Back To Us (Shore Secrets 3)

by Christi Barth

  Did he even hear what was coming out of his mouth? Piper batted her stupid, sex-tousled hair out of her eyes. “Past tense, I notice. Which brings me to the next lie. Your sister reappears after how many years, threatens your livelihood, and that isn’t a topic of discussion for your closest friends, let alone your girlfriend?”

  “I couldn’t say anything. Not until I found a work-around.”

  “Did you ever consider that we could’ve helped with that? You didn’t trust me, Ward. You didn’t trust me to keep your secrets, or to help you, or to just be an ear to listen to your troubles and help hug away your stress. You didn’t give me a chance. You certainly didn’t respect the premise of this whole experiment.” She fisted her hand over her aching heart. “Telling me that you love me is nice. It makes a girl’s heart flutter. But those pretty words have to be backed up with actions. The only actions I see are lies and betrayal. You said I could trust you not to hurt me again. I guess it’s my fault for giving you the chance to do so.” She made a beeline for the door.

  Ward grabbed her hand. Held on to it with both of his like it was a lifeline. “Piper, wait. Let me explain. Just sit down a minute and let me go through it all with you.”

  “I would’ve very much appreciated hearing that a few weeks ago. But it is glaringly obvious I’ve been wasting my time hoping we could recapture the past.” Tears streaming down her face, she declared, “This experiment is over. And this time, so is our friendship, Ward. I hope the money that’ll plump up your bank account will be worth it.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Like every other working stiff on the planet, Ward hated Mondays. Today he hated them with the sharpness of the Bowie knife his dad used to hone every weekend. Mondays were supposed to be his day off. Okay, since he ran his own business, he worked three out of four anyway, but on principle, he was supposed to be free as a jaybird. Instead, he was up, pre-dawn, to meet the delivery truck at Cosgrove’s. Oh, yeah. And Piper had broken up with him. For good. Forever.

  So no, he didn’t engage in some bullshit small talk with the guy unloading bread and sodas. Ward leaned against the store’s back door. Cradled Mitzi in his arms and let her lap enthusiastically at his chin. Took big lungfuls of the cold morning air. A thin sheen of frost coated the perma-puddle that was a result of excess lake runoff. The cold was good. It stung his bare arms. He refused to go inside and grab a sweatshirt, though. Why should he be comfortable, when he’d made the person he cared about most in the world so damned uncomfortable that she cried?

  What he deserved was a thousand times worse than a couple of shivers in his T-shirt. Actually, Ward couldn’t think of anything bad enough. He’d been trying since Piper walked out on him Saturday morning. He’d gone through the obvious—giving up the business and house to Lori, moving away—then moved on to less doable options like moving to the Antarctic to prove to her that he’d leave her the hell alone in the future. Huh. Maybe that was why he wasn’t fighting the cold this morning. As a test to see if he could really cut it down there with the penguins. Polar bears. Whatever was down there.

  A car door slammed. Great. Because he needed company right now as much as he needed a prostate exam by a six-fingered doctor. Ward’s plan for the foreseeable future was to talk to exactly no one. Lick his wounds in private.

  Casey brushed by him without a word. Didn’t even look at him. As much as he wanted to be alone, he certainly wasn’t going to ignore her. “Morning.”

  She turned on her heel with a squeak and marched back so fast that her braids bonked her on the chin. “Oh. Okay. So you’re willing to tell me the time of day. That’s one piece of information I can cross off my list. Things Ward might deign to share with his best friend. Time. The thing I can figure out by looking out a window. God, I feel so close to you right now.”

  The delivery guy gave him a look of sympathy. Mumbled something about organizing the paperwork. And then promptly jumped in the cab and slammed the door. Chicken. Not that Ward blamed him. Casey in a snit was a scary sight.

  Ward rubbed a hand across his tired, gritty eyes. “Is this how you’re going to be?”

  “Do you mean righteously indignant? Hurt? Annoyed? Let down?”

  “Uh, I was leaning more towards pissy?”

