him in anything but T-shirt with jeans or soccer shorts. The way his muscled thighs were revealed in the red shorts as he ran powerfully across the field. The arch of his ass in the fitted jeans that had been made for working and admiration. But a suit…I could hardly process this Hollin.
Charcoal molded to his shoulders like an artist had taken their instruments to draw the sharp definition of him. His trousers cut him in tight at the waist and hung on those hips and over the powerful thighs. Then opened the collar of his shirt to reveal a few inches of tanned skin.
I normally hated the smirk on his stupid, pretty face. The one that said he was going to try to drive a scalpel under my skin and pull up until I screamed at him. The teasing that drove me crazy and also made me wonder if all this anger could be fuel for something potentially delicious.
My eyes glazed over at the sight of him. My toes curled in their little pumps. Dammit, why was he so hot?
“Who’s this, amorcita?” Abuelita asked, stepping gingerly up to my side. She reached out and took my arm to steady herself. She’d been doing that more and more lately, as if her own feet weren’t enough.
I jerked out of my reverie and crashed back down to reality. His smile only grew as he watched my anger light a fuse between us. I didn’t want to want him. What was wrong with me?
I clenched my hand and released it. “Abuelita Nina, this is Hollin Abbey.”
“Well, why didn’t they make men this handsome in my day?”
I scoffed. “You were married for fifty years.”
“Shush,” Nina teased. “He might not know.”
Hollin barely held back his laughter. There was a new light in his eyes at the sight of my grandmother. As if he couldn’t believe my eighty-something-year-old grandma was flirting with him. Well, neither could I.
“Can I help you to your seat?” he asked, holding his arm out.
My eyes rounded in shock. He was going to go along with this?
Abuelita preened under his attention and put her hand on his. “Isn’t that sweet of you?” Abuelita looked back up at me with a wink. “Find yourself one of these.”
I shook my head as Hollin escorted my grandmother down the aisle. And they were actually flirting. Jesus Christ, strike me down for taking your name in vain inside your house, but who was this man? Hollin Abbey was acting distinctly like a gentleman, and I didn’t
know what to think of it. It was quite unfathomable.
Abuelita sat down with a wide grin on her face. I hadn’t seen her look like that since Peyton had moved home. What kind of magic had he worked on my poor grandmother?
My hackles immediately came up. “What are you doing?”
He raised his eyebrows. As if he were innocent. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” I grumbled. Abuelita grinned toothily at the both of us. “Just leave us alone.”
“Piper,” Abuelita gasped. “Where are your manners?”
I straightened further, resigned to the fact that I could say nothing against Hollin while my grandmother sat there. Nothing at all. Abuelita was right anyway. Hollin wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was anticipating him doing something or having a motive that I couldn’t yet see.
Finally, I shot him a rare smile. “Thank you.”
He looked taken aback for a split second before grinning down at me. “Anytime, Medina. Anytime.”
He tipped his head at my grandmother again and then returned to his family. Campbell was sitting next to him. Wasn’t he on tour?
I didn’t have a chance to find out as piano music filled the atrium, signaling for everyone to return to their seat for the service to begin. I sat between Abuelita and my mother. Mom shot me a questioning look as soon as I sat down, but thankfully, I wouldn’t have to answer that until later. Hopefully much later. Or never.
When the service ended, I helped Abuelita back out into the narthex, where she immediately began to gossip with all of her friends. We wouldn’t move her from there for another half hour. I stepped out of the cross fire inside and outside, where it had begun to drizzle. There was possible snow on the radar for tonight. A late snowstorm always swept through Lubbock in March, blanketing everything just enough to be annoying. I was hoping it wouldn’t happen this year. But the rain was making me reconsider. Maybe I’d stop at the store on the way home for provisions just to be safe.
“So,” Hollin said at my back.
I raised my eyes to the heavens and sighed. “What?”
“Nina is nice.”