by Natalie Ann
“Nonsense, Kaylee. It’s just for fun. Skip and Piper could be siblings of a sort. You’ve got no reason to worry.”
Skip reached over and tugged on her ponytail, then winked at her. She forced a smile similar to Kaylee’s. “How did you two ever meet?” she asked.
Kaylee slipped her arm around Skip’s waist, tugging him closer to her. “Skip is such a romantic. He came into my father’s shop one day when I was working and starting talking to me. Next thing I knew he was bringing me flowers. He knew my love for flowers. Something we have in common.”
She didn’t know Skip loved flowers. News to her, but not her concern, either.
“Not just bringing them to you,” Chris Sr. said. “I told him how I used to leave flowers anonymously for Jane when we were courting way back in the day. He took a page from my book and won Kaylee’s heart.”
Chris reached across Piper’s table and took a cookie, and she smiled at him. He always had the biggest sweet tooth. Secretly she’d enjoyed baking in their house and knowing how much he appreciated it. She never told anyone that Skip made her uncomfortable at times. Then again, who would she tell? No one had ever believed her before. But she’d liked living with Chris and Jane, and Skip didn’t visit often, so she just tried to get through, telling herself it was nothing.
“What can I get you guys?” She walked over and grabbed a bakery box, waiting for Skip to tell her what else he wanted. “What kind of shop does your father have?” she asked Kaylee.
“He’s a locksmith,” Skip answered, interrupting Kaylee when she opened her mouth to talk. “If you ever need any locks replaced, just call Kaylee. Her father’s shop is right around the corner. She’s taking over the business now.”
Piper turned and looked at Kaylee’s larger frame. More manly then hers. Maybe more manly than Skip. “You’re a locksmith.”
“No,” Kaylee said, almost patronizing her. “I run the business. I do the books.”
“But your father taught you everything he knew,” Skip said proudly.
“Yeah,” Kaylee said. “But it wasn’t my thing. I like being by myself in the office.”
“How much do we owe you for this?” Skip asked, as Piper filled the boxes with treats that everyone had pointed out.
“Nothing, and you know it. Don’t think anything of it.” She meant it. The Shaffers gave her the most stable home she’d ever had. The most encouragement she’d ever received in her life too.
“So everything is going well here?” Chris asked her, helping himself to a scone.
“Of course. Business is good. I’m even thinking of hiring on another part-timer if I can convince Sam of it.”
“Why do you need to convince her?” Jane asked. “It’s your business.”
Jane never understood Piper’s loyalty to Sam. Which was odd, because they understood Piper and her life so much that she thought the Shaffers would understand how Piper could be close to another foster kid. Someone that she’d shared a house with at one point.
Piper would have loved it if the Shaffers could have taken in Sam too, but she’d never asked and never would have. They only wanted one kid after Skip had left for college. Then they didn’t take on another after Piper left. She started to think it was more of an empty nest syndrome and they got it out of their system.
It was probably just as well. Even though Skip was out of the house, when he visited, it was awkward. Sam might not have handled it as smoothly as Piper.
“I don’t want to hurt her feelings. She thinks the storefront is hers and she does a great job with it,” Piper said, laughing.
“You’ve always been so soft,” Jane said, running her hand across Piper’s. The Shaffer household was the only place she’d ever gotten any affection. Well, affection from a woman. She didn’t want the other kind.
“There is nothing wrong with being soft,” Piper said.
Too many people ended up hard when they grew up like her. She wanted to prevent that. She knew she had it better than most and because she came out on the tall end of the stick pile, she was going to pay it forward as much as she could.
“Let her be, Jane,” Chris said. “Michele could have taken a page from Piper’s book a time or two in her life.”
Michele was the Shaffers’ older daughter. She was an attorney and was tougher than most men Piper knew. Chris’s statement just made her giggle.
“We’ll let you get back to work,” Skip said. “Thanks again, Piper.” She could see that he wanted to give her another hug, but Kaylee pulled him along, and Piper was secretly happy for it.
“Any time.” The Shaffers left and she went back to finishing up her orders and set them aside for pickup.
At the end of the day, she went to the dumpster out back to throw out some trash when she noticed Smokey, the stray gray cat, lying there. “Hey there, bud. Waiting for a treat?”
She fed the cat often. Sweets probably weren’t the best, but she never wanted the cat to starve. Besides, she put out a little bowl of kibble when she came in each morning too.
As she got closer, she realized the cat wasn’t moving, so she inched up a bit more. “Smokey?” she said again. Only nothing. No movement, no breathing, either, by the looks of it.
Her eyes started to fill. She didn’t know what to do. Death freaked her out. She hated it. Hated to see a fly die, let alone an animal that she considered somewhat of a pet. That she’d come to care for. Even love.
She rushed back into the shop and got Sam. Sam was much tougher than her. “I think he’s dead,” Piper said, crying now.
“Relax,” Sam said. “Let me check. Maybe he’s sleeping.”
“He’s not. I’m telling you, it doesn’t look like he’s breathing.”