  “Darn tootin’. You, sir, are in the doghouse. And that’s a doghouse located on Mars, by the way. Where you should go and contemplate your complete stupidity for quite some time.”

  It wasn’t that Ward didn’t agree. It was that he wasn’t one of those rich soap opera billionaires who could just fly off and mope someplace else for a couple of weeks. No, he had to stay here, go to work every damn day with a view out the window of the tasting room where he knew Piper was. Interact—or maybe not—with his friends, their friends, who he knew full well were pissed at him. Leaving would be a thousand times easier. But Ward had learned a long time ago that Fate wasn’t walking him down the easy road. More like being frog-marched up Kilimanjaro.

  “I figured Piper would fill you guys in on our fight. Surprised you didn’t come gunning for me sooner.”

  “Oh, no.” Casey stabbed her finger in the air between them. “Don’t think you get to play the martyr. Don’t you dare just give me those sad puppy-dog eyes, roll over and take everything I throw at you because your life’s so rotten now.”

  He rubbed his cheek against the soft top of Mitzi’s head. “Well, it is.”

  “Yes, but you’re no fun to yell at when you look sadder than Mitzi whenever she accidentally pees in the house.”

  “Sorry to spoil your fun. But yelling at me won’t do any good. I’m already as miserable as I can get. Piper’s done with me.”

  “No, she’s not.”

  That was the last thing he’d expected to come out of Casey’s mouth. Hope that he hadn’t known still existed flared back to life. Ward looked up so fast his neck cracked. “What are you saying?”

  “Nothing. Nothing more, that is, until I finish yelling at you. Because I’m all worked up. I need a release.”

  “Then go find Zane. But if you can put me out of my misery, I will fucking beg you to do it. I’ll bribe you.” He racked his brain for something that Casey couldn’t possibly refuse. “I’ll go camping with you. Not car camping, the real deal. I’ll even carry your tent.”

  “Nice try, but winter’s right around the corner. The closest I’m getting to camping is cooking s’mores in the fireplace when the first blizzard knocks out our power.”

  “There’s no expiration date on my offer. We can go in the spring. I’ll even pack in a bottle of my cherry liqueur you like.” Ward put Mitzi on the floor. Put a hand on Casey’s shoulder. “If there’s a shot in hell to get Piper back, you have to tell me. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  “Leave Piper out of it for a second. I’m mad at you. Just me. About just you. We’ve got to deal with that first.”

  “Okay.” He scrawled his name on the clipboard the delivery guy thrust at him. This was not the day to double-check the counts of anything. If they were short a loaf of bread, he’d go to the store and buy one. Later. “Are you here to help me restock with all these supplies, or just to tear me a new one?”

  “Officially, to get all this put away before we open. But I’m a good multitasker.”

  “Great.” Ward started by filling Mitzi’s food and water dishes. No reason to crowd into the storeroom and make it simple for Casey to take a strip out of his hide.

  “Do you remember when we fought this summer?” she asked, nipping in and out of the room with filled arms.

  “We fight all the time. You don’t root for the right sports teams. You don’t like sausage on your pizza. And you pick on my wardrobe. As if your ugly-ass, pond-scum-green ranger uniform was any better than my flannel shirts.”

  Casey stopped in front of him. Plucked at her pleated polyester pants with distaste. “T
he difference being that I’m required to wear my uniform. Nobody makes you wear those stupid plaid shirts every day. Anyway, we don’t fight all the time. We squabble. That’s what best friends do. I mean the fight we had right when Zane got here. When you found out about my past.”

  Not like he’d ever forget. Aside from the whole massive love and lust thing that developed with Piper, Ward had always been closest—as friends—with Casey. So he’d been stunned to discover that she’d been keeping an enormous secret from him since the day they’d met. What made it worse was that after accidentally spilling the beans to Piper and Ella about her years in a cult and being in hiding ever since, Casey still hadn’t brought Ward up to speed. It made him furious. Hurt, too.

  “Yeah. I remember.”

  “You were mad at me for not being honest with you. For ‘supposedly—’” she made finger quotes around the word “—not trusting you enough to keep my secrets. Even though I totally trust you with my life.”

  “For God’s sake, I thought we were past that.” Yes, they had a big blowup. Then they cleared the air. Moved on. Why pick at a healed scab?

  She tucked fresh loaves of bread into their cubbies at the back of the counter. “I’m laying the foundation for my big argument. So you can’t poke any holes in it.”

  “My girlfriend, no—” he caught himself “—the love of my life just walked out on me. Slammed the door on any chance of a future together. And it’s apparently all my fault. Trust me, I’m not taking potshots at anyone or anything for a long-ass time.”

  “You reminded me that we cut our palms and swore a blood-oath to be best friends. You made me repeat our oath.”

  “For Christ’s sake.” She was throwing his own tongue-lashing back at him. It felt like fight-cheating.

  “No, you made me do it when I’d been a total idiot, so now I’m turning the tables on you. That day we were twelve, with the gushing, bloody palms. What did we swear?” When he just stared at her, Casey swatted at his arm. “Come on. I know you’ve still got it memorized. Spit it out. Right now.”

  Of course he had it memorized. They re-swore it every year over beers instead of blood. That wasn’t the issue. It had been deathly solemn the first time they did it. It was mildly hilarious when they did it around his barbecue grill and toasted with beer. But doing it now? By himself? Just idiotic.

  Still, he could tell from the jut of her jaw that Casey wouldn’t budge until he said the words. With a huge sigh, and in a fast monotone, Ward said, “I solemnly swear, on my blood and from my heart, to be your best friend forever. To defend you in fights. To always stick up for you to others, even when you’re wrong. I promise never to lie to you. I promise to share my deepest, darkest secrets and not laugh at yours.”

  “Let’s pick that apart, shall we?”

  “Let’s not.” Ward lunged for the storeroom. He only got one case of mayonnaise on the shelf before Casey filled the tiny doorway.

  “This isn’t a democracy.”

  He slammed a box of coffee down. “This is America. Of course it’s a democracy.”

  “No. When I’m yelling at you, it’s like I’m Empress of the Universe. My word goes. Period. So, Ward, have you shared all your deepest, darkest secrets with me?”

  “No.” If he couldn’t ignore her, maybe he could scare her away. Ward rested his forearms above his head on the doorframe. Lined himself up against Casey and bent down to whisper in her ear. “But I don’t think Zane would approve if I went into detail about my ideas for combining handcuffs and those cheerleader uniforms you all wore the other night.”

  “Ewww.” She put her hand over her eyes and backed away, shaking her head. “Those are fantasies, not secrets. Feel free to keep them to yourself. C’mon, just admit you were wrong. This will all be over much faster if you do.”

  For fuck’s sake. Glaring daggers, he said slowly, “I’m fully dialed in to how wrong I’ve been.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us you couldn’t get a loan? Or that you even wanted one in the first place?”

  Ward knew exactly what she wanted to hear. He pushed past her to fill the coffeepots. Maybe this whole interrogation would be more bearable with caffeine. “Because I’m an idiot?”

  She beamed at him. “That’s a great answer. Keep going.”

  The whole idea to expand had taken root long before he and Piper started up again. So it would’ve made sense to tell his three best friends, if anyone. Had almost mentioned it a couple of times. Always held back, though. And he wasn’t proud of his reason. But he wouldn’t hold back from Casey now. “I’m a guy. I’ve got my pride. I didn’t want to say anything until I had everything lined up to move forward with the expansion.”

  “Did it ever occur to you that we could help?”

  “Seeing as how none of you are swimming in cash, and I wouldn’t take it from you anyway? No. It didn’t.”

  Casey swatted his arm. Again. “You’re not looking at the big picture. You don’t talk enough. You don’t reach out and ask for help. Ella, Piper and I all went to college. Made a bunch of friends who are out in the world pursuing many and varied careers. I’ll bet at least one of us knows someone in banking or investments who could’ve figured out a way to hook you up.”