“Did you touch him? Try to wake him?” Sam asked, when they opened the door to the alley in back.
“No. I just panicked and ran back in.”
Sam walked over to Smokey, nudged him with her toe and he didn’t move. “I’m sorry, Piper. He was old. You knew that. I’ll take care of it. Why don’t you go back in?”
“What are you going to do with him?” Piper asked, sniffling now.
“What do you want me to do? There’s a little patch of grass over there. Do you want me to bury him for you?” Sam asked softly. “Or I can get rid of his body. You tell me what would be best for you.”
“He needs a proper burial,” Piper said. “I want him to be buried with his bowl.”
Sam cracked a small smile. “I think he’d like that. We know you’re the one that fattened him up.”
“I think he just got done eating,” Piper said, looking over at the now-empty bowl.
“How do you know?”
“Because I was out here an hour ago and the bowl was still full. Now it’s not.”
“Then he went to heaven full and satisfied, thinking of the woman who took him under her wing.”
Sam was younger but always trying to be a little mother too. It was what Piper needed right now more than anything.
“You go back in and finish cleaning up for the day. Cover the front for me if you need to. I’ll take care of this and call you out when I’m done.”
Piper nodded her head and walked back in. She shouldn’t leave it for Sam, but she couldn’t deal with it. Instead, she decorated some cookies to look like a bouquet of flowers and when Sam said she was done, she placed those cookies where Smokey was laid to rest. She’d get him a proper marker and flowers tomorrow.
Unsettled Him
Vin had the door to his terrace open, getting a nice breeze in the apartment. He’d heard Piper moving around outside on her own terrace, but didn’t make any attempt to close the door.
When he heard her crying, he couldn’t ignore it, even if he wanted to. Even if deep down he told himself to keep his distance.
But in the past few days, he was finding that he didn’t always like the place he was in and had no one to blame but himself.
He walked out, leaned over the wall and peeked at her. She had her
head buried in her hands just sobbing, and his heart twisted like a knife in the belly. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
She lifted her head, her eyes red and swollen, like she’d been crying for hours, rather than the few minutes he’d heard.
Before he could stop himself. Before he could convince himself what a huge mistake this would be. Before he realized he was losing his mind, he reached over and grabbed her metal railing and hopped over to her terrace.
Her jaw popped open and just hung there. It might have been the first time she was speechless.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
“I jumped,” he explained calmly.
“But we’re three stories up. You could have fallen. You could have gotten hurt. What if you didn’t make it?”
He grinned at her. The thought of not making that small jump after the training he’d been through in life was laughable, but he couldn’t very well say that to her.
“I didn’t fall or get hurt, so it’s a non-issue.” He walked over and sat next to her on the other chair, reached his hand over and held hers lightly, shocked that he’d done that. That he’d desperately wanted to touch a woman and offer comfort. “Now tell me why you’re crying.”
“You don’t care,” she said, sniffling and looking like a lost little puppy that was being used as a soccer ball around the playground.
He didn’t want her to think he didn’t care. He wasn’t sure why he did—he just knew he was drawn over the railing and into her presence. “I wouldn’t have risked my life to be next to you if I didn’t,” he said, trying to tease a smile out of her. Instead, she burst into tears again, yanking her hand out of his and bawling her eyes out.
“What did I say?”
“Don’t laugh about death. Never. It’s serious.”
Preaching to the choir. “Did someone die?” he asked now, softly. He’d forgotten what it was like to soften his voice like that. So used to issuing orders and commands, trying to keep people safe. Trying to keep them alive. Yeah, it was serious and he’d failed.
She ran her arm under her nose and then sniffled up quickly. He tried not to flinch. “Smokey,” she said, sobbing, then let out a hiccup.
“Who’s Smokey?”
“My cat.”
He was pretty sure the building was pet free. Plus, he didn’t see any signs of a feline in her apartment when he was there the other day, if she was even trying to hide a cat.
“What happened?”
“I found him dead in an alley,” she said, big fat tears rolling down her cheeks. He was a sucker again that he thought he’d never be, and pulled her over onto his lap. He tried to push away the thoughts of how good it felt to have her there.
“There aren’t any alleys here,” he said, his hand running up and down her back. When she lay her head on his shoulder, he found he was inhaling her scent. Cinnamon and sugar.
“Behind the store.”
“You keep a cat at the bakery?”
“It’s not really my cat. It’s a stray. I named him Smokey. He was always looking for food out back. Really scrawny until I started to feed him daily. But when I went to throw some trash out today, I just found him lying there.”
“Was he old?”
“Yeah. I think. He was gray and white, so I’m not sure how old he was. He probably died of old age, or something, but it’s still distressing. Death freaks me out,” she said, snuggling into him some more, his shirt feeling another influx of tears.
Death never used to distress him. He’d seen enough of it in his life, and though it didn’t freak him out, it unsettled him. Or maybe it was the lack of control that did. Either way, he understood.
“Why is that?” he asked her.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because nothing was ever stable in my life. I was always moving around. But no one ever died. I mean, I always knew someone else was still out there. I know my mother and father are out there somewhere. Even if I never see them, I know they’re alive. I think. Or I tell myself. It’s a hope that maybe I’ll see them again. I don’t even like to kill a mouse or a bug or anything. Nothing. Everyone has the right to live. No one should take another’s life.”
Good thing she didn’t know about his history in the army, or she’d be looking at him with disdain rather than comfort.
“But it’s the cycle of life, Piper. Everyone dies. There is no stopping it.”
“I know. It’s just always freaked me out. And I keep shutting my eyes and seeing him lying there. I hope it was painless. I hope he died happy.”
“If you were feeding him, then I’m sure he did.” What else was he supposed to say?
“Sam said the same thing. She had to take care of Smokey for me. I couldn’t do it. She buried him in the back and I put a bouquet of sugar cookie flowers on his spot.”
He grinned and kissed her forehead before he could stop himself. He wasn’t sure he ever knew someone that sweet before. He wanted to say innocent, but didn’t really think that would apply. Definitely sweet, though. “That was nice.”
“He liked sugar cookies the best. I used to give him a half of one in his bowl with cat food every day.”
He chuckled. “Then I’d say he’d had a pretty awesome life since he met you.”
“No one should be alone,” she said. “Everyone should have someone.”
Her words hit him hard. He liked being alone, but the truth of it was, he really wasn’t. He had a family that loved and cared for him. That worried about him and wanted him to come back home. But he couldn’t and he wouldn’t. He needed to be alone to find himself first. Seemed parts of him were finding their way back in the past few days without him even trying.
“You’re right. Everyone should have someone.”
“Do you?” she asked him.
“Do I what?”
“Do you have someone? You seem like you’re all alone in the world.” He wasn’t sure how this got turned around on him.
“I have a family. Just not around here. We talk when we need to. Who do you have?” he asked.
For a guy who hadn’t had much conversation in the past year or so, he was awfully chatty now for some reason.
“I have lots of people. Sam and Nicole at my shop. The Shaffers—my last foster family that really loved me—and lots of friends.”
“Then you’ve got a really full life.”
“Why are you being so nice to me right now?”
“I didn’t know I wasn’t that nice of a person,” he said, frowning. But he knew he was rude to her the first time they met. Rude to most of the people in the building, just by trying to avoid everyone in general.
“Maybe not mean, but not friendly, either.”
She was right. “You looked like you needed someone to lean on tonight.”
“That makes you pretty friendly then,” she said, her finger trailing up and down his leg. She was playing with fire right now. But the funny part was, it was almost like she didn’t even know she was holding a match.
“Does it make up for my rudeness before?” he asked.
“A little.”
“I’m glad.”
“You know what would really make me feel better?” she asked.
“What?”
“A kiss.”
“You just met me and you want me to kiss you?”
“Just a little one. Just to make me feel better.”
He wanted to say no.
He wanted to tell her she was crazy.
He wanted to dump her on the floor and hop back over to his side of the terrace.
Instead he lowered his head and gave her what she wanted.
Calling His Name
The next morning, Piper got up bright and early and made a quick batch of chocolate muffins. She was going to leave them for Vin piping hot. She’d like to knock on his door and hand them over, but she wouldn’t do that and get him out of bed. Though it sure would be nice to see what he slept in.
She couldn’t believe she asked him to kiss her. But sh
e wouldn’t regret it.
As upset as she had been, her body still reacted when he effortlessly glided over the railing. Big and strong, capable and ridiculously appealing. Call her sexist, and she’d agree…if he’d do it again for her.
She hated being vulnerable. Hated showing any signs of weakness. But there were things in this world that did her in every time. Death being one of them. Very few people knew that about her. Only those close to her, and she was shocked that she’d admitted it to Vin last night.
When she saw how sincere he was, and how much he was trying to comfort her, she just let herself go. Let herself be held and found that it wasn’t enough. That she needed more.
That’s when the words slipped out.
She didn’t expect him to do it.
She didn’t expect him to make her feel more than she’d felt in what seemed like forever.
And she really didn’t expect to be up most of the night tossing and turning and wishing she had the courage to knock on his door and invite herself into his bedroom.
She did none of those things. Why? Because after he lifted his head from their kiss—the softness of his lips on hers, his breath just fanning over her face ever so softly— he stood up fast and hopped back over the railing to his own side without saying a word.
She wasn’t about to let that be the end of it. Nope. She had her ways and she was about to make sure she put them to work.
After finding the perfect card in her stockpile, she wrapped up the muffins and left them on his doorstep, then made her way to work.
***
Vin heard the plate slide in front of his door, turned, and noticed it was the same time as always when she dropped off goodies.
He didn’t have to worry about it waking him up today, because he hadn’t slept much at all.
After he got back to his side of the terrace, feeling like he was escaping like a thief in the night, he booted up his laptop and started to look into the pimply-faced young man at the bakery today. Quinton Morgan. The guy didn’t protect much of his identity on his computer for someone that was trying to snoop into what others were doing on theirs in the cafe.