  The suggestion clanged against his brain like one of those cartoon anvils. Damn it. She was right.

  “And that’s not even my best idea.” Casey reached past him to turn off the water, because he’d let it overrun the pot in his stupification. “This one’s a doozy. You’re gonna kick yourself.”

  “My ass is black and blue from all the kicking I’ve done to myself since Saturday morning. What’s one more time?”

  “Zane made friends with a bunch of Hollywood stars—well, at least B-listers—when he was out there working on his movie. Celebrities love to invest in booze. I’ll bet he could rustle you up a backer by the end of the week.”

  That anvil to the brain came around with another gigantic whack. Never in a million years would Ward take money from friends. But an introduction to someone else with money? That he’d take in an instant. Networking was just smart business. Possibilities abounded. He’d be able to turn down the wind farm deal. And then he’d deal with his sister.

  Picking Casey up, he twirled her around in a circle. Mitzi barked her approval. “You’re brilliant. And so, so right.”

  “Say that again.”

  “You. Are. Right. Smart, beautiful and the rightest of the right. Empress of the Universe of Right.”

  “Thank you. Now quit it before I throw up.”

  Ward all but dropped her to the ground, mid-twirl. “Good talk. Now that I’ve survived your verbal spanking, will you tell me what you meant about Piper not being done with me?”

  “I really have to spell it out for you?”

  “Yeah. For this week, at least, I’m clearly not as smart as you.”

  “The buttering-up’s a nice touch.” With a smile, she resumed filling the coffeepots. “Okay. Here’s the thing—Piper loves you.”

  The heart that had stopped dead when Piper walked out on him sputtered back to life. He’d hoped. Had been pretty sure she’d been a breath away from saying it back to him on Friday night. But she didn’t.

  “Says who?”

  Casey gave him a look of complete derision. Like he’d asked something as simple as whether or not hamburgers were better with bacon and cheese. “Says Piper.”

  “Not to me.”

  That earned him an eye roll. “Duh. You’re the last person she’d tell.”

  For fuck’s sake. “I don’t understand women at all.”

  “Obviously.” Casey took his hands and squeezed. “Look, I can’t tell you the whole story, because she’d kill me, but I can tell you that Piper is in love with you.”

  “Where there’s love, there’s hope,” he murmured.


  That made her drop his hands as though they were on fire. “God, not another quote. I’m getting sick of those, Ward.”

  “Nah. It’s the title to a doo-wop song from the sixties my mom used to listen to all the time. Cheesy, but it fits.” He opened the shiny white box he’d picked up from Mayhew Manor on the way over and stacked the freshly baked pastries on a cake stand. Then, because she’d been so good to him, he put two bear claws on a plate for Casey before putting the lid over them.

  “Now it’s your turn to be right. Because that’s exactly what I’m trying to tell you. Did you screw up? Yes. Were you an idiot? Definitely.”

  Ward channeled the drill sergeant voice Joel used when he’d trained them to do a marathon relay. “We’re done with the name-calling for today.”

  “Okay. For today,” she stressed. “But if you love Piper and Piper loves you, that all can be overcome. If you try hard enough.”

  He wanted to believe Casey. But he knew just how much damage he’d inflicted on Piper. “I hurt her. For the second time. Why should she give me a third chance?”

  “Aren’t you listening?” Casey tugged on his earlobe. “Because she loves you, dummy. Because, despite your occasional idiocy, you are a wonderful man who will, ultimately, make her truly happy. So figure out how to grovel, and go get her back. None of us will be happy until you crazy kids work this out.”

  Maybe he had given up too soon. Ward thought he was respecting her wishes. But Casey was right. He and Piper were meant for each other. That was why things had clicked so well the second time around. One screw-up—no matter how major—wasn’t a reason to give up. He worked his ass off to get where he was now. Why wouldn’t he work to win Piper back just as hard?

  * * *

  Zane popped the collar of his leather jacket. “Watch out, men. I’m a hot commodity on the lecture circuit, and we’re mere steps from the campus of Cornell. We may get rushed by eager educators.”